When you’ve been away for a while, people marvel how nice it is to sleep in one’s own bed. The beds may not be all that different but for whatever reason it is just that more comfortable at home. You sleep better, you feel as though you have more energy and life seems a bit sweeter. Or at least that’s the theory. Maybe it causes you to feel too comfortable, you sleep in too late and suddenly your feeling stressed. That is what the Minnesota Wild hope to avoid as they begin a 3-game homestand this week.
The Flames have had a rough start to the 2016-17 season, which is probably what they didn’t expect with a new coaching staff and a young, dynamic team. The Wild should be salivating at the chance to earn another 2 points, but overconfidence can be dangerous. Will the Wild follow up their successful road trip by earning a victory against Calgary at home?
1st Period Thoughts: Minnesota started off with a bunch of great chances early. The first two came from the stick of Eric Staal who got a step on the Flames’ defense but each time Chad Johnson was up to the task. With momentum behind them the Wild inexplicably took their foot off the gas and the Flames hustle began to pay off. It started with a Wild penalty as Mike Reilly who hooked Freddie Hamilton. Minnesota would create a nice shorthanded chance early as Mikko Koivu would tip a puck by the Flames point men and race down the ice on a shorthanded breakaway but the Wild captain couldn’t get his patented forehand to backhand move to work as his shot sailed high over the goal. Calgary would counter attack and it was Mark Giordano finding Johnny ‘Hockey’ Gaudreau with a pass and he’d fly by the Wild defenders (part of whom were caught on a line change) and then undress Devan Dubnyk with a sneaky backhand shot that found the back of the net. 1-0 Flames. It was huge boost of confidence for the Flames who had the NHL’s 2nd worst power play (less than 10% going into tonight’s game), and Minnesota had to weather the storm for the next few minutes. The Wild stopped shooting and seemed more concerned with setting up teammates instead of sending any puck on goal and hoping for the best. You could sense the frustrating building in the home team as they started to re-shuffle the lines in hope of some kind of spark. Perhaps sensing his team needed something to awaken them, Chris Stewart would drop the gloves with Deryk Engelland and it was a pretty even tilt before Stewart managed to free his right arm to unload some bombs on the former Penguins’ tough guy. Victory to Stewart and the Wild did seem to skate with a bit more purpose and urgency. Minnesota would create a 4-on-2 and as they tried to set up an open shot the puck ended up on the stick of Jason Zucker who bombed a shot off the post and out. The Wild would have one more ‘oh so close’ chance in the closing seconds of the period as a point shot by Christian Folin generated a rebound that was swept up by Koivu who tried to feed a pass to Mikael Granlund near the top of the crease before he was cross checked by Dougie Hamilton just before he could pull the trigger. Minnesota would start the 2nd with a power play, but had to feel disappointed in their effort as they trailed by one despite outshooting the Flames 10-7.
2nd Period Thoughts: The 2nd was an even uglier effort than the 1st. Penalties worked to prevent the Wild from building any kind of momentum. Yet don’t get me wrong. I am not advocating the Wild were getting bad calls, they were not. Case in point, as the Parise-Erik Haula line worked away in the Calgary zone, Haula was tripped up a bit but as Parise worked to get the loose puck he slashed Michael Ferland‘s stick and earned a trip to the box. Parise was incensed and let the officials know he wasn’t happy about the call. Moments after that, the follow through of a Flames player hit Jared Spurgeon in the mouth (which because it was on a follow through cannot be called a high stick) and then moments after that Jonas Brodin would send a puck up into the netting for a delay of game penalty and giving the Flames a 5-on-3 advantage. Brodin and Parise sat in the box shaking their heads in disgust with the call but they were both guilty of the penalties they were given. Minnesota’s penalty killers stayed focused and managed to get the big kill after two more penalties would be called, a cross check by Sean Monahan and a foolish interference penalty on Ryan Suter. Suter was yapping at the officials prior to basically reaching out and sweeping the legs of Johnny Gaudreau with his stick. I will admit that Gaudreau fell rather easily but there was no reason for Suter to make such a dumb play at center ice as he did which made for an obvious call. As the level of frustration grew, the after the whistle shenanigans started to manifest itself. The Wild only managed to create a few quality chances in the period with the best ones coming off a Mike Reilly point shot that rang off the post and a Zucker partial breakaway that Johnson stonewalled. I know some fans felt it was good to see the Wild stand up for itself, but that ignores the fact the Wild were losing their focus and getting carried away with the after the whistle garbage. This is precisely what Calgary wants and the Wild better ignore it if it wants to find a way to earn a victory in this game before the hole gets too deep.
