The latter applies to all NHL teams – including the Minnesota Wild – opening their seasons this week. Yes, hockey season has arrived. Don’t let Minnesota’s forecasted high temperatures in the 80-degree range fool you. The Minnesota Wild will open their season Thursday night with a game against the Columbus Blue Jackets at Xcel Energy Center in St. Paul.

The Wild come off a season that ended without a playoff berth for the first time in five years. They finished with a 39-34-9 record and 87 points, only good enough for sixth place in the Central Division. Their abysmal 5-10-4 start got then-coach Dean Evason fired and replaced with John Hynes.

Last October, the Wild went 3-4-2 and were 7-10-4 by the end of November. With Thanksgiving as an unofficial benchmark for playoff teams, a below .500 record didn’t put the Wild in a good spot.

But it’s time to turn the page to the 2024-25 campaign. It’s a new season, a fresh start. The first-day-of-school vibes. This will mark the first full season for Hynes behind the bench with the Wild.

Wild players gather and celebrate during a preseason game Oct. 1 against the Chicago Blackhawks. (MHM Photo / Rick Olson)

Minnesota will undoubtedly look to get off to a good start, and they’ll have to get there mostly on the road. In what always seems to be some kind of schedule quirk, the Wild starts with a pair of home games against Columbus and Seattle before hitting the road for the rest of October. The Wild have seven consecutive road games from Oct. 13-29. They return home Nov. 1 to host the Tampa Bay Lightning.

Looking at the roster, it’s a lot of familiar faces. Wild fans don’t have a lot of new jersey numbers or names to memorize. Kirill Kaprizov is still the stud and star of the team. He led the team in goals (46) and points (96) last season. Just a few tallies shy of reaching a 50 goals, 50 assists season. That should be an attainable bar for this season.

Joel Eriksson Ek comes off a career-high 30-goal season. With a grain of salt, he was tied for the team lead in three preseason games with eight points. Winger Mats Zuccarello also returns to the squad; he recorded a team-high six assists in three preseason games. Zuccarello led the Wild with 51 assists last season, reaching that mark for the second time in his career.

Health and injuries are always a story somehow. Matt Boldy has dealt with injury in the preseason but should be ready for the regular season. He finished last season a goal shy of the 30-goal mark and notched 40 assists for 69 points. When Boldy is on, he’s on, and his offensive play is quite impressive. Consistency should be the name of the game for Boldy as he starts his fourth season in the NHL. He’s improved his point totals each year so far, and his goals and points often come in bunches.

On the blue line, there’s Brock Faber, fresh off signing his big, eight-year, $68 million contract extension this summer. No, he didn’t win the Calder, but he was spectacular for the Wild last season. He seemed to fit in seamlessly as a rookie in many ways. He led NHL rookies with his 24:58 time-on-ice average per game and 150 blocked shots. He scored eight goals and 39 assists. He helped run the power play. He even played the end of the season with broken ribs.

Captain Jared Spurgeon is also back after an injury-riddled season last year limited him to only 16 games. Three goaltenders have roster spots: The veteran Marc-Andrew Fleury, Filip Gustavsson and Jesper Wallstedt.

Thursday’s opener marks a homecoming, of sorts, for Evason. He returns to Xcel Energy Center as a head coach, but this time as the head coach of Columbus. Evason went 147-77-27 in 251 games as the Wild’s head coach from 2020-23 in parts of five seasons.

Another familiar face? Niklas Backstrom. The former Wild goaltender is now a goalie coach with Columbus. Backstrom played 409 career games with the Wild from 2006-15, going 194-142-50 and holding the Wild franchise record in games played and wins.

Wild fans waved their LED rally towels during last season’s home opener against the Florida Panthers. (MHM Photo / Rick Olson)

Tidbits:
For the fans: All fans attending the season opener will receive a light-up LED rally towel. The Wild also gave out the rally towels at last year’s home opener.

For the fans, part II: The Wild has invited fans to the Green Carpet Player Arrival and Pregame Party from 3:30-6:30 p.m. at the next-door RiverCentre ahead of Thursday’s game. Fans will get to watch players arrive and walk the green carpet.

Foligno: Assuming Marcus Foligno suits up for these first two games, he’ll reach 800 career NHL games played.

Eriksson Ek: A similar note for Joel Eriksson Ek. He’s two games away from 500 career NHL games.

The post It’s Hockey Season appeared first on Minnesota Hockey Magazine.

Minnesota showing few signs of life entering playoffs

St. Paul – The Minnesota Wild are a difficult team to feel optimistic about.

