Wild Blog: Playoff Preview - Wild Vs. Blues
The Stanley Cup Playoffs are set to get underway Wednesday night, and the opponent for the Minnesota Wild will be a familiar one.
Watch CBS News
The Stanley Cup Playoffs are set to get underway Wednesday night, and the opponent for the Minnesota Wild will be a familiar one.
There is a mostly unspoken undertone in the Wild's camp, that these veterans might not have many years to have this good of chance to win a Stanley Cup.
It's their fifth straight trip to the postseason, but for the first time in recent memory, it feels like a year the Wild could make a run to the Stanley Cup.
The rest of the West is about to find out if it measures up. Here's what to watch in the four first-round series beginning this week.
Of course. Of course the Minnesota Wild's first round playoff opponent is the St. Louis Blues, coached by none other than Mike Yeo, who was Minnesota's coach just 14 months ago.
The Minnesota Wild finished their regular season Saturday night, and on Sunday evening the playoff schedule was announced.
Darcy Kuemper stopped 20 shots, Martin Hanzal scored in his return to the desert and the Minnesota Wild set a franchise record with their 49th win by beating the Arizona Coyotes 3-1 on Saturday night.
With much of Minnesota settled in at a lake, teeing things up at a golf course or prepping the backyard grill, the Wild offices were busier than usual for a holiday morning on July 4, 2012.
Here's a rundown of the expansion teams of the last 25 seasons and the players who raised their profiles the most.
Minnesota caught a break when a late goaltender interference call disallowed a goal.
The win clinched second place in the Central Division and home-ice advantage in the first round of the playoffs for the Wild.
Erik Haula had a goal and assist, Devan Dubnyk stopped 30 shots and the Minnesota Wild beat the Colorado Avalanche 5-2 Sunday.
Filip Forsberg and Kevin Fiala scored 10 seconds apart late in the second period, and the Nashville Predators beat the Minnesota Wild 3-0 Saturday.
Nino Niederreiter got his first goal in more than a month. Then, Alex Stalock won his first NHL start in more than a year.
There is the question of playing for seeding. It seems to consume conversations between Wild fans these days.
Minnesota Wild forward Zach Parise will likely miss the next three games, with bruising and swelling around his eye from a high stick to the face that led to blows to the head as he fell.
T.J. Oshie scored his second goal of the game 1:42 into overtime to bookend Alex Ovechkin's hat trick.
A four goal second period was all it took for Vancouver to skate out of Xcel with a 4-2 win over Minnesota, leaving the Wild with its ninth loss in 11 games.
Reid Boucher scored twice in Vancouver's four-goal second period and the Canucks defeated the slumping Minnesota Wild 4-2 on Saturday.
The Minnesota Wild had a chance Thursday night to clinch a playoff berth with a victory over the Philadelphia Flyers. Fresh off a 3-2 win over San Jose on Tuesday, you would figure the Wild would come out & play inspired hockey. You would be wrong.
Matt Read scored the tiebreaking goal in the second period, Steve Mason stopped 24 shots and the Philadelphia Flyers beat the Minnesota Wild 3-1 Thursday night.
The Minnesota Wild have agreed to terms on a three-year, entry-level contract with former Wisconsin forward Luke Kunin.
Martin Hanzal and Charlie Coyle scored 15 seconds apart for Minnesota late in the second period, and the Wild stopped a five-game losing streak.
The Wild have lost five straight games and are in danger of losing the No. 2 spot in the Western Conference with 11 games to go.
It was Minnesota's fifth straight loss. The last time the Wild lost five in a row was the final five regular season games last spring.
