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Hockey Wilderness

A Minnesota Wild Blog that WON'T make you sick and kill you!

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The Wild Have the Blueprint To Beat the Avs

It’s only fitting that Quinn Hughes scored the opening goal in the Minnesota Wild’s decisive Game 6 victory, then scored the go-ahead goal in the third. The score will read 5-2 with Matt Boldy scoring the final two goals on empty nets. However, Hughes’ wily tally in the third put the Wild in the lea...

Wild Eliminate Stars, Win Playoff Series For First Time In 11 Years

That's Wild THEY DID IT! The Minnesota Wild have won their first-round playoff series against the Dallas Stars in just six games after a controlling 5-2 win on Thursday night. The series was full of highs and lows and it looked for a brief moment that it was going to be stretched to seven and t...

It's Official: The Wild's Stanley Cup Window Begins Now

The Quinn Hughes trade gave the Minnesota Wild unprecedented optimism heading into the postseason. Finally, the team had the big-name starpower to take on all comers, or at least, in theory. There was still the tricky matter of, you know, getting out of the first round for the first time since 2015,...

Yakov Trenin’s Return Gave The Wild A Needed Edge In Game 5

Yakov Trenin’s return from an upper-body injury gave the Minnesota Wild a much-needed boost in Game 5 against the Dallas Stars, and his presence mattered in ways that went beyond the stat sheet. After missing the previous two games, Trenin returned to the lineup for a crucial swing game in a tied fi...

The Minnesota Wild Go Big As They Go Home For Game 6

The Minnesota Wild are not known for being a beefy team. Their most important players include Kirill Kaprizov (5-foot-10), Quinn Hughes (5-foot-10), Jared Spurgeon (5-foot-9), and Mats Zuccarello (5-foot-8). On the other hand, their first-round opponent, the Dallas Stars, boast the second-tallest an...

Mats Zuccarello's Return Changed Everything For the Wild

Mats Zuccarello’s return gave the Minnesota Wild exactly the spark they needed, and the effects were obvious almost immediately. Only 3 minutes and 51 seconds into the game, the Dallas Stars attempted to clear the puck out of their zone. Ryan Hartman intercepted the clearing attempt, passed th...

P.K. Subban Was Right: Matt Boldy Is A Dog On A Bone

P.K. Subban knows what a top-tier forward looks like. The former Norris Trophy winner spent his career going against some of the biggest names in the sport in the postseason. Alex Ovechkin, Sidney Crosby, Patrice Bergeron, Brad Marchand, Steven Stamkos, Nikita Kucherov, Patrick Kane, Nathan MacKinno...

The Wild Can Only Beat Themselves Now

Think of where the Minnesota Wild stood after Game 3 of their series against the Dallas Stars. The Wild had squandered stealing home-ice advantage in Game 1 by giving up a 3-2 lead entering the third quarter. They failed to capitalize on Michael McCarron scoring his first-ever playoff goal aft...

The Wild's Defense Is the Engine Behind Their Playoff Push

The Minnesota Wild didn’t just survive Game 5 against the Dallas Stars; they controlled it with their defensive play. From the opening puck drop, Minnesota made Dallas work for every inch of ice, limiting clean entries, crowding the middle of the rink, and forcing the Stars into lower-quality chance...

The Wild Have To Finish the Story In Game 6

On Tuesday night, the Minnesota Wild played one of their most professional games of the season. Led by Mats Zuccarello’s return and a suffocating defensive effort, the Wild scored a 4-2 victory over the Dallas Stars and took a 3-2 lead in their first-round Western Conference series. It sets up...

Wild Just One Win Away From Slaying The Dragon

A dark cloud has been hovering over this Minnesota Wild team for a while now. They have suffered nine straight first-round exits. The last time they were able to win a playoff round was back in 2015, and then they promptly got swept by the Chicago Blackhawks as the reward for it. Whether it was batt...

A Different Minnesota Wild Won Game 5

The Minnesota Wild can't pop the champagne yet. Historically, road teams that win Game 5 to go up 3-2 win 77.4% of playoff series, but the door is open for the Dallas Stars to make a comeback if the Wild aren't careful. However, the Wild we saw in Tuesday night's 4-2 win to seize control of th...

How Will the Wild Handle the Wallstedt-Gustavsson Situation Long-Term?

The Minnesota Wild are in the middle of a knockdown, drag-out playoff series with the rival Dallas Stars. Many players on the team deserve recognition for their contributions to the 2-2 series deadlock. Matt Boldy is emerging as a superstar, and Brock Faber has made significant strides. Still, perha...

Kirill Kaprizov Has Been Quietly Dominant Against Dallas

When playoff time rolls around and the regular season moves farther back into the rearview, the things we know about players and teams become true only insofar as they happen now. Whether a player thrives or fails in a playoff season becomes a key part of the narrative that shapes their value and st...

Game 5 Will Be the Ultimate Test of Whether the Wild Are Different

The date is April 24, 2015. The Minnesota Wild went into Scottrade Center, recovered from an early goal-against from then-superstar Vladimir Tarasenko, and methodically hung four goals on the St. Louis Blues. Marco Scandella, Nino Niederreiter, Mikko Koivu, and Charlie Coyle were your scorers that d...

The Quinn Hughes Effect Is Alive and Well This Postseason

Entering the postseason, the Minnesota Wild's hopes for success more or less boiled down to: They have Quinn Hughes this time. It was a great reason for hope. Wild fans watched the superstar defenseman elevate their favorite team for 48 games this season, supercharging the power play and picki...

Wild But True: Not All Champions Are Found On The Cup

In such a close opening playoff series, this may not be the time to be talking about the Minnesota Wild and what things will look like if they do, in fact, claim their first Stanley Cup. However, a topic that always comes up as the playoffs begin to play down is, Who actually gets their name on Lord...

Why Can't the Wild Score On the Power Play Without Zuccarello?

Mats Zuccarello’s injury has quietly become one of the biggest reasons the Minnesota Wild’s first-round series has swung in the Dallas Stars’ favor. The Wild looked sharp in Game 1, but once Zuccarello exited the lineup, their power play lost its most important connector, and the offense became far...

Wild's Offensive Depth Came Up Big

That's Wild Leave it to heartbeat of the Minnesota Wild Marcus Foligno to come up big when it mattered. Down by one goal in the third period, the grinding winger scored the equalizing goal which then forced the overtime in which Matt Boldy scored his game-winner, for the Wild to take Game 4...

The Wild Showed Everyone This Series Is Far From Over

The Minnesota Wild needed every second of overtime to finish off the Dallas Stars, and Matt Boldy delivered the payoff with a late-tip-in that gave the Wild a 3-2 win in Game 4. It was the kind of playoff game that felt close from the opening faceoff to the final shot. Both teams traded chances, mom...

Filip Gustavsson Isn’t Cam Talbot (But He Is Swedish)

While Minnesota Wild fans waited with bated breath for Game 4 of the playoffs, they apparently decided that there wasn’t enough to complain about. Well, good thing The Athletic published a bullet point in one of their articles that spurred on an entire morning’s worth of idiotic discourse....

The Mats Zuccarello Replacement Was Staring Us In the Face

The Minnesota Wild’s Game 3 performance has fans reeling. After the Wild’s man-advantage unit took over Game 1, they crashed back to earth. Quinn Hughes and Kirill Kaprizov played about 12 minutes each at five-on-four, and the only power play goal came from Marcus Johansson. That’s nothing sho...