Ever hear someone talk about a love-hate relationship? Or do you have a love-hate relationship with something in your life. For many, it may be something technological like their phone, computer or car where when its working they absolutely love it and when it isn’t they swear and wish they could simply destroy it and move on. How about a love-hate relationship with people? Where people can go from fighting one moment to being best friends the next. Its certainly bi-polar and more than a little strange to be around but for some people it works just fine. I think you could say some sports fans have a love-hate relationship with their respective teams. When they win these fans can’t love their team more than they do, but when they lose they want to tear the whole thing apart. They want to see the coach fired, or the roster purged or some player they hate traded away immediately. A fan can go from Dr. Jekyll to Mr. Hyde with a flick of a wrist shot, and perhaps its the roller coaster of emotions that makes hockey so fun to be a part of. While other sports can certainly have their moments I think hockey builds emotion far better than any of the major sports.
I would also say that for many fans, they have a pretty black or white mindset. They either like something or they hate it. We’re hockey fans, passionate people with opinions which is why we flock message boards to debate and spar intellectually with other fans. Minnesota has had sort of a love-hate relationship for the Penguins. Back when Wild Head Coach Jacques Lemaire was here he had a very public comment joust with Penguins’ legend Mario Lemieux who complained about Minnesota’s use of the neutral zone trap claiming it was ‘killing the game.” Lemaire retorted, “Well if that’s the way he wants the game to be, perhaps I should make a comeback.”
Jacques Lemaire had little love for the Penguins
I am sure another Wild coach, former Penguins assistant Mike Yeo probably doesn’t feel the same way as does our General Manager Chuck Fletcher who has equally strong ties with Pittsburgh. Yet the love-hate relationship continues when you talk about the fans’ thoughts on Sidney Crosby who still is a cause celebre with the media ever since he was concussed during last year’s Winter Classic in Pittsburgh. Like politics lately, Crosby is a polarizing figure amongst fans who either seem to love him or hate him. While Crosby is back skating and able to take contact it is rather unlikely he’ll be available for tonight’s game. Whether you like him or hate him, the fact of the matter is that when he’s healthy he’s one of the best in the league by far and its a testament to the depth and team game the Penguins play that they are still able to perform at a high level without a good portion of its best talent when you factor in Crosby’s absence and that of Evgeni Malkin. So whether either these star calibre talents show up tonight, will the Wild have enough firepower to be victorious?
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1st Period Thoughts: The game started with a real slow pace to it. I wouldn’t say it looked as though the Wild appeared relaxed, lethargic may be more accurate. Minnesota seemed tired, while the Penguins who had played the night before in Winnipeg had plenty of jump in their skates. The Wild were struggling to connect on their passes and when they did they had to slow down which allowed the Penguins to recover defensively. The Wild got an early power play off a hooking penalty on Virginia, Minnesota-native Matt Niskanen who used his stick to slow down Matt Cullen (who ironically was born in Virginia, Minnesota) who made a quick move to get around him. This opportunity to create some scoring chances and get their legs moving was squandered with more poor passing and far too predictable puck movement which allowed Pittsburgh to get sticks into passing lanes and thwart the man advantage without much difficulty. Pittsburgh would try to assert itself by using its superior speed to put the Wild on their heels, but all they could muster was a few shots from long range that Niklas Backstrom stopped with ease and Minnesota’s defense would escort the rebounds out of harm’s way. Minnesota started to show a little more life as its 3rd line of Cal Clutterbuck, Kyle Brodziak, and Colton Gillies had a nice shift by dumping it in and winning a battle along the boards where a hit by Clutterbuck set up a scoring chance for Brodziak who tried to dangle and lift a backhander that missed wide. The Wild would earn its 2nd power play soon after that when former Minnesota winger Pascal Dupuis was tagged with a holding penalty. Minnesota’s power play was much better this 2nd time around showing more creativity and assertiveness as a failed clearing attempt by Elk River, Minnesota-native Paul Martin was intercepted by Marco Scandella who slid a pass over to Guillaume Latendresse who moved into the slot and he fired a snap shot that was knocked down by Brent Johnson with the rebound just missing the stick of a crashing Matt Cullen. The Wild’s top line of Mikko Koivu, Dany Heatley and Devin Setoguchi looked very slow and struggled mightily against the speedier Penguins forwards who denied them both time and space causing another power play to stall. Perhaps out of frustration more than anything else, Wild defenseman Clayton Stoner sort of let Pittsburgh’s Ben Lovejoy pursue the puck to the corner before obliterating him with a huge shoulder check in the closing minutes of the period. Overall it was a frustrating period, where a very depleted Pittsburgh squad appeared to be more than a match for a hesitant Wild squad. Hopefully they show a bit more urgency and initiative in the 2nd period.