Back on Oct. 8, the Wild defeated the Colorado Avalanche 5-4 to launch what many Minnesota fans thought would be a splendid season.

Nope.

After another 82 games, the Wild have finished eighth in the NHL Western Conference – not exactly heady territory — to earn a playoff position opposite none other than the No. 1 team in the West, the Dallas Stars.

Yes, they made the playoffs for the fourth year in a row, but their 38-33-11 record left them with 87 points – 13 fewer than a year ago, when they finished fourth in the West and knocked out the St. Louis Blues in the first round. They finished 17th overall among 30 NHL teams.

Last spring’s success and the ensuing optimism for the 2015-16 season evaporated quickly when the calendar flipped over to 2016. Minnesota went 20-10-6 through Dec. 31, then slogged through a record of 18-23-5 over the remainder.

Although five losses in succession including a 2-1 loss to Niklas Backstrom and the lowly Calgary Flames Saturday night removed any shine from the Wild’s run to the playoffs, they and everyone else are 0-0 going into Stanley Cup play.

Can the Wild fix things in time for the playoffs?

“We have to,” interim coach John Torchetti said.

It won’t be the first time.

Minnesota experienced a tailspin of 1-11-2 between Jan. 10 and Feb. 13, costing Mike Yeo his job as coach and threatening the team’s postseason hopes.

Even though Torchetti produced a record of 15-11-1, the boys lost three in a row and five in a row with under him.

Two four-game win streaks and one of six games under Torchetti did the trick.

Minnesota dominated the Flames through two periods Saturday – Backstrom stopped 30 of 31 shots on goal through 40 minutes in what might be his final NHL game – but Calgary got goals from Brandon Bollig and Patrick Sieloff just 31 seconds apart in the third period to give Backstrom the win.

“If this is the end,” an emotional Backstrom said, “it’s a great way to end.”

It’s not the end for the Wild, a few of whom donned brave faces following this game.

Goalie Devan Dubnyk, who played the first half of the game for the Wild and left when the score was still 0-0, talked about the team’s excitement for the playoffs and erasing thoughts about his team’s five-game losing string.

“It’s difficult to make the playoffs,” Dubnyk said. “It’s an accomplishment, and that’s what we worked all year to do. We all truly feel like we can beat anybody in the league.”

Dubnyk labeled the series against the Stars “difficult,” and captain Mikko Koivu echoed those sentiments.

“It’s a big challenge for us,” Koivu said. “With our game and the way we play, we can challenge any team in this league. We showed that. I believe we can do it.

“From now on, it’s all for Game 1, and go on from there.”

Koivu said the Wild played well through two periods Saturday, outshooting the Flames 31-11, before sagging a bit. The two-month push to make the playoffs might have cost the Wild a bit emotionally, he added.

The 82nd game of the season attracted the season’s largest home turnout of 19,247 (not counting the outdoor game), giving the Wild 600 home sellouts and 106 consecutive sellouts at the Xcel Energy Center.

They closed with 25 straight crowds of 19,000-plus at the 17,954-seat arena and averaged a team record 19,062 per game.

With a playoff berth locked up and a slim loss in the finale, there were practically no boos from the customers Saturday. They, like the players, were trying to look ahead to the playoffs.

Better results are possible, Torchetti insisted, if the Wild pay attention to the details.

“Teams that win championships have to do the details and do the adjustments,” he said.

Asked if the Wild have the capability of turning things on in postseason play, Torchetti demurred.

“We’ll see in the playoffs,” he said.

The post Wild skid into postseason appeared first on Minnesota Hockey Magazine.

St. Paul – The scoreboard camera at the Xcel Energy Center gave 19,032 fans a vivid example of Zach Parise’s feelings after the Wild winger roofed a goal 5:21 into the first period Thursday night.

After a long stretch of fighting things, Parise was spotted at the bench wearing the grin of someone who had just scored and, perhaps, had terminated a stretch of futility. It was just his second goal since Feb. 15 and third since Jan. 20, but he utilized some of that old, familiar stick magic he’s known for.

And — absolutely — it marked the end of his so-called slump.

Parise scored again just 46 seconds later, then deflected in a power-play goal 10:27 after that to become the first Wild player to record a hat trick in one period. His three goals in 11 minutes, 12 seconds also set a franchise record, and his third hat trick of the season was his first at the X.

But Parise was not finished.

He picked up an assist on Jared Spurgeon’s second-period goal for a four-point night as the Wild defeated the Calgary Flames 6-2 for their fourth consecutive victory to stay in eighth place ahead of Colorado in the NHL West.

