Minnesota Wild (27-20-5) 59pts 4th in the Central
2.29 Goals For (27th)
2.40 Goals Against (8th)
18% Power Play (20th)
79.2% Penalty Kill (24th)
Top 5 Scorers:
1. #29 Jason Pominville ~ 19G 14A = 33pts
2. #20 Ryan Suter ~ 6G 25A = 31pts
3. #22 Nino Niederreiter ~ 9G 17A = 26pts
4. #24 Matt Cooke ~ 6G 14A = 20pts
5. #64 Mikael Granlund ~ 3G 17A = 20pts
Top 3 PIM's:
1. #4 Clayton Stoner ~ 55 PIM's
2. #24 Matt Cooke ~ 32 PIM's
3. #2 Keith Ballard ~ 31 PIM's
Top Goaltenders:
1. #37 Josh Harding (18-7-3) 1.65GAA .933%SP 3SO
2. #32 Niklas Backstrom (5-10-2) 3.02GAA .899%SP
3. #35 Darcy Kuemper (4-3-0) 2.39GAA .916%SP 1SO
Vs.
Chicago Blackhawks (32-8-12) 76pts 1st in the Central
3.52 Goals For (1st)
2.64 Goals Against (15th)
22.5% Power Play (5th)
77.8% Penalty Kill (27th)
Top 5 Scorers:
1. #88 Patrick Kane ~ 23G 35A = 58pts
2. #10 Patrick Sharp ~ 26G 25A = 51pts
3. #19 Jonathan Toews ~ 17G 32A = 49pts
4. #2 Duncan Keith ~ 3G 43A = 46pts
5. #81 Marian Hossa ~ 21G 22A = 43pts
Top 3 PIM's:
1. #52 Brandon Bollig ~ 65 PIM's
2. #65 Andrew Shaw ~ 37 PIM's
3. #17 Sheldon Brookbank ~ 33 PIM's
Top Goaltenders:
1. #50 Corey Crawford (19-7-8) 2.49GAA .910%SP
2. #31 Antti Raanta (12-1-3) 2.25GAA .911%SP 1SO
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Well, Polar Vortex #2 has hit the Upper Midwest. This current one feels like a walk in the park compared to the one earlier this month. That one was truly vicious. During that one, our school district was closed for two days. During that cold spell, it was actually easier to convey the temperature with friends that use the metric system, because once the winchilll hit -40F they had an idea of how cold it was, because -40F is also -40C. When I went out this morning to walk the dog, it didn't feel as cold. Of course, yesterday was much worse than today. With temperatures that cold, it brings to mind the saying "when Hell freezes over." English can sometimes be an interesting, colorful languague, and we have our own ways of expressing disbelief. Now usually, that phrase is used to express that something unlikely will only happen when something even more unlikely will happen. The imagery associated with Hell, is that it's a fire pit where the damned, lost souls will go after death. One's idea of Hell is often shaded by their religious upbringing, and even among Christians there are many ideas of what Hell really is. But for today, we're going to stick with the fire pit image. Now, for a fire pit to "freeze over" would take an extreme temperature shift. The temperature of "absolute zero" comes to mind.
Tonight, the Wild once again have to face the Chicago Blackhawks. The 'Hawks are the second place team in the league, just trailing Anaheim by three points. Two of those three points just might be easily within grasp this evening. If Chicago gets to play the version of the Minnesota Wild that played Tuesday night, they will hardly have to try to get them. Head cocah Joel Quenneville could probably sit his top line for much of the game and still come out the winner. That is seriously how poorly the Wild played on Tuesday. In fact, by the middle of the second period, I had pretty much tuned out. The few times I bothered to look up at the television screen, I swear I would see another ridiculous, ill-timed pass. I don't know why, but the Wild love to make the cross-ice pass in the opposition's zone, through traffic to try and thread the smallest eye of a needle, instead of just taking the shot on goal. All of that passing reminds me of the classic basketball movie The Hoosiers, when Gene Hackman asks the team "how many times do we pass?" I swear the Wild feel that winning a game depends on making passes instead of shots on goal. When you pass that many times, that is why a team only has three shots on goal in the first period and six shots in the second. If they would spend more time shooting instead of passing, they would automatically look better than they did on Tuesday. Sure, the Wild have managed to win games with low shots on goal, but that doesn't make it easy.
The Wild have lately been riding the feel-good story of being able to win without Zach Parise, Mikko Koivu and Josh Harding. It has been fun watching the young players playing their hearts out and winning. However, you cannot base one's game plan on a feel-good story, because it's just that, a story. Hockey requires strategy and dedication to that strategy. Everyone needs to be on the same page. But Tuesday night, it felt like every player was reading one of those "Choose Your Own Adventure" books from when I was a kid, and everyone was choosing different options. With all of those ill-timed, different choices, they somehow managed to end up with the same ending. A pathetic loss. Now there are rumblings that the Wild could get Parise back tonight, but I highly doubt his return will solve what happened against Dallas. And sadly dear readers, I think we're going to see more of what happened on Tuesday for the remainder of the season than the feel-good story wins.
But then the Wild could suprise us. And if that's the case, Hell might have frozen over and pigs have taken flight.
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