The result was far from what the Wild faithful had in mind on opening night in St. Paul.

Give the Rangers their due they are as advertised, one of the best teams in the NHL, from goaltender Igor Shesterkin to the blueline led by new captain, Jacob Trouba, and an offense that has a seemingly endless bucket of talent with Artemi Panerin, Mika Zibinejad, and Chris Kreider and the emergence of their recent high profile draft picks Kaapo Kakko, Alexis LaFreniere, and Filip Chytyl their are few flaws.

For the Wild they started the game strong controlling play through much of the first period but the lazy penalties by Jake Middleton and Ryan Hartman got the Rangers off and running. They jumped out to a 3-0 lead before the Wild new what hit them following the strong start.

Mats Zuccarello got the Wild on the board with a powerplay marker of his own off a terrific feed from Kirill Kaprizov. The Wild had a chance to eat further into the Ranger lead when they got a 2 man advantage shortly after Zuccarello's goal.

That 2-man advantage kill by the Rangers was the eventual turning point that sealed the Wild fate. Kudos to the Rangers PK, but the Wild played right into their hands on the 5-on-3. Minnesota was content to pass the puck around the perimeter and never established a net front presence on that lopsided advantage. The Rangers easily killed that by staying in their triangle and letting the Wild kill the time with pass pass pass pass with no movement or creation of open seems.

Game two tomorrow as the Wild host Kevin Fiala and the Kings. Expect a better team effort from the Wild as they were embarrassed by the performance last night.

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