Game #35: Minnesota Wild at Columbus Blue Jackets, Monday December 27, 2010 at 6:30pm CST, Nationwide Arena [GAME PREVIEW]

I hate games at this time of the year.  Simply, because you don’t know what team will show up.  We don’t know if we’ll get the focused team or the post-holiday hangover team.  We saw the former on Tuesday in Denver and the latter last night against Detroit.    Then when one has to face the fact that the Wild are in Columbus tonight, anything is possible.  Unfortunately, Nationwide Arena is not kind to Minnesota, and I expect the hangover team we saw last night to show up.

If ever there was good timing to get a player back, it would be tonight.  According to the Minneapolis Star Tribune, Wild defenseman Nick Schultz has been cleared, and will most likely be in the lineup.  Last night, the Wild had to contend with some rookie mistakes against a Red Wings fans that you simply can’t afford to make mistakes against.  However, one can’t pin last night’s lost squarely on the shoulders of Clayton Stoner, Jared Spurgeon, and Marco Scandella.  It just doesn’t help matters when half of your blueline are playing in some of their first NHL games.  Although perhaps Spurgeon and Scandella wore themselves out playing pond hockey on the rink that Matt Cullen has in his backyard on Christmas.  Cullen invited the two rookies to his home for the holiday since both are bunking it in a hotel since they are just on a call up right now.  Joining Cullen, his wife and three sons were also his parents as well as his brother Mark Cullen and his family.

The true problem last night, is one that has always seemed to plague this team from its inception.  For some reason, the concept of taking shots on goal seems almost foreign to this club.  When a team can’t even register 20 shots on goal in a game, it often doesn’t bode well in the overall outcome.  Last night, the Wild managed a paltry 17 shots.  If that wasn’t bad enough, they only managed a whopping four in the first period.  Of course, it doesn’t help that in the first twenty minutes, the Wild also tallied eight penalty minutes.  When you spend that much time on the penalty kill, it makes it hard to generate offense.  Yes, some of the penalties overlapped with some of Detroit’s, but it just seemed like the Wild played in penalty kill mode that entire period.  However, the penalty excuse doesn’t hold water when they only managed to get five shots in the second period, as the Wild only took one minor penalty in those twenty minutes. 

I would appreciate a late Christmas present tonight.  Tonight, I would like to hear a rain of boo’s at Nationwide Arena.  The Wild deserved every boo they heard last night.  However, I would like them to take those boo’s that they earned, and turn it into something that makes them put forth such an effort that the Blue Jackets are embarrassed on their own ice. 

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