Minnesota Wild (13-9-0) 26pts 5th in the Central
2.82 Goals For (10th)
2.36 Goals Against (6th)
8.8% Power Play (29th)
88.4% Penalty Kill (2nd)
Top 5 Scorers:
1. #11 Zach Parise ~ 8G 9A = 17pts
2. #22 Nino Niederreiter ~ 11G 3A = 14pts
3. #29 Jason Pominville ~ 4G 10A = 14pts
4. #26 Thomas Vanek ~ 2G 12A = 14pts
5. #20 Ryan Suter ~ 1G 11A = 12pts
Top 3 PIM’s:
1. #6 Marco Scandella ~ 32 PIM’s
2. #18 Ryan Carter ~ 22 PIM’s
3. #2 Keith Ballard ~ 21 PIM’s
Top Goaltenders:
1. #35 Darcy Kuemper (10-7-0) 2.37GAA .911%SP 3SO
2. #32 Niklas Backstrom (3-2-0) 2.04GAA .914%SP
Vs.
St. Louis Blues (15-6-2) 32pts 2nd in the Central
2.65 Goals For (16th)
2.04 Goals Against (3rd)
23.5% Power Play (4th)
79.1% Penalty Kill (22nd)
Top 5 Scorers:
1. #91 Vladimir Tarasenko ~ 13G 12A = 25pts
2. #17 Jaden Schwartz ~ 8G 13A = 21pts
3. #12 Jori Lehtera ~ 7G 14A = 21pts
4. #22 Kevin Shattenkirk ~ 2G 16A = 18pts
5. #20 Alexander Steen ~ 5G 10A = 15pts
Top 3 PIM’s:
1. #75 Ryan Reaves ~ 31 PIM’s
2. #9 Steve Ott ~ 28 PIM’s
3. #28 Ian Cole ~ 19 PIM’s
Top Goaltenders:
1. #1 Brian Elliott (8-4-1) 1.82GAA .931%SP 1SO
2. #34 Jake Allen (7-2-1) 2.20GAA .913%SP 2SO
So last night I’m watching the game. Now mind you, I had had several adult beverages by this time. Minnesota goes up with a 3-0 lead, and part of me is feeling pretty good. However, if I had been closer to being sober, I would have been worried much, much sooner about having such a substantial lead. The not-quite-sober part of me had clearly put the abysmal New York Rangers game out of my head. Yet, when the train wreck occurred, it wasn’t quite as painful. I was dumbfounded, yet I should have expected the push back by Dallas. Not only did the push back, but they had the lead for a while as well. I think my best reaction to the game tying goal, surprisingly by much-maligned (yes he deserves such comments) Thomas Vanek was expressed by two words: holy balls. Trust me folks, he’s the last person I would expect to put up such a goal. And then to add the icing to the cake, it was Vanek who initiated the play that resulted in the game winning, overtime goal by Marco Scandella. I can’t remember my reaction to Scandella’s goal, but ‘holy balls’ works just as well.
While I’m happy about last night’s win, I am not happy about gift-wrapping a point for a divisional opponent. Sure, it’s still relatively early in the season, but you just can’t give divisional (or even conference) opponents overtime points. Those points can often come back to haunt you in the standings when playoffs are around the corner. We already gave a loser point to Winnipeg and now one to Dallas. Tonight, we face another divisional opponent in St. Louis. They are a team that doesn’t need any help from us. At least they’re in the same position as Minnesota, in that they played last night as well. They also won in overtime, but they gave the loser point to the Edmonton Oilers which won’t help them in a playoff push and just might help prevent them from getting another first pick overall in the 2015 NHL Entry Draft.
The Blues lineup features plenty of scoring depth led by Russian sniper Vladimir Tarasenko and surprising rookie Jori Lehtera as his set up man. Jaden Schwartz has had a strong start to the season and has always given the Wild fits. Toss in David Backes, Paul Stastny, Alex Steen, Patrik Berglund and a gifted blueline led by Alex Pietrangelo and Kevin Shattenkirk they have plenty of offense to make matching up against the Blues sort of like pick your poison. The Wild will want to keep the game as high tempo as possible. On the bright side, was the departure of the pest Vladimir Sobotka who left for bigger money in the KHL.
I also really, really hate playing the Blues. And while we’re in the safe, happy confines of Xcel Energy Center, the Blues are one of those teams, where location means little. Minnesota needs to come and play like they actually give a damn. Now the young players have been doing that. We need more confident and determined play coming from all on the ice. That determination definitely has to come from the guy between the pipes (hopefully it’s Niklas Backstrom tonight) and the guy behind the bench. Yes, I’m looking at you Mike Yeo. In both the Los Angeles and Dallas games, Yeo kept Darcy Kuemper in the game longer than he should have. In both games, but especially the Dallas one after what happened against the Kings, Yeo should have pulled Kuemper after the opponent scored their second goal. Last night could have just as easily gone to the Stars. Yes, I’m glad that Kuemper fought back, but I think his win goes more to his skaters, as they decided that they had to (and did) score five goals last night. It’s when Minnesota doesn’t score that the goaltending problems become that much worse. The Wild also called up Justin Falk from Iowa so perhaps they feel they need to be a little bigger on the blueline to contain the Blues’ collection of power forwards. The Wild also sent down Mathew Dumba to benefit from more ice time and responsibility in Iowa.
I’d like to say I feel confident about tonight’s game, but I can’t. I have a feeling that we’re going to see more of what we saw both on Wednesday night and last night. For those of you in the States over the age of 21, you might want to take a page from my book, because I certainly was feeling less stressed over last night’s mistakes.
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