Hockey Wilderness Podcast- A Minnesota Wild Podcast

Two big things happened this week: The Minnesota Wild clinched a playoff spot, and the Hockey Wilderness Podcast hit the milestone of 100 episodes! OK, one of those was more exciting than the other.  To celebrate these amazing achievements, Tony went to Joe's hometown of Shakopee to record an episode in person, just hours after the Wild lost to Detroit in overtime. Topics included: The Minnesota Wild locking down their playoff spot Saturday night, when the Kings lost to not-the-Wild The hollow feeling of going from 1st in the Conference to backing into the playoffs for the second year in a row Darcy Kuemper making it impossible to rest Devan Dubnyk Minnesota's scoring completely drying up... Except for Eric Staal, that is, who gets some props Our favorite moments from the show How podcasts have helped bring the Wild blogosphere together A lot of thank yous Does this slump mean the Wild should break up the core? Charlie Coyle's big slump Defending the Martin Hanzal trade once more Is the Wild's team culture t

The Hockey Wilderness Podcast wasn't panicking last week when the Wild lost to Chicago. Maybe they should have. The Wild lost all 4 of their games this week and are reeling, having lost their Division lead with little hope of getting it back. To make matters worse, Tony screwed up the audio of the podcast he and Joe recorded on Monday night. But at least one thing got better on Tuesday: Tony sat down and flew solo as he broke down what's wrong with the team, what the Wild are doing right, and much more! Tons of mailbag questions get answered, so tune in! Topics include: Players who wore number 99. Get ready for some Rick Dudley talk. Tony gets depressed comparing his life to Wayne Gretzky. Why Dubnyk, not the defense, deserves blame for the plague of goals allowed. What's wrong with Dubnyk, anyway? Should the Wild rest him, or let him fight his way out of his slump? Reasons for optimism in St. Paul Why the Martin Hanzal trade helped, not hurt the team Are the Wild tired? Has a players-only meeting worked for

It's been 4 months since the Wild's last rough stretch, and fans all over across the State of Hockey (And no, we're not talking about Chicago) aren't sure of what to now that a new one has arrived. Tony and Joe sat down after the loss to Chicago to break down what it means, the struggles of Matt Dumba, the Minnesota High School Boy's Tournament, and more! Topics include: The State of Hockey Song Project or whatever they're calling it The High School Tournament Tony gets talked into liking St. Thomas Casey Middlestadt's kinda-sorta disappointing 5-point showing Bruce Boudreau's quick hook with Devan Dubnyk Why people are piling on a struggling Matt Dumba Examining whether Dumba's making an impact offensively The warts in Ryan White's game Whether it's time to start re-evaluating Alex Stalock Media narratives about the Wild we want to destroy Why has the defense struggled lately? Why didn't the Wild trade for a defenseman at the deadline? Is the Hanzal trade responsible for the team's struggles? Having to watc

Immediately in the aftermath the Martin Hanzal trade, a flurry of news broke out! So on Monday night, Joe, Aaron, and Tony sat down to discuss all the happenings in the State of Hockey. They also recapped the Trade Deadline, and caught up on some lost mailbag questions. Topics include: Mumps. Freaking Mumps, you guys How Minnesota did incredibly well at stopping the spread Kurtis Gabriel taking his "game" to the next level The Iowa Wild getting gutted during a playoff race How Christian Folin's injury could hurt the AHL squad more than the NHL team Which goal was better? Granlund's 2013 playoff goal, or his overtime goal from last Monday? Breaking down potential playoff opponents after the deadline Who would you rather see the Wild face for the Cup? Penguins or Caps? Our impressions of Martin Hanzal Now that the trade deadline's over, will Marco Scandella settle down? Is Alex Tuch a good fit in Minnesota? Reid Duke signs with Vegas Our Top-5 hockey movies of all time Our dream events for the All-Star Skills

It's happened! The Trade Deadline has arrived, and the Wild have cashed in it's chips, sending several draft picks to Arizona to acquire Martin Hanzal. We had actually recorded the bulk of the show on Saturday, so we brought in Friend of the Show™ Dustin Nelson to chat with us about the Wild's new acquisition. Speaking of new faces, Tony and Joe were joined by Luke Solberg, a Twitter-er who is big into analytics. Luke stopped by to chat about the Wild's defense, their meltdown against Chicago, and much more! Topics included: Who is Martin Hanzal? Did the Wild overpay for his services? The silver lining to the high price to acquire him Whether Hanzal makes Minnesota deeper at center than anyone in the West Ryan White and the battle for the fourth line's soul Pierre-Marc Bouchard Should we panic after last Tuesday's embarrassing loss to Chicago? Shouldn't the Wild's defense be way better than it is? Defending Matt Dumba Is it smart to break up the Suter-Spurgeon pair What is WAR good for? Absolutely nothing? W

