One of the best Science Fiction in the last 40 years was the 1982 film Star Trek II: the Wrath of Khan. In the movie Captain James T. Kirk (William Shatner) and the crew of the USS Enterprise face off against an old nemesis they found on the planet Seti Alpha V, Khan Singh (Ricardo Montalban) a ruthlessly ambitious and genetically modified (for superior intelligence and strength) person from the late 20th Century the they had found frozen and drifting through space. Years before the USS Enterprise had freed Khan and his followers of their prison in space and they attempted to try to take over the ship. Fearing further attempts by Khan to take over the ship they exiled him and his followers to the planet. Conditions on the planet worsened it was Khan's intelligence that allowed him and his followers to survive but the conditions were miserable. Needless to say Khan was more than a little bitter when the two would meet again as he had managed to take over another starship, the USS Reliant and he was determined to get revenge on his nemesis, delivering the famous line, "There is an old Klingon proverb, where revenge is a dish best served cold." With that, I wonder what sort of 'revenge' is in store for San Jose's Marc-Edouard Vlasic after he caused injury to Dany Heatley that will have him out of the lineup for the rest of the season with a shoulder injury that required surgery. 'Pickles' as he's known by his teammates, did not recieve a suspension for his actions, but did recieve a $8,378.38 fine from the NHL. Will the Wild be looking to add a bit more physical punishment to go with that total?
My guess, not likely. Especially after the way the Wild handled Tuesday night's meeting between the Edmonton Oilers and their first encounter with Taylor Hall after his 4-game suspension for kneeing and injuring Cal Clutterbuck. Until the game's conclusion you would not have known the two players had an incident with one another, but after that the two would chirp at one another pretty good and with one more game betwen the Wild and Oilers left perhaps we could say its "to be Continued" in movie-speak. With the Wild and Sharks jockeying for position in the convoluted Western Conference playoff picture a violent altercation between Vlasic and a member of the team is unlikely. No one would want to risk costing the other valuable points in the standings just to deliver a cheap shot even though they might wish they could. But will cooler head's prevail or will the Wild serve up a healthy and (cold) dish of revenge to Vlasic and the Sharks?
Click on "Continue Reading" for the rest of the article…
1st Period Thoughts:
Remember back in the day when people would whine about Jacques Lemaire and the neutral zone trap? Remember when they complained about how “boring” it was? Remember how they were frustrated about how the trap messed with the flow of the game? Well I don’t care who you are, the start to this game was far more boring than any of those Jacques Lemaire games. Both teams are playing with a lot of caution, just waiting for the other to make a mistake. The early part of the period felt like nothing more than a series of starts and stops with little to no flow. Not my idea of a good game. The first exciting moment of this game, come because of a long pass from Kyle Brodziak to Jason Pominville. Pominville’s break away chance was thwarted by Antti Niemi, but it gives you hope that we’ll see more offensive chances like that from the Wild. And then the offensive chances go the opposite direction with a Martin Havlat with a little help from Mikko Koivu. This is exactly the kind of goal that both San Jose and Minnesota are waiting for, the dirty goal that you hope to ride for a long time or use as a foundation for more dirty goals. My hope is that this is the only time I will be subjected to the Casio keyboard version of “Rock and Roll, Part 2.” I’m honestly not sure which goal celebration song I hate more, this one or Nashville’s. While things have certainly picked up since Havlat’s goal, more pressure needs to be applied by the Wild, instead it still seems a bit hesitant on the part of the Wild. About the only other major scoring chance came about because of a Niemi error. The Sharks goaltender had gone behind his net in order to play the puck, but the puck got caught up in his skates. Devin Setoguchi realized this, and tried to get the puck out of Niemi’s skates and into the net, but Setoguchi just never had the right angle or position to do so. But much like Havlat’s goal, it would have been a dirty goal had it gone in. After twenty minutes, the Wild went into the first intermission just down one goal The Wild lucked out that San Jose appears to not be firing on cylinders, and they need to hope they never do. They need to pick up the tempo, and show why they deserve to be in the playoff hunt.
