Monday May 20, 2013
This is Michael Russo's 18th year covering the National Hockey League. He's covered the Minnesota Wild for the Star Tribune since 2005 following 10 years of covering the Florida Panthers for the Sun-Sentinel. Michael uses “Russo’s Rants” to feed a wide-ranging hockey-centric discussion with readers, and can be heard weekly on KFAN (100.3 FM) radio and seen weekly on Fox Sports North.
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Posts about On the road
Postgame: Clutterbuck injured; Hall faces hearing over hit + video
Posted by: Michael Russo Updated: February 22, 2013 - 8:18 AM
The Wild improved to 4-1-1 in its past six tonight with a 3-1 victory over the Edmonton Oilers at the Rex. Matt Cullen scored two goals and assisted on Devin Setoguchi’s winning goal as the Wild won for the first time in regulation on the road in the past 20 games.
Ugly end to the game though. With 2:33 left, Cal Clutterbuck was injured when Taylor Hall did a fly-by in the neutral zone and stuck out his left leg into Clutterbuck’s left leg. Hall was assessed a five-minute major for kneeing and a game misconduct. Clutterbuck was in a lot of pain on the ice, had to be helped off and couldn’t put any weight on his left leg.
Hall has a discipline hearing scheduled for later today. Hall is the same player that broke Jonas Brodin’s clavicle in the minors. The Wild brass had a problem with the hit. Brodin said it was a clean hockey play.
He was stopped at the Zamboni entrance and put onto a stretcher, then wheeled to the Oilers medical room. I saw him with ice and a bandage just above the left knee as he was being wheeled.
Coach Mike Yeo would only say “he’s hurt,” but he did fly with the team to Calgary. So that may be good news.
The postgame blog from the Edmonton Journal includes reaction to the hit from around Twitter. Consensus appears to be that Hall will face some sort of suspension.
Last year, Edmonton’s Ryan Whitney was called for kneeing Clutterbuck and Clutterbuck missed a game with a charleyhorse. He does have a history of them, so maybe this is in that realm and not a knee injury. The hit was just a shade above the knee though, so that’s not the thigh.
The Wild felt it was a dirty play by Hall.
“If that’s not a suspension, I don’t know what is,” said Setoguchi, fined two days ago for his high-stick on Detroit’s Kyle Quincey.
“What I saw was a player that didn’t even look at the puck and looked like he was trying to hurt a guy,” Yeo said of the Hall on Clutterbuck hit.
Clutterbuck has never been suspended despite being one of the league’s heaviest hitters. James Wiesniewski did get eight games last year for an infraction against Clutterbuck. Trevor Gillies got 10 games two years ago for a head shot.
I’ll have a better update at practice Friday in Calgary.
As for the game, not a good first period. The Wild just didn’t do a good enough job generating chances but didn’t give up much either.
In the second, even when Ryan Smyth gave Edmonton a 1-0 lead, the Wild was getting a lot of chances. It just was a half-second late, missing nets or hitting pipes.
Finally Cullen made something out of nothing by turning on his jets, catching up to a puck, speeding pass a defenseman and tying a game. Later, he set up Setoguchi’s eventual winner with a beautiful dish, then sniped his second of the game for a two-goal lead with 6:01 left.
The Wild began to get pucks deep starting early in the second and that’s all it took to turn the game around. Backstrom had another good game with 27 saves, Yeo was very happy with Kyle Brodziak’s game, I thought Ryan Suter and Jonas Brodin had real strong games.
It was the second straight game the Wild rallied for a win.
Clayton Stoner had a very tough first half of the game. Turnovers galore, whether it was passing right to the Oilers or rimming pucks around to the point the Wild either turned it over or couldn’t get of its zone with ease.
Overall, good two points against a young opponent that still has a lot of inconsistency in its game.
On to Calgary for the first in a home-and-home. Talk to you Friday.
Zucker scores first NHL goal, Kuemper wins first NHL game as Wild rallies to beat Detroit
Posted by: Michael Russo Updated: February 17, 2013 - 10:03 PMWild fans needed this one.
Not just the 3-2 win over Detroit. That’s obvious. But the reminder that as aggravating as this inconsistent start for the Wild has been considering the raised expectations, the future really is bright.
We all live in the now. So it’s easy to forget how many kids the Wild has coming. And not just the kids you saw tonight and the kids down on the farm like Coyle and Bulmer and Hackett and Fontaine, etc., but all the guys that aren’t even pro yet – Haula and Lucia, Dumba and Bussieres, Graovac and Gilmour, Gustafsson and Gunnarsson, and so on and so on.
