{"id":14204,"date":"2025-05-06T16:08:11","date_gmt":"2025-05-06T16:08:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/14204\/"},"modified":"2025-05-06T16:08:11","modified_gmt":"2025-05-06T16:08:11","slug":"reflections-on-the-minnesota-wilds-2024-25-season-the-hockey-writers-minnesota-wild","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/14204\/","title":{"rendered":"Reflections on the Minnesota Wild’s 2024-25 Season – The Hockey Writers – Minnesota Wild"},"content":{"rendered":"

Now that the dust has had time to settle on the end <\/a>of the Minnesota Wild season, it\u2019s time to reflect on a few things I\u2019ve heard from fans and media over these last few days. It\u2019s important to remember the circumstances surrounding this team and that the injuries were at the forefront of course. <\/p>\n

It\u2019s been a long 82-game regular season, and the Wild were one of those teams that went through it all, from injuries to new players joining the lineup, etc. The team weathered the storm the best they could and got themselves to the postseason, to fall short of Round 2 again. This article will reflect on a few things this season, starting with how the Wild weren\u2019t supposed to make it this far.<\/p>\n

Wild Weren\u2019t Supposed to Make It\u00a0<\/p>\n

If we go back to the beginning of the season, the Wild were not expected to make it to the playoffs or even be as competitive as they were. They came out on fire and surprised everyone by being one of the league\u2019s best teams, showing they have the talent and exceeding everyone\u2019s expectations. Many wondered how long it would last, and then the injuries hit, which seemed like the end of the road for the Wild, just another \u201cflash in the pan,\u201d so to speak.\u00a0<\/p>\n

However, the Wild continued to exceed expectations and win games without top guys in the lineup. It did come crashing down eventually when it was clear the injuries were mounting<\/a>. This team was fighting tooth and nail to get wins and just looked exhausted. Regardless of everything going against them, they fought through and believed in themselves.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Most teams would\u2019ve used the injuries as an excuse, \u201cWell, we\u2019re out our top scorer, how are we supposed to score?\u201d but not the Wild. They expected every player who came up in place of the injured to play at that level and didn\u2019t want to accept anything less. Was it an adjustment, and did they struggle? Of course, but anyone who would expect them to be perfect facing that adversity has unfair expectations. It\u2019s not unfair to expect them to win some games, but it would\u2019ve been nearly impossible to continue their run without their top players.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Wild\u2019s Round 1 Exit\u00a0<\/p>\n

Many fans were ready to jump ship when the Wild fell in Game 4 and expected the team to fall. To be fair, they lost the next two games and were out, but it\u2019s essential to look at the series up close and not the overall result.\u00a0Their last Round 1 exits were embarrassing, and they were outmatched. However, things were close this season against the Vegas Golden Knights<\/a>, and the Wild could\u2019ve won that series. They didn\u2019t, but the potential was there, and there was no give up in this team like in seasons past.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"MinnesotaMinnesota Wild celebrate a goal (Amy Irvin<\/a> \/ The Hockey Writers)<\/p>\n

\u201cI agree, we can sit here and say that we should\u2019ve done this or should\u2019ve won\u2026.but at the end of the day we didn\u2019t so that\u2019s disappointing as you all know and we, players are disappointed, and you guys are disappointed, everyone but I think that\u2019s nothing more to say about that and we\u2019re coming to next year and we\u2019re going to win. I think that\u2019s our mindset, to win next year and I think we played really well this whole year, we had a lot of injuries, stick together and then this playoffs I really thought we honestly did that, we were going to go to the next round<\/a> and beyond but..,\u201d said Mats Zuccarello<\/a>\u00a0in his exit interview about how their season ended. <\/p>\n

Wild Have Bright Future<\/p>\n

Every team likes to believe they have a bright future, but not all do. The Wild are among the few teams with a great future ahead. They already have Brock Faber<\/a>, Matt Boldy, and Marco Rossi<\/a> as young players in their roster who have worked hard to prove themselves. Faber and Boldy have cemented themselves into the Wild\u2019s future, and Rossi has done well this past season, but it\u2019s still unclear if he\u2019ll be a part of that future.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Regardless, they have some up-and-coming players fans should also be excited about. One such player is Zeev Buium, who fans saw in four postseason games before he sat out Games 5 and 6. In that short time, he showed a lot of speed and skill and promise to become a top defenseman for the Wild. Besides Buium, Jesper Wallstedt,<\/a> Danila Yurov, Liam Ohgren, and many others have yet to show their potential.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cTo be honest with you, I don\u2019t know. When I was 19 I played in Norway so it\u2019s hard for me to put into.., but obviously you get a taste of how good of a league it is, every night we play one of the top teams in the league but every night it\u2019s a battle, it doesn\u2019t matter who you play. Everyone works hard, everyone can skate, everyone\u2019s heavy, everyone\u2019s good at something. I think it will help him realize going into the summer that okay this is a step up from where I am and college is college, I\u2019ve never played it but obviously it\u2019s good but it\u2019s the NHL, it\u2019s the best of the best and I think he did a good job\u2026..\u201d said Zuccarello in regards to his thoughts on Buium\u2019s short stint in the NHL so far.<\/p>\n

Wild Are Improving<\/p>\n

After this season, the Wild are obviously taking steps forward despite almost everything pushing back against them. At the beginning of the season, they weren\u2019t expected to be that good, but they started hot. Then the injury bug hit, and once again, it looked like their season was in jeopardy, but they pushed through the best they could and still squeaked into the postseason.<\/p>\n

Related: NHL Announces 2024-25 Bill Masterton Memorial Trophy Finalists<\/a><\/p>\n

The postseason ended earlier than anyone hoped, but they could\u2019ve taken the series instead of being swept. Again, they still lost, and that\u2019s disappointing, but the fact that they fought in every game is an improvement. Hopefully, this is a big step forward, and next season will be the best they\u2019ve ever had.<\/p>\n

\"Substack<\/a><\/p>\n

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<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Now that the dust has had time to settle on the end of the Minnesota Wild season, it\u2019s…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":14205,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[377],"tags":[5,3707,799,1289],"class_list":{"0":"post-14204","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-hockey","8":"tag-hockey","9":"tag-mats-zuccarello","10":"tag-matt-boldy","11":"tag-zeev-buium"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nhl\/114461756875492253","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14204","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14204"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14204\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/14205"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14204"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14204"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14204"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}