Veteran power play unit dooms Wild to 3-1 loss to Nashville

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The Nashville parted ways with the only coach they’ve ever had this summer, and replaced him with a veteran, Stanley Cup winning coach Peter Laviolette and many wondered if there would be a period of transition.  Not even close as the Predators have embraced a more up-tempo style, some savvy trades and now sit atop the NHL Central Division.  Nashville continues to play the hard-working game that has been a franchise hallmark along with superb goaltending but now has been combined with a better than a pop-gun attack offense and you have the makings of a potential Stanley Cup contender.  With the Wild languishing at the bottom of the Central Division, Minnesota has to try to find a way to beat its expansion cousin.  If you asked experts at the end of the season which club had a better chance to lead the division, the Wild probably would’ve been there pick.

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So much for the experts.  Needless to say, expectations are just that.  Its like predicting the weather, you may be right and you may be wrong.  However no one is going to feel sorry for the struggling Wild, and even though Nashville may occupy the top spot in the division the team needs the points regardless.  After another rough homestand can Minnesota rally back with a victory over the Predators this afternoon?

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1st Period Thoughts:  Minnesota had a lot of jump in its skates to start the game as they put a ton of pressure on the Predators offensively.  Zach Parise would come off the wing and unload a snap shot that was dismissed by the shoulder of Pekka Rinne.  Minnesota continued to buzz around the Predators’ zone as the 2nd line of youngsters Nino Niederrieter, Charlie Coyle and Jordan Schroeder were able to create a few quality chances from in close.  The Predators would weather the storm and counter by working the puck deep into the Minnesota end and off a bad defensive zone turnover by Jonas Brodin the puck would be worked out front as Niklas Backstrom was rolling around his crease like a bad high school goalie when Mike Fisher drove a shot home.  1-0 Nashville and you could feel the air go out of the arena.  A goal that was scored way too effortlessly which seemed to insult the rest of the team.  Minnesota would try to answer back but you could sense they were a little gun shy to go all out on the attack knowing how well the Predators could counter attack.  Anton Volchenkov would step in front of Jordan Schroeder for an obvious interference penalty giving the Wild their first power play of the game.  On the power play the Wild went with its old veteran group and they stumbled through the first few minutes as Ryan Suter and poor passing resulted in little to no offensive pressure through the 1st half of the man advantage.  With the 2nd unit, the Wild would put out its youngsters and they had marginally more success.  A long pass was tracked down by Niederreiter and he’d try to work a wrap around that was steered aside by Rinne.  Minnesota would manage to maintain possession and Niederreiter would fire a wrist shot that was knocked down by Rinne and the Wild came up empty on the power play.  I don’t understand why Jason Zucker should be relegated to the 2nd power play unit after showing some great scoring touch in Parise’s absence.  After a few minutes the Wild would strike as Christian Folin would send a shot towards the goal from the wall where Niederreiter and Coyle were waiting and it was tipped by the Swiss forward across to Coyle for an easy tap in.  1-1 game.  Perhaps sensing his team needed a spark, the Predators’ Nate Gaustad would drop the gloves with Ryan Carter.  Carter at just 6’0″ was a pretty big mismatch for the 6’4″ Gaustad and he kept the Preds tough guy in a head lock limiting his ability to throw punches and as the officials stepped into break it up it was Gaustad catching Carter with one good punch.  Not much of a fight but Carter was smart about it.  The Predators would try to answer back and they’d nearly re-take the lead as Seth Jones stepped into a low-lying slap shot that was deflected by Jason Zucker and then off the skate of Jared Spurgeon who had it go of his skate and just miss wide.  The Wild would try to answer back with speed and Minnesota fans would be treated to the ‘best’ and ‘worst’ of Thomas Vanek as raced up the ice to make a perfect saucer pass feed to a crashing Parise that he directed on goal that was steered away by Rinne.  Them minutes later Thomas Vanek would steal a puck in the closing seconds of the period as he raced down the ice on a breakaway and instead of shooting the puck he’d try to send a pass to a trailing Zach Parise that was partially deflected and he was unable to get to the puck so despite the tremendous opportunity they would not get as much as a shot on goal.  With the crowd grumbling every Vanek epithet they could think of the period would end.  It was a relatively good period for the Wild as they out shot Nashville 14-8.  Still, you can’t but wonder if that passed up chance won’t come back to haunt this team.

