Minnesota Wild (34-22-8) 76pts 4th in Central
2.36 Goals For (26)
2.38 Goals Against (6)
18.5 % Power Play (16)
80.5% Penalty Kill (22)
Top 5 Scorers:
1. #29 Jason Pominville ~ 23G 20A = 43pts
2. #11 Zach Parise ~ 21G 19A = 40pts
3. #26 Matt Moulson ~ 18G 22A = 40pts
4. #9 Mikko Koivu ~ 8G 29A = 37pts
5. #20 Ryan Suter ~ 6G 29A = 35pts
Top 3 PIM's:
1. #4 Clayton Stoner ~ 78PIM's
2. #24 Matt Cooke ~ 52PIM's
3. #21 Kyle Brodziak ~ 37PIM's
Top Goaltenders:
1. #35 Darcy Kuemper ~ (11-4-2) 2.29GAA .922SV% 2SO
2. #30 Ilya Bryzgalov ~ (5-8-6) 2.95GAA .908SV%
Vs.
Edmonton Oilers (22-35-8) 52pts 7th in the Pacific
2.46 Goals For (22)
3.23 Goals Against (29)
16.7% Power Play (20)
81.9% Penalty Kill (15)
Top 5 Scorers:
1. #4 Taylor Hall ~ 22G 39A = 61pts
2. #14 Jordan Eberle ~ 20G 28A = 48pts
3. #57 David Perron ~ 23G 22A = 45pts
4. #93 Ryan Nugent-Hopkins ~ 15G 28A = 43pts
5. #89 Sam Gagner ~ 7G 23A = 30pts
Top 3 PIM's:
1. #20 Luke Gazdic ~ 93 PIM's
2. #57 David Perron ~ 58 PIM's
3. #21 Andrew Ference ~ 53 PIM's
Top Goaltenders:
1. #30 Ben Scrivens (12-10-4) 2.10GAA .934SV% 1SO
2. #35 Viktor Fasth (2-2-1) 2.95GAA .885SV%
Click on "Continue Reading" for the rest of the article…
When life gives you lemons, make lemonade. At least that's how the old saying goes. Although, I must admit, I'm not really thinking much about lemonade yet. Until it truly acts like spring outside, I'm going to hold off on all those thoughts yet. I keep telling people that it's still early in March, and there's a lot of time when winter can (and has in the past) reared its ugly head. However the point about making lemonade is that when you're faced with bad circumstances, how do you handle them and move on from them. Well, the past two games have been like a case of the sourest lemons have been dumped on the team. The games against Dallas and St. Louis were games that the team needed the wins, but failed to win them. However, tonight's game could just be the lemonade the team needs.
Life has been a bit rough for the Minnesota Wild, but a silver lining has come to town. When a team needs to restart their season, there's nothing like a game against Edmonton to help rebuild that lost confidence. However, I do get nervous when this team has to face what is usually considered an "easy" win. For whatever reason, the Minnesota Wild tends to "play down" to the lesser opponent. If that isn't bad enough, it makes fans, coaches, and media types nervous. If they would seriously just come out and play like the team they're supposed to be. All I want them to do is to just make Edmonton look like an even bigger failure than they are. They've been rewarded too much for their poor play in past years, and still continue to realize the talent they have.
Tonight, there are two points on the line that the Minnesota Wild desperately need. Right now, Dallas is only four points behind Minnesota. Of course there's an asterisk after that statement, as the Stars-Blue Jackets game has been postponed due to Rich Perverley having collapsed on the bench during that game yesterday. Thankfully, Peverley is in stable condition. I know when I read that headline on Twitter last night, as a Wild fan, I immediately thought of Sergei Zholtok. If there's one thing the league has improved on since that tragedy (although it happened overseas), is that it forced the league to look at their emergency care and response during game-time situations. AED machines are now more easily accessed and personnel are trained in their use. I can only imagine that the quick response and previous testing on Peverley certainly allowed for his recovery. I can only hope that even though they were successful, is that this incident forces the league to once again evaluate their readiness just to see if they can continue to improve on their emergency medical response in the arena. I'm just glad to see that Peverley is in stable condition. Even though they're our opponents, you never want to see a player die playing what is essentially a game.
All I ask is that I'm not left disappointed tonight. If Minnesota falls down completely, I might as well just suck on a lemon and forget the lemonade all together.
Add The Sports Daily to your Google News Feed!
