Game #16: Minnesota Wild at Lost Angeles Kings, Saturday November 12, 2011 at 9:30pm (CST), Staples Center [GAME PREVIEW]

It seems lately that the Minnesota Wild could use a little instruction fictional goaltender Denis Lemieux from that classic movie, Slapshot.  Now they don’t need to learn about his “allergy to deese fans,” nor do Josh Harding and Niklas Backstrom need lessons on ineffective flopping in front of the net.  However, what they can learn from poor Denis is about penalties.  As demonstrated, the hapless Charlestown Chiefs goalie gives great examples to poor sports broadcaster Jim Carr as well as explains what happens when you commit those penalties.  Now if Minnesota would just pay attention.

Lately, instead of going on a scoring tear (although I’m not sure that would ever happen), what Minnesota has consistently done is commit penalties.  Let me give you a break down on the numbers.  Now both Detroit games had acceptable number of penalties, however, that has not been the case since then.  Against Vancouver, there were seven penalties.  St. Louis, there were also seven penalties.  That number (seven) continued in Calgary, including the infamous phantom headbutt that garnered Nick Johnson a match penalty (which the league also didn’t see, since there was no suspension, and the Wild have petitioned to have that penalty rescinded).  In San Jose on Thursday night, the Wild had an additional six penalties.  Those kinds of numbers are simply unacceptable. 

Now, prior to the San Jose game, those infractions had not cost the Wild.  Not only did Minnesota enter the Shark Tank with a five-game winning streak, but they ended they’re rather lengthy streak of not allowing a power play goal.  One has to realize, that when you continue to march to the penalty box, eventually that is going to catch up with you.  And in San Jose it most definitely did.  Let’s face it, the Sharks definitely have more firepower than the Wild, and when you struggle to score in general, you simply cannot make it easier for a team like San Jose to score. 

Los Angeles has a good powerplay, and by ‘good’ I mean it’s the eighth best power play in the league.  I don’t know about you, but with a stat like that, Minnesota cannot continue to tempt fate by continually heading to the box.  First off, Los Angeles has players that can and will score.  But more importantly, if you’re continually on the penalty kill, you’re simply going to wear yourselves out.  Plus when you continue the march to the box, you’re not getting your own offensive zone time.  It’s hard to win games, if you’re rarely in front of the opposing goaltender. 

I don’t like to put blame on the officials, but it’s starting to feel like certain officials, say Tom Kowal, are looking for the tiniest of infractions, or in Kowal’s case, letting an opposing player make the call.  There are some games, where both teams keep getting called for truly minor things, the the flow of the game keeps getting interrupted.  As a fan, that’s a bit annoying.  In (dubious) honor of Kowal’s meltdown on Thursday, I’ll close with this other gem from Slapshot.  Head’s up if you’re at work or you have young children, this might be one to mute or use headphones for.

Copyright © 2011 www.StateofHockeyNews.com – All Rights Reserved – Trademarks used herein are property of their respective owners.