It was only a matter of time for Alex Stalock and the Wild. Stalock had his best NHL season last year and stepped up for a struggling Devan Dubnyk to secure the starting role. Unfortunately for Alex, he was injured to start the 2021 season which opened the door for Kaapo Kahkonen to begin the season as the backup to newly signed starter, Cam Talbot.

Kahkonen, who was the top goaltender in the AHL last season, seized his opportunity and his performance to date has given the Wild tremendous confidence in goal. Kahkonen's play combined with the fact that he is the heir apparent to be the Wild starting goalie moving forward, his time has come a bit sooner that initially expected.

Now that Stalock has returned to healthy, he became the odd man out and rather than carry three goalies on the active roster, Stalock was waived. It is also a move that works to the benefit of Stalock to provide him with an opportunity to hook on with another team.

That occurred as the Oilers claimed Stalock ending his time with the Wild. Stalock was an amazing locker room presence as well as a true professional when called upon to man the Wild net. He will be greatly missed by everyone within the Wild organization.

The Oilers are getting a real gem in Stalock and we all wish him well as he heads north of the border.

Tonight the Wild visit the Vegas Golden Knights for the first meeting of the season between the two teams. It will also be a battle for first place as the Wild trail the Knights by one point on the strength of their six game win streak.

Despite the win streak, the Wild are still struggling on the powerplay and that will come back to haunt them if they do not figure something out there. Once they do, just imagine the point production of Kirill Kaprizov and Kevin Fiala and where it will go.

On Saturday the Wild had three man advantage opportunities with the first two occurring in regulation and the third in OT. Those first two powerplays began with the second unit and they spent the majority of the two minutes on the ice. They had sustained zone time with decent puck movement however no real strong scoring chances.

The Wild top unit looked good in limited time on both man advantage opportunities however both power plays expired with no goals. More alarming was the four on three PP in overtime as that typically is a much higher percentage situation and yields higher results. That was not the case for the Wild as they were far too spread out and their passes to generate shots were too long and slow giving Peterson plenty of time to move across the net and make the saves.

It is going to be a struggle without a true playmaker on the roster. Having Mats Zuccarello back he is the closest to that playmaking forward as they have and designing the PP setup to have the pucknwork through Zuccarello as much as possible should be a start.

It's always Hockey Day in The State of Hockey!

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