2nd Period Thoughts:
There was certainly more flow to start the period. It certainly makes for a farm more interesting game to watch. I must say, the reaction of the hometown fans when the Wild are on the road always cracks me up, of course the level of humor depends on the fans in question. Tonight in San Jose, the stands must be full of soccer moms who don’t like the physicality of the game. Any time a Wild player pushed or hit a Shark player, it was if Minnesota was committing murder. The San Jose fans finally got their wish granted, when Clayton Stoner was called for holding. That ill-timed San Jose power play resulted in a Logan Couture goal. Like one of my fellow Wild fans said, you can’t play defense all game long. And you especially can’t play defense all night long when it’s not the best defense. Last I looked, often the best defense is a strong offense. Minnesota quickly needs to find a way to get on the board and put the Sharks on their heels. The Wild would finally get on the board after a beautiful pass by Jason Pominville to Pierre-Marc Bouchard. That pass would give Bouchard a break away chance, and where Pominville’s break away chance in the first was unsuccessful, Bouchard’s was perfect. The Wild also tried to continue their offensive push, although Brodziak’s shot clanged off the pipe instead of finding its way into the back of the net. Certainly in the last third of the period, the Wild would try and push themselves. However that felt short lived, when Backstrom made a poor decision to go behind his net to play the puck when there was plenty of San Jose traffic in the area. That poor decision would give Havlat his second goal of the night. Minnesota, and Mikael Granlund in particular, was able to intercept a bunch of San Jose passes in the Shark zone, however, those interceptions would not result in any serious scoring chances. There were some other chances as well, but they were only chances. There comes a time in a game where chances need to stop being only chances and actually become goals. We need those chances to generate goals early in the third period, otherwise, we might as well pack this one in for the night.
3rd Period Thoughts:
So, this period is starting right around 11:30pm Central Time. I’m tired, and you have to begin to wonder if the Wild players are thinking it’s late for them as well. However, they’re surprising me. They could have come out sluggish as all get out, yet they’re not. And then just when you think things are going to get better, you have to hear the Casio keyboard goal song for the fourth time tonight on a Raffi Torres game, which was then quickly followed by a Joe Pavelski goal just 22 second later. 5-1 games are hard to come back in, and I hold no hope of Minnesota coming back. After the fifth Sharks goal, Darcy Kuemper was brought in to relieve Backstrom. There are several fans I know who questioned why Mike Yeo even started Backstrom to begin with. He’s had some good games, but he’s had his shaky moments as well, and it would have been nice to see Backstrom get the night off. And if the Wild are going to make the playoffs, we definitely need to get Kuemper into the game, as I highly doubt Josh Harding will be ready to play. Harding is currently in Houston on a rehab assignment. He claims that his neurologist finally has him on the right medication for his muscular sclerosis symptoms. And then when you thought the night couldn’t get worse, the Sharks get their sixth goal of the night from Couture (his second of the night). You just have to think that either Couture or Havlat will get the hat trick tonight, just to pour salt into our wounds. And in fact, I’m sitting here right now thinking I had things recorded on our DVR that would have been far more interesting and less painful to watch than this game. Watching games like this one, make me realize that if we make it to the playoffs, it is most likely going to a quick series. I don’t believe we have the kind of players who will be able to upset opponents like the 2002-03 team did. So since the Wild checked out a while ago, I am going to check out now. My eyes refuse to stay open.
Wild Notes:
~ The Wild roster tonight is as follows: Matt Cullen, Mikko Koivu, Devin Setoguchi, Zach Parise, Jason Zucker, Pierre-Marc Bouchard, Kyle Brodziak, Torrey Mitchell, Charlie Coyle, Jason Pominville, Mikael Granlund, Cal Clutterbuck, Brett Clark, Clayton Stoner, Jared Spurgeon, Tom Gilbert, Ryan Suter and Jonas Brodin. Darcy Kuemper shared duties between the pipes with Niklas Backstrom. Nate Prosser and Justin Falk were the healthy scratches.
~ The 3 Stars of the Game were: 1st Star, Logan Couture; 2nd Star, Martin Havlat; 3rd Star, Raffi Torres.
~ Attendance was 17,562 at HP Pavillion.
Wild Prospect Update:
F – Adam Gilmour (Muskegon, USHL) ~ The lanky forward scored the lone goal in a 4-1 playoff loss to Dubuque Wednesday night, Muskegon now trails 1-0 to the Saints who had the best regular season record in the USHL. The Boston College commit had 19 goals, 46 points in 64 games during the regular season.
Add The Sports Daily to your Google News Feed!
