Minnesota Wild (20-17-5 ) 45pts 5th in the Central
2.19 Goals For (29th)
2.50 Goals Against (12th)
18.9% Power Play (12th)
79% Penalty Kill (26th)
Top 5 Scorers:
1. #9 Mikko Koivu ~ 8G 23A = 31pts
2. #29 Jason Pominville ~ 17G 11A = 28pts
3. #11 Zach Parise ~ 15G 12A = 27pts
4. #20 Ryan Suter ~ 2G 22A = 24pts
5. #22 Nino Niederreiter ~ 7G 12A = 19pts
Top 3 PIM's:
1. #28 Zenon Konopka ~ 55 PIM's
2. #4 Clayton Stoner ~ 35 PIM's
3. #2 Keith Ballard ~ 31 PIM's
Top Goaltenders:
1. #37 Josh Harding (18-7-3) 1.65GAA .933%SP 3SO
2. #32 Niklas Backstrom (2-9-2) 3.32GAA .893%SP
Vs.
Buffalo Sabres (11-25-4) 26pts 8th in the Atlantic
1.65 Goals For (30th)
2.80 Goals Against (20th)
12.3% Power Play (29th)
81.8% Penalty Kill (16th)
Top 5 Scorers:
1. #19 Cody Hodgson ~ 8G 11A = 19pts
2. #26 Matt Moulson ~ 7G 10A = 17pts
3. #63 Tyler Ennis ~ 8G 7A = 15pts
4. #28 Zemgus Girgensons ~ 4G 10A = 14pts
5. #10 Christian Ehrhoff ~ 2G 12A = 14pts
Top 3 PIM's:
1. #32 John Scott ~ 60 PIM's
2. #82 Marcus Foligno ~ 55 PIM's
3. #57 Tyler Myers ~ 44 PIM's
Top Goaltenders:
1. #30 Ryan Miller (10-17-1) 2.69GAA .927%SP
2. #1 Jhonas Enroth (1-8-3) 2.60GAA .910%SP
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Well, the next few days are going to be very telling.
We officially have a coach in Mike Yeo who has no idea how much longer he will be employed by the Minnesota Wild. I can tell you, that with fans, he's already reached the end of his rope. If the six-game losing streak wasn't bad enough, you mix in loss number five to the New York Islanders and a potential for the seventh refulation loss in a row to the Buffalo Sabres, you end up with a potential for an immediate personnel change. And what doesn't help Yeo, is that now when he looks up in the stands during practice, he is starting to see Wild owner, Craig Leipold as was the case for yesterday's practice. At least it seems that Yeo is finally aware of what the media and press are saying. He's even addressed the players, telling them he believes in the team and he is simply going to coach to win and not coach to save his job. Honestly, I don't think that kind of speech is going to do anything to turn things around. Perhaps had Yeo been a tougher, no-nonsense coach from the beginning, we might be in a different place now.
Tonight might be the worst bit of quick sand for this team. This could possibly be the worst time to face the worst team in the league. If tonight is a repeat of the Islanders game, things will get even uglier than they already are. Expect the fans in the stands to show their disgust. In fact, the Wild should be glad they got into a tussle at the end of Islanders game which ended the boo's sooner than what the team deserved. I'm of the opinion that as fans, we have every right to let the team know that they're playing like equine refuse (I hope you can translate that on your own). However, if you talk with some of the Wild's talking heads like Anthony LaPanta and Mike Greenlay, they will tell you that we should be cheering for the team no matter what and that it's wrong to boo the team. Sorry, but the Wild have given the fans very little to cheer for lately. If you don't want the team to get boo'ed, well the answer is simple. Give us something TO cheer for. Easy. And like one of my fellow fans said, "It's easy for LaPanta to say that. He gets into the games for free." If LaPanta had to pay to watch the Wild these days, I don't think he'd have quite the same opinion. But LaPanta strikes me as the ultimate brown-noser, and would still tell us we have to cheer for a team when they don't derserve it even if he had to purchase tickets for every game. I must say, I'm glad I went and saw the Wild at the beginning of November, and didn't purchase tickets for any of the recent games.
Well with today being the first game of 2014 for the Minnesota Wild, I'll leave you with this sarcastic little gem. The Wild are still undefeated in 2014. There you go. Nothing like a bit of cynicism to start the year.
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