Tag: minnesota wild

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Marc-Andre Fleury “pissed off” after terrible Game 2

The Score

The good news for perhaps the most popular teammate in the National Hockey League today is that he’s now appeared in his 17th straight postseason. The bad news was that it was a performance that he’ll want to forget about immediately. 

The Minnesota Wild decided to start veteran goaltender Marc-Andre Fleury between the pipes for last night’s Game 2 of their Round 1 playoff series against the Dallas Stars, giving Filip Gustavsson the night off and a chance to stay fresh for Game 3. And needless to say, it wasn’t his best outing.

By the time it was all said and done, seven pucks found their way past Fleury in what would eventually be a 7-3 loss, trying the series at 1-1 apiece after the Wild had stolen Game 1 in double overtime. And as he typically is, Fleury was his own worst critic afterward. 

“Embarrassing on my part, giving up seven goals like that in the playoffs,” Fleury said, according to Michael Russo of The Athletic.

I want to come in and give a chance to my team to stay in the game and win. That’s not what I did. I gave up too many goals. I think we had to open up to try to come back in the game, and we gave up more chances, but bottom line, I didn’t make any good, key saves in the game.”

Fleury would finish the night with 24 saves on 31 shots, and admitted to being angry at himself at not being able to repeat Gustavsson’s performance from Game 1. 

“He was tremendous, awesome that last game,” Fleury said of his teammate. “I just wanted to do my part and my job tonight … and I didn’t. That pissed me off.”

“Wish I could’ve stepped up, give him a break and give him a win to keep going.”

The Wild and Stars continue their series in Game 3 from Xcel Energy Center in St. Paul on Friday night. 

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No suspension or fine for Dumba for late hit on Pavelski

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UPDATE: NHL Player Safety will NOT be handing out supplemental discipline to Minnesota Wild defender Matt Dumba for his hit on Dallas Stars forward Joe Pavelski in Game 1 of the two teams’ opening round playoff series.

Pavelski appeared to be out cold on the ice and then when clearly woozy when coming to…

After the game, Stars head coach Peter DeBoer provided an update on Pavelski’s health stating that Pavelski is “Ok” but isn’t certain for Game 2:

Read below for more details from our earlier published report on this developing story.

Scary situation in Dallas this evening in the opening game of the Dallas Stars and Minnesota Wild opening round playoff series with Wild defenseman Matt Dumba absolutely CRUSHING Stars forward Joe Pavelski.

Pavelski admires his pass and gets crushed hard by Dumba.

Check it out:

A longer look with no audio:

And more angles of the hit:

Dumba was initially assessed a five minute major penalty, but it was reversed to a minor upon review. The real damage for Pavelski seems to come as a result of smacking his head off the ice.

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Minnesota Wild rip ex-teammate Ryan Suter

Sports Illustrated

Former Nashville Predators defenseman Ryan Suter was lured just over 10 years ago to the Minnesota Wild alongside his good friend Zach Parise; they both inked identical 13 year, $98 million contracts in what was thought to be the beginning of a golden era of Wild hockey.

Unfortunately, the team never advanced past the second round with their dynamic duo, and they were both bought out of the remainder of their deals by general manager Bill Guerin in the summer of 2021. Suter subsequently signed with the rival Dallas Stars, while Parise headed east for the New York Islanders. 

Suter is now facing his former Wild teammates in the first round of the Stanley Cup Playoffs, and he’s already gotten under their skin in a major way. Suter got away with not one but two separate brutal crosschecks to the back of Russian sniper Kirill Kaprizov over the course of what would eventually be a 3-2 Wild double overtime victory. 

Needless to say, this didn’t sit well with the Wild players. According to Michael Russo of The Athletic, Suter was catching some serious heat from his ex-teammates in the Minnesota dressing room following the game: 

“Gaudreau, playing hurt, looked bothered at times. Middleton, who was outstanding, hobbled to the bench on one occasion. Same with Johansson and Kaprizov, who ate a couple vicious cross-checks from Ryan Suter, who is not a popular fixture at all inside his old locker room. Wild players were ripping the longtime former Wild defenseman to shreds in the celebratory postgame locker room.”

As you may remember, Suter was referred to as “uncoachable” by a former Wild head coach, while his close relationship with Wild owner Craig Leipold was a reported source of tension within the organization. 

Expect some fireworks tonight when the two teams get together for Game 2 from American Airlines Center! 

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Kirill Kaprizov 2nd fastest active player to reach postseason milestone!

