Wild Get Erik Christensen From Rangers

The NHL trade deadline is still more than three weeks away - which in professional sports time is like, a lifetime - but the Rangers made a minor deal Friday morning, sending center Erik Christensen to the Minnesota Wild for 24-year-old center Casey Wellman. The Wild will also receive a conditional seventh-round draft pick in 2013 in the trade.

Christensen is a highly-skilled-yet-inconsistent center, which seems to be the theme of the Wild lately (at least the inconsistent part). Christensen has not played for the Rangers yet this calendar year, his last minutes coming back on December 17. He has appeared in only 20 games total this season.

Wellman will report to the Rangers' minor league team, the Connecticut Whale.

He's BAAACK... Gaborik and the New York Rangers were at the Xcel Energy Center

Love him or hate him, Gaborik was the face of MN Wild Hockey for a long, long time. And he was back, well back for a night at least. The New York Rangers and Gaborik were at the Xcel Energy Center on Friday to play the MN Wild.

The MN Wild were out to prove that they did not need Gaborik... in my opinion they did it. The Wild roster sans Gaborik made it clear that they could win without him, with a final score of 3-2 Wild, I would say they did that. It wasn't a slam dunk win, but no one expected it to be one... Wild fans just wanted to show the rest of the hockey world that the Minnesota Wild were not one player. Mission Accomplished!

Goodbye Gaborik

It is official, Marian Gaborik is no longer a Wild player. Yesterday, July 1st, his contract with the Wild ended and he entered into Free Agent Status. He wasn't free for long though, Gaborik signed a 5-year $7.5 million dollar contract with the New York Rangers, eating up all of the cap space that had been rumored was being saved for Scott Gomez.

The Rangers are hoping that the former Wild Star, who scored 42 goals for the Minnesota Wild, will be worth the investment. When he is healthy Gaborik is considered to be one of the most elite skaters in the NHL, WHEN he is healthy. Many Gaborik-haters are saying that he is hurt more often than he is healthy and his reign on the Top 10 players in hockey list is over. I have to say that I am on the fence, at one point Gabby was the Golden Boy of the MN Wild and we all loved him, but lately his bad attitude and his hip-health have turned him into the older brother that everyone can't wait to leave for college and not come back. So while I am sad to see the last original Wild member skate to a different pond, I do have to say that this could be exactly what the Wild need to have a transition season.

Goodbye Gaborik!

Wild Win In New York, but only once

The Minnesota Wild schedule put the Wild in New York for back to back games against the Rangers and the Islanders. After a 1-2 pathetic loss against the Rangers on Tuesday, the Wild picked up the pace last night and slammed in six goals to beat the New York Islanders 6-2.

This season has been full of ups and downs so I guess I wouldn’t expect the final month of the season to be any different. Amazingly enough, the Wild are still in the NHL playoff chase. Everyone knows I fall into the “Gaborik hater” group, but for the sake of the Wild team and the fans, I hope Marian Gaborik can provide a magic spark to get this team into the playoffs.

Gaborik is Great

When Marian Gaborik is healthy, he is a fantastic hockey player. So fantastic in fact that he is breaking Minnesota Wild records! Gaborik scored a record 5 goals in a single game against the New York Rangers Thursday night. The Wild easily beat the Rangers 6-3 in front of a sold out Xcel Energy Center crowd. It is fun to watch an NHL hockey game like that and this MN Wild Freak hopes there are more games like that to come. Way to go Gaborik!

It feels good to be home

The Minnesota Wild skated into the Xcel Energy Center on a two game win streak and beat the Nashville Predators 3-2 last night to extend the streak to three. The Wild were behind most of the game, but didn’t fall into their usual give up because we are behind mentality and battled on to win in front of 18,000 plus fans. This is a good week for Minnesota Wild hockey fans as the Wild play two more home games.

• Wild vs. New York Rangers December 20th
• Wild vs. Detroit Red Wings December 22nd

Let’s go Wild!