Kukla's Korner Hockey

Category: Minnesota-Wild

Late Evening Line

by Paul on 02/10/12 at 02:11 AM ET
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Or I guess you could call it the Early Morning Line too.

“We flat-out stink the last two months. We stink.  I’m concerned about the fact that we come into games and we don’t have enough guys when we should have absolute desperation in our game.”

“We’re 28th in the league in offense and you look at the goals that they scored: They have a point shot and a deflection, they have a point shot and rebound, 5-on-3 is a point shot and a rebound. And we still want to either skate the puck into the net or pass the puck six times to get the puck into the net.

“You’d think that we would look at a team that skilled and has scored as many goals and say, ‘Wow, they score goals like that, that might be a good idea for us to try it.’ Or we might say, ‘We we don’t have that much skill, it might be a good idea for us to do that,’ yet it’s tough to get that across right now.”

-Minnesota head coach Mike Yeo after losing to Vancouver.  More from Michael Russo of Russo’s Rants.

Filed in: NHL Teams, Minnesota Wild | KK Hockey | Permalink
 Tags: Mike+Yeo,

Rangers/Wild Trade

by Paul on 02/03/12 at 11:09 AM ET
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via New York Rangers tweet,

the #NYR have traded Erik Christensen and a 7th round pick to the Minnesota Wild for forward Casey Wellman who is being assigned to @CTWhale

The pick heading to Minnesota in Wellman deal is a conditional 7th round draft choice in 2013

Filed in: NHL Teams, Minnesota Wild, New York Rangers | KK Hockey | Permalink
 Tags: Casey+Wellman, Erik+Christensen,

Video- J.S. Giguere With The Save Of The Night

by Paul on 02/03/12 at 12:26 AM ET
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Cal Clutterbuck sees a wide open, top half of the net, but Giguere robs him with his glove hand.

Filed in: NHL Teams, Colorado Avalanche, Minnesota Wild | KK Hockey | Permalink
 Tags: J.S.+Giguere,

Problem Brewing In Minnesota With Zidlicky

by Paul on 01/31/12 at 08:39 PM ET
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from Michael Russo of Russo’s Rants,

Zidlicky is unhappy, something I learned this morning when the veteran defenseman came looking for me to offer his opinion on the fact that tonight against his former team, the Nashville Predators, he’ll be scratched for a third consecutive game.

Zidlicky was critical of coach Mike Yeo, the way he has been treated and the fact that he loves the game too much to sit idly by if the Wild keeps scratching him.

While Zidlicky didn’t say he has asked for a trade, he indicated he is willing to waive his no-trade clause if this continues.

“I can’t be quiet,” Zidlicky began during our sitdown, which you can read more details about in tomorrow’s Star Tribune. “I think three games healthy scratch, it’s more than just like a healthy scratch. [Yeo’s] put me in this position that I am in right now. It’s not easy for me….

more

Also from Russo,

I’ve covered the NHL since 1995. Never before have I sat in a coach’s office 45 minutes before an important game talking about a scratched player. You can bet Mike Yeo wished he could have been doing something else, but he chose this time and venue to respond to this morning’s conversation I had with scratched defenseman Marek Zidlicky. Check out that blog below or by clicking this link.

Here are Yeo’s comments. Check out the story in Wednesday’s newspaper. I’ll also be on KFAN at 9 a.m.

“One thing for sure, we’re going to talk. This is not the right way to handle it. Much the same as I wouldn’t want a player to pick up the newspaper one day and read something like, ‘Woah, I didn’t know the coach thought that.’ Like, come into talk to me if there’s a problem. There’s always more than enough communication from our side. It’s got to go both ways.”

continued

Filed in: NHL Teams, Minnesota Wild | KK Hockey | Permalink
 Tags: Marek+Zidlicky, Mike+Yeo,

Will Ottawa Owner Get His Money Back?

by Paul on 01/26/12 at 06:54 PM ET
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from Bruce Garrioch of the Ottawa Sun,

Eugene Melnyk will finally face off with Dany Heatley in court once the two sides can agree on a date.

League sources confirmed Thursday, almost three years after filing a grievance to get the $4-million bonus the Senators owner paid to Heatley on July 1, 2009, the case is inching closer to being heard.

Independent arbitrator George Nicolau had agreed to a March 23 hearing in New York, but the date didn’t work for either side and is being rescheduled — soon.

As first reported by QMI Agency in November, 2009, Melnyk filed the grievance shortly after Heatley refused to lift his no-movement clause and accept a deal to the Edmonton Oilers (for Dustin Penner, Andrew Cogliano and Ladislav Smid).

continued

Filed in: NHL Teams, Minnesota Wild, Ottawa Senators | KK Hockey | Permalink
 Tags: Dany+Heatley, Eugene+Melnyk,

Wild Can’t Score

by Paul on 01/20/12 at 12:02 AM ET
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from Michael Russo of Russo’s Rants,

Just when you think you’ve seen its absolute worst, just when you think it can’t get any lower, just when you think it can’t play any crummier, the Wild does what it did tonight here at Air Canada Centre.

Just a terrible performance, a terrible effort, an unwatchable display in a 4-1 loss to the Leafs in the center of the Hockey Universe and seen coast-to-coast across Canada.

