Minnesota Wild vs Tampa Bay Lightning, Wednesday 1-4-23, 8:30pm, Xcel Energy Center

[MNSOTA]

Minnesota Wild (21-13-2)  44pts  3rd in the Central

 

3.14 Goals For Per Game (18th in the NHL)

2.81 Goals Against Per Game (11th in the NHL)

 

23.3% Power Play (14th in the NHL)

79.7% Penalty Kill (14th in the NHL)

 

Top 5 Scorers:

1. #97 Kirill Kaprizov ~ 20G 25A = 45pts

2. #36 Mats Zuccarello ~ 16G 24A = 40pts

3. #14 Joel Eriksson Ek ~ 12G 16A = 28pts

4. #12 Matt Boldy ~ 12G 15A = 27pts

5. #46 Jared Spurgeon ~ 5G 13A = 18pts

 

Top 3 PIM's:

1. #5 Jake Middleton ~ 50 PIM's

2. #24 Matt Dumba ~ 50 PIM's

3. #17 Marcus Foligno ~ 46 PIM's

 

Top Goaltenders:

1. #29 Marc-Andre Fleury (13-8-1)  2.82GAA  .904%  1SO

2. #32 Filip Gustavsson (8-5-1)  2.34GAA  .920%  1SO

 

 

Vs.

 

 

Tampa Bay Lightning (24-11-1)  49pts  3rd in the Atlantic

 

3.58 Goals For Per Game (3rd in the NHL)

2.83 Goals Against Per Game (12th in the NHL)

 

27.6% Power Play (5th in the NHL)

82.2% Penalty Kill (7th in the NHL)

 

Top 5 Scorers:

1. #86 Nikita Kucherov ~ 13G 40A = 53pts

2. #91 Steven Stamkos ~ 17G 25A = 42pts

3. #21 Brayden Point ~ 21G 17A = 38pts

4. #38 Brandon Hagel ~ 15G 15A = 30pts

5. #98 Mikhail Sergachev ~ 6G 23A = 29pts

 

 

Top 3 PIM's:

1. #14 Pat Maroon ~ 54 PIM's

2. #28 Ian Cole ~ 34 PIM's

3. #10 Corey Perry ~ 32 PIM's

 

 

Top Goaltenders:

1. #88 Andrei Vasilevskiy (16-9-1)  2.42GAA  .921%

2. #1 Brian Elliott (8-2-0)  3.08GAA  .900%

 

Lines:

 

Tampa Bay Lightning

 

Hagel~Point~Kucherov

Cirelli~Stamkos~Killorn

Colton~Paul~Maroon

Namestnikov~Bellemare~Perry

 

Hedman~Bogosian

Sergachev~Perbix

Cole~Cernak

 

Vasilevskiy

Ellliott

 

Minnesota Wild

 

Kaprizov~Steel~Zuccarello

Greenway~Eriksson Ek~M. Foligno

Boldy~F. Gaudreau~S. Walker

Beckman~Dewar~Hartman

 

Middleton~Spurgeon

Brodin~Dumba

Merrill~Addison

 

Fleury

Gustavsson

[MNSOTA]

Head's up all. Tonight is a late start for a home game. I think we're the late game of a Wednesday double header since the game is on TNT.....which means we're probably stuck listening to whatever her name is, the annoying one who clearly got the job because of her dad.

[ClusterChuck]

Which means more like 9PM 
Walker in I like ...so Shaw and Reaves are out. 
I can't help to wonder how long before Evason puts Hartman back with Kap-Zucc like the old days.
The GEEF line  needs to start putting up more points. There defensive ability is back together but the scoring isn't even close to last year.

Wild win in OT 5-4

[Icechipper]

Shaw hurt?

[Jimtown guy]

Like the late start. Can now watch the entire USA/Canada game without missing any of the Wild game 

[Alexandron]

We are going to play against elite team tonight.  Predicting our loss 5:6, hopefully in OT (or SO). We need at least a point from this game. And hopefully the weather will cooperate with our fans on ice arena too. Team needs their support.

[Alexandron]

2 hours ago, ClusterChuck said:

Which means more like 9PM 
Walker in I like ...so Shaw and Reaves are out. 
I can't help to wonder how long before Evason puts Hartman back with Kap-Zucc like the old days.
The GEEF line  needs to start putting up more points. There defensive ability is back together but the scoring isn't even close to last year.

Wild win in OT 5-4

We really missed a 2nd main scorer with Fiala's ability to score and accurately shoot from any positions.  From my observations for this season most NHL goalies are playing pretty well. We need to learn more how to redirect more often pucks to make them difficult to take by goalies.  Dallas Stars team is a superb example of this task.

[MNSOTA]

Sorry but we typed the lines up earlier this week, but I didn’t update just copied and pasted. Walker and Beckman got sent down. 