The Minnesota Wild are heading into a bye week, so we decided to take a step back and look at where the Wild are at, and where they're headed. Carolyn Wilke (Managing Hockey Editor of FanRag Sports) was kind enough to join us to lend an outsider's perspective, as we discussed the struggles of her favorite team (the Dallas Stars), the Minnesota Wild, and the shifting balance of power in the Western Conference. Today's topics: What's going on with everyone's favorite player, Antoine Roussel? The very disappointing list of players who wore #95 Why the Stars struggles don't solely rest with their goaltenders What's wrong with the Stars blue line? Lindy Ruff's status as head coach Why Bruce Boudreau is awesome Seriously, he should win the Jack Adams this season And really, he should have won it last season, too Just retroactively give every Jack Adams Award to Bruce Boudreau Why Minnesota shouldn't worry much about regression What the Wild need at the trade deadline Can they snag a Number One Center™? Looking ahe

What has four thumbs and isn't suspended? It's the Hockey Wilderness Podcast! After a two-week absence, Joe is back, and he sat down with Tony to discuss all the things that happened in a busy, busy, news-worthy week for the Minnesota Wild. Topics include: Notable players who wore 94, including Derek Boogaard Jeremy Roenick's trolling Darcy Kuemper's tougher workload Gustav Olofsson's latest NHL stint Alex Tuch demoted, recalled again Tyler Graovac hits waivers Ryan Carter's comeback hopes Gustav Nyquist spears Jared Spurgeon, gets suspended for 6 games Antoine Vermette slashes a referee in the Ducks-Wild game, gets a 10-game suspension Are we OK with losing Dumba (no) in the expansion draft (definitely not)? Can the Wild hang with more physical teams in the playoffs? Futurama references Tony and Joe lay out their unpopular music takes for all to ridicule And much, much more! Looking for a good way to support the Hockey Wilderness Podcast? There’s a few good ways to do that! First, subscribe to us wherever

It’s been a busy week in the Wilderness! Call-ups, trades, and old friends in new jobs! To break down this whirlwind week, we brought aboard Hockey Wilderness writer Adam Stafki. Be prepared- it’s impossible to find a duo who loves Nino Niederreiter and Jason Zucker more. Together, Adam and Tony discuss: Mike Yeo’s new gig The Minnesota Wild’s first trade of the season Defenseman shake-up Alex Stalock’s new deal Bye Bye Kuemper? Alex Tuch’s NHL debut Charlie Coyle’s new home Mikael Granlund’s coming-out party Does Mikko Koivu deserve some hardware? Expansion Draft Power Rankings Who is Minnesota’s preferred first-round opponent A very, very unfortunate F/M/K The best drinking establishment in the Twin Cities And much more! We appreciate you listening to the show, but if you want to take your love of the Hockey Wilderness podcast to the next level, here are some things you can do! The first is subscribe to our show so that you never miss an episode! We’re on just about every podcast platform, including iTune

The Hockey Wilderness Podcast has returned refreshed from the All-Star Break! Joe was a scratch due to illness, but we have some strong podcasters coming off the bench. Our long-time writer from the OG days of the podcast, Aaron Holm, as well as HW College Hockey expert and Gogol Bordello fan Jack Van Thomme. Together they looked ahead to the second half of the season, and the Trade Deadline. Specifically: Whether Bruce Boudreau’s All-Star Game failure should have us worried about the playoffs The NHL’s Top-100 Players of All Time list: Which current Blackhawks players should have replaced Crosby, Ovechkin, and Jagr? Is the West Minnesota’s to lose? Crediting Bruce Boudreau and Chuck Fletcher’s recent work The lack of pending UFA goaltenders on the trade market Could Jaroslav Halak be the ideal solution in a trade? Should Minnesota even look at upgrading their blue line? Why the Wild’s fourth line needs upgrading Who the hell is Derek Ryan??? Tony digs up some potential buy-low candidates Is Minnesota still

The Minnesota Wild are almost at the All-Star Break, but there's no rest for the Hockey Wilderness Podcast! Tony and Joe sat down on Wednesday Night to discuss the Minnesota Wild's week, answer your questions, and more! Topics included: Recapping the results from last week's All-Star Draft Talking about the growth of Hockey Day in Minnesota, and why it's actually a really great event Casey Middlestadt. He's good. Why the Wild shouldn't tank for Middlestadt Another Wild win on Hockey Day, thanks to Ryan Suter Jonas Brodin's broken finger, and its fallout A plague of two-goal leads blown this week Minnesota Prospects rising in Corey Pronman's Top-50 What to do with Darcy Kuemper Realistic trades for the Wild at the deadline How to snap Zach Parise's slump Why Matt Dumba and Jason Zucker should play NBA Jam with Tony And much, much more! Looking for a good way to support the Hockey Wilderness Podcast? There’s a few good ways to do that! First, subscribe to us wherever you get your podcasts from, whether that’s