2nd Period Thoughts:  The Predators started the period with a quality chance as Filip Forsberg pulled the trigger on a heavy shot that was partially gloved by Backstrom and the puck would hop out and hit the ice and just skitter wide of the mark.  And Erik Haula was there to help nudge the puck to the corner before Craig Smith could pounce on the loose biscuit.  As Smith tried to pick up the loose puck he’d hauled down Folin giving the Wild another power play.  Unfortunately it would be short-lived as Parise high sticked Seth Jones making it 4-on-4 the most part a little less than a minute and a half.  Not much happened with it 4-on-4, or the Predators’ short power play.  Niederreiter would rifle a shot on goal that Rinne struggled to bat aside as the Wild tried to amp up their intensity.  The Wild would earn another power play as Craig high sticked Suter.  unfortunately the Wild utilized its older veteran group which used slow, predictable puck movement which made it easy for Nashville’s penalty killers to deny shooting lanes.  The Wild would waste over half of the power play before it sent out its 2nd unit made up of youngsters and the team finally started to send shots on goal and forcing Rinne to make some saves as Niederreiter and Zucker pulled the trigger.  With another penalty killed, Pekka Rinne would high stick Jason Zucker as he tried to clear a puck and Minnesota would go back on the power play.  Again the Wild used its veteran group and the team basically wasted over a minute just slowly passing the puck around the perimeter and wasting time.  The younger group would come back out and as the last time more pucks started to be directed on goal but nothing real threatening and another power play would go by the wayside with nothing to show for it.  Minnesota still continued to control the pace of play, and were still winning many of the little races for the puck.  The Predators were patient and waiting for moments to counter attack and they nearly cashed in as Mike Ribeiro set up Craig Smith that was denied by a fine save by Backstrom as he got across his crease.  Jason Zucker would hustle and dig a puck out to Jason Pominville who got off a quick shot that Rinne fought off and then the puck would work back out to the point where Mikko Koivu let go a snap shot that Rinne held onto as Zucker beared down drawing the ire of Mattias Ekholm as they pushed and shoved near the Predators’ crease.  The next few minutes would slip away, but frustrations would boil over at the conclusion of the period as Folin and Ekholm dropped the gloves but the officials moved in before any punches were thrown.  Both would start the 3rd period

3rd Period Thoughts:  With the ice a bit more open at 4-on-4, the Wild would try to activate its defense to apply extra pressure on the Predators.  Rinne was doing a great job of controlling rebounds and the game would become mostly a snooze fest as neither club seemed to have a ton of jump to make it exciting.  Almost on cue the Wild would get caught chasing around its own end defensively and the result was an easy goal for Calle Jarnkrok as Backstrom flopped in his crease like a JV goaltender.  2-1 Predators.  The Wild’s 2nd line of Coyle, Schroeder and Niederreiter had the first quality chance after Jarnkrok’s tally as Schroeder and Niederreiter worked a give and go and as Schroeder fanned on the shot, Coyle was there to gun it on goal that was held onto by Rinne.  The Wild would fall back asleep and the Predators were quick to pounce on a horrible turnover by Justin Falk as he spun and sent a puck out to the slot for an easy goal by Colin Wilson.  3-1 Nashville.  The Wild finally showed a little more life as Vanek was nearly set up out front only to be foiled by the smart stick of Filip Forsberg.  Moments later an high stick call denied a potential shooting opportunity for Koivu even though he was probably hoping to pass it anyways.  Forsberg would continue to make his presence felt as he ran into Backstrom for a clear goaltender interference penalty giving Wild a crucial power play.  Minnesota again started out with its group of old veterans.  The result was predictable, slow overly deliberate puck movement led to a wrist shot by Suter (because apparently he’s the ONLY guy that can shoot on the power play) and after Rinne knocked it down it was swept aside with ease.  After another failed power play fireworks would exhibit themselves as Cooke cross-checked Shea Weber in the face with his stick and Weber went after Cooke and kept throwing punches even as he turtled in front of him.  Cooke would get 2 minutes for high sticking and 5-minutes for getting beat up (i.e. fighting) while Weber just got a fighting major.  The extra penalty meant the Wild would be down a man for the last two minutes of the game.  Being down by two, the Wild needed to look for some kind of shorthanded chance if they wanted to be back in this game at all.  They didn’t as Mike Fisher dropped the gloves with Nate Prosser and thoroughly destroyed the Wild defenseman as the Wild bench chirped at the Predators for what they felt was a needless fight.  The game would end with apathetic boo’s from the home crowd as the Predators prevailed 3-1.

Niklas Backstrom was just ok, making 24 saves in the loss.  I wouldn’t put it all on him for the loss as he was betrayed by some awful turnovers in the Wild’s own zone.  However his inability to recover and his lateral puck movement wasn’t doing him any favors on the Predators goals.  Defensively, Falk and Brodin’s turnovers led to the two goals that Nashville needed to win the game.  The penalty kill did ok against a pretty blah Predators power play.

Offensively it was all about Minnesota’s poor performance on the power play.  Mainly from its veteran group of Jason Pominville, Ryan Suter, Zach Parise, Mikko Koivu, Thomas Vanek which moved the puck slowly and tried the same tired plays of using Suter for a wrist shot from the point that has little to no chance of scoring.  The group of veterans would waste anywhere from 1-minute to 1:30 of power play time and basically kill all momentum in the game.  The 2nd unit would hit the ice with usually about 30 seconds to work and they’d generate more chances and pressure than the top unit.  It is inexcusable for this team to continue to show complete deference to the veterans when they’re executing so poorly on the power play.  Parise is the only worthwhile element on the 1st power play, beyond that youngsters like Niederreiter, Zucker and Spurgeon would be upgrades over the rest of the group.  The missed chances put the crowd asleep and put little pressure on the Predators who could bide their time for the mistakes to be made for them to take the lead.