Jason Zucker reminded with energy, electrifying speed and a highlight reel goal. Honestly, how about this for a first NHL goal?
Johan Larsson was great tonight. Gritty, physical, works his butt off. Was on in the last two minutes, which shows coach Mike Yeo’s confidence. Reminds me of Sami Pahlsson when he was a rock for Anaheim in the early-2000s.
Darcy Kuemper brushed off two goals and made 29 saves for his first NHL win. He found out with five minutes left in warmups that he was starting because Niklas Backstrom caught the flu that is trickling through this team. In recent days, Ryan Suter has had it, Zach Parise, then Pierre-Marc Bouchard and Justin Falk. Yeo indicated a number of guys weren’t feeling the greatest tonight.
Mikael Granlund another assist on Torrey Mitchell’s winning goal to extend his point streak to three games.
And Jonas Brodin is just an absolute stud on the back end. He did seem to hurt his arm late in the game, but the Wild says he is OK. The Wild broke up the Ryan Suter-Brodin pair in the first period. That lasted until five minutes left when Suter and Jared Spurgeon had the rockiest shift ever without a goal being scored. Two icings and a 2-on-0 that Kuemper saved their bacon with a breakaway save on Cory Emmerton.
Yeo felt the Wild respected the Red Wings too much in the first after Damien Brunner scored. He said they basically spent the period watching.
Then, after Pavel Datsyuk scored 20 seconds into the second, Yeo said the Wild got “ticked,” began to be more engaged physically and began shooting. A huge shift by the Zach Parise-Mikko Koivu-Dany Heatley turned the game around and Heatley tied the score with his first goal since Jan. 27 to snap a career-worst, nine-game goal drought.
Then Zucker and Mitchell scored 32 seconds apart.
Read Jim Souhan’s column on Zucker in Monday’s paper. It’s a good one, and the best part about the confident kid, he loves to shoot. That should fit in well on this pass-happy team.
I asked him how tough it has been not getting the call despite tearing up the AHL. He said, “I think it’s all part of [development]. It’s the first time I had to battle this adversity. I didn’t know what it took to get called up or what it takes to get sent down. I have no idea. It’s my first year, so I’m trying to learn the ropes.”
He said the coaches and Houston GM Jim Mill were great with communication, especially when Charlie Coyle got the call over him.
Kuemper was a great story tonight. He had no clue he was starting until late in warmups and Backstrom couldn’t go. You can read that anecdote in the game story.
“We throw Kuemps into a pretty difficult situation and the way he responded was terrific,” Yeo said. “I thought he got better as the game went on. I thought he was huge in the fourth minute PK [on a Devin Setoguchi] high stick.”
Big win for the Wild to rally from 2-0 down. The Wild plays six of the next eight on the road starting in Edmonton on Thursday, so they needed a confidence boost, maybe a season-momentum turner.
“I’m not going to sit here and say that this makes our season,” Yeo said. “We’ve still got a lot of work to do, but this is huge.”
He said we saw both the Wild’s games tonight. “The first part we weren’t quite sure of ourselves. And I can’t say that we necessarily have full confidence in ourselves. … The toughest part is fighting through that. But we’re not far away. I know that. … We’re very close to where our game needs to be, but we’re not there yet.”
The Wild will not practice Monday, especially when so many guys are sick. Barring news, I’ll be back with you Tuesday. I will be in-studio Tuesday with Paul Allen at 9 a.m., so please tune in then.
Wild holds player-only meeting after latest loss in Arizona
Posted by: Michael Russo Updated: February 5, 2013 - 12:03 AMBetter effort, yes, but another loss as the frustrating Wild was defeated 2-1 Monday night at Phoenix.
The Wild was 0-2 on the road trip, 0-3-1 this season on the road and 5-20-6 on the road since that 4-1 win here in Glendale last season that put Minnesota record at 20-7-3. Of those five road wins, three were shootouts wins. So, … in the Wild’s past 31 road games, it has won two games in regulation.
Two.
Tonight was a frustrating one because it was all Minnesota in the second period, yet as has been the MO of the Wild the past number of years, it has to work its darnedest to even come close to scoring, and then its opponent scores almost with a snap of the fingers.
The Wild buzzed, failed and boom, Niklas Backstrom gives up a juicy rebound, Martin Hanzal slips behind Dany Heatley, Ryan Suter skates across the crease and Hanzal scores into an open net.
