Wilderness Walk: Hitting the road with confidence

The Minnesota Wild is a team in top form. They have won their last five games and have looked dominant for the most part. Now, they get to head off to sunny California, where the weather is warm and the hockey teams are bad.

Starting on Wednesday, they have a back-to-back facing the Anaheim Ducks and the San Jose Sharks — two teams near the bottom of the league — and that’s it for the pre-holiday slate of games. Just two teams that have some talent but surely not the depth that can keep up with our Wild.

No game is easy, but we can at least feel a bit more confident about these this week.

That’s Wild

• Congrats to Mats Zuccarello, as he was named the NHL’s Third Star of the Week after scoring five goals and eight points in four games. [Hockey Wilderness]
• Even if he isn’t playing on the top line, the Wild still need Ryan Hartman. [10K Rinks]

Off the trail...

• The New York Rangers have turned their season around through trial and error. [Yahoo Sports]
• After an unfortunate accident, 18-year-old OHL player Abakar Kazbekov died last weekend. [CBS Sports]