I Hereby Sentence You To… PRISON!

Hockey Wild

ICYMI, last night superstar forward Kirill Kaprizov was assaulted on the ice by mutant (and not in the good way) Logan Stanley resulting in an apparent injury. 

Kaprizov has been the engine of this Minnesota Wild team as we are now tied for 1st in the West with the Dallas Stars (81pts). (Mind you the Stars do have a game in hand.) During his 65 games this season, #97 has led the team in, well, pretty much everything. Goals, assists, total points, PPGs, the list goes on…

So, what do we know so far? Not a whole lot if I’m being honest, but he is scheduled to be reevaluated this morning during the teams off day before they return to the ice tomorrow in preparation for Saturday’s battle against the Sharks. Per Deano last night, the only positive was him skating off the ice on his own. 

What if he’s out long-term?

That’s a hell of a question. Cry? Drink? Riot? All the above? As previously mentioned Kaprizov has been the engine of this team. With a long-term injury that’s going to be the biggest blow to a Minnesota sports team since this past January when the Vikings shit their pants in the playoffs.

We do have options with Steel, Duhaime making his way back and then down in Iowa. Beckman, Walker and, dare I say, Marco Rossi. The options are there, but no player would be able to bring the type of play Kirill does day in and day out. Billy G has a track record for being awesome, so it’ll be okay.

But Kirill isn’t a human! He can’t get hurt!

Yes, he can get hurt and he did.

All we can do as fans is hope that this isn’t as serious as it seems. The fact that he was able to skate off on his own is most certainly a positive. Remember, as youths in Russia they don’t feed you milk with your cereal. They provide straight vodka.

What’s next?

More information will be certainly pouring in throughout today and the coming days, so be sure to follow 10k Takes, Wild Takes, my Twitter account and anything that relates to the Minnesota Wild. If it’s long-term, we drink. If it’s short-term, we still drink.

Win or lose, we booze Long or short, we pound Malort