Exactly. A 9pm start is about 9:20 and an 8:30 scheduled start occurs after a previous game ends, which last night was 8:52pm for the Avalanche/Stars game.
Its just a big marketing scam, and the central time zone gets the short shaft every spring.
Canada isn’t quite as good at the scam game. Sportsnet game times are listed as 5:00, 6:00, 7:45, and 10:10 
Put the game on ESPN2 and start it after the 6:30 game instead of waiting for ESPN to open up after the 7:30 game. Should be 2 games on ESPN, and 2 games on ESPN2. Instead they’re putting 3 games on ESPN and and that bumps the Wild/Vegas to 10:00
If they say 10pm you know full well it wont start until like 10:19 or so
Absolutely, I just don’t get why they are in that 10 pm time slot tonight. ESPN2 would be open at 9 pm. Maybe something to do with the Twolves starting at 9 on their comopetition’s channel ??
I don’t ever remember a 10 pm cst scheduled game before, not sure what the deal is tonight. The 3 other games, all on ESPN channels, are 5:00, 6:30, and 7:30
Crazy games last night. All four were one-goal games. Ovi OT game winner, big boy western conference physical battle in Winnipeg, back and forth OT game in Dallas, and a shootout in LA. As a fan of the NHL, the first round is always the best round.
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Am I off base thinking it was a 50/50 game that was decided by 2:05 worth of special teams time? Seeing all the talk about how amazing Vegas is and the Wild can’t hang. Yeah Vegas is great, but the Wild hung right with them the entire game. Idk I’m looking forward to the rest of the series and think they have a real shot, maybe I’m just a naive homer. Best sign for the Wild is their best players are showing up. Kirill, Boldy, Ek, Faber, Gus all showed up. Faber had a couple obvious mistakes but overall he was a horse, fun to watch. Spurgeon wtf man, not even physical stuff – he got beat on rushes multiple times, 1 on 1s even. Playoff Hartman showed up, need him to score a big goal or two.
How about that liney getting straight up clotheslined. Fitting that Wrestlemania is in town 
Completely agree on the refs, Joe. The whining about refs after every loss drives me nuts, it’s loser mentality. Every “missed” call was on Hartman… how can anyone be surprised he doesn’t draw penalties anymore? Although he still managed to draw one, don’t think it was ever shown what happened though.
I will say the amount of interference Vegas plays with is next level. Every dump in, or chip and chase, or faceoff win, Vegas was getting a lot of skin on Wild players. But they were letting it go both ways so they need to play through it. And the players and coaches were; didn’t see any whining from players and the coaches, just fans on twitter. Not sure what Lapanta had to say about it. Boldy’s wraparound goal Hartman had both Vegas D blocked in the crease like a left tackle. And the last thing Wild want is penalties getting called tight, keeping it 5v5 both ways is in their best interest.
Was just a super tight game both ways and Wild made a few more mistakes. The loaded up top line was better than any Vegas line, but the Vegas depth is unrelenting. Vegas 4th line scored the dagger goal against the Wild 1st line, that was the killer. Thought Wild 4th line was good, but not sure they will be together to start next game.
Hell of a game, thought they played well overall and hung right with a damn good Vegas team. The Vegas slot is like freaking fort Knox, good luck getting in there.
And as always, special teams were the difference
Elias Petterson is the dream. Seems like a chance he’s available, and if so would be almost exactly like when Eichel wanted out of Buffalo. Except now the Wild have everything they need to make a deal and then some
OK enough of that now. It’s day 1 of the playoffs. Welcome to the NHL beautiful baby Zeev. LFG
Gotta sign Nelson just to get the blood line back in Minnesota. He’s part of the Christian family and probably the only MN NHLer whose wife was arguably a better high school hockey player than he was. Pretty sure they have a few kids already, time to make them officially #oneofus
So is the Colorado GM getting fired for anything short of winning the cup? Just like the Carolina GM, right
^^Well done 
Agree that Deano did a great job with a team that was projected to finish bottom 3 coming into the year. Would have been an awesome story to see Columbus make the playoffs this year.
