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Posts Tagged Minnesota Wild

Tuesday’s Take: b. Lee

Nov 23

Posted by EB in Soap Box | No Comments

Here at HockeyWorldBlog.com, we strive to bring some information that we feel you the reader will find valuable. Be it Eddie’s knowledge of all things hockey, Matt’s sneak peek of upcoming gear and equipment, Chris’ well written articles that makes the rest of our writing look like a 6th grade book report, or perhaps even my ruffling of feathers of the likes of Minnesota Wild fans. More importantly, all four of us look to interact with you the reader.

We are in our second year now at HWB and we value our audience, especially those who like sharing their opinions. One of those commenter have gone a miss and we are beginning to become a little worried. The name is b. Lee.

b. Lee was one of our very first active readers and commenter. As another one of our VIP readers and commenter mentioned, Tony A, we miss b. Lee’s ability to take any situation and turn it into the, well… put b. Lee’s own spin on it.

In a heart felt plea, in the most manly way of course, if anyone knows the whereabouts of b. Lee, please let b. Lee know we miss him/her.

So, readers know that at HWB we value your reading and comments. Be it here or on our Facebook page. And if you go a stray, like b. Lee, we may even write an article about you as well.

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Latendresse makes amazing stick save

Oct 26

Posted by Chris in Media | 1 Comment

The save of the game  during last night’s battle between the Minnesota Wild and Los Angeles Kings wasn’t a result of sprawling acrobatics from either of the respective goaltenders in the contest. In fact, it was Minnesota Wild forward Guillaume Latendresse who made a dynamic effort to keep the puck out of a wide open net when a terrible clearing attempt found it’s way directly onto Ryan Smyth’s stick. Latendresse deflected the puck out of mid-air with his stick in a diving effort to help preserve the Wild’s 2-1 lead. The Wild eventually lost the contest 3-2 in a shootout. Check out the video below for the save of the game:

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Developing Story: Rick Rypien Attacks Fan

Oct 20

Posted by Eddie in News | 5 Comments

In a bizarre turn of events in tonight’s game between Minnesota and Vancouver, Canucks enforcer Rick Rypien took his enforcing off the ice when video showed him grabbing and pushing a fan who was applauding the fact that Rypien was double minor for roughing and a 10-minute misconduct.

fight

It all began when Rypien and Minnesota’s Brad Staubitz was about to drop the gloves for the second time of the night before being quickly separated by the linesmen. The altercation caused several scrums amongst the players on the ice which distracted the linesmen as they were trying to separate Rypien and Staubitz. They had previously fought in the first period and this altercation happened with 6:22 remaining in the second period.

Here’s a synopsis of the video that can be view here on fcfightlog’s Youtube page.

:05- First linesman that was closest to the players intervene to separate Staubitz and Rypien.

:10- Just before second linesman arrives (#91), Rypien gets in one last cheap shot on the face of Staubitz.

:20- More grabbing/clutching between the players on the ice.

:59- Watch the fan in the white jersey. All you can see is him clapping towards the Canuck’s bench.

1:02-When Rypien was on his way to the locker room, he reaches over the railing and grabs the fan. Fan in red jersey intervenes and pushes Rypien away. Rypien is then separated by teammate Manny Malhotra before continuing onto the locker room.

1:44- Both fans involved are both removed from their seats and presumably ejected.

The announcers broadcasting the game were right in that they were unfairly ejected because at least according to the video footage, they didn’t do anything wrong. All we can see is the fan clapping his hands. We don’t know or can’t tell if anything was said by the fan to Rypien. But we do know one thing, and that Colin Campbell at the NHL’s headquarters will at the minimum fine, and likely suspend Rypien for multiple games. Minnesota, which led 5-1 at the time, scored another power-play goal eight seconds later. Rypien was in the penalty box to start the third period.