[TropicalFruitGirl26]

My home state boys are in town tonight and the Eastern Champs will have their hands full with the Wild especially after playing in Chicago last night.

Does this slightly later start help the Lightning and/or hinder the Wild?
Who knows...but I think once the puck drops, both these teams won't worry about back to backs, what time the game started, or anything else other than who's on the ice.

Bolts seemed to rest their top six guys down the stretch in yesterday's game once they had the game in hand (4-1 against the Hawks). Did they do that because they knew the physical style of the Wild would require their top six to be as sharp as possible?
Also, TB played their backup Brian Elliot against Chicago, saving their number one Andrei Vasilevskiy for the better team in St. Paul this evening!

In past years, I'd say this was a measuring stick game for Minnesota, given what the Lightning had accomplished, but this year?
Bolts are retooling on the fly and the Wild do NOT have to play "up" to anyone this year as they have shown that when they have their heads on right, they can play with anybody.

Looking forward to this game.
Not gonna lie, TB is still my number one team (since 1995!), but I will remember this is a Wild thread, and if Minnesota comes out with the win, I will be just as happy for them.

Still want to see a MIN-TB SC Finals in my lifetime at some point....  

[Alexandron]

Our lines are same as against St. Louis last game. Gustavsson will be in net according to Russo.

[TropicalFruitGirl26]

20 minutes ago, Alexandron said:

Our lines are same as against St. Louis last game. Gustavsson will be in net according to Russo.

 

Gus is indeed in net.
He is on my fantasy team and I made sure he was inserted into my lineup and ready to go!

[wildstars95]

hopefully the wild don't play like usa juniors tonight ..1 point a must at least 

[ClusterChuck]

2 hours ago, Alexandron said:

Our lines are same as against St. Louis last game. Gustavsson will be in net according to Russo.

I'm actually surprised. 
Gustav deserves it for sure.

[TropicalFruitGirl26]

TNT making the players, coaches, and fans wait...
22 minutes delayed from scheduled start due to the NJ-DET game still going on.

[Jimtown guy]

9 minutes ago, wildstars95 said:

hopefully the wild don't play like usa juniors tonight ..1 point a must at least 

Americans played great tonight. 2 goals called back. First one was ridiculous. Boys played hard 

Edited January 5, 2023 by Jimtown guy

[Jimtown guy]

1 minute ago, TropicalFruitGirl26 said:

TNT making the players, coaches, and fans wait...
22 minutes delayed from scheduled start due to the NJ-DET game still going on.

That game was decided long ago 

[TropicalFruitGirl26]

1 minute ago, Jimtown guy said:

That game was decided long ago 

 

Yea, I know, but, TNT still needs their reporters to get down on ice, on tv, to ask players "how they feel" after the game....so we gotta wait.  

[Jimtown guy]

4 minutes ago, TropicalFruitGirl26 said:

 

Yea, I know, but, TNT still needs their reporters to get down on ice, on tv, to ask players "how they feel" after the game....so we gotta wait.  

Drop the damn puck

[Jimtown guy]

I’m suppose to be at beer league right now but messed up my shoulder demonstrating a drill to my peewee team. Lost an edge and went shoulder first into the boards a week ago. Not getting any better and is turning ugly yellow. Go in tomorrow to see what’s up 

[Math]

9 minutes ago, Jimtown guy said:

Americans played great tonight. 2 goals called back. First one was ridiculous. Boys played hard 

 

Such a BS call on the first disallowed goal, guess it was "international hockey rules" where interference is called everytime you blow some air on the goalie. It kinda put team USA off the trail after that. Too bad because they had hell of a start.

[ClusterChuck]

We have to wait for yet another yawn interview where the player says something about "Simplifying their game" 

[TropicalFruitGirl26]

1 minute ago, Jimtown guy said:

I’m suppose to be at beer league right now but messed up my shoulder demonstrating a drill to my peewee team. Lost an edge and went shoulder first into the boards a week ago. Not getting any better and is turning ugly yellow. Go in tomorrow to see what’s up 

 

Ouch!

Maybe it's just a deep bruise and nothing more.
Good idea to have someone look at it though. 
Sometimes the most seemingly innocuous ailments turn into something worse.

Hoping for the best for you!

 

[TropicalFruitGirl26]

Whoa!

Last minute change...
Backup Brian Elliot will start for the Lightning. He started yesterday in Chicago.

 

[bbgarnett]

I keep seeing it posted about Leah getting the announcing job because of her dad, I'm assuming people think her Dad is Ron Hextall which it's not. Luckily we don't get her tonight.

Edited January 5, 2023 by bbgarnett

[bbgarnett]

Just now, TropicalFruitGirl26 said:

Whoa!

Last minute change...
Backup Brian Elliot will start for the Lightning. He started yesterday in Chicago.

 

Vasi is sick