Gone Puck Wild
Fansided

Minnesota Wild: Another Blown 3rd Period Opportunity

By Cody Defoe

ST. PAUL, MN - SEPTEMBER 20: Dallas Stars left wing Valeri Nichushkin (43) redirects a puck on net in the 1st period during the preseason game between the Dallas Stars and the Minnesota Wild on September 20, 2018 at Xcel Energy Center in St. Paul, Minnesota. (Photo by David Berding/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)
ST. PAUL, MN - SEPTEMBER 20: Dallas Stars left wing Valeri Nichushkin (43) redirects a puck on net in the 1st period during the preseason game between the Dallas Stars and the Minnesota Wild on September 20, 2018 at Xcel Energy Center in St. Paul, Minnesota. (Photo by David Berding/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images) /
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Minnesota Wild Nick Seeler
DALLAS, TX – MARCH 31: Nick Seeler #36 of the Minnesota Wild tries to keep the puck away against Tyler Pitlick #18 of the Dallas Stars at the American Airlines Center on March 31, 2018 in Dallas, Texas. (Photo by Glenn James/NHLI via Getty Images) /

Nick Seeler

Nick Seeler had looked really good in his first game on Monday. On Thursday he took it to another level and was showing why he is the front runner to be in the opening day lineup.

Seeler and defense partner Greg Pateryn were back to their shutdown ways on the night, keeping everything in front of them and everybody to the outside of the ice when they were out there.

Seeler also had the secondary assist on Parise’s goal. A nice setup by him, battling a couple stars players and throwing the puck from the side boards out to Koivu at the blue line.

At this point, I think his spot in the lineup is more than that of a front runner. I think coach Boudreau has made up his mind and the Seeler-Pateryn will be the 3rd pairing on the ice start the season.

Everything Seeler is doing right now is impressing me. Between puck battles on the boards, strong defensive positioning, stick checks, shot blocking, hard hits, and even offensively with keeping the play down low in the opposing zone.

His confidence is sky high, he is not making any mistakes that I could see and deserves every opportunity this team is ready to give him.

While he didn’t play the heavy minutes that Koivu, Parise, and Spurgeon got, he was still out for over 18 minutes of ice time and a good chunk of that was as a top penalty killer.

He’s not playing easy minutes, but he is absolutely making everything look easy on the ice. The sky is the limit, as far as I’m concerned, and he could push to be lifted up the lineup sooner rather than later.

I won’t be the least bit surprised if we see Seeler getting minutes with Spurgeon, Brodin, or Dumba over the course of the season. With play like he put out there against Dallas, how could he possibly be stuck on the 3rd pairing for long?

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