Different game, same story as the Wild had good pressure to start, their opponent gets one chance and they bury it and the team is playing catch up for a fair portion of the rest of the game.  Niederreiter and Zucker continued to be catalysts for chances and deserve the chance to play a bigger role on the team.  The fighting at the end of the game where you saw virtually no effort to move in and defend teammates was rather disturbing.  Prosser got totally beat down, no one came in to help out.  Same with Matt Cooke, and while I felt he deserve the extra 2 minutes for high sticking (since he hit Weber in the jaw with the shaft of the stick) I still thought someone should’ve stepped in, especially as Weber continued to throw punches as he was turtling on the ice.  In my opinion that’s about pride and defending your teammates regardless of the situation.  The loss was hardly unexpected, but the way this team takes its foot off the gas makes you wonder what is beating in their chest or going on in between their ears.  Its happened all too often and I have zero confidence of it getting any better, anytime soon.

Wild Notes:

~ The Wild roster tonight is as follows: Mikko Koiu, Jason Pominville, Zach Parise, Thomas Vanek, Jason Zucker, Jordan Schroeder, Nino Niederreiter, Kyle Brodziak, Matt Cooke, Ryan Carter, Erik Haula, Ryan Suter, Jared Spurgeon, Jonas Brodin, Justin Falk, Christian Folin and Nate Prosser.  John Curry backed up Niklas Backstrom.  Justin Fontaine and Jonathon Blum were the scratches this afternoon.

~ The 3 Stars of the Game is: 1st Star Pekka Rinne, 2nd Star Colin Wilson, 3rd Star Charlie Coyle

~ Attendance was 19,052 at Xcel Energy Center.

Iowa Wild Report:

Recent Score: Iowa 2, Texas 1

The defending Calder Cup Champions have traditionally been a tough out for the Wild, and in the first period it looked as though Iowa could be in trouble as Greg Rallo banged home a rebound off a big shot from Derek Hulak to make it 1-0 Stars.   Moments later the Wild would use the stretch pass to find Marc Hagel deep in the Texas zone and he’d move in and thread a cross ice pass that was kind of stopped by a sprawling Jack Campbell but the puck would work its way out into the slot and was poked home by a crashing Stu Bickel.  Iowa would use the stretch pass to catch the Texas Stars defense by surprise and Danny Syvret left the penalty box and was found on a nice pass for a breakaway only to be stonewalled by Campbell.  The Wild would take the lead midway through the 3rd as Michael Keranen wired a shot that was stopped by Campbell but Brett Bulmer was there to bury the rebound and that proved to be the game winner.  On the other side of the puck, Johan Gustafsson was superb, stopping 34 of 35 shots to give Iowa a huge road victory.

Wild Prospect Report:

C – Pavel Jenys (Sudbury, OHL) ~ The Wolves mounted a valiant comeback Friday night and even with a goal from the skilled center it wasn’t enough as Sudbury fell to Niagara 5-4.  Jenys has 8 goals, 26 points, 28 PIM’s and is a -19 in 34 games.

G – Alexandre Belanger (Cape Breton, QMJHL) ~ Belanger was traded at the conclusion of the holidays from Rouyn-Noranda to Cape Breton who is hoping to go on a run.  On Friday the Screaming Eagles routed Acadie-Bathurst 8-1 with Belanger making 17 saves in the victory.  The Sherbrooke, Quebec-native has a 12-8 record, 3.33 goals against average and an .872% save percentage this season.

RW – Alex Tuch (Boston College, H-East) ~ The big winger tried to get back involved with the Eagles and he’d chip in an assist in the Eagles’ 1-1 tie against Northeastern on Friday.  Tuch has 5 goals, 13 points, 8 PIM’s and is a +3 in 19 games.

C – Adam Gilmour (Boston College, H-East) ~ After a solid weekend last week, Gilmour continued to be the hot hand for the Eagles as he had a goal in Boston College’s 1-1 tie against Northeastern last night.  Gilmour is tied for 1st on the team in scoring with 5 goals, 15 points, 12 PIM’s, and is a +7 in 20 games.

LW – Mario Lucia (Notre Dame, H-East) ~ The lanky winger is a lone bright spot on what has been a tough season for the Fighting Irish as Lucia had a goal in their 4-2 loss to Western Michigan on Friday.  Lucia is 2nd on the team in scoring with 12 goals, 17 points, 12 PIM’s and is a +7 in 21 games.

D – Carson Soucy (Minnesota-Duluth, NCHC) ~ The Bulldogs traveled to the always hostile Ralph Englestadt Arena in Grand Forks, but UMD rolled to a 4-1 victory and Soucy did his part with a goal in the win.  Soucy played on the Bulldogs second pairing, and has 3 goals, 7 points and 10 PIM’s and is a +10 in 19 games.