The big game for Parise has been looming. Coach John Torchetti said he could see how close Parise was even through the near-misses.

“He’s a great player,” Torchetti said, “and things started going. His battle level was up there and compete-level. He was in good situations the last few games. The whole team was happy for him tonight because he had a breakout game for us, and we certainly needed it.”

Parise leads the Wild in goals with 22, shots with 213 and winning goals with six, but had 16 goals and 11 assists on Jan. 10 before the struggles mounted and — coincidence or not — the team’s nosedive to temporarily out of a playoff spot worsened.

“That’s the way the game goes,” he said. “It doesn’t always go the way you want it, the way you plan, so hopefully from now on we keep generating some more offense and keep playing more like that.”

He’s been feeling good of late, he said, and kept pushing to resume his role as a top scorer.

“Some more looks, some more chances,” Parise said. “You never know. Fortunately tonight they went in.”

Parise could have had a career-high five points Thursday: It was his pass to Spurgeon, deflected twice by a Flames defender, that led to Spurgeon’s second goal of the game and 10th of the season in the third period. Spurgeon was credited with an unassisted goal.

Parise was not happy.

“Our scorers are sleeping sometimes,” he said with some frustration. “I’ve never seen a home rink that’s tougher to get points in than ours. Seriously.”

Spurgeon, who became Minnesota’s 12th player with 10 or more goals this season, said, “He should get an assist; I wouldn’t get the puck if it wasn’t for him.”

The result wrecked the homecoming of goaltender Niklas Backstrom, who went to the Flames in a trade for David Jones on Feb. 29.

Backstrom, the 38-year-old who owns most of Minnesota’s goaltending records but who had not played a game in the NHL in a season and a half, gained new life in Calgary and recorded a victory in his first start for the Flames against Montreal last week. Then he came home as his new team spent two days off in the Twin Cities between games, granting several media interviews to discuss how strange it would be to face his old mates and play in a different sweater in front of the Minnesota fans.

The Finn was given a standing ovation after a scoreboard tribute in the first period, a warm moment considering he had already been scalded twice by Parise.

“You go out there to play to win,” Backstrom said. “It was weird, but you can’t hide behind that. It sucks that we lost. I’m glad it’s over.”

While Backstrom is attempting to resurrect his career, Parise took giant steps towards erasing one of the frustrating stretches of his NHL career. And the Wild, who were 22-11-8 on Jan. 9 before going 13-17-3 heading into Thursday’s game, lead the Avalanche by three points going into a Saturday afternoon matchup in Denver.

The post Slump Buster appeared first on Minnesota Hockey Magazine.

Josh Harding suspended indefinitely.

The Minnesota Wild announced late Thursday night that the team and goaltender Darcy Kuemper have agreed to terms on a two-year contract. The one-way deal, first reported via Twitter by TSN’s Bob McKenzie, is worth $2.5 million overall and pays Kuemper $1 million this season and $1.5 million in 2015-16.

Earlier in the day, according to the Minneapolis StarTribune’s Michael Russo, Wild GM Chuck Fletcher made the decision to suspend injured goaltender Josh Harding due to the nature of his off-ice injury. Harding, who reportedly broke his right foot kicking a wall during an altercation with a teammate, will not be paid during his indefinite injury absence and his salary will not count against the team’s salary cap. Kuemper, on the other hand, will be paid and possibly more than he otherwise would have.

Kuemper appeared destined to be a training camp holdout with each side digging its heels in over the type of contract the Wild’s sixth-round selection (No. 161 overall) in the 2009 NHL Entry Draft would sign. Minnesota had been offering a two-way contract meaning Kuemper would earn less playing for the Wild’s AHL affiliate in Iowa than he would in St. Paul. Kuemper and his agent felt the 6-foot-5, 205-pound Saskatoon, Sask. native had done enough in his 32 overall NHL appearances with the Wild (13-10-4 with a 2.37 GAA, a .915 SV%) to earn a one-way deal and the guaranteed NHL salary it represented.

But with Kuemper not requiring waivers to be sent down at this stage of his young career, the two-way offer made perfect sense to GM Chuck Fletcher considering both Niklas Backstrom and Josh Harding were expected to arrive at training camp healthy. Harding’s injury, however, necessitated a change of plan despite the Wild’s signing of free-agent Ilya Bryzgalov to a professional tryout contract.