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Hockey World Blog Season Previews 2010: Minnesota Wild

Sep 23

Posted by EB in Season Previews | 14 Comments

Key Offseason Losses: Derek Boogard, Owen Nolan

Key Offseason Additions: John Madden, Matt Cullen

Last Season Ranking: 13th, West

Captain Mikko Koivu looks to lead a rebuilding Minnesota Wild this year to a less than likely post season appearance.

Captain Mikko Koivu looks to lead a rebuilding Minnesota Wild this year to a less than likely post season appearance.

Offense: The Minnesota Wild have a 1-2-3 punch in captain Mikko Koivu, Martin Havlat and Andrew Brunette. Koivu and Havlat are both balanced players capable of putting the puck in the net while Brunette is a good set up man.

Antti Miettinen, new addition Matt Cullen and winger Guillaume Latendresse are also key roles for the team. Miettinen should reach the 40 point mark if not even more this season. Cullen will be the pivotal tool for the team’s second line, netting only 16 goals last season, but adding 32 assists between both the Carolina Hurricanes and the Ottawa Senators. Latendresse, since coming to Minnesota, has really clicked posting 37 points in 55 games played. Latendresse is really an under rated player and should be considered for depth in any fantasy team.

From there another true player worth watching, partly because of the name, the other part of his physical play style, is Cal Clutterbuck. If Clutterbuck can stay healthy, the team may have a decent three lines that should help the team in close games.

Defense: You can guarantee veteran Marek Zidlicky will post at least 40 points this upcoming season. Brent Burns looks to stay healthy after playing reduced schedules in his last two seasons and Nick Schultz looks to do better than his previous seasons career high of 20 points. The remaining 3 defenseman look to add some talent as well as a lock down defense keeping the shots toa minnimum.

Goaltending: Niklas Backstrom will be the number one goalie again with Josh Harding normally backing him up, however harding has recently torn an ACL and MCL and is expected to be out for a bit leaving either Anton Khudobin or Wade Dubielewicz to see NHL play time.

Backstrom has had trouble fighting with back problems last season, but if healthy, could put up some decent statistics. Those statistics though will come in the likes of save percentage only, as with the lack of depth in the defense, Backstrom will be facing a lot of shots this seasons. If you do happen to pick him up on your fantasy team, play him as your number two goalie, and watch for good match-ups as it is very possible he could rebound from a poor season last year in shutouts. He only had 2 shutouts last season, a career low, but two seasons ago he had 8.

Season Outlook: The Minnesota Wild are still one to two players away from a competitive team, which not only sucks for the fans, but the team itself. Strong minded players will determine if the team is competitive or not on a day to day basis, but it is highly unlikely that the Wild will make the post season this year. Watch them for what it is worth and try not to worry too much, you could be a Toronto Maple Leafs fan. The Wild are developing and should be back in the mix in a few years.

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NHL will open 2010-2011 Season Overseas

Sep 7

Posted by EB in News | 5 Comments

The Phoenix Coyotes and Boston Bruins will travel oversees for the beginning of the 2010-2011 season playing at O2 Arena Prague, Czech Republic. Phoenix and Boston will play their two first games against each other on Saturday, October 9th and Sunday, October 10th.

The Carolina Hurricanes and the Minnesota Wild will face off at Hartwell Areena in Helsinki, Finland on Thursday, October 7th and Friday, October 8th.

The Columbus Blue Jackets and the San Jose Sharks compete in a conference square off in Stockholm, Sweden. The two teams will play both Friday, October 8th and Saturday, October 9th at Ericsson Globe Arena.

The oversees games are a continuing business move to increase fans across the globe. Last season, the Chicago Blackhawks and the Florida Panthers opened in Helsinki. Sales on Friday and Saturday broke the Hartwall Areena record for highest merchandise sales ever for a hockey game at that venue. Merchandise sales also saw and increase of 52% from the 2008 numbers.

Be it that you are for or oppose the NHL’s move to attract more fans, it seems it is here to say and for the right reason. The move increases global audience as some competitors such as the NFL already have.

