The Wild are taking care if business by beating the the team's they are supposed to beat. That has not always been the case for the Wild in recent years. They were often guilty of playing down to the level of their competition.

This is a new version of the Wipd and yes, they are still in transition but the added skill of Kirill Kaprizov and the maturing of Joel Eriksson Ek, Jordan Greenway, and Ryan Hartman has provided a much quicker transfer to becoming competitive with some of the league's better teams.

The additions of Nick Bonino and Nick Bjugstad have helped provide a more competitive center ice position for the Wild, despite their clear lack of a number 1 or number 2 for that matter.

Cam Talbot has been nothing short of spectacular this season making Bill Guerin look very good with this key signing. Guerin made no bones about it last season as he wrapped up the year by saying the Wild goaltending was not good and had to be better moving forward. He could not have imagined what he was going to get from Talbot and rookie Kaapo Kahkonen, who with his win Saturday night set a new rookie franchise win mark with 13 in just 20 games. That eclipsed the previous mark set by current Coyotes net minder, Darcy Kuemper, who had 12 in 26 games back in 2013-14.

Zach Parise has looked more like the player we have grown accustomed to seeing leading the Wild charge with his tenacity and no nonsense approach to the game. He is getting rewarded on the scoresheat as well, but his game is far more than that. He is a leader on this team and when he is going well it just reverberates throughout the team.

Kevin Fiala has been looking more like the scoring machine we saw the second half of last season but is still reverting back to his do it all by himself approach, which we know is not a formula for sustained success and more of a nuisance in coach, Dean Evason's program. Fiala got benched again Saturday and hopefully that message was received because in order for the Wild to have long term success, Fiala is a key player.

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

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