Some of you may be aware that my ‘day job’ is as a High School teacher. It was the end of the quarter yesterday, so that means students scramble to finish up missing assignments and stress a bit over final exams. Inevitably, some students step up and finish what they need to pass the class while others figure they’re so far away from passing they give up and take the ‘F.’ Yet, the most frustrating set of students is the small group that are incredibly close to passing your class but they won’t do the few small things left to get a passing grade. You remind them of how close they are and they acknowledge they understand the urgency of the situation but at the end of the day they don’t do a damn thing and fail a class they could’ve passed with a tiny bit more effort. Sound familiar?
The Wild are about as close as one could be to clinching. A win here and they are in, or a loss from Los Angles and they’re in. Sort of like that student who has all of the reason in the world to want to do the simple thing and take that next step, the Minnesota Wild would rather fall into the playoffs then run across that finish line. And let’s face it, making the playoffs is a pretty bare minimum expectation. Just like a student who only wants to pass the class, even if it is by the smallest of margins. The Wild have decided that is how they’d like to play it, no matter how weak and pathetic that may be. No offense to the Vancouver Canucks, who I think will be in a spoiling type of mood today, the Wild will have to do a lot more than they did Thursday night in their 3-1 loss to Philadelphia if they expect to earn a victory. The question is, will they want it bad enough to work a little to get it or will we be greeted with more excuses and woulda coulda shoulda’s?
1st Period Thoughts: I don’t see anything different than what we’ve seen the last few games. The Wild starting the period with good speed and energy but when you really watch closely you notice how no one wants to go to the tough areas of the ice. The Wild stay on the perimeter and despite sending a bunch of shots at Richard Bachman he never really had to deal with much traffic near his crease. It makes it relatively easy to defend and often means if Bachman makes the initial save that’s usually all he has to do. The Canucks were playing pretty loose to start the game, as both clubs were trading rushes up the ice. The Wild had some golden opportunities but extra passes resulted in squandered chances. Classic case in point. Zach Parise is motoring down the ice in a 2-on-1, has an open lane to shoot with Charlie Coyle along to his left and instead of taking the shot and letting Coyle crash he instead tries a pass that Coyle can’t quite handle and Minnesota doesn’t even register a shot on goal. Sure if the pass connects it probably leads to a high quality opportunity but instead it lead to nothing at all. The Wild have consistently been making that extra, often unneeded pass and to me its no real surprise the offense has dried up. Minnesota must simplify its game and take what Vancouver is giving them. The team was still guilty of overusing area passes on its breakouts which killed momentum with a plethora of weak turnovers. The Canucks would eventually counter attack a bit and Darcy Keumper came up big with a breakaway denial on Reid Boucher. Then a few minutes later he got lucky as Joe Labate rang a shot off the crossbar. The Wild’s legs stopped and predictably the Canucks started to swarm in the Minnesota end. The pressure resulted in a Wild penalty as they were forced to hook Bo Horvat on a nice power move he had that Kuemper dismised and Minnesota found itself flirting with disaster at the end of the 1st. In my opinion that is not nearly good enough.
2nd Period Thoughts: This period, wow. Not even sure where to begin. Well let’s start when the wheels officially came off; just 19 seconds into the 2nd as the Canucks were on the power play on a penalty from late in the 1st period and Reid Boucher scores. 1-0 Canucks and you could feel the anxiety level go way up while the team deflated 100%. It was a lazy defensive effort as a lot of Wild bodies just sort of stood around and watched Boucher will himself a goal. Vancouver would add to its lead a few minutes later off a bad turnover, another lazy effort to get it back and it was Boucher again cashing in as he tipped a point shot by Drew Shore. The play initially would continue and at the next stoppage it was reviewed and the puck clearly hit the back crossbar and went out, 2-0 Canucks. The pain continued as the Wild had zero continuity leaving their zone and all they could muster were a few weak attempts from the perimeter. A long pass found Horvat behind the Wild defense and he’d move in and was stopped by the paddle of Keumper and then tapped home by Brock Boeser making his NHL debut to put Vancouver up 3-0. A nice moment for Boeser (the Burnsville, Minnesota-native) and his family cheering him on in his first game, but another painful example of poor defense by the Wild. The pain still wasn’t over with as the Canucks would add one more as Jack Skille ripped a shot off the faceoff that found the twine behind Keumper. 4-0 Vancouver. With the crowd boo’ing the teams’ pathetic effort the Wild finally appeared to get a bit angry. The sellout crowd was also more than a bit hostile and they let Darcy Kuemper hear it with a few bronx cheers after a few routine saves. Charlie Coyle would light up Skille on a clean hit and the Canucks took offense to the check and went after the Wild forward. It was a nice hit, but where was that kind of fire all game? Minnesota would get a power play out of the Vancouver assault as Chris Tanev went to the box to serve the penalty but another weak effort by the Wild on the man advantage squelched any sort of momentum that could be had out of it. Minnesota had one sequence where they managed to get a puck in close and Coyle poked at the puck but didn’t seem to really want to hack away at it and Bachman was able to come with the stop. The period would mercifully come to an end with the home crowd serenading the Wild with a smattering of boo’s but it was mostly indifference to another paltry effort by a team who has lost the fire to really compete each night. Indifference is the sign of a fanbase that is expects this team to provide mediocrity and failure when the post-season finally comes around. Will anyone on the Wild start to step up their game and say enough is enough? My guess is probably not.
