Game #24: Minnesota Wild vs Tampa Bay Lightning Monday, November 28, 2011 at 6:30pm (CST), Xcel Energy Center [GAME PREVIEW]

If you’ve gone to any Wild games over the last few years this YouTube clip should be pretty familiar to you.  They show it on the big screen just about every game as they try to inspire the fans to get up and make some noise.  It is of course a scene from the movie Network (1976) where Peter Finch loses it and commands his entire viewing audience to get up and declare that they are mad as hell and they’re not going to take it anymore.  This may describe the way some Wild fans feel after two ugly 5-2 losses at the hands of division foes Edmonton and Calgary respectively.  There is a saying on the wild.com message boards that holds remarkably true that after the team wins 3 in a row some fans start planning a Stanley Cup parade route and after 3 losses in a row people start demanding the coach be fired.  Maybe it doesn’t get quite that mad but message boards are notoriously bi-polar and a few wins can have people dreaming big and a few losses can have people wanting trades to be made.  The sky is not falling, this team isn’t teetering on the edge of oblivion.  So take a deep breath and just relax.  The Wild are STILL in 1st place in the Northwest Division. 

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A week ago, myself and some others were annoyed over the lack of publicity the team was recieving over its accomplishment of having the league’s best record.  Perhaps Minnesota was reading too much into its hype; and believing the record should mean they don’t have to stay focused in their own zone.  The lack of focus is most evident in their own zone the last two games where the team has failed to do many of the little things that really allowed the team to be successful.  The solid puck support, the physical play along the wall to seal off opposing forecheckers, and the short passes to players to get a quick break out of the zone have been few and far between.  Throughout much of the team’s 5-game winning streak was solid play from its young blueline which exhibited poise under pressure.  The last two games, the young defenseman; Clayton Stoner, Nate Prosser, Justin Falk, Marco Scandella and to a lesser extent Jared Spurgeon have been give away factories.  In Sunday night’s loss, Justin Falk was injured and may not be available so that should open up a spot for Apple Valley, Minnesota-native Mike Lundin who has finally recovered completely from his back injury that kept him out all the way since training camp.  If I was any of these young defenseman I might be a bit nervous that a more experienced defenseman like Lundin may end up taking their spot.  With the team’s defense languishing, Lundin’s arrival may be precisely what is needed to refocus this group. 

This defensive group will have its work cut out for it as it faces a very potent group of forwards led by Steven Stamkos, shifty veteran Martin St. Louis and Vincent Lecavalier who is trying to prove he can be a dominant player again.  The Wild must be physical and dilligent with the puck as the Lightning are a team with more than enough speed to make them pay for being careless in their own end or the neutral zone.  The 1-3-1 the Lightning employs is precisely the kind of system that thrives on creating turnovers and Minnesota must be more responsible with the puck than it has been in the last two games.  I am sure when the Lightning’s scout, former Wild forward Wyatt Smith was watching Minnesota this evening saw a sloppy Minnesota team that was prone to turnovers so I am sure Tampa Bay Head Coach Guy Boucher is salivating at the thought of making the Wild pay for those types of mistakes. 

The other issue for Minnesota is as old as the franchise itself.  A lack of scoring.  So unless the 1st line starts delivering the offense its being paid to provide, the Wild will have to play the kind of defense that doesn’t give up more than two goals a game in order to have a chance.  As Wild Head Coach Mike Yeo likes to say, tonight will be the team’s chance to respond and show us (fans, coaches, the organization) that its better than the team we saw Sunday night. 

Injury Report:

Minnesota:  Greg Zanon (groin), Guillaume Latendresse (concussion), and Marek Zidlicky (concussion)

Tampa Bay:  Mattias Ohlund (Knee, out for the season), Steve Downie (questionable, upper body)

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