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Six Teams To Open 2010-11 in Europe

Feb 9

Posted by Eddie in News | No Comments

Today, the NHL announced the teams that will begin the 2010-11 season in Europe. The same two cities that participated in the Compuware NHL Premiere last season will return (Stockholm and Helsinki) as well as the return of Prague, Czech Republic.

The O2 Arena in Prague, Czech Republic will host the Boston Bruins and Phoenix Coyotes in October, 2010.

The O2 Arena in Prague, Czech Republic will host the Boston Bruins and Phoenix Coyotes in October, 2010.

The games will take place between October 7 and October 10. There will be one game on Oct. 7 and 10, with two games occurring on Oct. 8 and 9. Each team will play two games against each other, with one team playing host for each game. Two matchups will have an Eastern Conference team playing a team from the Western Conference, while one series will have two from the West.

Traveling to Hartwall Arena in Helsinki, Finland Oct. 7-8 will have Carolina taking on Minnesota. Each team currently has three Finnish players on its roster with Jussi Jokinen, Tuomo Ruutu, and Joni Pikanen playing for the Hurricanes and captain Mikko Koivu, Niklas Backstrom, and Antti Miettinen.

Playing Oct. 8-9 at Ericsson Globe Arena in Stockholm, Sweden will have Columbus playing against San Jose. The Blue Jackets have four Swedish players in Fredrik Modin,  Sammy Pahlsson, Anton Stralman, and Kristian Huselius. The Sharks are making their second overseas appearance, after they played Calgary in Tokyo, Japan in 1998. The Sharks have two Swedes, Douglas Murray and recent addition Niclas Wallin.

The Boston Bruins and Phoenix Coyotes will travel to Prague, Czech Republic for a Oct. 9-10 series. The Bruins will play in Europe for the first time in 50 years, while the Coyotes played in Finland in 1994 when they were the Winnipeg Jets. 

The Bruins’ current roster includes Czech players David Krejci, and Vladimir Sobotka.  In addition, team captain Zdeno Chara hails from Slovakia. The Coyotes’ current roster has Zbynek Michalek, Petr Prucha. Martin Hanzal, Robert Lang, and Radim Vrbata.

“The Premiere Games are a highly anticipated part of our season launch, and we are extremely pleased that six teams – more than ever – will open their season in Europe,” NHL commissioner Gary Bettman said. “With these games, nearly half of our Clubs will have participated in Premiere – a testament to how excited our teams are to be playing before our outstanding fans in Europe.”

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League’s Suspension Consistency

Jan 12

Posted by EB in News, Soap Box | 3 Comments

In last nights contest between the Minnesota Wild and the visiting team Pittsburgh Penguins, Pen’s Sergei Gonchar laid a questionably dirty and hgih hit on Wild winger Cal Clutterbuck.

The league this season is cutting down on head shots and recently displayed this by handing a suspension to Phoenix Coyote defenseman Ed Jovanovski for his elbow to New York Islanders John Tavares. The question becomes though, will the league suspend Gonchar?

The league has been under scrutiny for wanting to make the game a cleaner, safer game for the players, by removing dangerous plays. This year specifically by the means of removing head shots. Yet earlier in the season, when time to muscle up and stick to their guns, the league did not suspend Philadelphia Flyer’s Captain Mike Richards for a hit on Florida Panther’s star David Booth, leaving Booth on the IR to this day. So the question becomes, is the league playing favorites?

Recently stated, the league suspended defenseman Ed Jovanovski for an elbow to John Tavares’ head. Was this done because it was dangerous and shouldn’t be in the game? Was it done because it was blatantly obvious?  Or was it done because the person being hit was The John Tavares, the next greatest thing to hockey according to Canadian news for the past few years?

One would hope that that the league intends on removing dangerous plays, for the betterment of the players, but sometimes you do wonder if favorites are being played. Are you more likely to get a suspension if you hit a prominent figure in the NHL, or is the justice blind?

