Minnesota Wild (12-9-0) 24pts 5th in the Central
2.71 Goals For (13th)
2.29 Goals Against (6th)
9% Power Play (29th)
87.9% Penalty Kill (4th)
Top 5 Scorers:
1. #11 Zach Parise ~ 8G 6A = 14pts
2. #22 Nino Niederreiter ~ 10G 3A = 13pts
3. #29 Jason Pominville ~ 4G 9A = 13pts
4. #20 Ryan Suter ~ 1G 10A = 11pts
5. #26 Thomas Vanek ~ 1G 10A = 11pts
Top 3 PIM’s:
1. #6 Marco Scandella ~ 30 PIM’s
2. #18 Ryan Carter ~ 22 PIM’s
3. #2 Keith Ballard ~ 21 PIM’s
Top Goaltenders:
1. #35 Darcy Kuemper (9-7-0) 2.26GAA .911%SP 3SO
2. #32 Niklas Backstrom (3-2-0) 2.04GAA .914%SP
Vs.
Dallas Stars (9-9-4) 22pts 6th in the Central
2.86 Goals For (8th)
3.32 Goals Against (28th)
15.6% Power Play (22nd)
79% Penalty Kill (22nd)
Top 5 Scorers:
1. #91 Tyler Seguin ~ 17G 11A = 28pts
2. #14 Jamie Benn ~ 8G 12A = 20pts
3. #90 Jason Spezza ~ 4G 15A = 19pts
4. #21 Antonie Roussel ~ 5G 7A = 12pts
5. #6 Trevor Daley ~ 5G 6A = 11pts
Top 3 PIM’s:
1. #21 Antoine Roussel ~ 53 PIM’s
2. #14 Jamie Benn ~ 28 PIM’s
3. #6 Trevor Daley ~ 18 PIM’s
Top Goaltenders:
1. #32 Kari Lehtonen (9-5-4) 2.93GAA .908%SP 1SO
2. #29 Anders Lindback (0-4-0) 4.52GAA .845%SP
Thanksgiving dinner, there are the weeks of anticipation leading up to it. Whether it’s just the simple craving for delicious turkey, or the many side dishes that make for caloric overload that causes many to want to snooze after the great feast, it is the one holiday meal that many look forward to every year. When you go to family functions such as these you pretty much know what to expect. Every family has particular meal items that they do year after year. And when you get married, you often get introduced to new ones. For example, my family always has lefse. For those of you not of Norwegian or Swedish descent, it’s a potato flatbread that looks a lot like a tortilla. We slather it with butter and sugar and roll it up. For my husband’s family, they always have wild rice casserole, although being that we’re both from Minnesota, it should be called wild rice hotdish. Hey New York Times, did you see me mention Grape Salad anywhere? There are times however, when our much anticipated dishes either don’t appear or turn out horribly. Thanksgiving 2005 was particularly tragic for me. My in-laws for whatever reason did not have pumpkin pie. One month later (two days before Christmas), while carrying some presents to the car, I slipped and fell, broke my ankle, and was having surgery. Ever since then, I have taken it upon myself to make the pumpkin pie, because I have taken that omission as an omen. Then there was the year at my in-laws, that we bit into the green bean casserole. My husband, his brother and his now current wife, and the cousins in attendance all kind of looked at each other. No one really wanted to say anything, but we all had those looks with each other. Finally, my husband who is not afraid to speak his mind asked his mom what he had done to the beans. It turns out that the French’s fried onions that go on top had gone rancid. Trust me people, this is not something you ever want to encounter. It left such a nasty taste in the mouth.
Wednesday night’s Minnesota Wild were a lot like that ill-fated green bean casserole. Everything they did pretty much left a bad taste in the mouth. Let’s get the big problem out in the open right away. Darcy Kuemper should have been pulled from the game the minute Los Angeles went up 2-0. I have no idea what Mike Yeo was thinking, and that missed decision has once again fueled the “fire Mike Yeo” talk. Kuemper was not seeing the puck and when he did, he had a hard time controlling it. To head into that first intermission down 4-0 is absolutely inexcusable. It’s even more inexcusable when you realize that before Wednesday night, the Kings had only won a single game on the road. We pretty much gift wrapped their second road win for them. At least Yeo had the decency to pull Kuemper for the remainder of the game and Niklas Backstrom took control for the second and third periods. Backstrom on the other hand, played a shut out game, too bad he just didn’t receive any assistance from his skaters. Pass, pass, pass, pass is about all they will do these days. I’m beginning to question the shot clocks during the games. Perhaps that stat keeper is simply counting our numerous passes as shots, and that’s how we end up winning in the shot totals, yet completely fail on the score. It would be nice to clone players like Jason Zucker and Nino Niederreiter, because at least they will take shots on goal. I still have a bad taste in my mouth from that game.
If you want one positive about tonight’s game, it is this. Dallas will not be dressing one their biggest pests tonight. Ryan Garbutt is out with a two game suspension. Just like his last name would imply, he’s about the biggest pain out there. He can easily get under the skin of his opponent and then force them to take a stupid retaliatory penalty. However Garbutt isn’t usually the physical Dallas player I worry about. I’m more concerned that Antoine Roussel is still in the game. Now there is a player I really dislike. And he has fifty-three penalty minutes to prove why he is both a pain and a threat. Minnesota is not a physical team, and players like Garbutt and Roussel make the game that much more difficult for us. However, I guess we should be a little thankful that at least one of them is out of the game. I just pray that Roussel doesn’t take the head off of one of our players.
I just hope that Minnesota finds some way to redeem themselves after Wednesday’s debacle. They need to shoot far more than they pass. They need to support their goaltender. They need to have their goaltender support them. And then while doing all of that, they need to find the back of the net. That may be a tall order, but they have to put Wednesday behind them. Oh and perhaps remember that tonight is a four point game. I think I’m glad that I’ll be watching a high school hockey game tonight instead of this one.
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