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At the conclusion of Game 5 you could almost hear Blackhawks nation sighing in relief at the result of the game; as well as the team, coaching staff and front office as well. I truly believe the Blackhawks really were starting to doubt themselves and even after they tied the game there was not the normal swagger you’d expect from a defending Stanley Cup champion. You could sense the team was still battling insecurity and with the Blackhawks holding onto a one-goal lead they clearly did not feel all that safe. Minnesota could not take advantage of Chicago’s lack of confidence, even after tallying the first goal failed to add anymore and Wild mistakes eventually gave the Blackhawks critical opportunities to tie the game and take the lead. In other words, a huge missed opportunity for the Wild. Chicago was ripe to let a game slip at home.
Minnesota simply stopped doing many of the little things that made them successful at home. A glaring deficiency was the Wild’s struggles on its faceoffs where Chicago won a remarkable 60% of draws; which is all the more incredible when you consider the fact Minnesota is 2nd among playoff teams in faceoffs. Those lack of faceoff wins meant the team had to spend valuable time and energy trying to get the puck back from Chicago, and also less time spent in the offensive zone. The other area is more subtle and not really tracked statistically. The Wild; especially its defenseman were using the glass and boards way too often to work the puck out of the zone and that led to a bunch of easy turnovers that not only squandered potential chances to break out of Wild end with a possibility of creating offense but also meant more time chasing Chicago players for puck possession. The Wild must improve in these two areas for Game 6 or they could find themselves eliminated. Jonathan Toews and Michal Handzus put on a clinic on the faceoff dot on Sunday, and the Wild cannot afford to let them do that again. Even Mikko Koivu; the playoffs faceoff leader lost more draws than he won.
Offensively the Wild need to keep it simple. There were at least 4 or 5 occasions in Game 5, when they finally did managed to acquire a little time and space that they’d try the extra pass instead of just taking their chance to fire it on goal. Minnesota was rewarded in Games 3 & 4 by not being picky and taking their chances to send pucks on goal as Corey Crawford (who I too felt was feeling the pressure going into Game 5) was pretty suspect. Crawford is still questioned by many despite the fact he has a Stanley Cup ring as Chicago’s starter to his credit. I think he’s very human and the fact the Wild rang two shots off the pipe early in the 1st period of Game 5 gave me the impression of a goaltender who is still guessing a bit against Minnesota shooters. This makes it all that much more important to get more pucks on goal and see if they can rattle him a bit to give up some rebounds that could lead to some 2nd chance opportunities.
Minnesota’s best line in Game 5 was its 3rd line of Erik Haula, Matt Cooke and Justin Fontaine. The line was pesky; fast and one of the few lines that seemed to give Chicago trouble in their own end. The rest of the lines seemed to be just reacting to the puck instead of anticipating it as passes were off target or often placed behind the skater which allowed Chicago’s defense time to get back into the play. The team had no shots from Mikko Koivu, Dany Heatley or Kyle Brodziak. That can’t happen. For a team that has been the best post-season example of scoring by committee, it needs everyone on board to be shooting the puck when they have the opportunity to do so. If no other reason than the fact they’ve often been rewarded when they’ve done so. So to the rest of the team that has been fairly quiet in this series so far; Charlie Coyle, Jason Pominville, and Koivu, its about time they start making some noise offensively.
The Wild’s blueline could use another few tweaks too. Jonas Brodin has really had a rough post-season overall. He’s withered under physical pressure and has been turnover prone; not to mention guilty of taking bad penalties that lead to goals by the Blackhawks. It is kind of interesting; because overall the Wild penalty kill has been pretty damn solid in the playoffs but when Brodin takes a penalty, Chicago is 3-for-3 on the man advantage. Anything the Wild can do to hide Brodin; who is an extremely unlikely candidate to be scratched it would be wise of the team to do so. Another player who needs to actually be scratched and swapped out is my hometown kid, Nate Prosser. Prosser, while he’s a simple stay-at-home type of defenseman who plays a simple game; just does not play a style that helps a lot in the post-season. That being chipping it off the glass and boards whether there is intense pressure or not. Prosser does this of course because that is what worked so well for him in the regular season; a type of game where you have a finite amount of time before the game goes to a shootout. Killing time that way works then; but in the playoffs where overtimes are endless all you’re doing is playing with fire and giving the puck away needlessly. Minneapolis Star Tribune‘s Wild beat writer Michael Russo says there is a possibility Keith Ballard could be back; and that would be a good thing. If he can’t do it; I’d suggest swapping Prosser for Jonathon Blum. Ballard has been pretty steady in the playoff games he’s been in; but he still got ground into board dust by Brandon Bollig; who is still serving the last game of his 2-game NHL suspension for the hit from behind. Blum on the other hand is has shown a tendency to opt for the short passes instead of the glass like Prosser consistently does.
