Hockey

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Beantown is in St. Paul. This is one game the Minnesota Wild don’t really need right now. They’re feeling good after going 2-0-1 in the first three games without star Kirill Kaprizov, so of course they’re facing the top team in the entire league to ruin that good feeling.
Wild vs. Bruins
When: 1:00 p.m. CTWhere: Xcel Energy CenterTV: BSN, BSWIX, NESNRadio: KFAN 100.3
The only glimmer of hope is that the Boston Bruins recently suffered back-to-back losses to the Detroit Red Wings and the absolutely terrible Chicago Blackhawks. That is kind of embarrassing, so maybe they are just checked out for the rest of the regular season after already breaking historic records and clinching the postseason eons before any other team.
We can hope.
Projected Wild lineup
Sammy Walker — Ryan Hartman — Mats ZuccarelloMarcus Johansson — Joel Eriksson Ek — Matt BoldySam Steel — Frederick Gaudreau — Oskar SundqvistMason Shaw — Connor Dewar — Ryan Reaves
John Klingberg — Jared SpurgeonAlex Goligoski — Matt DumbaJon Merrill — Calen Addison
Filip GustavssonMarc-Andre Fleury
The Wild are still hurt by injuries, but they are edging closer to a return. Jonas Brodin leads all his hurt teammates as the player closest to returning to action, but Brandon Duhaime and Marcus Foligno just returned to team practice in non-contact jerseys. Jake Middleton is still sick with a non-COVID illness, so he’s out of the lineup temporarily.
This lineup will have another chance to impress but after the 8-5 win over the St. Louis Blues, we know it can be chaotic. Players like Walker and Steel, and even Shaw, won’t be part of a fully healthy lineup, so now is the time to show head coach Dean Evason what they can contribute and play for the ability to be in the playoffs.
Projected Bruins lineup
Brad Marchand — Patrice Bergeron — Jake DeBruskPavel Zacha — David Krejci — David PastrnakTyler Bertuzzi — Charlie Coyle — Trent FredericJakub Lauko — Tomas Nosek — Garnet Hathaway
Matt Grzelcyk — Charlie McAvoyHampus Lindholm — Brandon CarloDerek Forbort — Dmitry Orlov
Linus Ullmark is projected to start but it could always be Jeremy Swayman getting the road net.
This Bruins team is still dangerous — even if they recently lost to Chicago — so there is no possibility of them being taken lightly. On-paper, you can really see no weakness as they are strong from top to bottom, from the first to the 20th man. It’s hockey, so weird things can happen, so maybe the hope is that they had a terrible trip over here.
Join us in the comments below!

Photo by Scott Rovak/NHLI via Getty Images

Your daily dose of Wild news, along with other interesting stories from around the NHL. The Minnesota Wild had a microphone hooked up to Marc-Andre Fleury for the perfect game, as the potential collision with St. Louis Blues netminder Jordan Binnington was caught on tape.

Enjoy x #mnwild pic.twitter.com/U2X2h4ouYK— Minnesota Wild (@mnwild) March 16, 2023

We understand that it can be for legal reasons and all that nasty stuff, but wouldn’t it just be so good if we caught these moments more? Fleury comes out smelling of roses after interacting with the cowardly Binnington and the Wild goaltender really wanted to fight.
That’s Wild

We have more news about us joining Zone Coverage! We have a quick little list of the type of content that will continue under their umbrella, as well as some minor changes. [Hockey Wilderness]

We went around the Hockey Wilderness room and asked our writers one simple question: What team would you like the Wild to face in the first round of the playoffs? [Hockey Wilderness]

Jake Middleton has become a wise investment for the Wild. [10K Rinks]

Binnington has been suspended for two games after his careless choice to punch Ryan Hartman in the face while celebrating a goal. [TSN]

Off the trail…

…The Montreal Canadiens and Florida Panthers combined for TEN goals in the first period of their game last night. [Yahoo Sports]

The Quebec Major Junior Hockey League is planning to start a rule that would ban fighting from its games next season. [The Hockey News]