2nd Period Thoughts: The Wild didn’t look anymore energized to start the 2nd period. The same floating through the zone and hesitant play that allowed the Penguins to frustrate the Wild time after time. Minnesota would earn another early power play as James Neal was tagged with a hooking call. The Wild’s power play was sluggish but it was also the victim of its own poor choices. If you want to stop the Minnesota top line the remedy is pretty simple, deny time and space and they cough the puck up every time. The crowd nearly turned on the Wild until a late scoring chance for Guillaume Latendresse who was stopped by Johnson. One player inserted into the lineup tonight that is a bit of a head scratcher is Brad Staubitz who tried to get involved physically by throwing his weight around, but all he managed to do was earn a 4-minute double minor for getting his stick into the grill of Joe Vitale. The lack of discipline would prove to be costly. The Wild’s penalty killers were passive and uninvolved and this would result in the Penguins being able to create some quality chances. The first one came off the stick of Matt Cooke who rang a wrist shot off the pipe. That close call was a harbinger of disappointment for fans in the State of Hockey. The Wild would pay the price as just 2 seconds before the end of the 1st minor was killed, Jordan Staal gathered up the rebound off a Matt Cooke shot that had Backstrom sprawling in his crease and Staal just turned and flung a shot by the Minnesota goalie to give Pittsburgh a 2-0 lead. With the frustrating reaching a fever pitch, it was tempered to a degree by the fact the Penguins still had a full 2-minute power play left to kill. The Wild would earn back some of the crowd on a nice effort by Cal Clutterbuck who made a nice move to race around Paul Martin before he unleashed a wrist shot that beat Johnson for a shorthanded goal that cut the Penguins lead to one, 2-1. The Wild would rally back with another goal right? No, in fact just moments after the Wild got a huge shorthanded goal Minnesota had another lazy shift where the Penguins immediately re-established their dominance. Minnesota muddled its way through the next few minutes and would earn another play late in the period but get little accomplished as over handling of the puck worked against the Wild creating much of anything offensively apart from a point shot by Marco Scandella. As the period ended, you could sense the tension at the end of the period where fans were on the verge of serenading the team with a well-deserved boo. Its too bad they didn’t because that effort certainly was worthy of it. Pathetic.
3rd Period Thoughts: It didn’t get much better in the 3rd period. Minnesota would not help their cause, as early in the period Marco Scandella would give up a horrible turnover to James Neal in the neutral zone and he’d skate in and rifle a wrister that beat Backstrom 5-hole to put the Penguins up 3-1. It was an awful turnover followed up by a yogurt soft goal and Minnesota now found itself down by two. The boo’s rained down from the Xcel Energy Center who had seen enough and some started to depart for the exits. Minnesota tried to step it up a bit offensively by trying to take more opportunities to fire shots on goal. The Wild would get another power play, but again hesitant play and over handling of the puck turned into disaster as Pierre-Marc Bouchard attempted to use the boards to elude the pressure of Matt Cooke but he was unable to do so. Cooke was able to chip it out of the zone and former Wild winger Pascal Dupuis was off to the races and he moved in on the breakaway and got Backstrom to commit before roofing a backhander over the sprawling netminder to provide the dagger of a shorthanded goal giving Pittsburgh a 4-1 lead. The boo’s really started to rain down, as the epic failure of the power play personified the game this evening. Minnesota would strike back about a minute later as they came out on the next shift looking a little angry hitting just about everything they saw. Jordan Staal would side step a check from a crashing Brett Bulmer but inexplicably he’d let the puck go and Bulmer passed it out front where it was shoveled on goal by Cullen who was stopped by Johnson but Latendresse was there to bury the rebound to cut the Penguins lead to two, 4-2. Minnesota would attempt a late rally but it wasn’t meant to be as the speed of the Penguins allowed themselves to play keep away and they’d prevail.
