In the United States, some people track the passing of time when they start to hear Christmas music on the radio. Usually they take note that it seems to be starting earlier than normal and then brace themselves for the barrage of tunes that kind of meld into a near endless anthem. It becomes background music to your life so as you wait at the gas pump or in line at the grocery store, to say nothing of nearly every television commercial, its relentless. Speaking of relentless, how good has the Wild’s 4th line been lately? They have been physical and making life miserable for opponents in a way we haven’t seen since the days of Cal Clutterbuck.
Maybe like Christmas music is during this time of year, a team’s 4th line is that sort of relentless tune that helps set the mood for the rest of the team. Their effort may not result in much that shows up on the stat sheet but often their play can make the difference between an opponent tiring out or still having plenty of energy in the 3rd period. Will the Wild’s 4th line be a factor against the Blues who embrace a blue collar type of game or will St. Louis outwork us?
1st Period Thoughts: Perhaps the Wild have a bit of pep in their skates, or at the very least Jason Zucker does. But then it’s rare he ever looks less than speedy. If it hadn’t been for Saint Louis goaltender Jake Allen skating to beat the speedy Minnesota winger, we might have had an early goal (or at least a great shot on goal). Early in the game, and I’m definitely seeing a greater sense of urgency from all Minnesota lines. I’m going to temper my enthusiasm a bit, because we’ve all seen games where the Wild start out hot, but then fade quickly and look less than interested in the game. Now if they could just turn the energy into actual shots on goal, that would be great. And with the energy on both sides, there have been few whistles. One would think with fewer whistles there were be fewer stories about the time Mike Yeo spent with the Wild. Although with the fewer stoppages, they just have to pack more in about Yeo. Lucky us. The Wild would take the first penalty of the game, with Marco Scandella for delay of game. The officials decided that while he was getting pushed into the Wild net, he intentionally removed it from its moorings. The even up penalty would be called just seconds in to the Blues’ power play for slashing by Kevin Shattenkirk. So far, there have been a couple of shots on Devan Dubnyk that he hasn’t had a good clue as to where they were. Either he’s a bit off, of the screening tonight is good. Again tonight is going to be one of those nights where shots are either hard to come by early or all night long. It would take almost ten minutes into the period for Minnesota to register their first two shots of the game. It’s one of those things that frustrates me to no end. It also took a power play to get those shots on goal. One thing I don’t understand is why put Zucker on a line with Mikko Koivu. Zucker as the speed to get into the zone but once he gets there, players like Koivu aren’t fast enough to provide any kind of support. How can anything be set up when Zucker does all the hard work and it takes forever for Koivu to actually get in the zone? And of course once Koivu does get into the offensive zone, he often waits to cherry pick his position and shot. So since shots are few and far between, it was time for Kurtis Gabriel to enliven the game in a bout with Ryan Reaves. At first, it looked like Gabriel wasn’t going to be much more than a punching bag, but near the end of the fight, Gabriel finally got a few good shots of his own in. While Reaves got the better of the fight, Gabriel has shown the most emotion of any Wild player tonight. Perhaps Gabriel needs to sit next to the captain on the bench. While it went clear over the net, a shot by Jason Pominville late in the period would be one of the more exciting scoring chance. That shot would be quickly followed up by one by Eric Staal. Then just to make things even more interesting, Staal would then get a break away, but ultimately ran out of room and couldn’t get past Allen. Instead of using that break away attempt to build additional momentum, Zach Parise would take a late penalty for slashing. Considering some recent games that have featured some late period goals, this was not a good time to take a penalty (of course there’s never really a good time to take a penalty). Scary part is the Wild failed to clear the puck from the zone for the entire two minutes of the Blues’ power play. Sure they managed to kill the penalty, but you need to create yourselves a little bit of breathing room. Not only did they not get that breathing room, it took what felt like a long time to even clear the zone once even strength again. That is something that cannot continue to happen tonight, or they’re going to find themselves absolutely exhausted and stuck in their own end. As I feared, it appears that the initial energy at the start of the game is going to carry through the entire game. This was a period the Wild survived.