It is cool to seem some fresh blood in the East playoffs this year with recent rebuilding teams Ottawa and Montreal finally making it. Not so much in the West, but that’s a good thing for the Wild 
Kaprizov seems extremely chatty and overall comfortable with Minnesota media since returning. I’m thinking he’s ready to sign a big fat extension
Haha just goes to show how long of a shot it was. The Wild played like asss for 3 months, Calgary surged the last month, and the Blues set an all time franchise wins streak. Even with all that the Wild still fell in the 90%, not the 10%. Close doesn’t matter when it’s either in or out.
Can we get one final monkey taco bell update?
Not going to put much thought into forward lines – I think they’ll get switched up a lot throughout the series.
Vegas is 3 good lines deep
Stone-Eichel-Barbashev
Saad-Hertl-Dorofeyev
Olofsson-Karlsson-Smith
You can’t really try to match up even against that and come out ahead on paper. So I can see the idea of loading up 1 line. Problem is Boldy and Kirill haven’t really clicked together this year, not like last year anyway
Some forward groups I’ve liked in different parts of the season:
Kirill-Rossi-Zuccy were really good to start the season
Foligno-Freddy-Trenin was the best pure shutdown line when together
Foligno-Ek-Boldy was fun for a few games
Flower’s NHL debut was over 2 years before Buium was born
RIP gim
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Oh boy Russo just dropped the lines… Buium-Bogo #3D pair
Bium running the #1 PP
I slept it off last night and changed my tune. Wild in 7. This will be a repeat of 2003 where there are no expectations and they surprise the world and make it to the conference finals.
He’s back 
As always, full homer for the playoffs. All sorts of upsets too. Let’s go Wild!
R1
Blues > Jets
Avs > Stars
Wild > Knights
Oilers > Kings
–
Leafs > Sens
Tampa > Panthers
Caps > Habs
Canes > Devils
R2
Avs > Blues
Wild > Oilers
–
Tampa > Leafs
Canes > Caps
Conf Finals
Wild > Avs
Tampa > Canes
Cup
WILD > Tampa
Looks like the injury hex got put on Dallas instead. Maybe this was the year to see Dallas in the first round?
Gim those are the definition of “just happy to be here” odds. You did not need to share that!
lol, first the argument was to not play him in the playoffs unless there’s an injury and now you want to thrust him in the top 4 where he’ll get line matched during road games? I guess he’ll need to learn to swim at some point, throw him in…I agree the 3rd pair shouldn’t impact the game, I meant him playing 3rd pair would mean he then plays the PP where he would likely have an impact…
Yeah so instead of thinking I have have all the answers and that I’m smarter than the coaches, I just laid out different trains of thought on how or why to use or not use Buium for these playoffs. And have posted more than once that I have no idea if the will or should play him.
To be fair, I can fully believe that you don’t comprehend the concept that I don’t have 110% unwavering confidence in my own personal opinions and then present those opinions as facts
Dammit Musky, who pisssed in your cheerios this morning 
They’re fully healthy, no reason for this team not to compete in the playoffs this year. Absolutely zero excuses.
except the thinking with playing Buium is that he’s replacing Jon f’ing Merrill…it’s 10 minutesish of icetime a game, who can impact a game more in those 10 minutes? Merrill or Buium?
You could argue the #6D’s role is to **not** impact the game. That’s why Faber was so good when he stepped in, and that low-event game doesn’t seem to be in Buium’s DNA.
I’d argue a better spot for Buium is next to Spurgeon. Give them more sheltered minutes, Spurgeon is already playing like 16 minutes a night and not much PK, and the tough matchups go to Brodin/Faber. Faber is so much better when with Brodin, and every single player paired with Spurgeon over the last 10 years has been better with him. Middleton and Bogo as the muck it up, block shots, kill penalties, and high off the glass breakout bottom pair. Middsy could use some simplifying in his game right now.
