Minnesota Wild (7-5-0) 14pts 5th in the Central
2.92 Goals For (8th)
2.08 Goals Against (7th)
5.3% Power Play (29th)
86.1% Penalty Kill (7th)
Top 5 Scorers:
1. #20 Ryan Suter ~ 1G 7A = 8pts
2. #26 Thomas Vanek ~ 1G 7A = 8pts
3. #16 Jason Zucker ~ 5G 2A = 7pts
4. #29 Jason Pominville ~ 3G 4A = 7pts
5. #22 Nino Niederreiter ~ 4G 2A = 6pts
Top 3 PIM’s:
1 #6 Marco Scandella ~ 26 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 (1-2-0) 2.68GAA .869%SP
Vs.
Montreal Canadiens (9-4-1) 19pts 2nd in the Atlantic
2.07 Goals For (27th)
2.93 Goals Against (20th)
7.9% Power Play (28th)
84.8% Penalty Kill (9th)
Top 5 Scorers:
1. #67 Max Pacioretty ~ 5G 4A = 9pts
2. #14 Tomas Plekanec ~ 5G 4A = 9pts
3. #76 P.K. Subban ~ 3G 6A = 9pts
4. #27 Alex Galchenyuk ~ 4G 4A = 8pts
5. #15 P.A. Parenteau ~ 3G 3A = 6pts
Top 3 PIM’s:
1. #8 Brandon Prust ~ 23 PIM’s
2. #76 P.K. Subban ~ 22 PIM’s
3. #74 Alexi Emelin ~ 14 PIM’s
Top Goaltenders:
1. #31 Carey Price (7-3-1) 2.94GAA .907%SP
2. #35 Dustin Tokarski (2-1-0) 2.01GAA .929%SP
Welcome to part two of the “I think I will watch this game with my eyes covered” of the Wild’s current road trip. There are certain teams and certain venues that you love to see your team play and visit. A trip to the hallowed halls of the Montreal Canadiens is one of those teams and arenas. Minnesota (as a state) in general has a strong hockey history of their own, but the connections that the Minnesota Wild have to the team with the most Stanley Cups in hockey history make the Canadiens an opponent you want to see your team succeed against. However, that has not been the case. It doesn’t appear to matter how well the Wild can be playing, a game against Montreal usually ends in embarrassment for Minnesota. While those losses always hurt, they seem to hurt even more when Jacques Lemaire was at the helm. He is a Canadien to his core, but he always wanted his teams to play well against his old team. Sadly, he rarely got that when he was our head coach.
Minnesota still has deep Montreal connections, and one of those will be given the highest honor by the Canadiens. Tonight, Montreal will retire the #5 jersey for one of their greatest defenseman and current Wild head amateur scout, Guy LaPointe. So not only will the Wild have to face a team that they rarely play well against they have to do it on a night when they honor a player. Remember the trip to Dallas last March? While Minnesota has had struggles in Dallas in general, I knew we were bound to have an unsuccessful night when Dallas retired Mike Modano’s #9 jersey. At least we weren’t completely embarrassed. The Wild tend to not even look competitive when they’re in Montreal. Thursday night’s trip to Ottawa was most likely a preview. I know this is depressing and negative, but it’s the truth. The truth is often not pretty.
One interesting comparison, is that Montreal’s power play is almost as bad as Minnesota’s. It will be a nice change of pace, especially since the recent bout with Pittsburgh’s power play, which didn’t fail to deliver. So maybe, just maybe Minnesota’s decent penalty kill will be able to at least prevent damage in that part of Montreal’s game. Of course knowing the Wild’s luck, the Canadiens’ abysmal power play will strike like a coiled cobra. It’s also nice to see a Montreal team who have a goals for and goals against that are not so hot. Minnesota has had success so far in both scoring and preventing goals this season. I’d like to say that the Wild have a good chance of winning, but I’m not sure I’m even cautiously optimistic. If the Wild can play their game and forget about their opponent for once (meaning not playing the head game or thinking of the history), they should be able to easily win this game. They need to shut out the history, the pomp and circumstance, and emotion from the LaPointe ceremony and focus on themselves. That is what I have to be hopeful for. If they can at least play a close, competitive game I will count myself content. While that’s a rather low bar, it’s better than getting embarrassed on Hockey Night In Canada (which that broadcast will be blacked out for fans in Minnesota).
Please Minnesota, please just play your game. Don’t let Montreal get into your heads. That’s all I ask.
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