For some strange reason, Kenny Rogers‘ classic ballad the Gambler was playing in my head, “You gotta know when to hold ’em, know when to fold ’em, know when to walk away, know when to run, you never count your money, when you’re sittin’ at the table, they’ll be time enough for countin’, when the dealin’s done.” Its sage advice whether you’re playing cards or the General Manager of a professional hockey team. Just as the case is with hands of poker, you win some and you lose some. This sort of sums up how I feel about Minnesota losing out on the Stephane DaCosta sweepstakes. Merrimack’s Stephane DaCosta was arguably the most sought after college free agent since Casey Wellman. Last year, the Wild and General Manager Chuck Fletcher marked a dramatic change in team-building philosophy by aggressively pursuing undrafted college free agents which was something almost totally ignored by the Doug Risebrough regime. While it never feels good to lose out in these situations, the Wild were in the race until the very end being amongst the top 3 teams vying for his surfaces joining the Florida Panthers and Ottawa Senators until the Sens’ bid ultimately won him over. Senators’ GM Bryan Murray was noted as saying that Ottawa’s situation at center was the deciding factor in DaCosta’s decision. (shrugs) Sure, the Wild have Mikko Koivu, Matt Cullen, Kyle Brodziak, and John Madden but whatever it was DaCosta’s decision to make. So he’d rather play in Ottawa, fine. Go ahead, enjoy playing with ex-college hockey stars Colin Greening, Erik Condra, Patrick Wiercioch and Bobby Butler!?! See if I care!?!?
Now Matt Foy can rest safely knowing he is the best former Merrimack player to have played for the Wild. In all honesty its a minor inconvenience to the Wild. The Wild’s season is in purgatory until its final game against the Dallas Stars on April 10th. Minnesota ended its 8-game losing streak with a 3-2 shootout win over St. Louis who promptly turned around the next night and handed Detroit a 10-3 loss at Joe Louis Arena. So as I said before, you win some and you lose some. As the song wrapped itself up by saying, “Ev’ry Gambler knows, the secret to survivin’, is knowin’ what to throw away, and knowin’ what to keep, ’cause every hand’s a winner, and ev’ry hand’s a loser, the best you can hope for is to die in in your sleep.” While I hope no one dies in their sleep, but perhaps its best this season can end so we can all move on to the drama of the draft and free agency. So will the Wild start a winning streak or will it stumble and fall against the worst team in the Western Conference?
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1st Period Thoughts: Sometimes things go right for you early and that is exactly what happened in the 1st period for Minnesota. Niklas Backstrom looked a little shaky to start the game, bobbling the puck a bit and sitting pretty deep in his crease. The Wild were moving well at the start, and carrying the play throughout the first few minutes. Minnesota’s hustle drew a tripping penalty on Theo Peckham and the Wild went to work. The Wild worked the puck down low and the Oilers’ passive penalty kill unit played perfectly into Minnesota’s hands as Brunette was able to have an uncontested feed to Matt Cullen who fired a one-timer that glanced off the skate of Ladislav Smid near the Edmonton crease before find the back of the net. Antti Miettinen was credited with the goal. The Wild wasn’t done there and they’d strike again about 30 seconds later. It was a remarkably similar play as Pierre-Marc Bouchard won a small battle for the puck along the wall behind the goal and then he’d move and thread a pass into the slot for one-timer by a pinching Marek Zidlicky whose shot glanced off the skate of an Oilers’ blueliner (Jeff Petry) giving Nikolai Khabibulin no chance to make a save and just like that Minnesota was up 2-0. With the crowd jacked up in a way that hasn’t been seen in quite some time, the Wild got another power play as Jordan Eberle was tagged with a slashing penalty. Minnesota’s power play was hungry and creating all kinds of scoring chances but to Khabibulin’s credit he was battling very well and making some great stops as the Oilers’ zone resembled a shooting gallery. After Edmonton’s successful penalty kill, the pace of the game slowed down a bit. Edmonton would get a bit of a break when Antti Miettinen was a bit careless trying to deliver a body check to former Wild draft pick Ryan Jones and his stick caught Jones in the face and cut him giving the Wild winger a 4-minute trip to the sin bin. What could’ve been a huge opportunity for Edmonton to build some momentum was exactly the opposite as Minnesota’s penalty kill was tremendous, forcing the Oilers to the perimeter. Edmonton’s best chance came off the stick of former Bloomington Jefferson stud Tom Gilbert who stepped around a Wild defender and then tried to victimized a sprawling Niklas Backstrom to wrap a shot around him but somehow the puck was swept out of danger at the last moment by Nick Schultz. Minnesota was even able to create some quality offensive pressure as John Madden found some room and he wound up and blasted a slap shot on goal that was stopped by a diving Khabibulin, who then had to make another stop on Chuck Kobasew who was following up the play. The crowd gave the Wild an appreciative cheer for an solid effort as they headed for the locker room.
