Minnesota Wild (7-4-0) 14pts 5th in the Central
3.18 Goals For (4th)
2.00 Goals Against (5th)
5.7% Power Play (29th)
87.1% Penalty Kill (6th)
Top 5 Scorers:
1. #11 Zach Parise ~ 4G 6A = 10pts
2. #20 Ryan Suter ~ 1G 7A = 8pts
3. #26 Thomas Vanek ~ 1G 7A = 8pts
4. #16 Jason Zucker ~ 5G 2A = 7pts
5. #29 Jason Pominville ~ 3G 4A = 7pts
Top 3 PIM’s:
1. #11 Zach Parise ~ 17 PIM’s
2. #18 Ryan Carter ~ 14 PIM’s
3. #3 Charlie Coyle ~ 12 PIM’s
Top Goaltenders:
1. #35 Darcy Kuemper (6-3-0) 1.77GAA .922%SP 3SO
2. #32 Niklas Backstrom (1-1-0) 2.52GAA .886%SP
Vs.
Ottawa Senators (6-3-2) 14pts 5th in the Atlantic
2.73 Goals For (13th)
2.36 Goals Against (13th)
20.4% Power Play (10th)
84.4% Penalty Kill (10th)
Top 5 Scorers:
1. #16 Clarke MacArthur ~ 6G 3A = 9pts
2. #65 Erik Karlsson ~ 4G 5A = 9pts
3. #90 Alex Chiasson ~ 3G 4A = 7pts
4. #7 Kyle Turris ~ 1G 6A = 7pts
5. #6 Bobby Ryan ~ 3G 3A = 6pts
Top 3 PIM’s:
1. #62 Eric Gryba ~ 32 PIM’s
2. #74 Mark Borowiecki ~ 19 PIM’s
3. #25 Chris Neil ~ 14 PIM’s
Top Goaltenders:
1. #41 Craig Anderson (3-2-1) 2.15GAA .939%SP 1SO
2. #40 Robin Lehner (3-1-1) 2.54GAA .927%SP
Let’s face it, Tuesday night was extremely disappointing. I can’t tell you how badly I wanted to wipe the smugness from the face of every Penguins player and their fans. I don’t know why, but that simply one team for which I have little respect. I’m sure their fan base would claim it’s nothing more than bitterness paired with jealousy. To that, I hereby say, shut the hell up. Although, you might want to substitute the word ‘hell’ with another, far more colorful four-letter word. There, that feels better.
Tonight however, I almost feel less confident with than I did with Tuesday night’s game. For many teams in the league, I don’t think they dread a game against Ottawa quite like Minnesota does. That sense of dread is amplified when that game must be played in Ottawa. I don’t know what it is about this particular opponent, but if you want to see a poorly playing Minnesota Wild team, Ottawa is often Exhibit B. Where’s Exhibit A you ask? That comes on Saturday in Montreal, which is even worse than games in Ottawa. Tuesday night’s stumble couldn’t come at a worse time, when they head out on a three-game road trip. This road trip wraps up on Tuesday in New Jersey. All three are tough opponents for Minnesota. And we just are heading into this road trip with a heavy burden.
That heavy burden comes in the guise of injuries. Yes, every team will deal with one or more injuries at any given time in the season, but right now it feels like some significant injuries are coming rather early in the season. The first worry came when Jonas Brodin, Christian Folin and Erik Haula went down with injuries. Thankfully these injuries were of a short duration. Sadly, we’re not facing short term injuries right now. First we lost Jared Spurgeon in the Boston game, and will be out 3-4 weeks if not longer. While I am far from a fan of our mini-mite defenseman, I trust him much, much more than Matt Dumba. And with that injury, we won’t be seeing our rookie blueliner sent to Iowa any time soon. Sadly that’s where he needs to be. Then to add insult to injury, we lost Zach Parise in the Pittsburgh game with some sort of upper body injury. With his injury, he will not be on the road trip. That is a major loss to the team, both in offensive ability and leadership. He is a man that leads by example and he along with fellow assistant captain, Ryan Suter is one of those players willing to take on the officials with their questionable calls.
I may end up watching this game with my eyes covered. Based on past history, I’m not expecting great things. That may be sad, but it’s honest perhaps brutally so. I just have a very, very bad feeling. Of course who knows? I was mildly confident on Tuesday night, and look how that turned out. Perhaps by having low expectations, Minnesota will end up surprising me. Sometimes, reverse psychology works. Or I could just be a Negative Nelly.
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