For just the second time in Hockey Wilderness Podcast history, we join face-to-face and have a live show for you. After a skate with several friends of ours in the Wild podcasting community, Tony, Joe, and so many others sat down at Grumpy's in Roseville to discuss the Minnesota Wild's week. Topics included: Talking about our Blogger Classic outdoor skate The Minnesota Wild's battle for first place Whether we've seen the best of Minnesota We get sad and talk about Darcy Kuemper Minnesota's potential rebranding for the new Adidas jerseys Our Central Division All-Star Draft Debating Artemi Panarin's true value Trying to figure out how the Jets aren't good yet Ryan Suter vs. Jared Spurgeon Why Zach Parise still has a compelling All-Star case Even more homer picks Who the John Scott of the 2017 All-Star Game should be The draft includes Friends of the Show™ Ben Remington of Giles and the Goalie, as well as Bob Spencer and Dan Ginter of the Hashtag Hockey Podcast. Make sure to follow their work, too. Also join

All is right in the State of Hockey. Minnesota continued their winning ways on the road, their prospects did well in the World Junior Championships, and a couple of those prospects brought home the Gold for Team USA. With such a big week, we had to get an equally big-time guest, so we got Dustin Nelson of Thrillist, The Hockey Writers, and Sports Illustrated. Dustin joined Tony and Joe to discuss all that happened, including: Merciless Monday: Where we mock Star Sunday Devan Dubnyk’s struggles over the week Why Darcy Kuemper will be important over the second half and beyond Zach Parise putting his game back together Then after the break, they move on to the World Junior Championships Getting excited for Joel Eriksson Ek’s well-rounded game Jordan Greenway’s meteoric rise- Will he be able to be as dominant against stronger competition? Luke Kunin shines in a defensive role Kirill “The Ghostface Krilla” Kaprizov drags Russia all the way to a Bronze Medal Where does Alex Tuch factor into this forward group no

It's a New Year, and the Minnesota Wild are going to have to build a new streak. After dropping a much-anticipated matchup to the Columbus Blue Jackets on New Year's Eve, the Wild are looking to build on the momentum they created themselves. Joe Bouley and Tony Abbott sat down on Sunday night to discuss those positives that defined the streak. Topics included: Devan Dubnyk, of course. Is it OK to call him an elite goalie yet? Jason Zucker becoming a complete player Jordan Schroeder making the most of his shot- both literally and figuratively Mikael Granlund's impressive season- why aren't we talking about him more? Dissecting the end of the 12-game streak The Chris Stewart fight and Matt Dumba fight/ejection Is this Wild team for real? How can they avoid the annual slump? A brief World Junior Championship update Who will make the biggest impact for Minnesota in 2017? What would be our ideal Minnesota Wild lineup? Help start us off on the right foot in 2017! You can start by subscribing to our show wherever

The Minnesota Wild have extended their winning streak to 7 games! Surely, this means that we’re going to be positive this week, right? Right? Don’t worry, after a couple of weeks of measured, pessimistic thinking, Tony and Joe sat down Monday night and said some positive things about the Wild. They started out by discussing player numbers, because it’s Episode 87, which is the number of a hockey legend: Donald Brashear. We also got the jersey talk for Episode 88 out of the way, reflecting on the Brent Burns trade, and go down the road of talking about how weird it was that the Wild traded away their leading (per-minute) scorer in two of the last 6 years. Things do get rolling, and the crew knocks out a bunch of news, including the winning streak, the team’s playoff odds, Erik Haula’s injury, Eric Staal’s greatness, Tyler Graovac stepping up, and 30-year-old Pat Cannone making his debut. They even make themselves praise the Wild for doing things good. In Segment Two, they give you a quick rundown of the prospe

The Wild are on a roll right now, and so was the Hockey Wilderness Podcast. On Monday night, Tony sat down with Joe Bouley and Alec Schmidt to discuss a lot going on with the Minnesota Wild. Topics included: Opening topics: Babies and beer! A great combination! The Cal Clutterbuck extension: Is it worse than Jason Pominville’s? We actually kinda talk a lot about Garth Snow Is Chuck Fletcher a bad GM? What’s up with Matt Dumba? Defending against high-profile defamation claims More Kurtis Gabriel talk (sorry) Tyler Graovac and Chris Stewart stepping up What do the Minnesota Wild do well? What’s wrong with Zach Parise? Why Nino Niederreiter should be considered an “eye test” guy