2nd Period Thoughts: It was sort of a Jekyll and Hyde type of period that provided enough good feelings not to hate it, but it still had elements that demonstrated why this team has struggled in the middle stanza all season long. The Wild were lacking hustle the first few minutes of the period, and Edmonton was swarming a bit in the Minnesota zone. The chippiness was starting to get evident as Theo Peckham was yapping at any Wild player within ear shot. The physicality was also starting to ramp up as Eric Nystrom skated after a puck deep in the Edmonton zone and he delivered a solid hip check to Jean-Francois Jacques that sent him flying into the boards. Minnesota would add to its lead with a nice odd-man rush where Nystrom passed the puck over to Brad Staubitz who got off a quick little wrist shot that snuck through Khabibulin and off the left post and then trickled over the goal line. The goal did nothing to quell the chippiness of the game and a rush by Pierre-Marc Bouchard who tried to center a pass to Cal Clutterbuck earned him a few shoves to the back by Peckham and the diminutive winger slashed the Oilers’ defenseman and both would earn a trip to a box for roughing and slashing respectively. With the ice a bit more open at 4-on-4 the Wild went on the attack a bit and their pressure would draw an additional Oilers’ penalty as Jim Vandermeer tried to slam Miettinen’s skull into the glass after hitting him from behind. With the extended 4-on-3 power play the Wild worked the puck to the perimeter before attempting a few bang-bang plays near crease as Bouchard threaded a few passes to Clutterbuck that came close to beating Khabibulin. When the power play went to 5-on-4, the Wild became lazy and Jared Spurgeon nearly cost Minnesota a goal being a little to relaxed to track down a turnover. Minnesota would add to its lead when Chuck Kobasew found a little space through the neutral zone where he dished it cross-ice to Martin Havlat who wound up and blasted a slap shot that dipped just underneath the outstretched arm of Khabibulin to make it 4-0 Wild. Minnesota would go into cruise control a bit as a late power play only served to expose the Wild’s nonchalant play and this turned into a 3-on-1 for Peckham, Liam Reddox and Ryan Jones. Miettinen would take a high sticking penalty on the play and this would prove to be costly. The Oilers’ power play worked the perimeter pretty well before setting up a blast from the point by Tom Gilbert that beat Backstrom cleanly to cut the Wild lead to three, 4-1. Not a bad period, but the lazy plays that led to the power play goal are still frustrating to see at this point in the season.
3rd Period Thoughts: The 3rd period sort of had the overall feel of the end of the 2nd with the Wild putting the game in cruise control. Minnesota would give up a breakaway early to Liam Reddox who found some space behind the Wild defense and had a pass delivered to him perfectly by Gilbert Brule and he moved in all alone only to be stonewalled by Backstrom. The Wild would give up two 5-on-3 power plays to the Oilers and after getting a good kill on the first one thanks to some outstanding goaltending by Backstrom who robbed Teemu Hartikainen right on the doorstep. On the second 5-on-3, the Oilers would not be denied as Linus Omark ripped a wrist shot that beat Backstrom high glove side to cut Minnesota’s lead to two. Minnesota would play with a bit more purpose the final minutes as Edmonton tried its best to tie the game; even pulling Khabibulin with about 1:25 remaining. Cal Clutterbuck tried unsuccessfully for an empty netter 3 different times, and on his last attempt as he tried to skate down the puck he was upended deliberately by Gilbert Brule who went well above and beyond your garden variety trip by putting the blade of his stick underneath the skate of Clutterbuck and lifting upward and sending him careening towards the wall. Brule was lucky Clutterbuck who was not hurt but he looked towards referee Rob Martell with a level of indignation of ‘what the hell was that?’ as Martell levied a weak minor for Brule’s act. The Wild got the win but it was a ugly ending to what was a fine start.