It was not a great effort by anyone, let alone Niklas Backstrom who gave up 4 goals on 25 shots. The 3rd period goal by James Neal really killed the team emotionally but there was little initial push back. Defensively the Wild’s blueline made too many mistakes and did not move its feet well enough to deny the passing / shooting lanes the way Pittsburgh’s depleted defense corps did. Jared Spurgeon was a complete rag doll against Jordan Staal and again we’re seeing teams match bigger forwards whenever he’s out there because they know he’s more or less helpless to try and stop them.
Offensively, it is all about the incredible ineffectiveness of the top line of Koivu, Heatley and Setoguchi. When the team switched Bouchard for Setoguchi on the top line it was only marginally better for the top line but Setoguchi was decent on the 2nd line with Latendresse and Cullen. Latendresse continues to be Minnesota’s most dangerous forward, while Heatley and Koivu appear as if they’re just happy to be there. That isn’t good enough for a combination that is worth over $14 million dollars in payroll. Whether its fair or not you have to get more bang for your buck. Pierre-Marc Bouchard and Marek Zidlicky were a complete disaster working the point on the power play and were more indecisive than Congress.
Perhaps worst of all, the Wild got beat by the Penguins left overs. The Penguins were without Sidney Crosby, Evgeni Malkin, Kris Letang, Tyler Kennedy and they decided not to dress Marc-Andre Fleury and they won this game with ease against the Wild in the ‘friendly’ confines of Xcel Energy Center. Sorry, but that’s freakin’ ridiculous. I don’t care if the Wild are struggling, you must not be trying if you can’t beat a team being led by James Neal and a high quality 3rd line center in Jordan Staal. It is no surprise that Wild Head Coach Mike Yeo held a team meeting after tonight’s game before addressing the media. I hope he absolutely chewed out this team for that pathetic effort. The Wild were better rested, far more healthy and they got dominated by the skating M.A.S.H. unit that was the Penguins. There is no excuse for that. The Wild simply did not come ready to play and they deserved to lose. The Wild must realize that fans are not going to pay their hard earned money to watch garbage like that and I think its safe to say that the next time they play like that the “X” will be far less friendly than it was this evening.
Wild Notes:
~ The Wild roster tonight was as follows: Mikko Koivu, Dany Heatley, Devin Setoguchi, Guillaume Latendresse, Pierre-Marc Bouchard, Matt Cullen, Brett Bulmer, Colton Gillies, Darroll Powe, Brad Staubitz, Cal Clutterbuck, Kyle Brodziak, Nick Schultz, Greg Zanon, Clayton Stoner, Jared Spurgeon, Marek Zidlicky and Marco Scandella. Josh Harding backed up Niklas Backstrom. Matt Kassian, Justin Falk, and Nick Johnson were the healthy scratches.
~ The 3 Stars of the Game were: 1st Star Brent Johnson, 2nd Star Cal Clutterbuck, 3rd Star Jordan Staal
~ Attendance tonight was 17,297 at Xcel Energy Center.
Wild Prospect Report:
D – Nick Seeler (Muskegon, USHL) ~ The future Nebraska-Omaha blueliner is finding hockey a ‘bit’ more difficult in the U.S. top Jr. A league as he has just one goal but is a rather ugly -8 in 4 games thus far.
F – Anthony Hamburg (Omaha, USHL) ~ It has been an auspicious start for the Phoenix, Arizona-native as he begins the year with the Lancers. Last season he battled most of the season with lower body injuries which caused him to temporarily withdraw from Colgate to rejoin Omaha where he struggled to find the back of the net. So far its much the same as he’s scoreless and a -1 in just 2 games with the Lancers so far.
D – Josh Caron (Kamloops, WHL) ~ Unlike Nick Seeler who is an offensively skilled blueliner, Caron is a meat-and-potatoes stay at home defenseman who brings a lot of nastiness and physicality. The Blazers are an improving club and Caron is their go-to guy for a big hit who doesn’t mind dropping the gloves either. So far Caron has 3 assists and 33 penalty minutes in 8 games.
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