Minnesota Wild (16-12-1) 33pts 5th in the Central
2.83 Goals For (13th)
2.55 Goals Against (13th)
12.6% Power Play (27th)
86.7% Penalty Kill (3rd)
Top 5 Scorers:
1. #11 Zach Parise ~ 11G 12A = 23pts
2. #29 Jason Pominville ~ 6G 14A = 20pts
3. #26 Thomas Vanek ~ 4G 14A = 18pts
4. #20 Ryan Suter ~ 1G 17A = 18pts
5. #22 Nino Niederreiter ~ 14G 3A = 17pts
Top 3 PIM’s:
1. #6 Marco Scandella ~ 38 PIM’s
2. #21 Kyle Brodziak ~ 24 PIM’s
3. #11 Zach Parise ~ 23 PIM’s
Top Goaltenders:
1. #35 Darcy Kuemper (11-9-1) 2.45GAA .906%SP 3SO
2. #32 Niklas Backstrom (5-3-1) 2.43GAA .903%SP
Vs.
Boston Bruins (15-13-3) 33pts 6th in the Atlantic
2.45 Goals For (22nd)
2.55 Goals Against (12th)
16.7% Power Play (19th)
78/8% Penalty Kill (22nd)
Top 5 Scorers:
1. #37 Patrice Bergeron ~ 5G 16A = 21pts
2. #34 Carl Soderberg ~ 5G 14A = 19pts
3. #63 Brad Mrchand ~ 8G 10A = 18pts
4. #27 Dougie Hamilton ~ 5G 12A = 17pts
5. #18 Reilly Smith ~ 8G 8A = 16pts
Top 3 PIM’s:
1. #17 Milan Lucic ~ 60 PIM’s
2. #63 Brad Marchand ~ 36 PIM’s
3. #37 Patrice Bergeron ~ 24 PIM’s
Top Goaltenders:
1. #40 Tuukka Rask (12-9-4) 2.52GAA .914%SP 1SO
2. #72 Niklas Svedberg (3-4-0) 2.28GAA .922%SP 1SO
When it rains, it pours. However considering the time of the year, it could be more like blizzard conditions instead of pouring rain. Yet strangely, we’ve had more rain than snow lately. With that being said however, with winter (or winter-like) weather often comes illness. For most of us, that illness comes in the form of a cold or occasionally the flu. If you somehow haven’t seen the news lately or been in a doctor’s office for a checkup, you would have seen information about the “failure” of this year’s flu shot. Considering how early it is, it’s going to be a nasty season of illness. Now to some degree, I’ve been fairly lucky. I haven’t had a flu shot since 2009 and I’ve barely even had a sniffle. Why is 2009 significant? That was the year of H1N1 outbreak. I was one of those struck with swine flu, and to this day, I believe that miserable 2 weeks of illness ultimately boosted my immune system. Unfortunately, that same level of immunity doesn’t apply to the Minnesota Wild.
As kids we were (or should have been) all immunized for things like measles, mumps, whooping cough, and polio. Up until the past 5-10 years, it was rare to hear of anyone getting the diseases we received vaccinations for. Now, we hear of more an more people, often adults, getting the mumps. This of course has the anti-vaccination people claiming “see, the vaccinations don’t work” on their unscientific blogs. You have people like actress Jenny McCarthy still spouting off that the MMR vaccine causes autism, which has been proven untrue time and time again. Now, we are witnessing adult hockey players coming down with a childhood illness that none of us should have experienced. They are of an age where they should have been vaccinated, and since many of them are North American, they would have been required to have those vaccinations to attend school. I will admit, I don’t know what the vaccination requirements are in Europe, but I can’t imagine they jumped on the anti-vaccine bandwagon. Prior to the Islanders game, the Today Show stood outside Xcel Energy Center reporting on the outbreak of the mumps in the National Hockey League. Considering the viewership of that particular program, many, many people in the United States saw that story. With the relatively large number of players and officials who have come down with the mumps, you would have thought that the league would have sprung into action to stop the illness. Yet, it seems they took a more hands off approach and left it to the individual teams to figure out their own plan. Of course, now that poster boy Sidney Crosby has now been afflicted with the mumps, just watch, there will be a call to action. Can’t have golden boy sick.
With those major illnesses, it just makes the stomach bugs that much more annoying. It feels as if the hockey gods are conspiring against the Wild. Jared Spurgeon was the latest (and hopefully LAST) to get the mumps. Of course now that everyone’s immune systems are a bit weakened due to being sick with other things, it should come as no surprise that it’s now those normal stomach bugs working their way through the team. Last night, Darcy Kuemper was supposed to start. According to those in the know, Kuemper looked like he had been run over by a truck. So, Niklas Backstrom started in Chicago. During the first period, Backstrom got sick himself. And since there was no back-up goaltender, Backstrom had to stick it out for the entire game. As of now, Backstrom is supposed to get the start tonight against the Bruins. But with illness running through the goaltenders, this added another twist to the Minnesota story. Last night in Des Moines, home of the Iowa Wild, saw an interesting development. The Iowa Wild were up 3-1 (after being down 1-0) to the Rockford Ice Hogs. Their starting goaltender, John Curry was replaced by Johan Gustafsson. The word at the time was that it was for “maintenance reasons.” Well as it became clearer after the game that Backstrom was ill as well, the only answer was that Curry was traveling up to Saint Paul. As of now, Backstrom is starting with Curry as the backup, but that could change at any time. This would be Curry’s second start with Minnesota if Backstrom is too ill to play.
Every season, every team goes though various bugs in the locker room. Sometimes they’re more injury based and other years it’s the flu. This year it appears that Minnesota is going to go through both at the same time. December has rarely been a kind month to the Wild, and it appears that it’s going to be no different this season. Hopefully with the New Year soon upon us, we’ll see a healthier and wealthier (at least in wins) Minnesota Wild.
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