Kuemper, 24, went 12-8-4 with a 2.43 goals-against average (GAA), a .915 save percentage (SV%) and two shutouts in 26 regular season games with Minnesota in 2013-14. He set franchise records for a rookie goaltender in wins, shutouts and consecutive starts with 16 (1/12/14-3/8/14).

He ranked second in starts, tied for third in shutouts, fourth in SV% and tied for fourth in wins and GAA amongst rookie goalies that appeared in at least 10 games last season. Kuemper was named the NHL Third Star of the Week on March 3 after going 3-0-0 with a .970 GAA, .960 SV% and a shutout in three starts.

Kuemper went 3-1-1 with a 2.03 GAA, a .913 SV% and one shutout in six playoff contests for Minnesota. He stopped all 22 shots faced in a 1-0 overtime win in Game 3 against Colorado on April 21, 2014, the first playoff shutout in franchise history.

Wild players and coaches skate together for the first time this season tomorrow with the first group taking the ice at 8:30 a.m. at Xcel Energy Center.

The post Wild, Kuemper Agree to Terms appeared first on Minnesota Hockey Magazine.

 Harding, Kuemper out, Bryzgalov back in as Wild goalie saga continues.

It has been just over four months since the Minnesota Wild left the Xcel Energy Center ice stunned by an unfortunate bounce and the greatness that is Patrick Kane. While changes have since been made, one thing in particular remarkably remains the same.

The Wild opens training camp on Friday with shiny new acquisition Thomas Vanek skating with his new teammates—officially—for the first time. But Vanek will not be sharing the ice with goaltenders Josh Harding and Darcy Kuemper as coach Mike Yeo and his staff begin the process of assembling the 2014-15 roster.

That roster may yet include goaltender Ilya Bryzgalov who was victimized by Kane’s Game 5 overtime winner which was thought to have ended Bryz’s Wild career after 21 combined regular season and playoff appearances.

Wild G Darcy Kuemper makes one of his 27 saves in a 3-2 loss to the Detroit Red Wings on Sat. March 22. (MHM Photo/ Jeff Wegge)

But with Darcy Kuemper in the midst of his second lengthy contract battle in as many negotiations with the team and Josh Harding suddenly sidelined indefinitely with a fractured right foot suffered under mysterious circumstances, the Wild’s goaltending, once again, had all the depth of a kiddie pool.

The Minneapolis StarTribune’s Michael Russo reported late Wednesday afternoon that Bryzgalov had accepted a professional tryout contract offer from Minnesota and will arrive on Thursday. This, of course, came as little surprise considering the way Bryz has spent the offseason openly lobbying for a return to the Wild and raving about the organization.

Wild goaltender Josh Harding makes a save in shutting out New Jersey on Nov. 3, 2013 in St. Paul, Minn. (MHM Photo / Jeff Wegge)

Bryzgalov, a trade-deadline acquisition last spring, is now in line to back up de facto No. 1 netminder Niklas Backstrom, who at 36-years-old is coming off abdominal and hip surgeries which ended his injury-marred 2013-14 season.  Veteran John Curry and prospect Johan Gustafsson are also expected to compete but the job is essentially Bryzgalov’s to lose pending any progress between the Wild and Kuemper’s camp.

In addition to Vanek, Minnesota’s now 57-man training camp roster features the return of former Wild forward Cody Almond vying for a spot among a much deeper corps of forwards than he skated with in playing 25 games over parts of three seasons from 2009-2012. Vanek, Zach Parise, Jason Pominville, Mikael Granlund, and Charlie Coyle are more than a cut above Antti Miettinen, Guillaume Latendresse and Devin Setoguchi.

Look for Almond to compete with Jason Zucker and Stephane Veilleux for the final two forward spots on the roster unless a young prospect emerges.

Local notables up front include Jordan Schroeder, the former Gopher drafted by Vancouver in the first round (No. 22 overall) in 2009 and Rosemount’s Ryan Walters, a UFA who played for Dean Blais at Nebraska Omaha and earned his invitation with six points (3 g, 3 a) in the 2014 Prospect Tournament in Traverse, City, Mich.

The blue line competition is far more interesting with up to six players in contention for what likely are just two open spots. The battle between Christian Folin, John Blum, Justin Falk, Stu Bickel, Matt Dumba and Gustav Olofsson will be something to keep an eye on as we progress through camp and the preseason games. Any or all of them could easily see at least some NHL action this season.

Players on the roster when Kane scored his series-clinching goal but have since departed include the likes of Dany Heatly (Anaheim), Matt Moulson (Buffalo), Cody McCormick (Buffalo), Nate Prosser (St. Louis), Mike Rupp (UFA) and Clayton Stoner (Anaheim). The physical roles McCormick and Stoner played, particularly at the end of the season, will be the toughest for the Wild to fill.