Three sentences for every NHL team heading to the playoffs. [Sportsnet]

There are some choices. The Minnesota Wild are currently battling with some tough competition for the top spot of the Central Division, and could still finish anywhere from first to a spot in the Wild Card. That gives us an abundance of options for who the Wild could be facing in the first round.
It could be any of the Dallas Stars, Colorado Avalanche, Winnipeg Jets, Seattle Kraken, or even the Edmonton Oilers. That’s a lot of options — but what matchup do you want for the Wild? Whether you want a test of strength against a formidable opponent or a team that the Wild have had the power over for multiple years, just to get out of the first round for the first time in a very long time; there are possibilities.
We decided to ask around Hockey Wilderness and get their answers as to who they want to see face the Wild in the first round of the playoffs.
Grace — The Winnipeg Jets are the easy pick for my money. They were solid throughout the season but have been wobbly as of late. They’re 3-5-2 in their last 10 games, and the end of the season is not when you want to be losing what makes you click. Furthermore, the Wild have had their number this season, and as we can recall from the disappointing first round exit last season, sometimes a team is just good against another team.
A playoff series can live and die by its goalie, and while Connor Hellebuyck is one of the best goalies on the planet, Filip Gustavsson and Marc-Andre Fleury have been so so so good for weeks. If they can play like they did during the Wild’s long no scoring stretch, that would make for a goalie head to head that would be fun to watch. Narrative. And speaking of that no scoring stretch, it seems the Wild have recovered their scoring touch (all they needed was to get rid of dead-weight Kirill Kaprizov). Between solid goaltending, Kaprizov’s triumphant return, and actually scoring goals, the Wild have what it takes to eat the Jets for lunch.
Matt — Despite Kaprizov’s absence, this team has shown that it can still tally up the wins. It means that there is still lots to shake out in terms of standings. At the moment, the Wild are lined up to face the Colorado Avalanche in the first round — a nightmare matchup — but the dream would be facing a team a little further north. The Wild are 3-0-0 in their games against the Winnipeg Jets, out scoring them 14-4 in those games; they have had the Jets number all season.
Connor Hellebuyck has the ability to steal a series — a frightening prospect — but the Jets have been in a spiral since the end of January. Secondary scoring has dried up, and the Jets have been floundering in the standings.
The Wild forecheck is too much for an undersized Jets defense and their coach doesn’t know how to get out of his own way. The Jets are the easy pick.
Justin — Take note that the Wild could quite easily end up playing a Pacific Division team in the first round. They are only three points out of first place in the Central, and if they fall to a wild card spot during Kaprizov’s extended absence they would have a 50/50 shot at playing the Pacific Division top seed. Currently, that’s the Vegas Golden Knights, who have questionable goaltending and some of the worst scoring-chance analytics of any team in a playoff spot. Vegas could be a paper tiger if they hold onto the top seed in the Pacific. Given that the Dallas Stars and Winnipeg Jets are playing some all-around good hockey, as well as the star power of the Colorado Avalanche, a matchup with the Golden Knights may be more favorable.
Thomas — I think when it comes to wanting a playoff matchup you have to consider goaltending above everything and the idea of facing the Jets with Hellebuyck, or even Jake Oettinger with the Stars, is a possible scary one. Ideally, I think I would like to see the Wild face up against any team from the terrible Pacific Division, because they can handle them (and has) so well.
Whether it is the very bad goaltending of the Kraken, Jonathan Quick being depended on to play a full series by Vegas, or even the Oilers brutal situation they have going on over there — all of those options are better than any Central team and their netminder. But if I would have to choose one, it would be the Golden Knights.
Joel Eriksson Ek can suffocate Jack Eichel’s line and after that, they don’t really have a lot of scoring options. The Wild will kill them with depth, and that would be just so pleasing to watch after they stole the first round from Minnesota two years ago.
Eric — The Western Conference is unbelievably close this year. The Wild sit just one point out of first place in their division, and if they can get ahead of the Stars while fending off the surging Avalanche, they could win the Central. Their reward for a strong season finish would be getting to face a wild card team instead of a divisional opponent like the Avs, and there’s a solid chance that team would be the Seattle Kraken. We all remember when the Kraken embarrassed the Wild back in November, when we still weren’t convinced that the second-year expansion team was for real. Just a week later, the Wild shut them out with a solid defensive performance and 28 saves from Marc-Andre Fleury.
We know the Kraken are for real now, but we haven’t seen them face the Wild since those two games in early November. But Seattle provides the easiest path to the second round for Minnesota out of any of their possible opponents, for two reasons. The Kraken are, by far, the league leaders in Goals For Above Expected. That doesn’t mean their offensive performance is a complete mirage, but it does mean that the model (in this case I’m using MoneyPuck) thinks they’re scoring goals that they shouldn’t be. The Minnesota Wild happen to be near the bottom of this ranking, meaning the model thinks they should score more than they do. We can debate the merit of these models, but taking a look at the Kraken lineup, where their scoring comes from, and their position in the standings, it’s not hard to see that they might be overachieving a little. They could ride that to an improbable playoff run, sure, but teams like this don’t often do well in the postseason.
The other key factor in why the Kraken are an ideal first round opponent is their goaltending, or lack thereof. A team that might struggle a little bit offensively can steal a series with good goaltending in the right moments. The Kraken are not that team. They have the worst goaltending of any playoff team not just this year but in recent memory. Martin Jones has started the majority of Seattle’s games this year, wearing an abysmal .887 save percentage. Phillipp Grubauer recently won back the starter’s net from Jones with a slightly better .892. I know GAA is pretty much a useless stat, but when both of your goalies are giving up 3 goals a game on average I think you have a problem. The Kraken aren’t a bad team, far from it, but I don’t think they’re going to win a round this year, and if the Wild can go on a bit of a run to win the Central I think they’d love to have the Kraken waiting for them in the first round.
Who do you want the Wild to face in the first round? Let us know!