As the clear underdog, I think it’s worth taking the shot to inject some high end talent into a 7 game series. But I’ll understand whatever the coaches decide after seeing him in practice against NHLers this week. That will give the best idea if he’s currently capable of defending Jack Eichel on the rush, battling Tomas Hertl net-front, and avoiding Mark Stone grand larceny through the neutral zone.
That age difference is a HUGE factor imo. Physically, at still just 19.25 years old, Zeev should continue to fill out his frame and get some man strength
This to me is the biggest difference from Buium now compared to Makar in 2019, or Faber in 2023.
I would agree with this except it was the Ducks,the Wild were at home and with a fully healthy Wild line up. Given all those circumstances and the importance of the game the Wild should have put a beat down on a non playoff team with a score of like 6-2. That would make me feel more confident I know that. If the Wild are high on themselves right now they are whistling through the graveyard. This should have never come down to a 20 seconds left drama game.
Completely with you here. The 60 minutes of regulation was boring and miserable and disappointing, even including the tying goal with 20 seconds left. The 5 minutes of OT Flower greatness made up for it though.
How much are we going to talk and hear about Buium over the next two weeks? I think I’m already sick of it, and all the second guessing, and using it as the excuse every single time something bad happens or they don’t score on a powerplay. Personally, I don’t expect they’re going to play him unless there’s an injury. But also wouldn’t be shocked to see him.
The closest comparable situation in recent memory is Cale Makar, who hopped directly into game 3 of the first round after losing in the frozen four. They with Sam Girard in the top 4D and on the 2nd powerplay unit, and he scored in his first NHL game. Comparing anyone to Cale Makar with what we know now is definitely a stretch. Trying to rewind my brain back to 2019 I think the differences are Makar had a bit more dominant final college season. He was the obvious choice for the Hobey compared with Buium being kind of a 3 way tie. That’s splitting hairs and deep in the margins, but there was a small difference. The bigger difference I see is the raw physical tools of Makar popped a lot more than with Buium. Not a knock against Buium but Makar was/is a generational skater and was already stronger with an elite shot. Buium is a great skater, but not Makar, and he seems to rely more on elite puck skills a hockey iq that is off the charts. Makar was also a full year older, so maybe part of why the physical tools were more obvious. I remember his first NHL game and mistaking him for Nathan Mackinnnon more than once and immediately thinking how screwed the rest of the league was with those two on the same team.
especially having a guy like Ek being able to go up against the other teams top center (Eichel)
There’s a bit of history there. A long time ago but this is peak Joel Eriksson Ek
Not sure how you can say that when you have last years Western conf champ on your side?
I’m normally an Oilers defender but vibes in Edmonton are at an all time low. They’re stumbling into the playoffs after a mostly bad regular season and without their #1D, and recent lower body injuries to both McDavid and Draisaitl. Plus their goalie situation is somehow even more questionable than the last couple years.
Hate to be the bearer of bad news but… Vegas has a very good powerplay. #2 on the season, and #1 since the 4-nations break. Good news is it’s been cold the last 10 games and their PK isn’t very good. I’ll still take Vegas over having to see Hellebyuck in R1. And as Gim mentioned, the Pacific side of the bracket is really weak this year – good time to cross over.
Vegas in 3.
wtf bro
I’ll play the homer card and say the Wild shock the world and beat Vegas in 6
As always, I agree with Joe 
Throw Buium in Midstrom’s spot right now. Both goals tonight directly caused by him getting caught in awkward spots and not executing. He’s been low-key brutal for a couple months now. Faber has come back to life since getting separated from him.
Kirill and Boldy had absolutely no chemistry or flow. Couldn’t complete simple passes to each other all night.
Where’s Mojo been hiding this stuff all year?! Incredible game from him start to finish.
OK fine now that it’s over I can admit the 5 minutes of OT was 10x more fun to watch than the 60 minutes of regulation.
Very cool story book ending for Le Fleur. Awesome that he wanted the OT, and then put on a show to boot!