The Wild’s practices on Saturday, Sept. 20 will be open to the public. Fans can enter through Gate 1 beginning at 8:30 a.m. with practices running until 1 p.m. Concessions will be available. Regular season single-game tickets also go on sale that morning at 10 a.m. exclusively at the Xcel Energy Center box office with web availability on the Wild’s web site and Ticketmaster locations beginning at noon.

The pressure is on for Niklas Backstrom to remain healthy this season. (MHM Photo / Jeff Wegge)

The post Goalies the Focus as Wild Opens Camp appeared first on Minnesota Hockey Magazine.

Featured Image:
Jason Pominville
(Getty Images/Bruce Kluckhohn)

Wild do the little things right to down Sabres and end skid …

The dark cloud casting an ever-increasing shadow of doom over the Minnesota Wild dressing room recently gave way to a sliver of daylight on Thursday night at Xcel Energy Center. On the strength of three second-period goals, the Wild managed to defeat the lowly Buffalo Sabres 4-1 in front of 18,229 to snap a franchise high six-game losing streak.

Goals by Marco Scandella, Jason Pominville and Jason Zucker in the middle stanza gave Minnesota its second such lead at home in five days. Unlike Sunday’s debacle against the Islanders, however, the Wild managed to maintain its lead to record their first win since a beating Vancouver in a shootout on Dec. 17 in St. Paul.

“We needed that for sure, but we did it the right way, which is big,” Wild coach Mike Yeo said of the win. “That’s what we said after last game, that we have to take some of the things that we did and improve on some of the things that we weren’t quite good enough at but [it was] a pretty complete game tonight.”

Wild center Kyle Brodziak, capped off the scoring with an empty net goal without even taking a shot. Brodziak’s 30-game goal drought ended when Buffalo’s Christian Erhoff hauled him down as he carried the puck toward an empty net. The officials awarded Brodziak his third goal of the season, ruling he would have scored.

“He was going to score. He was going to go top shelf, for sure,” Yeo said, unable to keep a straight face and eliciting laughter from the media. “But he earned that goal with his play; he was good all night.”

Pominville tallied his team-leading 18th of the season and second in two games against his former team, each of them holding up as game winners. He admitted shooting on Sabres and newly-named U.S. Olympic goalie Ryan Miller is still difficult to get used to.

“He’s in a pretty unique class of goalies,” Pominville said. “I think we played 11 years together so he knows everything I’ve got so I just shut my eyes and threw it on net and found a way [to score].”

Wild goaltender Niklas Backstrom, however, outdueled Miller, making 19 saves to snap a personal eight-game losing streak. The win, just his second in regulation this season and first since Oct. 26, and raised his record to 3-9-2.

Backstrom, who wasn’t supposed to play against Buffalo but was forced into action when the team learned earlier in the day Josh Harding was unavailable due to illness, diminished any suggestions the game offered any sort of personal redemption.

“You try to approach the same way every day, it doesn’t matter if you play good or you play bad,” Backstrom said. “You go out there and work as hard as you can and when you do that, good things are going to happen. You can’t focus on what happened in the past. You just approach the same way every day and believe in what you’re doing. It’s been working, so it’s going to be there sooner or later.”

But his effort was not lost on his teammates.

“We’re really excited for Backy,” Pominville said. “He played really well and I think we all know he was going through a bit of a tough-go. We weren’t scoring a lot of goals when he was playing, so just to get the lead for him tonight was huge and for him to stand tall when he needed to was huge for the team.”

Captains Ryan Suter and Mikko Koivu each had two assists and were a combined plus-4 to contribute to what Yeo termed as a complete game.

“We had everybody show up and play hard and play the right way tonight, and I thought that started with our leaders, there’s no question,” Yeo said. “I’ve said this many times: That’s what we need those guys to do.”

Terms like “details” and “the little things” were used repeatedly in the Wild dressing room and attention to those were critical to a Minnesota team 5-12-1 in its past 18 games looking to get out of its funk.

“We did all the small things, all the details right,” Backstrom said. “Shift after shift, we did the right things. That’s something you have to build on.”

“If you look at it, we didn’t do anything special but we did a lot of good things right and all the little details right,” Pominville said. “That led to us out-shooting them and for the most part out-playing them.

“We needed points bad and we need to keep headed in that direction.”

The post One in a Row appeared first on Minnesota Hockey Magazine.