BLOG: SEELER FIGHT GETS THE WILD GOING IN 4-1 WIN OVER DETROIT, BUT KUNIN TEARS HIS ACL

minnesotawild (44)in #sports • 6 years ago

Nick Seeler Fight Gets the Wild Going

WE FINALLY GOT THE NICK SEELER FIGHT THAT WE WERE WAITING FOR!

Remember when we said who needs Loov, when we've got anger like that? This was the final line of that blog:

Look out for the number 36 shirt coming for the first opponent to throw a cheap shot on Minnesota!

OH YES, NICK SEELER!

That first cheap shot was a knee to knee hit on Zach Parise and Seeler had no problems dropping the gloves with Detroit big man, Luke Witkowski for what is being described as the fight of the year.

Seeler and Witkowski came together in front of the net as the Wild were skating 6 on 5 on a delayed penalty call and it was immediately on for young and old.

None of the grabbing and jabbing crap that you see now, this was an old school hockey fight straight out of the 70's with just haymaker after haymaker being exchanged.

While Seeler was lucky to not cop an extra instigator penalty, he didn't and the Wild went on the power play that they were waiting for. Boudreau loves his old time hockey and this quote after the game sums it up:

"Guys were on the bench and they were saying we gotta go now. If we can't get motivated for this, then we're in trouble."

And go they did, tying the game up on the power play and going on with it from there.

“You don’t really see those very often, and it happened to be that kind of fight. You don’t really know what to expect going in to it. That was kind of the outcome. I’m glad we’re both all right after.”

“It’s just a part of my game. I pride myself on being tough in the corners and in front of the net and chipping in on the physicality part whenever that presents itself. And last night it presented itself.”

The fans love it, the coach loves it and most importantly the other players love it.

LOVE IT!

Luke Kunin Tears his ACL

But the other piece of major new coming out of the game, was that recent Iowa call up Luke Kunin, will miss the rest of the season after tearing his ACL.

Just downright horrible news. You really have to feel for the kid.

At just 20 years old, Kunin was Minnesota's 1st round pick in 2016 and has been up and down between the NHL and Iowa for the last 2 seasons.

Now instead of providing the Wild with the spark that they so desperately need heading into the playoffs, Kunin will instead be bound to the rehab program post surgery.

What this means for the makeup of the Minnesota forward lines heading into the playoffs, I don't know.

Will it force Fletcher and co to push harder to get Boston College and USA Olympian, Jordan Greenway straight into the bigtime? Maybe present an initial opportunity to someone in Iowa like a Zach Mitchell or Sam Anas?

The waiting game begins.