To cut-and-paste from my game story…

“I’ve been coaching for quite awhile, and I’ve been part of a lot of games I didn’t like, and this one ranks right up there,” coach Mike Yeo said.

In a maddening display, the Wild passed into skates, coughed up pucks in the neutral zone, looked like bullfighters Ole-ing at the blue line, played pylon in the defensive zone and refused to lay bodies on net-crashing Maple Leafs.

In the offensive zone, instead of playing dump-and-chase, the Wild dumped and watched the puck come right out. The Wild generated two, maybe three scoring chances in the first two periods. Nick Johnson’s goal with 2:27 left ruined Jonas Gustavsson’s shutout and was the Wild’s 11th goal in the past 11 road games.

read on

Filed in: NHL Teams, Minnesota Wild | KK Hockey | Permalink
 

Wild Will Need Team Effort To Survive Koivu Injury

by Paul on 01/16/12 at 02:09 PM ET
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from Kent Youngblood at Russo’s Rants,

Mikko Koivu is going on the Wild’s upcoming road trip to Philadelphia and Toronto. But it will be in an advisory role.

Koivu, who hurt his left shoulder in the first period of Saturday’s game in St. Louis, is being called week-to-week with an upper body injury. But coach Mike Yeo said not to expect the Wild captain back before the All-Star break. Seeing as the All-Star game is being played Jan. 29, I’d say we’re talking weeks-to-weeks here.

And that was certainly the impression I got from the locker room. There is no question coach Mike Yeo hit on some strong talking points while addressing the team before practice today, because most of the players were speaking as one. That message:

1. With Koivu, Pierre-Marc Bouchard and Guillaume Latendresse all out, with scoring getting harder all the time, the Wild has apparently entered playoff mode with the season at a tipping point. “This is a playoff stretch for us,” Matt Cullen said. “This has to be our mindset now. We have to get into that style.”

continued

Filed in: NHL Teams, Minnesota Wild | KK Hockey | Permalink
 

Yeo Is All Hockey

by Paul on 01/15/12 at 11:13 AM ET
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from Chip Scoggins of the StarTribune,

The locker room door swings open and a young boy charges in, excited to meet Mike Yeo and pose for pictures with the first-year Wild coach. As they shake hands, Yeo leans down and asks a question.

“How are you in shootouts?” he says.

The boy looks alternately stunned and curious.

“We could use you,” Yeo says with a smile.

Yeo moves on to the next locker room, where he takes more pictures, signs more autographs and shares a few minutes with another youth hockey team at a recent charity event. He looks completely at ease in this environment, a rink rat at heart, his own childhood dreams of playing in the NHL still fresh in his mind.

He never made it that far as a player. Too many surgeries on too many body parts cut short his career. He took a different path instead, one that requires a clear vision of how to influence a game’s outcome from behind the bench, a resource he needs now more than ever.

continued

Filed in: NHL Teams, Minnesota Wild | KK Hockey | Permalink
 Tags: Mike+Yeo,

Columbus Claims Colton Gillies

by Paul on 01/14/12 at 12:22 PM ET
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COLUMBUS, OHIO – The Columbus Blue Jackets have claimed left wing Colton Gillies off waivers from the Minnesota Wild, club Executive Vice President of Hockey Operations and General Manager Scott Howson announced today.

Gillies, 22, has registered two assists and 10 penalty minutes in 37 games with Minnesota this season and has 3-7-10 and 30 penalty minutes in 89 career NHL games with the Wild. In 2010-11, he notched 11-15-26 and 82 penalty minutes in 64 games with the Houston Aeros, Minnesota’s American Hockey League affiliate. He added 7-5-12 and 32 penalty minutes in 24 playoff games, helping Houston reach the Calder Cup Final. In 147 career AHL games, he has 19-35-54 and 159 penalty minutes.

Filed in: NHL Teams, Columbus Blue Jackets, Minnesota Wild | KK Hockey | Permalink
 Tags: Colton+Gillies,

Pierre-Marc Bouchard Not Sure When He Will Be Back After Another Concussion

by Paul on 01/11/12 at 02:03 PM ET
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from Michael Russo of Russo’s Rants

, “I wish I could give you a timetable, but it’s pretty much day to day and make sure I’m symptom free before I start exercising again,” Bouchard said. “I’m positive I can come back. The only bad thing about concussions is you don’t know how much time it’s going to take.”

Bouchard said it’s a fast game and accidents will happen, but he wishes there was more respect on the ice (talking about Bogosian hit and others). He joins a laundry list of NHLers, including several top ones like Sidney Crosby and Marc Savard and Chris Pronger, sidelined by concussions.

Bouchard said he’ll be patient and make sure he’s 100 percent before he starts working out. He said he also suffered whiplash, so his neck is stiff.

“I have a special helmet that’s supposed to help against concussions and my mouthguard, that’s supposed to be better and help you if you get hit. So I guess I took all the precautions that I could, but I guess it wasn’t enough.”

more

Filed in: NHL Teams, Minnesota Wild | KK Hockey | Permalink
 Tags: Pierre-Marc+Bouchard,

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