Zach Parise did trim the deficit to 2-1 after Mikko Koivu hustled to force a turnover, but despite dominating the rest of the period, constantly getting pucks in deep and forcing turnovers and creating chances, the Wild couldn’t tie it by the third.
Then, against a team 103-13-15 under Dave Tippett when it scores first, the Wild didn’t get a shot until Charlie Coyle’s 12 minutes into the third. Then, hustling Torrey Mitchell drew two late power plays. The Wild’s first, it spent almost two minutes in the zone and didn’t register a shot. Its second, Pierre-Marc Bouchard teed it up and hit the post.
Game, set, match. The Wild is 4-4-1. After being the lowest-scoring team in the NHL since the 2004-05 lockout last year, it has scored 21 goals in nine games this year and given up 24.
The players held a 25-minute player-only meeting after. You can read most the quotes in the gamer. Whatever was aired stayed in the room, but it’s clear the message was enough is enough, it’s time to find a way to win some games.
Lots of good efforts out there tonight. Devin Setoguchi and Mikael Granlund were so good with Zenon Konopka, one wonders now what Mike Yeo will do Thursday against Vancouver. Who comes out for Mike Rupp – if anybody?
Mitchell obviously should stay on the third line because he was stellar tonight.
Kyle Brodziak is struggling offensively. No goals. Tonight, he had two chances he failed on, one being a breakaway when Mike Smith poked it off his stick. Justin Falk had a tough night.
One big turning point tonight was Keith Yandle making a skate save to rob Granlund in the first before saving a puck at the offensive blue line and assisting on Phoenix’s first goal.
Coyle looked real good in his first game. Unfortunately, his family’s plane was canceled from Boston, so they didn’t take it in here.
Playing on a line with Pierre-Marc Bouchard and Matt Cullen, who played real well tonight, Coyle didn’t look out of place at all.
He was strong on the puck, created chances, was solid defensively, poised and was robbed of his first NHL goal by Smith in the second.
Heatley struggled. He skated better tonight the last few games, but he turned the puck over a lot and had a couple situations where he wasn’t in position to support the puck and the puck transitioned the other way.
“I thought he was better tonight,” Yeo said. “I can’t sit here and say anybody had a bad game. We had a lot of guys that had good games, but we’ve got to find a way to win.”
One quote I didn’t use that echoes the sentiment by many postgame is from Cullen:
“We have some very positive pieces here, but we need to get some results. And that was not good enough. A game that we could have won. We have a better [game] here and we’ve got to find it.”
That’s it from me. The Wild is flying back from Arizona on Tuesday and not practicing, so barring news, talk to you Wednesday.
--
In other Wild news, hard-luck, oft-injured Wild first-round pick Tyler Cuma will miss up to a month with a broken foot. This kid honestly has had no chance due to all the injuries.
Thoughts on Mike Rupp trade, what this means for Matt Kassian
Posted by: Michael Russo Updated: February 4, 2013 - 2:48 PMAs you know by now, the Wild traded Darroll Powe and Nick Palmieri to the New York Rangers for rugged 33-year-old veteran forward Mike Rupp this afternoon.
Rupp will meet the Wild in Minnesota on Tuesday and practice for the first time Wednesday. He will likely make his Wild debut Thursday against Vancouver wearing No. 27.
Rupp video highlights are here.
The common theme the last few days around the Wild has been size and specifically the Wild’s lack of it up front. The Wild’s board play has been poor, especially in Friday’s 3-1 loss at Anaheim.
So yesterday, the Wild recalled Charlie Coyle to make his NHL debut tonight at Phoenix. Today, it acquires a 6-foot-5, 230-pound versatile forward that will make the bottom-six tougher. He’s also another character guy that’s known as a great teammate.
He won a Stanley Cup in 2003 with New Jersey, scoring the Cup-clinching goal against Chuck Fletcher’s Ducks.
“I have pretty bad memories of Mike Rupp,” Fletcher cracked. “He wasn’t my favorite player or anybody in Anaheim at that point.”
Coach Mike Yeo also coached him in Pittsburgh.
“He’s a big guy, he’s won a Stanley Cup and brings a lot of size, experience and grit to our team," Fletcher said. "He’ll bring a presence to our lineup and complement [our skilled players].”
Asked if he recognized a size deficiency with the Wild and is trying to rectify that, Fletcher notes that guys like Mikko Koivu, Dany Heatley, Clayton Stoner, Justin Falk are big, that Zach Parise, Kyle Brodziak, Cal Clutterbuck and Zenon Konopka play big, but he said, “When you go on the road, having size is important, the perception of size is important.”