Photo by Bruce Kluckhohn/NHLI via Getty Images

We made the announcement, so now it’s time for an update. In case you missed it, last week we announced that Hockey Wilderness will be joining Zone Coverage as their official Minnesota Wild brand and website. The merge will happen once our contracts with Vox Media end on March 31.
We think it is only fair to keep all of you up to date with how the plans are going and to unveil what you can expect from Hockey Wilderness going forward.
With the current teams of 10K Rinks and Hockey Wilderness combining to form this single supergroup of talented content-makers, there is so much potential for Wild coverage, but here is what we have planned so far for this website under Zone Coverage:

“Wilderness Walk” as the daily links post will continue to exist every weekday morning, to give you a small bite of what is happening with the Wild and the rest of the hockey world.
The valuable columns and features that 10K Rinks and Hockey Wilderness are putting out will continue.
News updates to keep you up to date on everything that is going on.
Gamethreads will be the primary form of game coverage at HW, as we will be utilizing them as our game previews (with lineups, injury updates, etc.). Lengthy recaps will not be a regular occurrence, but instead we will write about anything important and highlights that happened during those games.
And so much more that we are currently planning!

Also, just want to say thank you for sticking by Hockey Wilderness as we have gone through the last two months not really knowing what the future held for us. We are so excited about joining Zone Coverage and we know it will be the place to get all the Wild information you need.

Photo by Joe Puetz/NHLI via Getty Images

Your daily dose of Wild news, along with other interesting stories from around the NHL. Jordan Binnington should probably learn to shut up and stay in his crease. He made a fool of himself multiple times as our Minnesota Wild walloped the St. Louis Blues by a score of 8-5 on Wednesday night.
It all started when the Blues were up a comfortable 3-1 after 20 minutes, but the Wild stormed out of the intermission and scored three goals within the first seven minutes of the second period to take a one-goal lead.
After Mason Shaw got the fourth Wild goal, Binnington carelessly yapped with the Minnesota bench, as if he is trying to wash away the fact that he just lost the game for his team.

cry more, Jordan pic.twitter.com/DvvGRClL6a— Hockey Wilderness (@hockeywildernes) March 16, 2023

Notice how far away Binnington wants to act big? Yeah, probably a good idea to keep your distance.
Well, unfortunately he was not smart enough to come to that conclusion but still careless and cowardly enough to jump Ryan Hartman as he was celebrating scoring his goal to make it 5-4 on the power play.