The team certainly has shown the ability to raise its game when it needs to. The Xcel Energy Center is going to be rocking tonight. I think most Wild fans believe they can do it. The Wild have rewarded its fanbase with its longest post-season run since 2003. Hopefully they keep it going at least one game longer!
Oh and one more thing. I want to respond to this garbage piece of journalism written by Ryan Lambert on Deadspin here. Lambert takes a Jim Souhan / Pat Reusse type of wrecking ball approach to blaming the Wild’s woes on Ryan Suter and Zach Parise who happens to be leading the team in playoff scoring as is amongst the current leaders in that category. The basic premise is that the signing of those two isn’t enough to make for a Stanley Cup winning squad, well no shit, Sherlock. He goes onto talk about Chicago and the draft; etc. Well as what you’d expect from some pessimistic Minnesota-sports basher; he ignores a few truths in the Chicago story as well as the Wild’s own tale. He fails to tell you how Chicago wasn’t just bad, but a team that was a total NHL laughingstock for nearly a decade before it finally started to rise from the ashes after the death of its curmudgeon owner William “Dollar Bill” Wirtz. It was so bad it got blue chip selections in 3rd Overall Jonathan Toews in 2006 and 1st Overall Patrick Kane in 2007. Nevermind the obvious fact the Blackhawks are going to have to give both Toews and Kane a very handsome raise that will probably have them making even more than Parise and Suter in the next few seasons. But hey, let’s not confuse the author with the facts.
The Wild’s highest selection ever was Marian Gaborik at 3rd Overall in 2000. It wasn’t Chuck Fletcher‘s fault that former General Manager Doug Risebrough let him walk for nothing after failing to sign him that summer before a long-term groin injury effectively killed any chance of dealing him away before the trade deadline. The Wild are guilty of some self-inflicted wounds at the draft; as the selections of A.J. Thelen, James Sheppard, Colton Gillies, Tyler Cuma and to a certain extent Benoit Pouliot bombed terribly and gave the team a void of talent that its still recovering from. Dealing away Nick Leddy and Kim Johnsson for failed Blackhawks draft choice Cam Barker is a different story. Yet the fact Chicago still did well despite its own decade of whiffs and poor picks (Pavel Vorobiev, Mikhail Yakupov and Steve McCarthy ring a bell?) tells you more about its recent draft success than some long tradition of great selections. It wasn’t until Dale Tallon arrived that the Blackhawks started finding talent beyond the 1st round like Dustin Byfuglien, Duncan Keith, Troy Brouwer, Bryan Bickell, Dave Bolland, and Corey Crawford. The Wild have already made big strides in improving its performance at the draft. Mikael Granlund, Marco Scandella, Jonas Brodin, Darcy Kuemper and 7th rounder Erik Haula are great evidence of that. They’re still getting better and the team made a great moves for young talent when it made deals to add Charlie Coyle and Nino Niederreiter via savvy trades. So it wasn’t all done by making big money free agent deals like Lambert suggests. The window is a finite one yes, but Minnesota is only going to get better. The West is a tough gauntlet, it always has been, but Suter and Parise are not a reason to expect Minnesota will be mired in mediocrity. No one, not even Ryan Lambert knows that to be the case, but he would be wise enough to not talk as though he’s sure its only going to be an also ran. As Abraham Lincoln once said, “Its better to be silent and thought a fool than to speak and remove all doubt.”]]>
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