He feels Rupp will be able to contribute in multiple ways. He’s also a media darling.
Powe was acquired from the Philadelphia Flyers two summers ago and immediately signed to a three-year deal. Fletcher called him a high character player who brought speed and energy to the lineup. He thanked Powe, who was well-liked in the Wild room. He finished second among NHL forwards last year with 91 blocked shots.
Still, he was playing a fourth-line role this year, limited minutes, was expendable and frankly his game is limited. As coach Mike Yeo said this morning before the trade, his game hasn’t been sharp this year.
Palmieri, to me, is just a non-factor. He held out last summer. He refused to report to Houston initially after being cut from camp. As I wrote a few weeks ago, he was on the outs and had no future in Minnesota. It was just a matter of time before the Wild moved him.
In terms of cap hits, Powe had another year left at $1.067 million. Rupp has another year at $1.5 million.
Trading 2 for 1 also frees up a contract. The Wild was at the max 50. Now it’s at 49.
I haven’t talk with Rupp yet. Powe was on the phone making arrangements when I saw him in the lobby an hour ago.
As for Matt Kassian, his future may also be elsewhere at this point. He’s being scratched in his ninth consecutive game tonight. At some point, the Wild either needs to move him or put him on waivers to give him a chance at being claimed elsewhere. He deserves it. He’s a good soldier, a great character guy, etc.
But if you need to get grittier on the wall and the Wild’s calling up players and making trades rather than putting Kassian in, it’s clear the writing’s on the wall and the end of his line in Minnesota could be on the horizon.
“I’ll sit down with the coaches and see what makes sense,” Fletcher said. “I have to talk to Matt and his representation and see what the coaches think and do what’s right for the team and for Matt going forward.”
Asked if he’s got anything else in the works, Fletcher said, “We were looking for some size and this deal presented itself and we jumped on it. We’ll see how players respond. We need a little bit more production from some of our guys. If we want to be a competitive team this year, we’re going to need some diversified scoring, some secondary scoring, so we’ll keep looking for that.”
This is all about getting the attention of the team, too.
Yeo wants to see how Devin Setoguchi and Mikael Granlund plays on the fourth line tonight with Zenon Konopka, who joked that those two “won the lottery.”
“This is kind of a message [to Setoguchi and Granlund] and let’s see how they react,” Yeo said. “We want to see them have a good night.”
Yeo said Charlie Coyle coming up without an injury and getting second-line duty should be a message to the team, too.
“I haven’t gone in and made a big deal talking about it in front of the group,” Yeo said. “But certainly you would want to read between the lines. We’re committed to winning hockey games and putting the best product on the ice. We’ll do whatever we have to.”
Josh Harding gets the Wild cage tonight against the Chicago Blackhawks
Posted by: Michael Russo Updated: January 30, 2013 - 12:03 PMJosh Harding will be in net for the Wild tonight as it tries to sweep back-to-back home games. In town though is the formidable 6-0 Chicago Blackhawks.
Harding is 6-3 all-time vs. the Blackhawks with a 2.32 goals against average and .930 save percentage. He is 3-0 at home against them with a 0.40 goals against average and .984 save percentage.
Matt Kassian and Nate Prosser are scratched. Corey Crawford should be in Chicago's net.
This will end a short two-game homestand before leaving tomorrow for Anaheim, then Phoenix.
The Wild again will be looking for secondary scoring. Eleven of Minnesota's 16 goals have been scored by Zach Parise, Dany Heatley and Mikko Koivu. Tom Gilbert, who scored his first home goal as a member of the Wild in yesterday's win over Columbus, and Pierre-Marc Bouchard, who scored yesterday's winner, have two each and Mikael Granlund has one.
Matt Cullen has been particularly snakebit. Just great chances the last three games, but yesterday was by far his best of the season.
He joked today: "I remember when I went to Italy [during the 2004-05 lockout] and I had a Swedish coach and I didn't score in my first four games. The Swedish coach was like, 'It's just like a ketchup bottle. You keep squeezing and squeezing and once it finally comes out, it all comes out.' He said it with a Swedish accent," Cullen said, laughing. "You just have to believe in what you're doing."
Mike Yeo said against the mighty Blackhawks, the Wild will need all 18 skaters going and "no weak links."
Jared Spurgeon (foot) did skate in sweats today, so he may at least come on the road trip again.
Talk to you tonight.
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