CHAOS!! BINNINGTON GOES AFTER HARTMAN AFTER A GOALFLEURY DROPPED THE GLOVES TRYING TO SCRAP pic.twitter.com/Uwt9w76w48— B/R Open Ice (@BR_OpenIce) March 16, 2023

What a wimp. That is definitely when a player does not expect to get punched in the face, but Binnington decided to do it anyway. So, naturally, Marc-Andre Fleury skated down the length of the ice, gloves dropped and helmet off, and was ready to make it a fair fight, but the officials had already separated the two netminders.
And then, as Binnington could not look any more stupid, he decided to try and rile up the home crowd…after he just did one of the weakest moves we have ever seen on the ice? A questionable decision.
Anyways, the Wild ended up scoring eight total goals on the dummy and have a franchise-record 14-game point streak going on right now.
That’s Wild

The Wild acquired four players at the NHL trade deadline, so we decided to do a little two-week check on how they have done in a Minnesota sweater so far. [Hockey Wilderness]

Marco Rossi is working his ass off down in Iowa and has had a noticeable mindset change in the last few months. [10K Rinks]

Off the trail…

The NHL debuted some new tech and new family-friendly broadcasting with their “Big City Greens Classic” on Tuesday, and it was a resounding success. [Yahoo Sports]

Edmonton Oilers defenseman Slater Koekkoek has been away from the team since the start of training camp and he publicly shared his struggles with anxiety yesterday, as the reason why he has been absent. [Sportsnet]

The Colorado Avalanche just keep on trucking and staying steady with the Wild in the race for the top spot in the Central. [NBC Sports]

Wild are facing the music. Our favorite hockey team, the Minnesota Wild, are rolling right now. They have not lost in regulation since Feb. 15 and have an opportunity tonight to make it 14 consecutive games that they have earned a point in, against the St. Louis Blues.
Wild at Blues
When: 8:30 p.m. CTWhere: Enterprise CenterTV: TNTRadio: KFAN 100.3
Projected Wild lineup
Sammy Walker — Ryan Hartman — Mats ZuccarelloMarcus Johansson — Joel Eriksson Ek — Matt BoldySam Steel — Frederick Gaudreau — Oskar SundqvistMason Shaw —Connor Dewar — Ryan Reaves
Jake Middleton — Jared SpurgeonAlex Goligoski — Matt DumbaJon Merrill — John Klingberg
Marc-Andre FleuryFilip Gustavsson
Sammy Walker is making his first appearance since being recalled from Iowa and he is directly replacing Kirill Kaprizov on the top line. Marcus Foligno, Jonas Brodin, and Brandon Duhaime are all nearing a return to action, but are still recovering from their various injuries (Brodin is most likely the first one to return out of the bunch).
Projected Blues lineup
Alexei Toropchenko — Robert Thomas — Jordan KyrouJakub Vrana — Paven Buchnevich — Kasperi KapanenBrandon Saad — Brayden Schenn — Sammy BlaisNathan Walker — Logan Brown — Tyler Pitlick
Nick Leddy — Colton ParaykoMarco Scandella — Justin FaulkTorey Krug — Tyler Tucker
Jordan BinningtonThomas Greiss
This isn’t the Blues that the Wild faced in the first round last Spring, but even without the talent that they shed throughout this losing season, it is still St. Louis up against Minnesota. For some reason, the Blues know how to play the Wild perfectly and almost every single game is miserable from a Wild fan’s perspective. Let’s hope for something better tonight.
Join us in the comments down below!

