Minnesota Wild (23-9-4) 50pts 2nd in the Central
3.11 Goals For Per Game (4th in the NHL)
2.06 Goals Against Per Game (2nd in the NHL)
18.0% Power Play (16th in the NHL)
85.8% Penalty Kill (5th in the NHL)
Top 5 Scorers:
1. #3 Charlie Coyle ~ 12G 18A = 30pts
2. #12 Eric Staal ~ 11G 19A = 30pts
3. #64 Mikael Granlund ~ 10G 19A = 29pts
4. #9 Mikko Koivu ~ 9G 15A = 24pts
5. #16 Jason Zucker ~ 9G 14A = 23pts
Top 3 PIM’s:
1. #7 Chris Stewart ~ 47 PIM’s
2. #24 Mathew Dumba ~ 37 PIM’s
3. #3 Charlie Coyle ~ 22 PIM’s
Top Goaltenders:
1. #40 Devan Dubnyk (19-7-3) 1.75GAA .941%SP 5SO
2. #35 Darcy Kuemper (4-2-1) 3.11GAA .904%SP
Vs.
San Jose Sharks (23-13-2) 48pts 1st in the Pacific
2.45 Goals For Per Game (22nd in the NHL)
2.16 Goals Against Per Game (4th in the NHL)
16.8% Power Play (19th in the NHL)
83.3% Penalty Kill (11th in the NHL)
Top 5 Scorers:
1. #88 Brent Burns ~ 15G 20A = 35pts
2. #8 Joe Pavelski ~ 12G 22A = 34pts
3. #19 Joe Thornton ~ 2G 23A = 25pts
4. #39 Logan Couture ~ 12G 12A = 24pts
5. #12 Patrick Marleau ~ 10G 6A = 16pts
Top 3 PIM’s:
1. #38 Michael Haley ~ 47 PIM’s
2. #44 Marc-Edouard Vlasic ~ 31 PIM’s
3. #4 Brenden Dillon ~ 31 PIM’s
Top Goaltenders:
1. #31 Martin Jones (19-12-2) 2.10GAA .920%SP 2SO
2. #30 Aaron Dell (4-1-0) 1.78GAA .936%SP 1SO
Lines:
San Jose Sharks
Marleau-Thornton-Pavelski
Lebanc-Couture-Boedker
Meier-Tierny-Donskoi
Karlsson-Haley-Ward
Martin-Burns
Vlasic-Braun
Dillon-Schlemko
Jones
Dell
Minnesota Wild
Parise-Staal-Pominville
Zucker-Koivu-Granlund
Niederreiter-Haula-Coyle
Stewart-Graovac-Schroeder
Suter-Spurgeon
Brodin-Dumba
Scandella-Folin / Prosser
Dubnyk
Kuemper
Well I hope everyone had the foresight to put as one of their New Year’s Resolutions was to get more sleep. Many of us make plans to improve our lives, but often we struggle with keeping such plans. Of course, many of those plans are things like losing weight or quitting smoking. These are harder things to accomplish, because they often depend on the people around us. If our family and friends smoke, it’s harder to quit because the people who should be your support system are smokers as well. Losing weight isn’t easy either. It requires dedication by your entire household, and if there are people in it that can eat as much as they want and not gain weight, it makes it that much harder for the person who is trying to drop pounds. I try to keep my resolutions simple in that I really try not to make any. However, as we went through the Christmas and New Year’s holidays, I tried to relax as much as I possibly could. Of course when you’re tired, going to be early isn’t hard to do. Heck, I was in bed by 10:30pm on New Year’s Eve. And now as we face our first Wild game since the loss on New Year’s Eve, we also have to face the fact that we’re going to see more of these late night games. So if you haven’t made any kind of resolution, make this mini one for tomorrow. If you can, when you get home from work or school, take a nap before or after dinner.
With the long layoff between games, I decided to take a peak at the standings. I figured since the Wild haven’t played since New Year’s Eve, that the Saint Louis Blues would have either surpassed us again or made a push in that direction. Imagine my surprise to see that the Wild are still five points ahead of the Blues. Even more amazing is that Minnesota is still only one point behind division leading Chicago. For the first time in many seasons, that one point feels attainable. The Blackhawks are not the team they’ve been in past seasons. Hopefully with Chicago not being the team they’ve been, the mental game will fall by the wayside, like it finally did in Montreal. But of course when you’re sitting near the top of the Western Conference standings, people will be coming for you. I’m hoping that the loss on New Year’s Eve doesn’t send the team into the slump we didn’t see in December. Considering their ability to continually fight back that we saw during the win streak, it’s my hope that we won’t see the slump return.
Tonight, we have the first game in what seems like forever. Sure, it’s been a five days, but to me it almost seems longer because of the holidays. But perhaps it’s not December we should fear. For whatever reason, it’s been the last month of the year that I’ve feared this season, when it appears it’s really the first month of the year that Minnesota fans should be wary of. Last season, it was a horrid January that got Mike Yeo fired. Although considering his history with the team, there are many fans that thought Yeo should have been let go much sooner than he was. Two seasons ago, his job was spared after a horrid January by a timely acquisition of Devan Dubnyk. Thankfully, Bruce Boudreau is not Mike Yeo. Boudreau doesn’t let the inmates run the asylum. When we’ve seen bad habits creep up on the team, it’s clear that Boudreau either gives them a talking to during intermission or addresses the issue in practice. According to Jim Souhan’s article in the Minneapolis Star Tribune, Boudreau refuses to dwell on the failures of Januarys past.
This is the first meeting with San Jose this season. And it’s not going to be easy by any stretch of the imagination. Let’s just start with the abysmal 3-13-2 record in the last 18 games played in San Jose. These are numbers that no one can ignore. But as I’ve already mentioned, the numbers weren’t good heading into Montreal either. The Sharks also lead the Pacific Division and were last season’s Western Conference Champions. Of course one could argue, leading the Pacific Division isn’t exactly something to write home about. San Jose may be in first place in their division, but Minnesota still leads them in points. According to many within the team, they’re happy that they got the break when they did. First, it gave them the chance to rest after the emotional loss on Saturday. Plus, when you’re heading out on a Pacific Division road trip which involves lots of miles traveled and late games, you definitely relish the time to rejuvenate mind and body. Considering the colds and flu bugs that I see all around me, that becomes a concern in the sporting world. The Wild players that have school-aged children are used to having their kids bring home all sorts of bugs. When you get worn down (like when you head out on a road trip), that’s when the bugs catch you. So hopefully the players are using their humidifiers and taking in extra Vitamin C as well as trying to catch as much sleep as they can.
New year. New season. Here comes the push to the end.
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