(Video) Duncan Keith Slash on Charlie Coyle; Dumba & Shaw Fight

You can watch the video here.

First, Chicago Defenseman Duncan Keith's dirty slash on Minnesota Wild forward Charlie Coyle is unacceptable. I know that the Blackhawks fans are going to disagree with me, but there's no excusing that dirty slash. That's an intent to injure. Nothing Coyle did justifies being slashed like that, Keith could have severely injured Coyle with that gutless act.

Hopefully, the NHL will hand down a harsh sentence. Keith should receive at least a five-game suspension. However, because Keith is a Blackhawk and a star player, he will probably get a one-game suspension if we're lucky. If I was the head of Department of Players Safety, it would be at least a 10-game suspension. This is a bush league act and there's no excuse for this.

Apparently, Patrick Kane can't fight is own battles. First, the hit by Matt Dumba on Kane was a clean, hard, legal hit. (You can take a look for yourself). Nice Dumba beat Andrew Shaw, it was a good fight.

Dumba's Dirty Goal

What a blast by the youngster. I like this kid's game. Matt Dumba seems to do everything at a high rate of speed.

And from the big story of the day, yesterday.

From Michael Russo, - Uh, uh, uh, well, lots of Wild fans asked me on Twitter what Zach Parise chirped at Shea Weber after Matt Dumba’s OT winner Tuesday. Said Parise with a big laugh: “Nothing you want to write. We were just going after each other all game. You reach your boiling point. I think he reached his, too.”

On the latest blog RT @stevejowild77: @Russostrib Mike, ask Parise what he said to Weber after Dumba's goal
— Michael Russo (@Russostrib) March 19, 2015

Wild Roster Moves Leave Promising Look to Upcoming Season

Well Wild fans, you all got your wish, and at a discounted price at that. Thomas Vanek has come "home" for the next three seasons to play with the Minnesota Wild. Although Vanek was the only real big splash the Wild made in the off-season thus far, they are working on resigning much of their young talent by the start of the upcoming season.

However, with new signings come people losing a spot on the roster. Among the losses are Dany Heatley, much to the joy of the Wild fans, and Clayton Stoner both going to the Anaheim Ducks. Heatley was just a thorn in the Minnesota Wild's salary cap and with him gone a lot of room opened up. With Stoner, however, the wild lose 2/3 of the grit they had in the line-up, the other third going to Matt Cooke.

If there is a road block in the upcoming season for the Wild, I think this is the spot to have it. Yes, they will have guys who like to hit some, like Matt Dumba and Keith Ballard, but there won't be that one guy who will drop the gloves when the team needs a kick start or protection from an opposing teams enforcer. If push came to shove, I'm sure Ballard or Brodziak would drop the gloves if absolutely needed, but I think it's still not enough.

The other big question is with the goaltending. People keep asking me why we didn't buy out Backstrom's contract, but due to him being injured at the end of the season, by NHL rule, they were not allowed to. So Backstrom is here to stay, for now. Now Josh Harding. He was having a Veznia Trophy type first half until he was sidelined by a change to his MS medications and didn't play for the rest of the season. Harding is expected to be in training camp come September and is expected to be on the opening day roster come October barring any setbacks. Finally, we have rookie sensation,

Darcy Kuemper and Ilya Bryzgalov. Bryz is not getting signed, as I'm sure much of you probably figured out after the season was over. As for Kuemper, he is still an unsigned restricted free agent and looking like he might be going into arbitration to come to terms on a new contract with the Wild. So who is going to be number one on opening night? I'd put money on Josh Harding with Kuemper as his back-up. Backstrom is the thrid goalie on roster, but remains a healthy scratch.

Now, the rest of the roster. With the additions made, and with who is returning for the upcoming season, I think that the Wild will have one of the most feared rosters in the NHL. All four forward lines have speed and the potential to score, especially with a healthy Zucker, and a returning Fontaine to solidify an already potent roster of wingers. Up the middle of the ice Minnesota still has the three Finish centers, Captain Mikko Koivu, Mikael Granlund, and rookie sensation Erik Haula. I'd say that those three have a solidified roster spot this season, but as for the fourth center who knows. You have to start with the veteran Kyle Brodziak, but if his game starts to slip in his fourth line role, its still nice to have a couple of options. Recently signed Jordan Schroeder would likely be a good fit on the fourth line as well, and probably is the odd man out as of right now, but you can always slide Charlie Coyle to the center spot and call up another recent signing in Brett Sutter to play on the wing.

The defensive core will be a little easier to keep track of this upcoming season. Your top line will still be Brodin and Suter. Spurgeon likely plays with Scandella and Ballard likely plays with the young Matt Dumba to start the season

. After that, there is Jonathan Blum waiting for his chance to slide back into the line-up and another former Golden Gopher signing, Stu Bickel, waiting right after him. I don't see much change in how things operated back here from last season, but I would like to see a little less of the load put on Suter's shoulders. Will it happen? Probably not, but if he gets cut to around 25 minutes per game, I think he could produce as well as Shea Webber, or Duncan Keith.

Here is how the opening day line-up will look like in my opinion:

Parise-Granlund-Pominville
Vanek-Koivu-Coyle
Cooke-Haula-Niederreiter
Zucker-Brodziak-Fontaine

Suter-Brodin
Scandella-Spurgeon
Ballard-Dumba

Harding
Kuemper

Scratches:
Almond, Backstrom, Sutter, Blum, Bickel, Schroder, and Veilleux

This is an opening day line-up, I think, can be rivaled to any line-up in the entire NHL. I think this is the year that the Minnesota Wild are finally considered as one of the elite teams in the NHL, provided that they stay healthy. This season is looking very promising for the boys in red and green, and could be one Minnesotans have been waiting for for a very long time.

Team Canda: Matt Dumba "will not" be disciplined further for kneeing Karlsson

Team Canada got some good news today. Their defenseman Matt Dumba "will not" be suspended for kneeing Sweden's Erik Karlsson. Dumba is the only member of team Canada that is currently an NHL player.  

TSN.CA -- Hockey Canada was informed by the International Ice Hockey Federation on Monday that defenceman Mathew Dumba will not be disciplined further for kneeing forward Erik Karlsson during Team Canada's 3-0 loss to Sweden in a pre-tournament game for the World Junior Hockey Championship.

Dumba was given a five-minute major penalty and a game misconduct for the incident.

Any suspension would have been a blow to Canada's defence, which already has Griffin Reinhart serving a three-game suspension once the World Junior tournament begins on Boxing Day.

Matt Dumba knees Erik Karlsson

Minnesota Wild and current Canadian WJC defense Matt Dumba received 5 min major for this kneeing on Sweden's defenseman Erik Karlsson

Amazing Matt Dumba goal

s/t to First Round Bust... Check out this awesome goal by Red Deer Rebel defenseman and Minnesota Wild first round pick Matt Dumba. I would have to think that this goal will be end up being a top ten highlight goal this season. Incidently, that was the first goal of the year for Matt Dumba.