Minnesota Wild vs Los Angeles Kings, Tuesday 1-26-21, 7:00pm, Xcel Energy Center

[MNSOTA]

https://thesportsdaily.com/?p=1181974

 

Minnesota Wild (4-2-0)  8pts  2nd in Honda West

3.00 Goals For Per Game (17th in the NHL)

2.50 Goals Against Per Game (9th in the NHL)

7.4% Power Play (29th in the NHL)

90.0% Penalty Kill (1st in the NHL)

 

Top 5 Scorers:

1. #97 Kirill Kaprizov ~ 1G 5A = 6pts

2. #14 Joel Ericksson Ek ~ 3G 2A = 5pts

3. #18 Jordan Greenway ~ 1G 4A = 5pts

4. #20 Ryan Suter ~ 0G 5A = 5pts

5. #11 Zach Parise ~ 2G 1A = 3pts

 

Top 3 PIM's:

1. #18 Jordan Greenway ~ 12 PIMs

2. #22 Kevin Fiala ~ 8 PIMs

3. #24 Matt Dumba ~ 6 PIMs

 

Top Goaltenders:

1. #33 Cam Talbot ~ (2-1-0)   2.34GAA   .925SV%

2. #34 Kaapo Kahkonen ~ (2-1-0)   2.27GAA   .921SV%

3. #31? Andrew Hammond

 

Vs.

 

Los Angeles Kings (2-2-2)  6pts  5th in Honda West

3.33 Goals For Per Game (7th in the NHL)

3.33 Goals Against Per Game (23rd in the NHL)

23.1% Power Play (16th in the NHL)

84.0% Penalty Kill (12th in the NHL)

 

Top 5 Scorers:

1. #11 Anze Kopitar ~ 1G 9A = 10pts

2. #9 Adrian Kempe ~ 3G 2A = 5pts

3. #77 Jeff Carter ~ 1G 4A = 5pts

4. #22 Andreas Anthanasiou ~ 3G 1 A = 4pts

5. #23 Dustin Brown ~ 2G 2A = 4pts

 

Top 3 PIM's:

1. #24 Lias Andersson ~ 6 PIMs

2. #23 Dustin Brown ~ 6 PIMs

3. #46 Blake Lizotte ~ 4 PIMs

 

Top Goaltenders:

1. #32 Jonathan Quick ~ (2-0-2)   3.15GAA   .898SV%

2. #40 Cal Petersen ~ (0-2-0)   3.09GAA   .887SV%

 

[Alexandron]

I agree. Probably these 2  games will be a revenge games for the LA Kings team. The last game they were able to beat on a road St.Louis team with a score 6:3. Would be nice to have any points in these games before the next 4 games against the Colorado team. Every point is matter in this such a short season.  I just do not understand why our defenseman Brad Hunt is playing in the 4th line instead of Sturm? Why we do not see Mayhew or Sokolov or Lodnia in that position?

[CreaseAndAssist]

I guess Talbot was going to try go out on the ice today but didn't, yet Evason said he'd back very soon.  No update on Zuccarello.  Sturm is back tonight though.  All updates from Russo and McLellan.  

[CreaseAndAssist]

I too thought it was odd they went with Hunt over another Iowa forward like Mayhew, Johnson or Rau.  As far as Lodnia goes, he just got back to North America after his #KHL stint.  My guess is he'll get decent minutes in Iowa.  Iowa will be a team mostly void of ringers to start the season; that means guys like Dewar, Duhaime, Giroux and Lodnia probably will have lots of ice time there.    

[lynxrattle]

 

Let's see how optimistic a fool I am, but I'm expecting the team to have some jump on them. We need to play faster, and even if our players aren't the fastest of skaters, Kaprizov and Fiala at their best and our D-men at best can throw the opposition of balance. Kaprizov and Fiala are unpredictable, which I think is a very good thing in the offensive zone, but not so good at the neutral or defensive zone. I hope they find a balance between structure when defending and creative chaos when attacking. Whatever the game is going to be like, I expect I will be entertained here. Maybe I'm being too fast with my optimism. I still feel we are now climbing Mount Fuji.