3rd Period Thoughts: The 3rd period was mostly a snoozefest. The Wild didn’t seem particularly interested in battling back, not until the last 2:30 of the game at least. Until that time Minnesota mostly spent the period missing simple passes and aimlessly accomplishing nothing in the offensive zone and fending off the occasional attack by the Canucks who tried to set up Boucher for a hat trick. Kuemper wasn’t too busy, and the apathetic crowd stopped heckling him for making a few routine saves. The Wild continued to remind the fans of its poor effort with rancid execution on the man advantage where even skating out of their zone seemed like trying to attempt the Apollo moon landing with a bottle rocket. Just a waste of 2 minutes. Minnesota was also looking a bit ornery as Ryan White and Jason Zucker were finishing their checks, but again it begged the question where was this physical play earlier in the game. Minnesota would finally press the attack in the last few minutes and they were able to light the lamp twice on goals from Ryan Suter and Eric Staal. After an initial celebration you could tell the team was embarrassed and they skated back to their bench in shame over this futile late ‘push.’
I know some on Twitter were asking me about the availability of Alex Stalock, but Darcy Kuemper wasn’t the reason we lost this game. It certainly wasn’t a stellar game, but he had no real effort to speak of in front of him. Defensively the Wild were careless with the puck and at times were guilty of standing and watching and not moving their feet. But there is nothing new about that.
Minnesota wasn’t going to the tough areas of the ice with a purpose and a tenacity necessary to score goals until very late in the game which is incredible considering this is the basic dilemma that has been at the core of their troubles this entire month. Honestly, practice or no practice, how can’t that basic flaw not be understood by this club at this point in the season? The media is saying it, fans are saying it, and since I’m going to guess its been discussed then why isn’t it changing? We’re saying the same soft play near the paint if they even dare going close to it. Lots of flybys. Minnesota doesn’t need fancy goals, it needs something ugly and dirty and showing enough ‘want to’ in order to get the job done. The Wild aren’t willing to pay that price and that’s why I’m describing losses more often than not.
Raise your hand if you expect the Wild to come out angry and determined against Detroit tomorrow? Maybe for the first few minutes, but will we still be seeing flybys? If so, expect the game to follow the same pattern we’ve witnessed against the Hurricanes, Flyers, and now the Canucks. Minnesota may not absolutely need to win today or tomorrow for that matter but shouldn’t they be playing that way? All we get is a lot of empty statements about needing to be better when it doesn’t seem to be nearly motivating enough to actually BE better. It isn’t just about how you match up on paper, its about how you play and how bad you want it. Right now the Wild have to prove it to themselves and this fanbase that it really wants it. Until they do that, we should continue more mediocrity from this club.
Wild Notes:
~ The Wild roster was as follows: Mikko Koivu, Jason Zucker, Mikael Granlund, Zach Parise, Eric Staal, Charlie Coyle, Nino Niederreiter, Jason Pominville, Martin Hanzal, Erik Haula, Ryan White, Chris Stewart, Ryan Suter, Jared Spurgeon, Marco Scandella, Mathew Dumba, Jonas Brodin and Christian Folin. Devan Dubnyk backed up Darcy Kuemper. Nate Prosser and Jordan Schroeder were the scratches.
~ The 3 Stars of the Game were: 1st Star Brock Boeser, 2nd Star Reid Boucher, 3rd Star Richard Bachman
~ Attendance was 19,184 at Xcel Energy Center.
Iowa Wild Report:
Iowa 1, Cleveland 5
Sometimes its not about quantity but rather quality as that certainly was the case on Friday as Iowa lost a crucial game despite pumping 52 shots at the Monsters’ Anton Forsberg. After a defensive battle through the first half of the period, the Monsters would score on the power play as T.J. Tynan shoveled home a rebound by Steve Michalek to give Cleveland a 1-0 lead. Cleveland would then pour it on early in the 2nd with two goals in the span of a minute as goals from Nick Moutrey and Dean Kukan and Derek Lalonde had seen enough of Michalek and he swapped him out for Alex Stalock. It didn’t make much of a difference as the Iowa attack couldn’t get anything by Forsberg and at the other end the Monsters would score late in the period as Moutrey found the twine again. Iowa would keep peppering Forsberg with shots but he was a total wall. Cleveland would score again as Gustav Olofsson was pickpocketed by Joe Pedenza and he’d skated in and beat Stalock. The Wild would score a pride goal late as Sam Anas buried his 12th goal of the season but that’s all she wrote, 5-1 Monsters win. Luke Kunin had an active night in his professional hockey debut, with 5 shots on goal and 4 penalty minutes in the losing effort. Stalock had 13 saves and Michalek with 12 saves in the loss.
Wild Prospect Report:
LW – Jordan Greenway (Boston, H-East) ~ the big power forward at times looked like a bull in a china shop against North Dakota on Friday night as he chipped in an assist, 3 shots on goal and 4 PIM’s in their dramatic 4-3 double overtime win over the Fighting Hawks. Greenway has 10 goals, 31 points, 82 PIM’s and is a +11 in 36 games.
LW – Brandon Duhaime (Providence, H-East) ~ the speedy forward’s season comes to an end with 2 shots on goal as the Friars were no match for the Harvard Crimson. Duhaime finishes his freshman season with the Friars with 4 goals, 12 points, 45 PIM’s and was a -9 in 35 games.
C – Dmitry Sokolov (Sudbury, OHL) ~ the Russian sniper got off to a good start in the playoffs on Friday as he had a goal and an assist (6 shots on goal) in the Wolves’ 5-2 road win over Oshawa to take a 1-0 series lead.
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