2nd Period Thoughts: Well where the team flagged through most of the period, they decided to make something of the start of the period. Okay, let me correct that. Matt Dumba decided to make something of the start. Of course, he’s needed to pick his game up something fierce. This has not been a good season for the young defenseman. So perhaps this is the time of the dreaded “December Slump” this will be a Renaissance of sorts for Dumba. If he can find both a scoring touch as well as improve his defensive game, it would be a boon for the team. One would think Dumba’s goal would inspire the Wild to make better decisions, but you would be wrong. The passes are ill-timed, weak, and inaccurate. Instead of heading toward the Saint Louis zone, they either can’t clear the zone or they do it just outside of the blueline, so it takes little to no effort by the Blues to get back in the zone. At least Dumba and Zucker have decided to play tonight. Not only are they taking shots on goal, but they’re the two that are really tying to make things happen. You know, things are bad when the Wild are on the power play, and you really can’t even tell they’re on one. Robby Fabri was sent to the box for slashing, yet the Wild squandered yet another man advantage. So while the Blues easily killed the penalty, they at least tried something once back at full strength. This time it was thanks to hard work by Nino Niederreiter along with some great screen work by Erik Haula would find the Wild with the 2-goal lead. Tonight might end up being the night for players who need to jump-start their seasons. There’s a lot about tonight that is feeling similar to Friday night. Like Friday, it took quite a bit of time for the Wild to have the same number of shots as their opponent. For long stretches of time, Minnesota would go without shots and trailing in shots on goal. It took about the halfway in the game for the Wild to even up when it comes to shots and to take the lead. But then some (again) boneheaded passes by Wild skaters allowed the Blues to tie up the shots. The Blues would finally get on the board late in the period. It started with an odd-man rush by Minnesota. Jared Spurgeon would hold on to the puck way too long. Not only would he hold on to the puck too long, he would then get stuck in the offensive zone. He managed to back into the Minnesota zone, but it would be too late, with Vladimir Tarasenko getting the puck past Dubnyk. It’s those kind of mental mistakes that can easily doom a team. There’s still a lot of game remaining, and with how Saint Louis has looked late in the period, I do have a reason to worry. And Staal taking a goaltending interference penalty with only 38 seconds remaining in the period means the Wild will start the third period down a man. What’s worse, is that it should not have been a penalty, as Allen was way outside of the crease, Staal was skating at a scoring chance and had no where to go, and he was helped into Allen by Alex Pietrangelo. Well, Minnesota will simply have to figure it out and kill off the rest.
3rd Period Thoughts: The Wild would kill off the remainder of Staal’s penalty. After killing the penalty, Minnesota would spend a decent amount of time in the offensive zone and getting some decent scoring chances. There would come a lengthy pause near the midway point of the period over a stoppage of the puck that eventually went into the net. The puck disappeared under Allen, but the referee didn’t blow it dead until after the puck squirted over the line. After it was deemed not a goal, head coach Bruce Boudreau spent considerable time polling the referees on why it wasn’t called a goal and then why wasn’t blown dead sooner. It wasn’t deemed a goal and it wasn’t deemed goaltender interference which is probably part of Boudreau’s frustration. Minnesota would get another chance at the power play after David Perron’s call for holding. And as Wild fans everywhere have come to expect, not much was accomplished with the power play. I’m beginning to fear that like many games where the Wild have the one-goal lead they’re just going to try and hold on and hope for the win instead of trying to actually change things. You know, like score a goal or two of their own to create some wiggle room. Otherwise known as things that really good teams do. But then those really good teams also do great things with their power plays. Another one of my major frustrations is the inability to clear the zone. And like seasons past, the problem is that they create the inability on their own. Their opponent isn’t so tough that they just can’t get it past them. They make the problem happen because instead of skating the puck or hitting the puck out of the zone, they seem to always take the puck BEHIND the net. This just creates easier ways for the opponent to keep the puck in their offensive zone. It makes no sense and drives me crazy. At the very least, we get hard work by Nate Prosser late in the game to set up Mikael Granlund for the much needed empty-net goal. They ended up awarding a second assist to Granlund’s goal with just seconds remaining to Staal, which then gives him his 800th career NHL point. Tonight’s hang on for a win, gives the Wild their fourth consecutive win, their first win against Saint Louis after four consecutive losses to the Blues, and are now just two points behind the Blues in the standings. While this wasn’t the kind of game to write home about, I guess I’ll take the win. Two points are two points.