Mitchell Republic

It was another highly productive season for Minnesota Wild Russian sniper Kirill Kaprizov, who lit the lamp behind opposition goaltenders 40 times while adding another 35 assists during the 2022-23 season. As Minnesota’s most gifted offensive force, he’s relied upon for timely goal scoring – and so far in his young career, he’s been able to come through in spades. 

And not just in the regular season. Thanks to his goal in Game 1 of Minnesota’s opening round Stanley Cup Playoffs series against the rival Dallas Stars, he became the second fastest active player to reach 10 career postseason goals. He trails only his countryman Vladimir Tarasenko, a Stanley Cup champion in 2019 with the St. Louis Blues before his career even began.

The Wild and Stars will get back at things tonight starting at 9:30 PM EST from American Airlines Center in downtown Dallas. Minnesota will be looking to take a 2-0 series stranglehold before the series shifts back to the friendly confines of Xcel Energy Center in downtown St. Paul. 

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Wild reveal starting goaltender and lineups for Game 1

Bally Sports North

The quest for the Stanley Cup officially begins tonight for the Minnesota Wild, who will be looking to advance past the first round of the postseason for the first time since 2015 when they took down the St. Louis Blues. 

They’ll be taking on a familiar rival in the Dallas Stars, who happen to feature former Wild mainstay Ryan Suter on the blue line. The series will be getting underway deep in the heart of Texas tonight at American Airlines Center in downtown Dallas. 

And not surprisingly, it will be goaltender Filip Gustavsson who will be getting his first taste of playoff hockey. He was the first goaltender off the ice in this morning’s practice, the sure sign that he’ll be getting the nod in net. Meanwhile, it will be veteran Marc-Andre Fleury serving as backup.

It sounds as though they’ll be taking it game by game for who ultimately gets the start between the pipes, however. 

“I said it was an easy decision last year, because I thought — we thought — both goaltenders can play,” head coach Dean Evason said. “It’s the same situation. Both goaltenders have been absolutely fantastic for us this year. Fantastic. So the decision that we’re going to make is a difficult decision, but it’s an easy decision because they’re both extremely great goaltenders that the team has confidence in.

“We’ve used them both all season. There is no reason why we will not continue to do that. We’ll monitor game by game, as we always have.”

Gustavsson enjoyed a strong season in his first full year with the Wild since being traded for Cam Talbot this offseason, racking up a 22-9-7 record with a 2.10 goals against average, .931 save percentage and three shutouts.

Meanwhile, here are tonight’s projected line combinations: 

Kaprizov-Hartman-Zuccarello 

Johansson-Gaudreau-Boldy

Foligno-Steel-Nyquist

Duhaime-Dewar-Reaves

Middleton-Spurgeon

Brodin-Dumba

Merrill-Faber

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Ryan Hartman shocks Stars with 2OT winner

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The Minnesota Wild have upset the Dallas Stars in the opening game of their first round Stanley Cup Playoffs series, and it’s thanks to a player who appeared as though he would have to leave the game due to injury.

Forward Ryan Hartman, who was seen visibly laboring on the bench during overtime with television commentators expressing doubt as to whether or not he could even return to action, proved them all wrong by burying the game winning goal at 16:20 of double overtime: 

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Brock Faber calls out “fake tough guy” Ryan Reaves.

Sports just have a way of bringing people together and that is especially true when you are playing alongside fellow competitors on a team, like in the sport of hockey for example.

Case in point, Minnesota Wild rookie defenseman Brock Faber appears to have quickly integrated himself into the Wild locker room given some of the rather hilarious comments he made about one of his notoriously tough teammates on Saturday.

Faber, who has only played 2 games thus far as a member of the Wild, was asked what it was like to play alongside National Hockey League enforcer Ryan Reaves when he dropped one of the funniest quotes of the season.

“Yeah he’s not that scary though… fake tough guy,” said Faber with a giant smile, eliciting a number of laughs from the media.

Unfortunately for Faber the Wild’s big man was within earshot of his comments and quickly chirped the rookie right back.

“You better hope I re-sign here,” said Reaves, eliciting even more laughter than before.

Faber integrating himself so quickly with his new teammates is no doubt a big positive for the Wild and the humor is a great way of keeping things loose as the team heads into a tough first round playoff matchup against the Dallas Stars. Whether or not the comments might come to bite Faber in the butt later down the line, only time will tell.

You can see the interaction between the two Wild players in the short clip below:

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Marc-Andre Fleury gets revenge on Filip Gustavsson.

