Minnesota Wild (28-20-6) 62pts 4th in the Central
2.28 Goals For (28th)
2.39 Goals Against (7th)
17.4% Power Play (21st)
79.5% Penalty Kill (23rd)
Top 5 Scorers:
1. #29 Jason Pominville ~ 20G 15A = 35pts
2. #20 Ryan Suter ~ 6G 25A = 31pts
3. #11 Zach Parise ~ 15G 12A = 27pts
4. #22 Nino Niederreiter ~ 9G 17A = 26pts
5. #24 Matt Cooke ~ 8G 14A = 22pts
Top 3 PIM's:
1. #4 Clayton Stoner ~ 62 PIM's
2. #24 Matt Cooke ~ 34 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 (5-3-1) 2.29GAA .922%SP 1SO
Vs.
Anaheim Ducks (39-10-5) 83pts 1st in the Pacific
3.33 Goals For (3rd)
2.33 Goals Against (5th)
18.7% Power Play (15th)
82.7% Penalty Kill (14th)
Top 5 Scorers:
1. #15 Ryan Getzlaf ~ 25G 35A = 60pts
2. #10 Corey Perry ~ 28G 29A = 57pts
3. #13 Nick Bonino ~ 16G 24A = 40pts
4. #7 Andrew Cogliano ~ 17G 13A = 30pts
5. #4 Cam Fowler ~ 6G 23A = 29pts
Top 3 PIM's:
1. #62 Patrick Maroon ~ 62 PIM's
2. #18 Tim Jackman ~ 48 PIM's
3. #10 Corey Perry ~ 46 PIM's
Top Goaltenders:
1. #1 Jonas Hiller (24-6-4) 2.34GAA .915%SP 4SO
2. #31 Fredrick Andersen (13-2-0) 1.87GAA .933%SP
3. #30 Viktor Fasth (2-2-1) 2.95GAA .885%SP
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It's cold out, I'm tired, I have to work until 7 tonight and then wait around for another two hours for the game to start. Sorry, but that combo just makes me cranky. And what will make me even crankier is if Minnesota comes out looking like garbage. Consider how my day might go today, I have that nasty feeling that that is what will happen tonight, which of course beds the question, why stay up? But I will, and that just might be the craziest part of it all.
I'm not sure which is crazier though, my staying up or an outdoor hockey game played in Los Angeles. If the awarding of outdoor games was up to me, there would be some basic rules. The first rule would be this: Your winter must, on average, be below freezing. The original intent of the outdoor game was to take us all back, to the days of outdoor pond hockey. Sorry, but pond hockey isn't happening naturally in Southern California. The second rule, is when you do get snow, your public works department and the populace as a whole shouldn't freak out over one inch of snowfall. Regular cold weather and snowfall should be nothing out of the ordinary for you. With that in mind, it leaves plenty of northern cities to host an outdoor game, yet some of the most obvious winter locations have been left out in the cold: Denver, Minneapolis/St. Paul, Toronto, Montreal, and Ottawa. These are five locations where winter is truly winter, yet flippin' Los Angeles has hosted an outdoor game. Another rule should be that there be just the Winter Classic game, held on New Year's Day. This "Stadium Series" (which Los Angeles was part of) was not needed, and in reality just takes away from what made the Winter Classic special.
Since the Ducks got to play in the "Stadium Series" this weekend, I would like to share with them some true winter weather. If it were physically possible, I'd like to send the Polar Vortex to them. Let them feel what winter weather feels like. It's been so cold, that our schools were closed yesterday and are closed today as well. For once, I'd like to see the Anaheim Ducks frozen like a deer in the headlights. Unfortunately, it will most likely be Minnesota that is caught looking frozen in place. Minnesota has had a couple of days off, and since the inception of the Wild, if the Wild has had more than one day off, they tend to come back looking tired. They could have flown in to their current location days ago, and still look like they played just the night before and flew in late. I don't know how that is possible, and it's truly disappointing. Myself personally, I've been off from work for a couple of days, and I'm looking forward to it. I know I won't be standing around looking out of place.
I figure we should all know how tonight's game will go within five minutes. I like to tell myself "if it looks horrible, I will just turn the game off." However, I think I'm a glutton for punishment, and no matter what , I'll watch it to its ugly finish. I'd like to be wrong, but somehow I don't think that will be the case. I suppose I should go make some coffee in preparation for tonight's late night.
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