Clayton Stoner's first goal of the year - GIF

s/t to cjzero... Who would have thought that Minnesota Wild defenseman Clayton Stoner has moves like this? That's his first goal of the year.

Jarome Iginla Knuckle Puck - GIF

Boston Bruins forward Jarome Iginla scores a knuckle puck goal against Minnesota Wild goalie That was goal 553 of Iggy's career. Darcy Kuemper had no chance on that goal.

Wild and Bruins Battle for First Time in Two Years

Tonight the Minnesota Wild will face the East's best Boston Bruins at the TD Garden in Boston. The match-up will be the first time the two teams have met since February of 2012 because of last season's half season lockout.

The B's come into tonight's tilt as the hottest team in the NHL with an eight game win streak. During that streak, the Bruins have scored 32 goals, plus one extra added because of a shootout victory, which averages out to four goals a game. Teams scoring like that don't lose that often.

Tonight also is the first game that Jarome Iginla would play against his former division rival Minnesota since being traded to the Eastern Conference last season. Iginla, a known Wild killer, has scored more goals against the Wild than any other player in the NHL since the Wild would come into the league in 2000. In His last five games, Iginla has five points with four of those being goals. He also leads the Bruins in goals with 23 and looks to pad his totals tonight against a team where he has had great success against.

As for Minnesota, they find themselves in a little bit of a late season funk, and wins haven't been that easy to come by for the Wild. Since the beginning of March, the Wild are 2-1-3, which isn't terrible, but could have been a lot better if they could hang on to some leads. Having leads in the games against Edmonton and Dallas, they would sit back and watch their wins slide away from them, missing out on key points this late in the season.

Forwards Jason Pominville and Zach Parise, need to keep the offense going and lead this team to victory once again. Pominville, who also has five points in his last five games, and scored the only goal in the Wild's last game against Columbus, seems to be one of the only consistent things offensively as of late. The same can be said for Parise as well.

Minnesota goalie Darcy Kuemper has played virtually lights out hockey since the Olympic break ended, aside from the two speed bumps in Dallas and at home against Edmonton. In his last five games, Kuemper has posted an outstanding .925 save percentage and a goals against of 2.20, solid numbers for any goalie in any league.

People are wondering why Minnesota can't seem to finish games as of late then, and I say it's simple. They aren't playing that puck control hockey they were playing when they were having success. I know this is stating the obvious here, but chances are you control the play with the puck, you control the outcome of the game. Not only that, but Minnesota can't seem to catch a bounce as of late either. A good example of this is the two posts they hit Saturday night against Columbus.

Tonight is West vs. East and we will see if the West hast their continued dominance against the East, or if the hot play of the Bruins can shut down a Minnesota Wild team who can't seem to find a way to finish games as of late. One thing on Minnesota's side tonight is that Boston has not beat Minnesota since 2009. Will this slump end and the Bruins stay hot, or will the Wild finally find a way to finish a game off?

Minnesota Wild: Soldier's Surprise at the Xcel

HERE'S the #Wild's #SoldierSurprise video! Watch it twice, 2nd time watch guy coming up stairs when she turns around. http://t.co/D7ttDcBrt5
— Team Guy Robb Dahlen (@ClutterPuck) March 12, 2014

I thought this was a nice touch.

Brian Elliot robs Mikael Granlund (GIF)

What a save by former Wisconsin Badgers and current St. Louis Blues goalie Brian Elliot as he absolutely robs Minnesota Wild forward Mikael Granlund  Difference in the game, maybe. The Wild would lose in a shootout as T.J. Oshie got the game winning shootout goal.

Wild trade Ilya Bryzgalov from Edmonton

The Minnesota Wild have acquired Ilya Bryzgalov from the Edmonton Oilers for a fourth round draft. Bryzgalov (5-8-5, .908 SV% and a 3.01 GAA) is probably expendable with the emergence of Ben Scrivens.

"Bryzgalov is a quality veteran that adds depth to the goaltending position for our team," Wild General Manager Chuck Fletcher said.