Niklas Backstrom had a pretty solid game, stopping 32 shots in the victory. After looking a little rusty in the first period, he rediscovered his form and made a number of fine saves down the stretch as his team coasted through the latter half of the game. Defensively the Wild did a nice job of sweeping away pucks near Backstrom’s crease but there were too many penalties due to a lack of hustle and they were fortunate to only have given up one power play goal.
Offensively, the got a few fortunate bounces and that ultimately was the difference. However the moral of the story is when you put the puck towards the goal good things can happen and hopefully see more of that in the final few games. The first two goals were not great shots, and many of the best teams score quite a bit that way. Detroit makes a living scoring goals like that, same with Philadelphia who seemed to go to that method whenever they needed goal in the playoffs last summer.
The biggest winner tonight was the fans that showed up and were lucky enough to have won one of the jerseys off the Wild players. You can’t get anymore game worn than that, when you walk onto the ice for that player to slide off his jersey (albeit sweaty) and hand it to you after signing it. Wild Head Coach Todd Richards summed it up fairly well, “It wasn’t good hockey, but we managed to win but we’re lucky we got off to a fast start.” I agree, if those two goals in the first didn’t happen this team may not have won this game. They better be ready to play against a very hungry Tampa Bay Lightning squad on Saturday.
Wild Notes:
~ Wild roster tonight is as follows: Mikko Koivu, Antti Miettinen, Andrew Brunette, Chuck Kobasew, Brad Staubitz, John Madden, Matt Cullen, Eric Nystrom, Cal Clutterbuck, Pierre-Marc Bouchard, Martin Havlat, Jared Spurgeon, Marek Zidlicky, Greg Zanon, Nick Schultz, Clayton Stoner and Brent Burns. Jose Theodore backed up Niklas Backstrom. Marco Scandella, Cam Barker and Guillaume Latendresse were the ‘healthy’ scratches. James Sheppard (knee) and Josh Harding (knee) are on injured reserve.
~ The 3 Stars of the Game as selected by Let’s Play Hockey were: 1st Star Matt Cullen, 2nd Star Marek Zidlicky, 3rd Star Brent Burns
~ Attendance for tonight’s game was 18,120 at Xcel Energy Center.
~ The State of Hockey News would like to congratulate Aeros defenseman Maxim Noreau on being named a First Team AHL All Star. The Wild signed Noreau as an undrafted player who had a solid junior career for Victoriaville and he has been rock solid for the last 3 seasons with the Aeros playing in 228 games, scoring 42 goals and 144 points and 167 penalty minutes.
Wild Prospect Playoff Rundown:
LW – Brett Bulmer ~ Kelowna Rockets (WHL)
Playoff Stats: 4GP 1G 1A = 2pts 0 PIM’s +2 ~ Bulmer is still trying to catch his stride since returning from a knee injury, in game 3 of their first round series with Prince George the Wild prospect delivered a crucial game-tying goal and then had an assist in the go ahead goal that eventually led to a 7-6 win. In their most recent game, Bulmer was scoreless and an even rating.
D – Colton Jobke ~ Kelowna Rockets (WHL)
Playoff Stats: 4GP 0G 0A = 0pts 0 PIM’s +1 ~ Jobke never will be a big point producer and so his lack of stats is hardly a surprise. The Rockets have found their stride early, after sweeping Prince George in four games. In last night’s series clinching game, Jobke finished the night a +1.
G – Darcy Kuemper ~ Red Deer Rebels (WHL)
Playoff Stats: 3GP (3-0) 1.67GAA .946%SP ~ Kuemper has started the post-season as well as he did during the regular season, sporting the 2nd best stats with perfect 3-0 record in their first round series against the Edmonton Oil Kings.
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