Photo by Bob Kupbens/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images

Minnesota was one of the busier teams at the trade deadline, but was it worth it? The NHL trade deadline was almost two weeks ago at this point and the players moved during that hectic, transaction-heavy week are starting to settle into their roles on their new teams across the league. For the Minnesota Wild, they couldn’t do a lot with wanting strictly rentals, but they ended up acquiring four guys before the clock struck 2:00 p.m.
Some have played in minimal games, and some have not played at all, but let’s check in and see how the new dudes are doing.
John Klingberg
Certainly the headline deal of the week was the Wild acquiring defenseman John Klingberg from the Anaheim Ducks. Five games into his Minnesota career and it looks like the Wild have taken a broken-down blueliner that spent his season on a miserable team and are utilizing his skills almost perfectly.
He’s not your typical Wild defender, but within this sound structure of a team, he can flourish his offensive game and we’re seeing a rejuvenation of his career back to what he looked like while patrolling the Dallas blue line.
His time has been spent on the bottom pairing for the Wild, but also on the top power play unit — basically a perfect summary of what Dean Evason sees him as. You won’t see him take over games on both ends of the ice, but he can pop in the skill at even strength and then return to being the offensive juggernaut when they have the man advantage.
Plus, in just five games, he already has three assists for the team.

Matt Boldy takes Klingberg’s stretch pass and buries the breakaway, putting Minnesota up to start the 2nd!#mnwild pic.twitter.com/mcU7IIeFYj— Hockey Daily 365 l NHL Highlights (@HockeyDaily365) March 13, 2023

His defensive deficiencies still pop up every now and again, and that’s impossible to just completely hide. But still, when he’s on the ice in a Wild sweater at 5-on-5, Minnesota has the greater share of scoring chances, unblocked shot attempts, and shots on goal — unfortunately he is just below the 50 percent mark when it comes to shot attempts and expected goals (the first two things people look at) but both those numbers are a massive improvement over his time with the Ducks.
The only downside to trading for Klingberg is kicking Calen Addison out of the lineup, but even then, having someone around that went to the Stanley Cup Final just three years ago — and earned 21 points in 26 games during that playoff run — might be a good thing for this crew.
Oskar Sundqvist
Sundqvist wasn’t the sexiest name acquired by the Wild at the trade deadline, but it might be the most on-brand acquisition for them.
The defense-first forward that can play either center or wing has solidified the bottom-six forward group into something that can still score against any opponent. If you’re looking at him as a Jordan Greenway replacement, through the four games Sundqvist has played for the Wild, he has two points and the now-Buffalo Sabre finished his season in Minnesota with seven.
Sundqvist also can pass the puck pretty dang well, apparently.

Oh my Oskar Sundqvist registers his first point in a Wild sweater with some SLICK backhand sauce to Marcus Foligno and Foligno SNIPES #mnwild pic.twitter.com/OPh88IKSE3— Spoked Z (@SpokedZ) March 9, 2023

On-ice, he’s getting some luck. His underlying numbers at 5-on-5 are pretty dang bad (33.73 shot attempt percentage, 34.28 expected goals percentage) and after losing Marcus Foligno to injury, that line might only get worse. Hopefully this can solidify and he isn’t affecting the team this much, because it has been just four games and that is too small of a sample size to truly judge a player. But, he doesn’t have much longer in Minnesota.
Marcus Johansson
Getting Marcus Johansson back was a controversial move, to say the least. Most Wild fans remember him as the struggling forward that would look lost on the ice and could barely skate during the weird COVID season. So, it made sense that bringing him back felt like a bad move, especially giving up a third-round pick for the player.
But, this is not the 2021 Marcus Johansson that we’re used to. Being back as a member of the Washington Capitals must have revived some memories of being able to pot 20 goals in a season as a depth forward and contributing to a playoff regular. For the Wild, Johansson has been simply outstanding and has fit in perfectly as a temporary solution to the “Who will be Matt Boldy’s other linemate?” question.
He’s also the only deadline acquisition that has scored a goal, so far.