3rd Period Thoughts: The 3rd period was more of what we saw in the 2nd period. The Flames kept Minnesota focusing on the wrong things and the Wild wasted valuable time it could’ve used to try to tie the the game. Eric Staal gave the Flames a power play just 19 seconds into the 3rd and Minnesota felt as though it was ‘screwed by the refs’ again as it was Nino Niederreiter‘s stick that was the actual culprit. Wrong number or not, Dennis Wideman was high-sticked by a Wild player and so the Flames deserved another power play. Minnesota would get the kill and shortly after the successful penalty killing effort they’d take another foolish penalty. As a puck scooted deep into the Wild zone, Devan Dubnyk would leave his crease to play the puck and it was Garnet Hathaway who seemed to trip up Dubnyk who fell rather easily. Wild defenseman Mathew Dumba took offense and tried to jump Hathaway and would wrestle him to the ice. Dumba would earn a double-minor for roughing giving Calgary another man advantage. Wild fans were not happy with the extra penalty but it was well deserved since Dumba essentially instigated the wrestling match. Minnesota would kill it off but it would take the Wild another 7-8 minutes before it could finally muster enough effort and urgency to really make a push down the stretch. About all the Wild could muster was a series of desperate shots from the perimeter that didn’t really threaten Johnson or the Flames too much and they’d fall 1-0.
Devan Dubnyk can’t really be blamed for tonight’s loss, making 26 saves in the loss. Beyond the single goal he gave up he made more than enough saves to keep his team in the game to have a chance at drawing even in this game. I thought the Wild were outworked too often in their own zone and at times they gave up some chances that were a little too close for their comfort. The penalty kill had to be leaned upon way too often as they went 5-for-6 on the night.
Offensively the Wild had a good first two shifts, after that it was a few isolated chances and two post-shots. Beyond that the Wild had little flow and were not willing to pay the real price to score goals. Too many flybys near the net, and not much in the way of players really crashing the net. It seemed like each one of the Wild players was waiting for another player to make a play to even this game. This team cannot afford a passenger attitude like that and expect to win, even against the lowly Calgary Flames.
Calgary had the 2nd worst offense, 2nd worst defense and awful special teams but that was plenty to beat the Minnesota Wild this evening. It wasn’t even a fantastic effort. It was playing with a little it of dirtiness that got the Wild off their game and more worried about the officiating and settling scores than winning. Minnesota can’t afford to give up points against bottom feeding teams like the Flames. One player who I felt was a distraction was Zach Parise. The team gave Parise power play time right away, why? He hasn’t played in weeks. The Wild better wake up prior to Thursday because they’re going to face a revenge-minded Bruins squad on Thursday night.
Wild Notes:
~ The Wild roster tonight was as follows: Mikko Koivu, Mikael Granlund, Jason Zucker, Eric Staal, Charlie Coyle, Nino Niederreiter, Erik Haula, Zach Parise, Jason Pominville, Tyler Graovac, Zack Mitchell, Chris Stewart, Ryan Suter, Jared Spurgeon, Jonas Brodin, Christian Folin, Mathew Dumba and Mike Reilly. Darcy Kuemper backed up Devan Dubnyk. Joel Eriksson Ek and Nate Prosser were the scratches.
~ The 3 Stars of the Game were: 1st Star Chad Johnson, 2nd Devan Dubnyk, 3rd Star Johnny Gaudreau
~ Attendance was 19,048 at Xcel Energy Center
Wild Prospect Report:
LW – Kirill Kaprizov (Salavay Yulaev Ufa, KHL) ~ the skilled Russian continues to be a standout but that is not surprising as he was the 1st Overall pick in the KHL draft in 2014. He had an assist in Salavat Yulaev Ufa’s 4-1 win over Neftekhimik Nizhnekamsk last week Thursday. Kaprizov has 11 goals, 22 points, 62 PIM’s and is a +9 in 26 games.
Add The Sports Daily to your Google News Feed!