Underneath is the play where Gonchar took a run at Clutterbuck. You be the judge on a suspension or not.

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Wild on Fire, Literally

Dec 19

Posted by Eddie in News | 1 Comment

Lately, the Minnesota Wild have been on a hot streak. They have won 8 of their last 10 games. But today the team expected the type of fire no one wants, a real fire.

The team is on a road trip, where they faced the Montreal Canadiens Thursday night and is in Ottawa to play the Senators Saturday efirevening. But that’s currently in the air as the team’s equipment went up in smoke Friday afternoon when a truck carrying the team’s equipment from the Kanata Recreation Center (where the Wild practiced Friday afternoon) back to Scotiabank Place.

In a release, the team said it was still trying to assess the damage.

“Some of the Minnesota Wild’s equipment has been damaged,” the release said. “The Wild is in the process of taking inventory to determine the damage to our equipment.” Some of the equipment was reportedly salvaged.

Assistant Equipment Manager Brent Proulx, who travels with the team tonight, is going to board a plane back to Minnesota tonight. Proulx, Assistant Equipment Manager Matt Benz and Chris Pietrzak-Wegner will gather replacement equipment and load it onto a plane bound for Ottawa at 5:30 AM tomorrow morning.

The Wild’s team bus had departed the practice rink separately and dropped several players off at a local restaurant area. Head Coach Todd Richards was notified just as the bus pulled into the hotel parking lot. Richards returned to the scene with Assistant to the General Manager, Jim Mill, and PR coordinator, Ryan Stanzel.

The move is harder than it sounds, as most players need several hours on the ice to break-in new equipment. The pieces that are the toughest to break-in are skates, goalie catching gloves and pads. If they are able to pull off this miracle and win tomorrow, hat’s off to the Wild organization.

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Chicago Blackhawks

Sep 29

Posted by EB in Season Previews | 1 Comment

Jonathan Toews looks to lead the Blackhawks to the Stnaley Cup.

Captain Jonathan Toews looks to lead the Chicago Blackhawks to the Stanley Cup this season.

A young speedy team who finished 2nd in the tough Central Division, and 4th in the Western Conference, looks to improve upon their Cup ending loss to the Detroit Red Wings in the Western Conference Finals.

During the offseason the Blackhawks received some negative press about ousting general manager Dale Tallon to be replaced by Stan Bowman. Stan, the son of retired NHL coach Scotty Bowman, replaced Tallon due to a filed grievance from the NHL Players Association pertaining to the team missing deadlines for sending qualifying offers to restricted free agents. The team has since moved forward with the off season acquisitions of some pretty big names.

The Blackhawks were unable to resign unrestricted free agent Martin Havlat who eventually signed with the Minnesota Wild. Havlat scored 29 goals with 48 assists to total 77 points. He also posted 15 points in 16 games played in the playoffs last season, which happened to lead the team.

The void is to be replaced by NHL All Star player Marian Hossa who played for the Detroit Red Wings in the previous year. Hossa, who played for the Pittsburg Penguins before the Wings, has made the NHL finals 2 years in a row, yet both times have come up empty handed. Hossa underwent shoulder surgery in the off season and is expected to make his debut you in a Hawk’s jersey in late November. A question of full rehabilitation, game ready physical capability and team chemistry will be answered when he returns to the ice.

Center John Madden joins the mix of the Blackhawks this year. Madden has played for the New Jersey Devils for all his NHL career, posting 297 points in 712 regular season games and 41 points in 112 playoff games.

The Blackhawks have parted ways with goaltender Nikolai Khabibulin in hopes that Cristobal Huet will be able to carry the workload. The two goaltenders split time last year during the regular season, only one game difference. However, come playoff time, Khabibulin played all but 3 games. With the success of last year, one would think the possibility of doing the same two goalie system again, or if having to choose between the one, would have chosen to stay with Khabibulin, but that is not the case.