[Alexandron]

I also would prefer a faster climbing to the Mount Fuji and not only there. I am thinking the same as you - optimism is a better helper than pessimism.   better than .

 

Mike Russo presented yesterday Kaprizov's trick during practicing on his twitter. It looks very promising and impressive of what he is able to do with the puck. 

 

 

[Alexandron]

From same source, here are the lines for tonight game:

Fiala moved to the line with Parise-Bjugstad-Fiala;

Johansson-Bonino-Kaprizov;

Greenway- EEK- Foligno;

Sturm-Rask-Hartman;

 

Spurgeon now is with Suter;

Brodin-Dumba;

Soucy-Cole.

 

Kahkonen;

Hammond.

 

I still would prefer combined Parise and Kaprizov  chemistry, which I have seen during the last 2 games. But who knows, maybe these lines will work for the team too.

[Alexandron]

2 hours ago, CreaseAndAssist said:

I too thought it was odd they went with Hunt over another Iowa forward like Mayhew, Johnson or Rau.  As far as Lodnia goes, he just got back to North America after his #KHL stint.  My guess is he'll get decent minutes in Iowa.  Iowa will be a team mostly void of ringers to start the season; that means guys like Dewar, Duhaime, Giroux and Lodnia probably will have lots of ice time there.    

I do not think AHL this season will present a lot of interest. Iowa Wild team will play only 34 divisional games (22 less than in NHL) and no Calder Cup playoffs this year too. For 26 players of our roster, of course, will be a limited time to play too. These are unbelievable news.

 I just do not understand their strange decisions, like in that league are playing 100 y.o. youngsters. We had 0 deaths from COVID last year for youngsters, we had overall 0 recorded flu cases as well as 0 flu recorded deaths last year too. We do not have flu tests for 102 years, but COVID test during the flu symptoms most of the time shows as positive. Something is wrong in that life including overall statistics about this respiratory viral disease. And why people who had 2 doses of vaccination and people who had COVID disease and who were able to build some cellular immunity against of this disease still need to carry the masks, which itself are collectors/sacs of  viruses and bacteria's if we carry them for a long period of time? The good news regarding recent research - not necessary to vaccinate people who had already a COVID disease, because they have enough cellular immunity for adequate reaction on coronavirus.  

[lynxrattle]

I think there is a certain pitbull kind of character both mentally and physically in Parise, Kaprizov and Fiala. I hope Parise will be of help in mentoring K and F in developing that doggedness.

[Alexandron]

3 hours ago, Alexandron said:

I also would prefer a faster climbing to the Mount Fuji and not only there. I am thinking the same as you - optimism is a better helper than pessimism.   better than .

 

Mike Russo presented yesterday Kaprizov's trick during practicing on his twitter. It looks very promising and impressive of what he is able to do with the puck. 

 

 

https://twitter.com/i/status/1353818758436052992

[wildstars95]

I am nervous as a cat in a room full of rocking chairs ....about this game tonight 

[Alexandron]

Let's be more optimistic during this special day - Wayne Gretzky turned 60 today, who had more than 61 NHL records.

It should be a must win game for us. We need nice records too.

[bbgarnett]

watching the CBJ game and Koivu gets a point in his first shift of the season.

[TropicalFruitGirl26]

6 hours ago, Alexandron said:

 

 

I still would prefer combined Parise and Kaprizov  chemistry, which I have seen during the last 2 games. But who knows, maybe these lines will work for the team too.

 

Chemistry is definitely important and I think the Wild bench is certainly looking for that regarding Kaprisov, but it's also not unusual to move around a young dynamic player like him to see how he works with a variety of linemates.

In fact, moving him to the second line with Bonino as his center may yield some positive results that may see the young Russian gather more goals than the only one he has to this point:

2nd liners may get matched up with lesser pairings of the opponents on defense....thus Kaprisov may get higher quality chances.
Also, Bonino, while not the most offensive of forwards, is an excellent face off man and distributes the puck pretty well while being responsible defensively.
Johansson on the other wing is also a passer.... this may give the Wild two good passers from different points on the ice to get Kaprisov the puck more often.

