Matt Boldy Plays Overtime Hero Against Toronto

I'm not familiar with The Athletic's Sean McIndoe, who ranks the Wild just outside of the top 5, primarily because they were not a playoff team last year. The last part of his writing is what I wanted to share.

Quote

With Kaprizov in his prime, some young players already in key roles, a new coach in his first full season and the massive Zach Parise/Ryan Suter buyout burden finally coming almost entirely off the books next year, the Wild are starting to look like a long-term contender. And that means it may be time to retire the jokes about them always being in the forgettable middle and get used to a world in which they’re a powerhouse.

Not quite yet, though. I want to see it for a bit longer before I give this team the top-five bump. But we’re close, which is something I can’t say I saw coming heading into the year.

Add Buium, Yurov, and a free agent addition to a Kaprizov extension, and they could become that contender they haven't been for much of their history.

Spurgeon looked solid against Toronto.  I like his improvement game over game.  I have optimism that he will return to his former self.  Great to watch.  His overtime play was fantastic.  He still has speed and awareness.  If he can stay in the lineup he will add a lot to our D-core this year.

Spurgeon hasn't lost a step, and made the Leafs pay for slowly dumping the puck out the zone.

33 minutes ago, Citizen Strife said:

Spurgeon hasn't lost a step, and made the Leafs pay for slowly dumping the puck out the zone.

Spurgeon was down by the dots when Domi hit that chip out, he covered a lot of ground really fast and Domi likely thought he was in a clean break. OEL's line change was the funniest part of that whole sequence. 

2 hours ago, Imyourhuckleberry said:

I'm not familiar with The Athletic's Sean McIndoe, who ranks the Wild just outside of the top 5, primarily because they were not a playoff team last year. The last part of his writing is what I wanted to share.

Add Buium, Yurov, and a free agent addition to a Kaprizov extension, and they could become that contender they haven't been for much of their history.

This is impossible because we signed Hartman, Foligno and Zuccy to extensions. Or so I've been told. 

4 hours ago, M_Nels said:

Spurgeon was down by the dots when Domi hit that chip out, he covered a lot of ground really fast and Domi likely thought he was in a clean break. OEL's line change was the funniest part of that whole sequence. 

and Pacioretty's tra la la la la

Statistical Notes I've noticed today:

5v5 hockey, the Wild are outscoring opponents 27-13 through 11 games.

Outside of 3 bad periods in the Philadelphia matinee, Gustavsson has a .946 save percentage, and is at .924 overall--6th place among qualified goalies, just ahead of Cam Talbot's .923. Gus has quality starts in all but that 1 game.

Some experts are saying the Wild's shooting percentage of 13.1% is a little high to be sustainable, which could be true, but 4 teams are currently higher--those are Winnipeg, Vegas, Washington, and Tampa.

If you remove the 5 empty net goals, however, the shooting percentage becomes 11.7%, which is still above average(10.8% is league average currently), but not a major outlier.

Let's go Wild!!!

It was nice to see Spurgeon both improve and flash his speed. I'm glad he's shaking off the rust but am not optimistic it will be longterm. Just call me jaded by the past.

The one thing that really caught my eye was how big Matthew Knies looked. When did he become 6'3" 225? Why don't our draft picks become monsters like that? This guy played heavy and with a lot of talent.

We had a tough homestand coming after a 7 game road trip. Defeating TBL and TML certainly should get some people's attention. I am not a big believer in either national sports media or power rankings. I do like the word "contender" that he used, however. It's not here yet, but it is coming. Additions of Buium, Yurov and The Wall should make this team much better.

I thought our 1st line got dominated for awhile. It's the 1st time I've seen that happen this year for any stretch. Yet, as a team, even though we didn't have the puck, we stayed structured and that held us in the 10-15 minute onslaught. 

If this team continues to win, does anyone think that we'll finally get referee respect? The mugging of Hartman looked more like a felony with 2-5 years. Sometimes I have no idea what referees are looking at.