NFL
By Steve Rogers
Since the Minnesota Wild have been in the league which is 22 seasons they have made the postseason 13 times. The Wild’s career playoff record is 32-58-0-0. However, in all 13 of those appearances, they have only been to the Western Conference Finals once. Making deep playoff runs has been the crutch of this team historically. This season might be different from the way they have built this squad.
The Minnesota Wild have been reconstructing this roster and getting younger and more youthful talent for the last couple of years now. With one key exception future Hall of Fame goalie Marc Andre-Fleury. The Wild have always had pretty good goaltending but just on his resume alone, he came in as the most accomplished goalie ever in Minnesota when he landed here last year. Fleury came to Minnesota with his flowers already in hand and did not need to prove anything else. He’s here to win. How do you make your goaltending even better? Bring in Filip Gustavsson a 24-year-old from Sweden. This is his first “Full” season in the NHL. He was in 39 games and started 37 of them. He finished the regular season with a 22-9-7 record. He also had three shutouts. What’s even more impressive is he was second in the league in both save percent (.932) and goals against per game (2.10). So the Wild have a future Hall of Famer and the guy to pass the torch to both playing at high levels heading into the first round of the playoffs against the Dallas Stars.
Wild History
That’s right the same Dallas Stars that once upon a time used to be located here in Minnesota. Back then they were known as the North Stars. The North Stars played in Minnesota from 1967 to 1993. For most of the franchise’s history, the team’s colors were green, gold, and white. As a tribute to the past, the Wild have borrowed the color scheme from back then to create these awesome reverse retro-look jerseys. This is only the second time these two franchises have faced off in the playoffs. The first was back in 2016 when Dallas won in six games in the first round. Dallas won a Stanley Cup in 1999 and made it to the finals in 2000 and 2020. In a way, this is a chance for the Wild organization to get some revenge on the team that left the “State of Hockey” 30 years ago.
Karill Kaprizov vs Jason Robertson
Two of the game’s youngest and brightest stars are set to face one another in this series. The Wild’s top star is Karill Kaprizov. He won the Calder Memorial Trophy as the NHL’s Rookie of the Year in 2021. Jason Robertson was a runner-up. This year Robertson had 46 goals and 63 assists for 109 total points. Kaprizov meanwhile only played in 67 games this year and still had 40 goals and 35 assists. These two will continue to get compared to each other throughout their careers. Both teams are expecting big things from these two young stars. This will be fun to watch.
Wild Notes
If Kaprizov is the Wild’s best player then Joel Eriksson Ek might be the “Robin” to Kaprizov’s “Batman”. Ek had 23 goals and 38 assists for 61 total points. Ek was injured blocking a shot in the same game Kaprizov came back from his injury. During the final week of the regular season, the Wild struggled to win games without Ek on the ice. Ek has such a presence when he’s on the ice this Wild team clearly misses him right now and needs him back asap. The Wild if they can get and stay healthy can pose a problem for any team in the western conference.
Who Wins The First Round
This is a great matchup of two really good teams in the West. This is always hard to call these 2 seeds versus the three seeds. Dallas has a good team no doubt. When I look at the rosters I think the Wild have a little bit more depth across the board. They managed to play better for nearly a month without Kaprizov. When a team can not only weather the storm of losing its best player but raise their game to even better in their absence is a team that can make a Stanley Cup run. Add in two of the best goalies this year and I see this Wild team beating the Dallas Stars. Either way, the NHL playoffs are here is there a hotter ticket on the ice?