Minnesota scores 30 seconds into the 3rd period! #MNWILD | #NHL pic.twitter.com/cJEiYSUKdz— Bally Sports North (@BallySportsNOR) March 12, 2023

Johansson has one goal and three points in the six games he has played for the Wild on their second line. That’s adequate enough, but he’s also getting some shots off, as he has 11 shots on goal and 20 total shot attempts during that stretch as well.
His underlying numbers are average and mostly just below the 50 percent mark when it comes to shot attempt control and expected goals at 5-on-5, so there’s nothing overwhelmingly good about Johansson’s contributions, other than actually just looking like a very good winger.
We can see it now. Johansson scores in overtime and the Wild have finally won a playoff round. (Sorry, we’re getting ahead of ourselves.)
Gustav Nyquist
Okay, well…Gustav Nyquist hasn’t played a game for the Wild yet, but he is with the team. The currently injured winger is aiming for a return either just before the playoffs start or right when the playoffs start, so we haven’t seen what he can do.
But theoretically, he will slot in where Johansson currently is and be another scoring option on the second line with Boldy and Joel Eriksson Ek. This is all hypothetical and an estimation, of course, but we see him doing well if he is not too affected by his current injury.

Your daily dose of Wild news, along with other interesting stories from around the NHL. When Kirill Kaprizov got injured, a whole lot of Minnesota Wild fans that are in-tune with their prospect pool was wondering about a potential callup of Marco Rossi, to inject some other level of top-end talent. Unfortunately for them, Sammy Walker was the one that got the call to be with the Wild on this roadtrip.
But, according to Michael Russo’s latest, the Wild did ponder the idea of recalling Rossi instead of Walker, but thought it would be best to just keep him down in the minors because he’s doing well there (a little bit of a weird conclusion).

The Wild did talk about Marco Rossi, who is fourth on the Iowa Wild with 40 points in 41 games and has eight points and 15 shots in his past four games, when it came to a call-up due to Kaprizov’s injury.
But the team really likes the progress the prized prospect has made since returning to AHL Iowa and feels it’s better for him to play there than sit in the NHL.
Once the Wild decided they’d put Sam Steel back in the lineup — someone with experience on that top line with Ryan Hartman and Mats Zuccarello — and knew they needed a winger, Walker got the call to be the extra forward for this road trip.
Walker, linemates with Rossi in Iowa, has seen his friend’s game take a jump.
“He’s incredible,” Walker said. “He does everything right. He’s good in the D-zone. He holds onto pucks in the offensive zone. He’s always trying to make a play. I just try to get open for him, and he’s pretty good at getting me the puck.” — The Athletic

That’s Wild

The whole article includes some tidbits about Filip Gustavsson’s first season with the Wild, John Klingberg driving a bus, and the team watching the Minnesota high school tournament. [The Athletic]

We still haven’t seen all of the Wild’s trade deadline acquisitions! Don’t forgot about Gustav Nyquist returning from injury hopefully within the next month and bringing some much-needed skill. [10K Rinks]

Off the trail…

Connor McDavid is from a different planet and just decided to score loads of goals this season. [NBC Sports]

The New Jersey Devils are stealing every puck that isn’t nailed down. [Defector]

Leafland isn’t waking up happy. The always-anxious fan base of the Toronto Maple Leafs just experienced a 4-3 defeat by the hands of the Buffalo Sabres, just across the border. [Yahoo Sports]

After a battle with long COVID derailed his career, former Vancouver Canucks center Brandon Sutter has hope that he can play hockey again. [Sportsnet]

Photo by Norm Hall/NHLI via Getty Images

Your daily dose of Wild news, along with other interesting stories from around the NHL. Last night, the Minnesota Wild played their second game without Kirill Kaprizov this season (we swear we won’t do this for every game they play while he’s injured) and despite getting the depth scoring that they have so desperately craved, they succumbed to the Arizona Coyotes in overtime by a score of 5-4.
Surprisingly, the fourth line of Ryan Reaves, Connor Dewar, and Mason Shaw played its potential best game since being put together when the team acquired Reaves mid-season. Each player left with two points, and in addition to scoring some goals, they had some not-great-but-entertaining fights.

