Game #27: Minnesota Wild at Anaheim Ducks, Sunday December 4, 2011 at 7:00pm (CST), Honda Center [GAME PREVIEW]

Here we go folks.  After the absolutely fantastic November the Minnesota Wild, it is officially time for Minnesota to demonstrate whether or not the success they’ve had so far is for real and not simply a flash in the pan.  Plus, I know as a fan, I’d like to make some of the opposing fans around the league eat some crow.

Yesterday, on my Facebook feed, I got notification of poll that the NHL published about the Wild.  Now, I found the poll to be a bit ridiculous.  The question posed was whether or not the Wild will win the President’s Trophy.  I’m sure they asked that particular question simply because over the past week, they’ve been going back and forth with the Pittsburgh Penguins for being in first place in the entire league.  Don’t get me wrong, I truly relish the nights where Minnesota pulls ahead of Pittsburgh.  However, I am a realistic sort who sometimes borders on being a cynic.  If the Wild continue to win as they have been, they will definitely be in the playoffs.  I do doubt whether or not they can maintain the back and forth with the Penguins for the best team in the league.

With that in mind, I decided to read some of the comments from other hockey fans on that particular Facebook post.  Stop the insanity!  Many of the comments were truly insane.  Some of the best gems came from Detroit Red Wings fans.  Clearly, they have a short memory or they like to rest on their past laurels.    Many of them seem to forget that in the three games already played between the two clubs, the Wild have won not just one, but two of those three games.  They have also forgotten that one of those wins was a shutout.  And then when Detroit fans have nothing better to say they will try to remind everyone that they are “Hockeytown, USA.”  History is a funny thing however.  “Hockeytown, USA” has been Warroad, MN and has been since 1955.

Then there are the fans who like to speak with “authority” on something they clearly know nothing about.  In this case, they think they know how Minnesota has come about their success.  All they did was prove that they know nothing about the Wild.  Many of them claimed that the Wild are relying on scoring by the likes of Mikko Koivu, Dany Heatley and Devin Setoguchi because they are the top line for the Wild.  Well in a “normal” world, one would think that would be the case.  However, this is bizarro season.  The Wild are winning because they are getting scoring from the likes of Kyle Brodziak, Matt Cullen and Cal Clutterbuck.  Clutterbuck happens to be the player who leads the league in shorthanded goals.  It should be noted that the Minneapolis Star Tribune is reporting Clutterbuck will be in the Wild’s lineup this evening.  They also don’t realize that injuries haven’t been quite as devastating this season as the young players who have been called up from Houston have been absolutely essential to the success.  They played under head coach Mike Yeo last season with the Aeros capped off by a trip to the Calder Cup Finals.  They know what Yeo wants, and thankfully the Wild vets have also bought into what Yeo is selling.  The last element that many fans are forgetting or disregarding all together is the strong performances of goaltenders Niklas Backstrom and Josh Harding.  It is because of those two that Minnesota is in most games on a nightly basis.

For Wild fans, we are used to this sort of reaction from fans around the league.  However, we kind of prefer it that way.  To be the “forgotten” team, to be underestimated and under the radar is the best place to be.  Because there’s nothing better to watch than teams whose fans have gotten too big for their britches to completely fall apart when their team has been eliminated from the playoffs.  Vancouver and Colorado fans have experienced this first hand, although I’m sure they’d like to forget that part of their respective team histories.  In fact that would be better than winning the President’s Trophy and then failing to deliver. 

Injury Report:

Minnesota:   Guillaume Latendresse (concussion), Marek Zidlicky (concussion), Justin Falk (chest), Cal Clutterbuck(charley horse), Niklas Backstrom (groin)

Anaheim:  Jason Blake (wrist), Lubomir Visnovsky (finger), Matt Smaby (thumb), Dan Ellis (groin), George Parros (eye)  

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