Minnesota Wild (36-24-11) 83pts 4th in the Central
2.38 Goals For (26th)
2.37 Goals Against (5th)
18.6% Power Play (14th)
80% Penalty Kill (23rd)
Top 5 Scorers:
1. #29 Jason Pominville ~ 26G 24A = 50pts
2. #11 Zach Parise ~ 23G 22A = 45pts
3. #26 Matt Moulson ~ 20G 24A = 44pts
4. #9 Mikko Koivu ~ 9G 32A = 41pts
5. #20 Ryan Suter ~ 7G 32A = 39pts
Top 3 PIM's:
1. #4 Clayton Stoner ~ 82 PIM's
2. #39 Nate Prosser ~ 54 PIM's
3. #24 Matt Cooke ~ 52 PIM's
Top Goaltenders:
1. #35 Darcy Kuemper (12-6-4) 2.26GAA .922%SP 2SO
2. #30 Ilya Bryzgalov (6-8-7) 2.86GAA .911%SP 2SO
Vs.
Detroit Red Wings (33-24-13) 79pts 5th in the Atlantic
2.59 Goals For (19th)
2.69 Goals Against (14th)
17.8% Power Play (17th)
83.7% Penalty Kill (10th)
Top 5 Scorers:
1. #55 Niklas Kronwall ~ 7G 36A = 43pts
2. #11 Daniel Alfredsson ~ 17G 25A = 42pts
3. #14 Gustav Nyquist ~ 21G 17A = 38pts
4. #93 Johan Franzen ~ 15G 20A = 35pts
5. #21 Tomas Tatar ~ 15G 13A = 28pts
Top 3 PIM's:
1. #27 Kyle Quincey ~ 78 PIM's
2. #2 Brendan Smith ~ 54 PIM's
3. #55 Niklas Kronwall ~ 44 PIM's
Top Goaltenders:
1. #35 Jimmy Howard (17-16-10) 2.64GAA .913%SP 2SO
2. #50 Jonas Gustavsson (15-4-3) 2.55GAA .912%SP
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Rinse, wash, repeat. Those of course are the basic instructions you'd expect to find on the back of any bottle of shampoo. To make it hockey related it should be score, defend, repeat. Unfortunately for the Minnesota Wild over its last 10 games, where its gone a paltry 3-3-4 its been more like score, defend, hope its enough. As any Wild fan can tell you, it hasn't been enough and valuable opportunities to earn an extra point or two have slipped through the Wild's grasp.
Yesterday's game was no exception. The Wild struck first on a nice power play goal by Mikko Koivu who decided to take his chances to shoot the puck for a change. Minnesota has a 1-0 lead and were spending lots of time in the Detroit zone, peppering Jimmy Howard with shots but what happened? A Detroit power play and they score as Brendan Smith tracks down a shot off the post by David Legwand and despite all that dominance the teams were still even. The Wild play even better in the 2nd period, have a number of 'close' chances but fail to put a puck behind Howard and the opportunistic Red Wings take the lead on a power play goal by Legwand. So 2 periods in the books, Wild playing reasonably well but trailing 2-1 to a battered opponent. (More on the banged up Detroit Red Wings a bit later) Wild get a penalty shot thanks to Charlie Coyle's hustle and he converts early in the 3rd to tie the game. Wild back in business right? Not quite. Wild defense lets up a little and Gustav Nyquist gets a little spaces, races in and rips a shot by Darcy Kuemper to give Detroit a 3-2 lead. Wild push for the equalizer, it can't bury the biscuit and they again feel the disappointment of another loss. Its an all too familiar storyline for the Wild, especially in the homestretch of the season. As the pressure to win amplifies, the offense mostly disappears and the losses mount as the opportunities to qualify for the playoffs become more dicey.
Since the NHL plays an 82-game schedule, and being a die hard fan that I am I take the time to listen to at least part of the post-game press conferences with Head Coach Mike Yeo. Like most coaches, Yeo is a cliche factory and seems to use the same phrases after wins as well as the same kind of statements after a loss. Vague statements like "we need to be better" or "we need guys to give us a full 60 minutes" then listing a few positives the team had are heard universally after just about every loss. In Coach Yeo's most recent post-game press conference, he tried to be proactive in attempting to address the elephant in the room (at least one of them). As Minneapolis Star Tribune's Wild beat writer Michael Russo aptly observed, that may have been a serious tactical error on his part. You can read Russo's thoughts on that here.
The losses have steadily eroded the cushion of 'control your destiny' to being more like a desperate person hoping they get lucky by gambling on a horse race. Fans are left to watching the nightly scoreboard in hopes of Phoenix and Dallas suffer losses. With the exception of the losses of Josh Harding and Niklas Backstrom the Wild are more or less healthy. Look at Detroit? No Henrik Zetterberg, no Pavel Datsyuk, as Niklas Kronwall and Kyle Quincey both looked very banged up and fragile yesterday the fairly healthy Wild STILL couldn't get it done on home ice. Speaking of Kronwall, after getting crumpled by Mikko Koivu early in the 1st the Detroit's defense looked dazed and confused while he was nursing his injury back in the Red Wings locker room. It was during this time that the Wild struck on the power play and really were able to pile up shots on goal. The Wild's phyical play was wreaking havoc with Detroit, but for whatever reason Minnesota eased up its physical play, Kronwall returned and the Wild could not take advantage of its relatively good start. Kronwall is Detroit's Ryan Suter, he is their workhorse and currently their leading scorer as well. If you know he's banged up, why wouldn't you continue to punish him physically? I think the Wild helped Detroit by easing up and they would be wise to avoid making that same mistake this evening.
Offensively, the Wild had reasonable games from two of its youngsters in Charlie Coyle who really was asserting himself, playing with speed and using his big frame to protect the puck well in addition to Nino Niederreiter who looked more comfortable as well. The Wild still need others to step up, most notably its veterans. Kyle Brodziak is now struggling to even win draws let alone play competent defense and he was on the ice for all 3 of Detroit's goals yesterday. That is unacceptable. Same goes for Dany Heatley, who complains to the media and then gives a half-hearted effort that still somehow had him placed on the ice in the final minute of yesterday's game. Both have contributed very little offensively and have become liabilities that the team has to try to 'hide' in its lineup. This situation needs to be resolved because to the fans it simply appears as though the coaching staff lacks the authority or will power to scratch them.
Between the pipes, Wild will probably be going with Ilya Bryzgalov over Darcy Kuemper who has been not quite as air tight in recent games. Personally I don't care who the Wild place as their #1 starter as long as the team wins games. The problem is, the Wild are the kind of team that cannot afford for its goaltender to have even an 'ok' game and still expect to win. One soft goal or bad goal given up and the team finds itself in a lot of trouble to try to make that up. Whether its fair to blame the goaltender or not, the margin of error for Wild goaltenders has traditionally been razor thin as they cannot rely on their team scoring 3 or more goals per game like other goalies can. Bryzgalov is going to have to have a big game tonight if Minnesota is to have a chance, even against a depleted Detroit squad.
No more excuses, its put up or shut up time. Hyperbole and anecdotes aside, the team still in a position to control its destiny by simply winning games. How they win does not matter, as long as they end up with 2 points at the end of each contest no one will really care how pretty it was or was not. They better start playing like a contender, or at least admit after the game they're just a pretender.
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