Game #19: Minnesota Wild vs Colorado Avalanche, Thursday November 17, 2011 at 7:00pm (CST), Xcel Energy Center [GAME PREVIEW]

I think my inspiration for including the YouTube clip above was NHL on the Fly‘s Kevin Weekes responding to a question by Brian Duff who asked, “Guess where the Minnesota Wild are in the West?”  After a brief cause Duff said in a rather surprised tone, “2nd in the West!”  Weekes immediately answered, “that’s crazy!”  Not to pick on Kevin Weekes too much for his reaction, because I think most fans across the State of Hockey never would’ve guessed this would happen either.  Yes, the Wild have as many as 2-3 games more played than clubs like San Jose (15GP), Detroit (16GP), and Phoenix (16GP) but they still have to win, or force the games to go beyond regulation in order to surpass Minnesota’s 23 points.  I agree, its hard to believe the Wild are at where they are in the standings, even when you’ve been watching every game like I have, to really believe its possible the team is where it is at this point in the 2011-12 season.  If you listen real closely to the experts, you’ll hear that they believe Minnesota’s current standing is more or less a fluke assisted by outstanding goaltending and strong defensive play.  These are the same experts, many of whom who picked the Wild to finish out of the playoff picture or near the bottom of the Western Conference standings like USAToday‘s Kevin Allen did.  So if anyone believes this is something the Wild can sustain does that make them certifiably crazy like the hockey fans simply following the bumper sticker asking people to ‘Honk if you love hockey.’  Maybe, but it sure has made for an entertaining and fun season thus far. 

Tonight’s opponent was that surprise team two seasons ago, when it took an unproven coach Joe Sacco and a plethora of young players like T.J. Galiardi, Chris Stewart, Brandon Yip and led by rookie phenom Matt Duchene where they used a fast start and some strong goaltending from Craig Anderson to propel them to the playoffs.  The young group didn’t make it past the first round but most experts were predicting yet another finish at the bottom before the 2009-10 season got underway.  Some of those names are no longer with the Avalanche, but they are still a very young (but skilled) club that plays up-tempo hockey.  I think it can be argued, if this team had better goaltending they could very easily be either above, or very close to the Wild in the standings.  They have a dynamic club that has a fair amount of scoring depth.  Matt Duchene is a rising star and his skill has appeared to rejuvenate Milan Hejduk who has found some of that old form that made him such a deadly combination with former Avalanche super sniper Joe Sakic.  David Jones is a player many hockey fans outside of the Western Conference are probably unfamiliar with, but he has a great knack to light the lamp and is off to another strong start this season.  Rookie Gabriel Landeskog is living up to the hype as a strong and athletic two-way forward he had coming out of Kitchener of the Ontario Hockey League.  Minnesota will have its hands full trying to slow down the Avalanche offense, but when you have such aggressive opponent, making them pay in transition is crucial and Minnesota should have those opportunities this evening.  

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Defensively, the Avalanche is also very young led by former Mississauga Ice Dogs star Kyle Quincey, former 1st Overall pick and Bloomington, Minnesota-native Erik Johnson, and the unsung hero of their blueline in Ryan Wilson who likes to dish out the hits the Colorado defense combines mobility with some grit.  Between the pipes is where the problems lie.  Minnesota made the biggest splash of this summer’s Entry Draft as Wild fans are well aware of, but Colorado a huge trade of its own by dealing away its 1st round pick for last year and another 1st round pick to the to the Washington Capitals this year for Semyon Varlamov.  Varlamov was a dissatisfied goaltender who found himself being a backup in Washington after he was outplayed by Michael Neuwirth.  It has been a tough transition so far for Varlamov who’s 3.30 goals against average is an eye sore, but because Colorado paid such a steep price to get him in an Avalanche uniform they are hoping he will work things out by giving him more starts than veteran Jean-Sebastien Giguere who has looked pretty comfortable between the pipes for the Avs thus far.  It wouldn’t surprise me at all if the Avalanche gave Giguere the start this evening. 

The Minnesota Wild returned the Aeros leading scorer and promising prospect Casey Wellman (Update, the Wild just called Wellman back up after he flew down to Houston probably in an effort to save a little money) in part due to another injury sustained by a defenseman when Marek Zidlicky was concussed after a clean hit delivered by Columbus’ Derek Dorsett on Tuesday.  The Wild chose to call up Kris Fredheim for what will be his NHL debut.  Fredheim joins an already rather young defense that features a number of Houston farmhands that have been surprisingly solid this season.  The Campbell River, British Columbia-product is more of a stay-at-home defenseman with decent mobility which fits precisely into Mike Yeo’s system of moving the puck forward up the ice quickly.  With Marco Scandella, Greg Zanon, Clayton Stoner, and Marek Zidlicky having spent a significant amount of time on the shelf the Wild have had to lean on its farm club more than ever but so far the Wild really have not seen a major let down.  That is a tribute to solid coaching former Aeros bench boss Mike Yeo and current Wild assistant coach Daryl Sydor provided last year as well as the tutelage they are receiving down there now with Aeros Head Coach John Torchetti and his defense guru Mike Van Ryn.  The decision to call up Fredheim was also interesting from another perspective in the fact it required the Wild to sign him to a one-year contract.  Fredheim was a tryout at this year’s training camp and was cut, but signed a minor league deal with the Aeros.  The Wild had other defenseman in Houston already under contract with the Wild like Chay Genoway and Tyler Cuma, but still chose Fredheim above those two.  Perhaps it was Yeo’s familiarity with Fredheim that prompted him to be selected over the other two.  Either way, its an opportunity that no doubt has the former Colorado College product rather excited as he’s about to have his first “cup of coffee” in the NHL. 

Minnesota is coming off a come-from-behind 4-2 win in Columbus where it overcame a horrible 1st period to score 4 unanswered in the 2nd and 3rd periods that ended a 5-game road trip with three wins and two losses.  Colorado is coming off a highlight filled 6-3 loss at the hands of the Pittsburgh Penguins.  The Wild are still pretty anemic offensively, but they should have more opportunities this evening against a porous Colorado defense and one of the worst penalty kills in the league.  Defensively, Minnesota’s young and inexperienced defense will have to be moving their feet to keep up with the speedy collection of forwards the Avalanche employs or they could find themselves parading to the penalty box as they did throughout much of their road trip.  Colorado’s power play is very lethal, and Minnesota would be wise to avoid taking penalties altogether.  It should be a great game, in what is the first of 6 games against the Avalanche this season.  GAME ON! 

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