The 2014-15 Minnesota Wild: Defense

Photo: Carlos Gonzalez/Star Tribune

The Wild were expected to take a step forward on the defensive side of things in 2013-14. They signed Keith Ballard and youngsters Jonas Brodin, Jared Spurgeon, and Marco Scandella were expected to progress and be big factors for the Wild.

Preseason Game Four & Lineup Thoughts

Photo: Brace Hemmelgarn/USA Today

In last night's fourth preseason game, Minnesota edged Pittsburgh 4-1. Jason Pominville netted a hat trick, Darcy Kuemper made 32 saves, and Ilya Bryzgalov was killing time by taking selfies with fans on the bench. Onto the notes...

2013-14 Season In Review: Ryan Suter

Photo: Brace Hemmelgarn/USA Today

Your average hockey player plays around 18-20 minutes a night. Ryan Suter has that accomplished at the end of two periods. Lets review his season.

Minnesota Wild 2014 Regular Season Awards

More wrap-up of the regular season continues today, as we hand out some hardware for the Wild's 2013-14 regular season. This year, we finally got some names for these various awards, honoring the past Wild players who excelled in these particular categories.

Without further ado, here are the winners:

April Wrap-Up

A look back at the regular season's final month.

Team Record: 4-1-1 in April, 43-27-12 overall
Standings: 4th in Central Division, 7th in Western Conference

February Wrapup

It was a Olympic shortened month for the Wild which only saw them play five games. Even though there werent that many games, we still will take a look back at the month of February.

A Refresher

Photo: Sherri LaRose-Chiglo/Pioneer Press

The Olympics are over. The NHL returns tonight. There is a slight feel like this is a second opening night, due to the disconnect we experienced from the Olympic break.

But now that the NHL is returning, lets take a little refresher course on the Wild, as they get set to begin the stretch run.

Wild Olympic Update: Finland Takes Bronze over USA

Mikael Granlund (right) had an Olympics to remember.

The Men's Olympic Hockey Tournament wrapped up this morning with Canada defeating Sweden 3-0 for the gold medal. Lets take a look at how the Wild players fared since our last update.

Wild Olympic Update: On To The Semifinals

Mikael Granlund (right) has played the entire Olympics on a line with his childhood idol, Teemu Selanne (left). Photo: Mark Humphrey/AP

After consecutive days of a full slate of games, the Men's Olympic tournament has a day off as the Women's Tournament finishes up with their Bronze and Gold medal games. So let's check in and see how our favorite Wild players are doing.

Wild Olympic Update: Scoreless in Sochi

Photo: Bruce Bennett/AFP

Yesterday marked the conclusion of the preliminary round for the Men's tournament. Lets see what the Wild have been up to in Sochi.

Wild Olympic Update: Granlund Scores, USA Soars

Photo: Antti Aimo-Koivisto

It is day two of the Men's Ice Hockey Tournament. Every Wild player has taken part in one game, and their teams are a combined 3-0. Lets take a look at how the players did:

Follow the Wild in Sochi

The Bolshoy Ice Dome in Sochi. Phoro: Kevin Liles/USA Today

For those of you paying particular interest to just the Wild players in Sochi over the next few weeks, well then this is the post for you. The following is a complete schedule of when Mikael Granlund, Nino Niederreiter, Zach Parise, and Ryan Suter will be participating in the Olympic Hockey Tournament.

Olympic Hockey Preview: Group A

Photo: Cris Bouroncle-AFP/Getty Images

In what would appear to be the most competitive group, we take a look at Group A today:

January Wrapup

A look back at the rather cold month of January in the State of Hockey:

Team Record: 9-4-1 in January, 29-21-6 overall
Standings: 4th in Central Division, 7th in Western Conference

Zach Parise: Captain America

Photo: @mnwild

Just a little bit past noon today, Team USA General Manager David Poille announced that Wild winger Zach Parise would be the captain of the United States Olympic hockey team in the upcoming games in Sochi, Russia.

Yes, the same Zach Parise who modeled the US opening ceremonies gear.

Also, Poille named that the alternate captains to the team which included Wild defenseman Ryan Suter. Nice to see Poille put his differences with Suter behind him for the sake of the team.

For those interested, the other alternate captain named was Dustin Brown of the Los Angeles Kings. Not exactly a welcome face here around these parts. So the official leadership of Team USA is as follows:

Captain: LW Zach Parise (MIN)

Alternates: D Ryan Suter (MIN)

                    LW Dustin Brown (LA)

The Wild have three remaining games (2/1 @CGY, 2/4 vs TB, and 2/6 vs NSH) before breaking for nearly three weeks for the Olympics.

Follow Giles on Twitter @gilesferrell

You Can't Make This Stuff Up

Nate Prosser gave HDM 2014 a perfect ending. Photo: Ann Heisenfelt/AP

Nope, this is not a post where I complain about the 30 missed calls in last night's Stars-Wild game. This is also not a post where I complain about the fiasco in Vancouver last night. Those are posts for a different day.

A Total Team Effort

Different faces have stepped up for the Wild in 2014. Photo: Hannah Foslien/Getty Images

Lets go back in time two weeks ago. The Wild played abysmal hockey against the St. Louis Blues at home in a 2-0 defeat. They closed out the year on a six game losing streak, lost several key players to injury (Zach Parise, Josh Harding, Jared Spurgeon and Mikko Koivu), and it appeared that Mike Yeo would be the next coach in the NHL to lose his job.

The 2014 Minnesota Wild Olympians

Photo: Heston Kan

As much as Team Canada tried to delay the process this morning, all Winter Olympic hockey rosters have now been announced. The final four teams (Finland, Sweden, Slovakia, and Canada) gave out their rosters to the public, leaving everyone with more questions (as to why player 'x' made the team over player 'y') than answers, seemingly.

The Top 13 Stories of '13

Photo: Bruce Kluckhohn/NHLI via Getty Images

Since we are winding down 2013 today, it makes sense to take a look back at the best stories from 2013. So to commemorate the year 2013, we will take a look back at the 13 best stories for the Wild.

3 on 3: The Upcoming Road Trip

Photo: Joe Sargent/NHLI

After narrowly defeating the Canucks 3-2 last night, the Wild are back out on the road for four games that stretches from tomorrow through the 27th (they come home for Christmas though). Had the Wild had a trip like this two years ago, we would be saying our prayers right about now as they would be playing three elite teams (Pittsburgh, New York Rangers, and Philadelphia) heading into the Christmas break.