2015 Stanley Cup Playoffs Preview: Game 3, Minnesota Wild vs. St. Louis Blues 4/20/2015 @ 7:00PM CST at Xcel Energy Center

Wild vs. Blues Series tied at 1-1

Minnesota Wild Lines:

Parise – Granlund – Pominville

Zucker – Koivu – Stewart

Vanek – Coyle – Niederreiter

Bergenheim – Brodziak – Fontaine

Suter – Brodin

Scandella – Spurgeon

Leopold – Dumba

Dubnyk

St. Louis Blues Lines:

Steen – Lehtera – Tarasenko

Jaskin – Backes – Oshie

Schwartz – Stastny – Berglund

Ott – Goc – Reaves

Gunnarsson – Pietrangelo

Bouwmeester – Michalek

Jackman – Shattenkirk

Allen

During the playoffs last season, it felt as if it was the great tale of the home team. Sure, it made for great atmosphere for the home team, yet if you were the team who didn’t have home-ice advantage, it was a bit of stress. When I think back to last season, when the Wild and Avalanche were tied 3 games apiece, you knew that Game 7 was going to be tough. Playing on the road for Minnesota (even in the regular season) hasn’t always been kind. So here you find your team in an elimination situation and you have to find a way to win in the opposition’s arena, surrounded by the opposition’s fans.  And trust me, there was no love for the Wild in Denver. However this season (at least so far), it hasn’t been the tale of the home team. Every series with the exception of the Montreal-Ottawa and Anaheim-Winnipeg series have seen splits in the first two games. So now the team with the motto of “Home of the Home Ice Advantage” has to come back to Saint Paul, and find a way to re-kindle that advantage.
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HoRkntoHkIE]

Settle down, it’ll all be clear
Don’t pay no mind to the demons
They fill you with fear
The trouble it might drag you down
If you get lost, you can always be found

What do the Minnesota Wild need to do to take back this series, and to do so with determination? Well first things first. They need to find their confidence. Confidence to go into the corners to retrieve and fight for the puck, against a team that is going to push them around whenever they can. That seemed to be missing on Saturday. Another thing, is to take any shot you can, even if you think it has absolutely no chance. If the Wild need to see an example, I suggest they watch the overtime winner by John Tavares in Sunday’s game against Washington. Tavares probably thought he was doing nothing more than taking a shot in the hopes that one of his teammates could find the rebound. However, he didn’t need a rebound. The puck miraculously found its way behind Braden Holtby. And the last thing that needs to happen to play a complete game in spite of the officials. Sure, the Wild’s power play is nothing to write home about, yet they have to be one of the teams with the fewest opportunities with the man-advantage. It’s hard to improve on one’s power play when you’re given so few chances to do so. We’ve also seen (especially in the latter half of the season), that the officials will call the Wild for things that their opposition have done to them with no call made. Can you say “goaltender interference?”

So as the Wild return home, home to its fans, they need to find a way to bring everything together.  But what they ultimately need to do is play in such a way that both rewards the fans for the craziness of this season as well as engage them. Loud, rockin’ arenas are often harder to play in for the opposing team. With that in mind, St. Louis is going to try to find a way to take the fans out of the game early. Kind of like the Wild did in Game 1 at Scottrade Center. I cannot express just how badly I want to see Minnesota win a clearly decisive game. A game that says “push us around and we’ll push back.” A game that says “so what if we’re a wild card team.” A game that says “we’re going to win this series.” This Wild team is not only more experienced, but a better team that beat Colorado last season. So few outside of Minnesota are willing to admit that. They want to hold on to the belief that the Wild are same fringe team that shouldn’t be much of a threat. They refuse to accept that they are a legitimate playoff contender.

Here we go. We’re back at home, so let’s do something with it.