Minnesota Wild: Sweet Military Appreciation Jersey's

At tonight's game? These #mnwild camo jerseys auctioned off at section 121 benefiting @DefTheBlueLine #mnwildmilitary pic.twitter.com/ixVwagqkbH
— Minnesota Wild (@mnwild) March 4, 2014

These are sweet jerseys.

(Video) Keith Ballard no goal

There no reason this goal shouldn't count. This is obviously a blown call by the on-ice official. There's no reason why this goal shouldn't count. Some how the on-ice official thought that Wild forward Erik Haula made incidental contact with Canucks goalie Eddie Lack. Video shows that there was no contact.

I just interviewed Mick McGeough. He admits ref Brad Meier blew the call. "Good screen. Met the criteria for a good goal." #mnwild #nhl
— Michael Russo (@Russostrib) March 1, 2014

Oilers Matt Hendricks boards Wild's Nate Prosser

Someone tell my why Oilers forward Matt Hendricks isn't given a penalty on this play? Hendricks clearly hits Wild defenseman Nate Prosser from behind in the numbers.

Minnesota Wild: Jamie McGinn hit on Nate Prosser and then John Mitchell scores a weak goal

Big hit by the Av's Jamie McGinn on Wild defenseman Nate Prosser. To add injury to insult, the Avalanche forward John Mitchell scores a weak goal on Minnesota Wild goalie Darcy Kuemper.

Brandon Bollig shot off Darcy Kuemper's mask

s/t @CJZERO Checkout this shot by Chicago Blackhawks forward Brandon Bollig as he puts a snapshot off of Wild goaltender Darcy Kuemper's mask... Ouch!

Minnesota Wild: Cooke Check on Nail Yakupov, Leads to Justin Fontaine goal

One of the positive things to come out of this season is the play of rookie forward Justin Fontaine. With the goal last night, Fontaine now has 12 goals on the season. That's third on the Minnesota Wild in goals. That three more than 7.5-Million dollar man Dany Heatley. Check out the beginning of this play, Matt Cooke blows up Nail Yakupov with beautiful, legal check. Apparently,Yakupov is out with a upper body injury.

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Minnesota Wild: Stephane Veilleux blows up Ryan Jones

Wild forward Stephane Veilleux absolutely destroys Ryan Jones with a wonderful hit. Yeah that Ryan Jones. Apparently, the former RedHawk didn’t like getting blown up, and decided he’s going to fight Veilleux for a perfectly legal hit… You know, I don’t like this. Are some of these guys becoming crybabies or what? Learn to take a hit, take a number, check them back. That was a clean hit and hockey still allows checking. Don’t get me wrong, I love a good fight, but this is not a reason to fight someone.

Jason Pominville dekes out Edmonton Goalie

Wow! What a nice goal... Jason Pominville is having a decent season for the wild and that was goal 19 on the year. With the goal Pominville now has (19g-14a—33pts) on the season.

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Minnesota Wild: Former UMD Bulldog Justin Fontaine scores hat-trick against the Coyotes

Coming into the season, a Wild player hadn't scored a hat-trick since January 17,  2010, when former Wild forward Guillaume Latendresse scored a hat-trick against the Phoenix Coyotes... Almost four years later a Wild player did it again against the Coyotes.

The Wild now have two hat-tricks in six days. So, tip of the hat to former Bulldog forward Justin Fontaine for leading the Wild to a 4-1 victory over the Desert Dogs. For all of naysayers that said Fontaine wouldn't make the Minnesota Wild, he's been up with the Wild since the start of the season.