Wild Notes:
~ The Wild roster tonight was as follows: Charlie Coyle, Chris Stewart, Mikko Koivu, Zach Parise, Eric Staal, Jason Zucker, Nino Niederreiter, Jason Pominville, Tyler Graovac, Erik Haula, Kurtis Gabriel, Mikael Granlund, Marco Scandella; Ryan Suter; Matt Dumba; Jonas Brodin, Nate Prosser, and Jared Spurgeon. Devan Dubnyk got the start with Darcy Kuemper serving as backup.
~ The 3 Stars of the Game were: 1st Star, Devan Dubnyk; 2nd Star, Nino Niederreiter; 3rd Star, Jake Allen.
~ Attendance was 18,363 at Xcel Energy Center.
Wild Prospect Report:
C – Luke Kunin (Wisconsin, Big 10) ~ the youngster is heating up for the resurgent Badgers as he found the back of the net twice in Wisconsin’s 7-4 win over Michigan. Kunin has 11 goals, 17 points, 16 PIM’s and is a -6 in 15 games.
D – Nolan DeJong (Michigan, Big 10) ~ the junior defenseman had an assist in the Wolverines’ 7-4 loss to Wisconsin on Friday night. DeJong has 2 goals, 5 points, 8 PIM’s and is an ‘even’ rating in 14 games.
D – Carson Soucy (Minnesota-Duluth, NCHC) ~ the Viking, Alberta-native is playing on the Bulldogs top pairing and he contributed an assist in their 4-3 loss to Denver on Friday. Soucy has 3 goals, 13 points, 24 PIM’s and is a +8 in 15 games.
LW – Jordan Greenway (Boston U., H-East) ~ the big power forward is playing on the second line alongside former Edina-star Kieffer Bellows and he had an assist in the Terriers 4-2 loss to Vermont Friday evening. Greenway has 6 goals, 15 points, 38 PIM’s and is a +3 in 15 games.
G – Ales Stezka (Chicago, USHL) ~ the Liberec, Czech Republic native continues to have a strong season with the Steel as he had 23 saves in Chicago’s 5-2 win over Fargo. Stezka has a 9-3 record, 2.00 goals against average and an .927% save percentage with 3 shutouts.
LW – Kirill Kaprizov (Salavat Yulaev Ufa, KHL) ~ the skilled Russian continues to impress with his maturity as he added a goal and an assist in Salavat Yulaev’s 5-4 shootout loss to HC Kunlun, the KHL’s China-based franchise. Kaprizov has 15 goals, 30 points, 62 PIM’s and is a +8 in 37 games.
LW – Brandon Duhaime (Providence, H-East) ~ the Florida-native chipped in an assist while playing on the 3rd line for the Friars in their 3-1 win over RIT. Duhame has 2 goals, 5 points, 16 PIM’s and is a -3 in 16 games.
RW – Louie Nanne (Rensselaer, ECAC) ~ the former Edina-star has struggled the last few games playing on the Engineers’ 4th line but he got an assist in their 6-3 loss to Brown on Saturday. Nanne has a goal, 6 points, 4 PIM’s and is -11 in 18 games.
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