All hope is not lost though as the 34 year old Cristobal Huet has a respectable record and stats. Last season he had a 20-15-4-3 record in 41 games, with a .909 save percentage and a 2.53 goals against average. This number is down in comparison to the ’07-’08 season where he had a combined 32-14-6-4 record between Montreal Canadiens and the Washington Capitals.

The team is led by young stars Jonathan Toews and Patrick Kane. Together the duo is nearly impossible to stop, all things considering they are only 21 and 20 years of age. Together the two were able to net 59 goals and 80 assists between their 162 games played.

Defensively the team is led by offensive defenseman Brian Campbell. Campbell was 5th in points last year with 52, the majority of them being 45 assists. Shortly behind in points are defensemen Duncan Keith and Brent Seabrook who both have better +/- ratings then Campbell. Keith tallied in at + 33 while Seabrook with +23.

The Chicago Blackhawks lack no skill in scoring points, and have a solid defensive core that also are able to contribute offensively. The goaltender position will be a test this year, but should not be a factor as the team is projected to be first within the Central Division as last year’s leader the Detroit Red Wings have suffered a major rebuild of new and young players.

Last year’s playoff’s were a learning experience for the young team. This year with one more year under their belt, and the addition of some veteran playoff performers, the Chicago Blackhawks have their eyes set on the Cup.

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Minnesota Wild

Sep 23

Posted by EB in Season Previews | No Comments

Minnsota's third jersey is but one of many changes to the upcoming Wild season.

Minnsota's third jersey is but one of many changes to the upcoming Wild season.

The Minnesota Wild, who finished only one spot out of the playoffs last season, looks to take the ice with a drasticly different team this year.

Head coach Jacques Lemaire announced he will not return to coach the Wild on April, 13 2009 and will be replaced by Todd Richards. Richards was once a professional hockey player, and since retiring from playing, has been the assistant coach of the Milwaukee Admirals and the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins of the AHL, as well as an assistant coach of the San Jose Sharks last NHL season. Richards looks to invigorate the team by transitioning from Lemaire’s defensive minded play style to a more aggressive, up-tempo style of play.

To carry out the transition, the team has decided not to resign wingers Stephane Veilleux and injury prone Marian Gaborik, but to replace them with veteran Petr Sykora and Martin Havlat. Sykora won the Stanley Cup last season with the Pittsburgh Penguins, contributing 46 points in 76 games played in the regular season, as well as 1 assist in the 7 games he played in the playoffs. The high flying Havlat is coming off of a career high 78 points with the Chicago Blackhawks. He scored 29 goals in 81 games played during the regular season, with 48 assists and a very good +29 rating. In the playoffs he averaged just under a point per game with 5 goals, 10 assists for a total of 15 points in 16 games played.

The team has a solid core of players, with veterans Owen Nolan and Marek Zidlicky, young talented Brent Burns, and hard hitting Cal Clutterbuck.  Just in case any rough stuff happens, the Wild also have heavyweight enforcer Derek “The Boogeyman” Boogard. The Wild were lead last season by center Mikko Koivu with 67 points; 20 goals and 47 assists in 79 games played.

Lastly, the team has goaltender Niklas Backstrom. Backstrom, who surprisingly only became the Wild’s starter in the ’07-’08 season after Manny Fernandez was traded to Boston. Backstrom has won the William M. Jennings (lowest goals against) and Roger Crozier Saving Grace (best save percentage) awards. Last season he went 37 wins and 24 losses in 71 games played. He was in the top 3 amongst goaltenders in all three categories of save percentage (.923%), goals against average (2.33) and shut outs (8).

The Minnesota Wild are a competitive team, who have seen the playoffs in 3 of their 8 seasons in the NHL. With a new coach, a new strategy as well as a few new stars among the team, this year they look to make it year 4. Look for the Wild to be fighting hard for the first place within the Northwest Division against the Vancouver Canucks and Calgary Flames.

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