The Hockey Wilderness Podcast is back after a long road trip (for the Wild, not the HWP Crew). Tony and Aaron Holm (or, The Noogie, if you prefer) sat down on Tuesday Night to chat about the Wild’s week. Buckle up, because a ton of ranting and a huge mailbag made this a monster episode. Topics we discussed: Pominville’s 2-goal outburst in Vancouver Darcy Kuemper with another stinker Gustav Olovsson’s debut Shootout in Calgary- Neither Koivu nor Parise got an attempt Zach Parise’s recent slump. What’s wrong with him? Charlie Coyle continuing to be great We spend more time talking about Kurtis Gabriel than he’s spent playing this year. November’s Prospect 3 Stars of the Month Backup goalie options for Minnesota Should the Wild consider a Pominville buyout Who will the Wild’s next Captain be? Who are we excited to see in the World Junior Tournament? Who are our favorite non-Hockey Wilderness writers and analysts? What should the Wild do with their jerseys if they re-brand? Our favorite bands Is Chuck Fletcher o

The Hockey Wilderness Podcast has worked off that Thanksgiving turkey and is back in your earbuds! On Tuesday evening, Tony was joined by Greg Spiroff of Hockey Wilderness and Panda Pete of Twins and Losses to discuss the Minnesota Wild, and much more! Topics include: Panda Pete’s hockey experience in San Diego Remembering Randy Moss and Thanksgiving football The Minnesota Wild’s scoring slump (Annihilating Pittsburgh aside) Charlie Coyle firing up Gerard Gallant’s weird firing Marco Scandella’s return to the lineup Jonas Brodin’s big two weeks Whether it’s a good idea for Minnesota to expose more forwards to protect 4 defenseman in the expansion draft Devan Dubnyk is still on fire Darcy Kuemper struggling to find his way into the lineup We talk about Star Wars for… reasons? Three Pokemon Fans’ first impressions of the new installment in the series: Sun and Moon. And much more! Looking for a good way to support the Hockey Wilderness Podcast? There’s a few good ways to do that! First, subscribe to us whereve

You love it, you need it, it’s the Hockey Wilderness Podcast! Earlier this week, Joe, Tony, and Adam Stafki of Hockey Wilderness sat down to discuss all that happened during the week, including: Erik Haula’s return to action Zach Parise’s then-imminent arrival Getting the better of Pittsburgh Minnesota’s Top-Line shining this week Minnesota actually winning an overtime game! No, really! Adam discussing his findings after tracking zone entries and zone exits for Minnesota Why tracking that data matters, and what it means for the team Joel Eriksson Ek’s future in doubt. What did we think was the best course of action? Who would be best suited to replace Eriksson Ek? And much more! Looking for a good way to support the Hockey Wilderness Podcast? There’s a few good ways to do that! First, subscribe to us wherever you get your podcasts from, whether that’s iTunes, Podcast Addict, PocketCasts, Doggcatcher, Stitcher Radio- wherever you listen to podcasts, that’s where you can find us! While you are there, you can

Tony and Joe sat down on Election Day Eve with the intention of giving you a fun Wild podcast to keep you company while you stand in line for the polls. Topics include: Joel Eriksson Ek having a fantastic start to the season. Good thing Tony believed in him all along! Devan Dubnyk being amazing- 3 shutouts, allowed just 3 goals in the last 5 games Teemu Pulkkinen waived, and the fall-out surrounding that The Wild getting plagued by injuries Who the Wild misses more: Zach Parise, Erik Haula, or Marco Scandella New segment! Prospect 3 Stars of the Month! Who were the 3 best Wild prospects for October? Alex Tuch’s slow start in Iowa. Should we be concerned? Why Christian Folin’s +8 doesn’t matter These #CoolAF new shirts from Hockey Wilderness. You need to buy them. And much, much more! Looking for a good way to support the Hockey Wilderness Podcast? There’s a few good ways to do that! First, subscribe to us wherever you get your podcasts from, whether that’s iTunes, Podcast Addict, PocketCasts, Doggcatcher, S

The day after Darcy Kuemper gave up his 200th career goal, Jack Van Thomme sat down with Tony, and the two discussed every aspect of the Wild’s week, including a ton of your mailbag questions. Our main topic for the week: Evaluating Bruce Boudreau’s first 6 games as Wild head coach. Other topics include: Jared Spurgeon’s “upper body injury” Matt Dumba stepping up in his absence Erik Haula out with a foot injury Joel Eriksson Ek’s debut and first goal Zach Parise’s 301st goal Did Zach Parise’s quest for 300 cost the Wild wins on Saturday and Sunday? Why the St. Louis Blues are no joke Should we panic about anything from the first 6 games? Is Teemu Pulkkinen too slow to make a difference? What should the 3-on-3 overtime lineup be? Kuemper had a horrific meltdown on Sunday. Will we see Alex Stalock soon? Players that have surprised us so far Should we worry about Minnesota’s middling possession numbers? IS CHUCK FLETCHER ON THE HOT SEAT?!?!?!!!!!!11 And much, much more. Looking for a good way to support the Ho