Glen Stubbe/Star Tribune

The Minnesota Wild will be relying heavily on their strong goaltending tandem of Filip Gustavsson and Marc-Andre Fleury when the 2023 Stanley Cup playoffs officially get underway, but if the two goaltenders are feeling any pressure they aren’t showing any outwards signs of it.

In fact, Fleury and Gustavsson appear to be in the middle of an all-out prank war as they head into the playoffs with Fleury being the latest to fire off a shot at his fellow teammate. On Saturday, the Wild players who hit the ice were greeted by a bizarre sight as a mock representation of Gustavsson had been erected in the net, and I’m sure you can guess who the man behind the prank was.

If you zoom in to the picture, I thought the face that I presume Fleury drew himself was particularly amusing.

It was of course notorious prankster Marc-Andre Fleury, but in this case it sounds like he may actually have been provoked by Gustavsson.

You see Fleury recently had his socks sewn together by a sneaky prankster, but the veteran goaltender had been left unaware of who had pulled off the stunt. That was at least until Gustavsson outed himself during a recent interview, something that no doubt led to Fleury’s act of revenge on Saturday.

In fact, Fleury specifically mentions that he usually doesn’t target his goaltending partners, but Gustavson’s own prank appears to have prompted a change to that rule.

“I never go for my partner,” said Fleury when learning of the prank. “But I’ve got to give it to him… He must be big-time.”

Not only is this hilarious from the perspective of fans on the outside looking in, but it is also likely doing wonders to keep things loose and jovial as the Wild gear up for a tough first round playoff matchup against the Dallas Stars.

We likely haven’t seen the last of this little prank feud between the two goaltenders either, and quite frankly I can’t wait to see how Gustavsson will respond to this latest stunt from Fleury.

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Western Conference playoff matchups officially set

GamblingSites.org

First, the National Hockey League’s Eastern Conference postseason matchups were set in stone. And thanks to the victory tonight by the defending Stanley Cup champion Colorado Avalanche, we now know the Western Conference postseason matchups. 

Colorado’s victory officially crowned them as the winners of the Central Division, and they’ll be taking on the second year Seattle Kraken in what will be their first ever playoff appearance. Colorado will be facing a few familiar faces, as former Avalanche players Philipp Grubauer and Andre Burakovsky, the latter of whom was part of last year’s Cup winning team, now play for Seattle. 

For the second consecrative season, it will be the Edmonton Oilers facing the Los Angeles Kings in the first round. The Oilers became the first NHL team since 1996 to feature three different players who eclipsed the 100-point mark in Connor McDavid, Leon Draisaitl and Ryan Nugent-Hopkins, while this will be the first postseason for Los Angeles without goaltender Jonathan Quick between the pipes since 2002. 

Speaking of Quick, he and his new Vegas Golden Knights teammates are taking on the Winnipeg Jets, who grabbed the last remaining playoff spot in the Western Conference. This will be their first playoff matchup since the 2018 Western Conference Finals that saw Vegas advance in their inaugural season to within three wins of the Stanley Cup. It also marks the postseason debut of former 2015 No. 2 overall pick Jack Eichel. 

And for the first time since 2016, it will be the Dallas Stars taking on the Minnesota Wild. The Stars took down the Wild in their opening round postseason series that year, the first time that the two had faced one another beyond the regular season. It was especially ironic, given that the original Minnesota North Stars left the State of Hockey to become the Dallas Stars in 1993, while Minnesota regained an NHL expansion franchise in the Wild in 2000. 

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Minnesota Wild sign Golden Gophers captain

Fox 9

A true homegrown talent from the State of Hockey will not only have gotten the chance to suit up for the University of Minnesota, but is now taking the next step by joining the Minnesota Wild. 

The team announced on Sunday that Golden Gophers captain Brock Faber has been signed to an entry level contract worth a reported $2.775 million ($925,000 a year in the NHL, and is prorated this season) and that he’ll be joining the team immediately for their game later tonight against the Chicago Blackhawks at United Center. 

A two-time Big Ten Defensive Player of the Year and a two-time All-Big Ten first-team selection, Faber scored seven goals with 46 assists in 97 career collegiate games played. He was originally drafted by the Los Angeles Kings in 2020, and was acquired by the Wild in the deal that saw Kevin Fiala head to Hollywood. 

He’ll be wearing jersey number 7, and will be skating on a defensive pairing with veteran Alex Goligoski. Take a look at tonight’s projected line combinations: 

Johansson-Gaudreau-Boldy
Nyquist-Steel-Foligno
Petan-Rossi-Hartman
Duhaime-Dewar-Reaves

Middleton-Addison
Goligoski-Faber
Merrill-Klingberg