Like anything, we will see how this works, or even how long these lines stay the way they are.

[MNSOTA]

I’m feeling ‘meh’ about this game. 

[ClusterChuck]

Question for you all about this season's scheduling. Aside from the obvious Covid factor, Do you like this back to back set up?
I do not.
I'd rather see a 4-5 game road trip out west with different teams for variety and seeing multiple styles of play/scenarios.
My fear is the NHL sees how close all the teams will end up standing wise, Becoming falsely relevant late in the season and adopt this format next season and beyond.
They'd love to have every team feel like they can make the playoffs to keep fan interest/$$. 
I don't buy it sets a playoff feel, Leave that for the actual PO's.
Then there's the owners seeing how much money they save in travel costs too.

[MNSOTA]

10 minutes ago, ClusterChuck said:

Question for you all about this season's scheduling. Aside from the obvious Covid factor, Do you like this back to back set up?
I do not.
I'd rather see a 4-5 game road trip out west with different teams for variety and seeing multiple styles of play/scenarios.
My fear is the NHL sees how close all the teams will end up standing wise, Becoming falsely relevant late in the season and adopt this format next season and beyond.
They'd love to have every team feel like they can make the playoffs to keep fan interest/$$. 
I don't buy it sets a playoff feel, Leave that for the actual PO's.
Then there's the owners seeing how much money they save in travel costs too.

Just be glad you’re not a blogger. 

[TropicalFruitGirl26]

12 minutes ago, ClusterChuck said:

Question for you all about this season's scheduling. Aside from the obvious Covid factor, Do you like this back to back set up?
I do not.
I'd rather see a 4-5 game road trip out west with different teams for variety and seeing multiple styles of play/scenarios.
My fear is the NHL sees how close all the teams will end up standing wise, Becoming falsely relevant late in the season and adopt this format next season and beyond.
They'd love to have every team feel like they can make the playoffs to keep fan interest/$$. 
I don't buy it sets a playoff feel, Leave that for the actual PO's.
Then there's the owners seeing how much money they save in travel costs too.

 

I'd absolutely would like it to go back to the style of schedule we had before.

This whole set up obviously is due to necessity, but I am with you....prefer the variety of schedule and spreading out meetings with teams throughout the season.
I mean, facing down teams in your division is nice n all, but after awhile the same ol match ups do get stale...no matter how good a particular rivalry might be.

If and when we get back to "normal", whatever the hell that is anymore, I am pretty sure, well hopeful anyways, we go back to a spread out schedule.

[TropicalFruitGirl26]

Outside of a few bursts here and there, this game so far, is a slog.....which works to the Kings advantage.
LA also seems to be keeping much of the play along the walls, again, to their advantage, only bringing it to the middle if they got a guy streaking through.

Hopefully, Minnesota can up the tempo a bit and turn this into a bit more of a run n gun and put pressure on the Kings' comfort zone.


 

[TropicalFruitGirl26]

Alright, Kaapo...
4 minutes short handed...let's see what ya got...

[bbgarnett]

come on Soucy 

[TropicalFruitGirl26]

Decent kill, not great, Kaapo tested just a bit, not overly.... Kings were pretty inept for the most part on their PP.

Nice turnaround and pressure by Minnesota after the PP...good skill shown by Kaprisov and Fiala, although I thought #22 got a bit too fancy for his own good and had to be bailed out by the Minnesota defense.

[wildstars95]

just thinking how the nhl would be with Olympic sized ice ..lot of huge bodies on some of these teams no room to skate 

[Alexandron]

I did not see a lot of creativity during the 1st period out of our team. Only one attack was pretty good by the end of period created by Kaprizov-Bjugstad-Fiala. And a 4min. penalty kill was good too for us as well as play of Kahkonen.

[ClusterChuck]

Still waiting for one of the top 2 lines to really click.