Ahem, just to refresh everyone's memory.

ahem, http://t.co/8OjEp4C6RH
— Eric J. Burton THW (@goon48) October 23, 2013

The Swiss 2014 Olympic Hockey Team

SAVE! Jonas Hiller (Photo credit: MattBritt00)

Goalies 

Reto Berra (Calgary Flames)

Jonas Hiller (Anaheim Ducks)

Tobias Stephan

Defensemen

Severin Blindenbacher

Rafael Diaz (Montréal Canadiens)

Philippe Furrer

Roman Josi (Nashville Predators)

Mathias Seger

Mark Streit (Philadelphia Flyers)

Julien Vauclair

Yannick Weber (Vancouver Canucks)

Forwards

Andres Ambühl

Matthias Bieber

Simon Bodenmann

Damien Brunner (New Jersey Devils)

Luca Cunti

Ryan Gardner

Denis Hollenstein

Simon Moser

Nino Niederreiter (Minnesota Wild)

Martin Plüss

Kevin Romy

Reto Suri

Morris Trachsler

Roman Wick

Minnesota Wild: The Hits Keep Coming

This is not good news for the Minnesota Wild. Mikko Koiuv and Josh Harding were placed on the injured reserve list. With forward Zach Parise out, the Wild are even more offensively challenged. If my math is right, that's tree players out with foot injuries as well (Koiuv, Spurgeon and Parise). The loss of Harding is huge as well. He is 18-7-3 with a 1.65 goals-against average, a .933 save percentage

Chad Graff, Pioneer Press -- The Wild placed captain Mikko Koivu and goalie Josh Harding on injured reserve Monday.

That means each will sit out at least seven days.

Koivu was injured Saturday night when he apparently blocked a shot with his ankle. The Wild did not announce a time frame for Koivu's return, but an update is expected Monday afternoon after the team practices in Los Angeles.

Harding was termed "ill" in the days leading to Monday. He had been placed on IR last month to adjust to treatment changes for multiple sclerosis. The changes were termed "minor" by Harding and the team, but he only appeared in two games after being activated in late December.

With a offensively challenged line-up and with the current injuries, the Wild are going to have to have someone step up and chip in offensively.

Minnesota Wild: Ryan Suter scores a Hat-Trick to help Wild beat Caps 5-3.

Wild defenseman Ryan Suter became the first Minnesota Wild defenseman in their team's history to score a hat-trick. That was also the first hat-trick of Suter's NHL career. The Wild scored five goals on 11 shots. That's not a misprint or a typo. The Wild have now won two-games in a row.

Re-live the Suter hat trick and big #mnwild win at The 5 Hole: http://t.co/foF9BtG4Lb. Cool Suter infographic too pic.twitter.com/i5iBgvTMyP
— Minnesota Wild (@mnwild) January 5, 2014

Minnesota Wild: Parise might have to miss some time

The hits keep coming for the Minnesota Wild. Wild. Forward Zach Parise is injured and will need to rest his injured foot. Going into the break, the Wild were 4-6-0 in their last 10 games. The Wild are also starving for offense and secondary scoring and have scored  a measly  22 goals in the last 15 games. That's not going to win a lot of hockey games in any league.

Michael Russo, Rsso's Rants -- For a team that lacks confidence and has 22 goals in the past 15 games and must dig deep and figure out a way to stop the bleeding and climb back into the top-8, Parise's absence comes out a bad time.

Parise blocked a shot by Alex Steen on Nov. 25. Coincidentally - or maybe not, the Wild is 5-9-1 since and 1-7-1, including that game in St. Louis, on the road since.

Parise was supposed to miss two to three weeks because of the bum foot but instead missed one game because he felt he could play through the injury and because of how difficult a stretch of games the Wild had coming up.

Commendable, but Parise was clearly playing through pain and the last week to 10 days, his off-ice limp was getting more and more pronounced. You could see it on the ice, too.

My educated guess is Parise will now need to stay off the foot for a little while so it doesn't linger any longer. How long? No clue, but this time doctors may have more say than Parise.

Zenon Konopka double-minor for high sticking Jason Demers - GIF

This is a bad call, actually it's pathetic, as Wild tough guy Zenon Konopka was given a double minor for high sticking. You can see by the GIF that Konokpa never touched Jason Demers. The Sharks scored on the power play. You can bet that the Wild GM might be giving the NHL front office a call tomorrow. s/t CJZERO

@blldgshockey11 Nope, not at all
— CJ Fogler (@cjzero) December 13, 2013