After a big hit in the corner, Ryan Reaves and Boko Imama get in the least eventful “fight” in NHL history#mnwild | #Yotes pic.twitter.com/gJTXRikeqz— Hockey Daily 365 l NHL Highlights (@HockeyDaily365) March 13, 2023

ICYMI: Mason Shaw can scrap. #NHL // #MNWILD // #YOTES pic.twitter.com/PqtxQeIYPM— Bally Sports North (@BallySportsNOR) March 13, 2023

Still, it is disappointing that with just 25 minutes left to play and a 4-2 lead over a bad Coyotes team, the Wild crumbled and let the home team get back into it. Maybe it was fatigue, having played in San Jose less than 24 hours before, or just not being able to lean on Kaprizov to be an endless supply of energy throughout the 60 minutes.
Either way, there should be enough to take from this game to make them more confident when they face the St. Louis Blues on Wednesday.
That’s Wild

In case you missed it, Hockey Wilderness has found a home! Almost two months after Vox Media let us know that they will no longer be financially supporting us, we have decided to move to Zone Coverage and be their home for everything Wild. [Hockey Wilderness]

The addition of John Klingberg solves the Wild’s biggest weakness. [10K Rinks]

Watch out for any potential update on Marcus Foligno, who had to leave last night’s game with an injury. Oh, and Ryan Hartman got banged up a little bit too, but he kept on playing.

Here’s the Foligno injury his first shift in third. Dauphin fell on his right ankle and his leg gave out right when he took a step. Looked bad pic.twitter.com/pf8u1Mb4sx— Michael Russo (@RussoHockey) March 13, 2023

Evason said he didn’t have update on Foligno, other than it was lower body injury. And “serious” enough to where he couldn’t return tonight. But nothing more than that. #mnwild— Joe Smith (@JoeSmithNHL) March 13, 2023

Off the trail…

Chuck Fletcher was scared to say the “rebuild” word, but interim GM Danny Briere said it right away in his first press conference in his new role. The Philadelphia Flyers might finally know who they are. [Broad Street Hockey]

Is an exhausting MVP debate any worse than a boring one? [Defector]

Back home, Mahtomedi and Minnetonka were crowned the 2023 MSHSL Boys Hockey Class A and Class AA champions!

Congratulations to Mahtomedi and Minnetonka, this year’s @MSHSL Boys Hockey Class A and Class AA Champions! pic.twitter.com/FXRWyU74Na— Minnesota Wild (@mnwild) March 12, 2023

And in other non-NHL news, the NCAA playoffs continue as St. Cloud ousted Minnesota-Duluth over the weekend, and the Gophers walked right over Michigan State to continue playing next weekend. U of M will be facing the Michigan Wolverines in a battle between the two collegiate hockey superpowers. Definitely a “drop and everything and watch” sort of game, even if you don’t support the Gophers.

Photo by Bailey Hillesheim/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images

Battle in the desert. The Minnesota Wild were able to win their first game of their Kirill Kaprizov-less month last night against the San Jose Sharks, so let’s hope for another two points against a bad team. They are visiting the Arizona Coyotes, of course.
Wild at Coyotes
When: 8:30 p.m. CTWhere: Mullett ArenaTV: BSN, BSWI, BSAZRadio: KFAN 100.3
Projected Wild lineup
ADSam Steel — Ryan Hartman — Mats ZuccarelloMarcus Johansson — Joel Eriksson Ek — Matt BoldyMarcus Foligno — Frederick Faudreau — Oskar SundqvistMason Shaw — Connor Dewar — Ryan Reaves
Jake Middleton — Jared SpurgeonAlex Goligoski — Matt DumbaJon Merrill — John Klingberg
Filip GustavssonMarc-Andre Fleury
Projected Coyotes lineup
Clayton Keller — Barrett Hayton — Nick SchmaltzMatias Maccelli — Jack McBain — Lawson CrouseLiam O’Brien — Travis Boyd — Brett RitchieLauren Dauphin — Zack Kassian
Juuso Valimaki — Josh BrownPatrik Nemeth — J.J. MoserConnor Mackey — Victor Soderstrom
Karel VejmelkaIvan Prosvetov
Join us in the comments down below!