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The term ‘rock bottom’ was bantered about liberally after the Wild’s embarrassing 7-1 loss Saturday night to the Dallas Stars. The term is often used to describe a team undergoing an implosion of confidence, a total absence of positive momentum and little to no success to speak of. If it was a country song, they’ve girlfriend has left them, their dog ran away and their truck broke down. One interesting thing about the phrase rock bottom is that it comes with the glimmer of hope that it can’t get any worse than it already is. Have the Wild bottomed out, or can it indeed play worse than it did in its most lopsided road loss in franchise history? I have no doubt that in the last few days the team has probably spent a lot of time reflecting on the team’s current spiral and asking one’s self what must be done. The nagging question is how will the team respond after this most recent setback?
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Yet, how many times have we already heard that this season? If Wild fans, players got a nickel for every time a member of the coaching staff mentioned the need for the team to respond we’d all be rich. It is the fact that message has been repeated over and over again which is why fans and players are probably hopeful of the idea of hitting rock bottom because its a message they’re quite tired of hearing. It is a horse that has been beaten to death a long time ago. So will the Wild prove that they’ve indeed hit rock bottom and are ready to move forward or will the Sharks prove their is a lot more pain to endure?
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1st Period Thoughts: The started out with a chess like feel as the Sharks were sitting back in a 1-2-2 daring the Wild to enter the neutral zone. The Sharks would close their trap quickly and force a few turnovers. The Wild did not seem to be frazzled but they took their time and were willing to settle for whatever the Sharks were giving them, instead of forcing plays that were not there. It took a little while but the Wild would start to find a little space and the team began taking every chance to blast the puck on goal. The Sharks were dictating the pace but the were playing very conscientious defense. Minnesota would ‘earn’ the first power play of the game as Barclay Goodrow who was given a slashing call as his stick was broken. On the power play the Wild had relatively decent puck movement, due in part to the presence of Jason Zucker who was able to move quick enough to prolong possession as they were able to put some pressure on Alex Stalock. Thomas Vanek looked very hungry in and around the crease but unfortunately they were not able to capitalize and the power play as the 2nd unit struggled to hold the zone. The Sharks seemed to raise their intensity and they would have a few quality scoring chances as Matt Tennyson snuck down low and his quick shot was denied by Darcy Kuemper who had to get across his crease pretty fast. A few minutes later Kuemper had to make a fine save with lots of pressure bearing down on him as Melker Karlsson made a determined charge towards the Wild’s blue paint. The Wild’s patience would be rewarded as the officials waived off what looked like was an icing call that forced Stalock to leave his crease to play the puck and he passed it right onto the stick of Jason Zucker who rifled a shot home. 1-0 Wild. The Sharks bench was irate as the decision to waive off the icing call but it wouldn’t matter as Minnesota kept its lead. A few moments later the Wild would strike again as Zucker would swing a cross-ice pass to a pinching Jared Spurgeon who went top shelf over Stalock to make it 2-0 Minnesota. The Sharks tried to answer back as their 4th line provided good pressure and Goodrow would draw a holding penalty on Justin Falk. On the penalty kill, the Wild did not give San Jose a lot of time and space and they were able to get disrupt the Sharks’ power play. The Sharks’ seemed a bit deflated by the Wild’s two late strikes as both clubs headed to the locker room for the 1st intermission. The Wild out shot the Sharks 10-8. I thought Jason Zucker had a tremendous period, who filled the void left by Zach Parise‘s departure very nicely adding energy and quickness to the top line. Zucker’s exploding shoulder to Brent Burns was terrific and seemed to be the kind of play that both energized the rest of the team and the home fans.
2nd Period Thoughts: The passive and patient approach the Sharks had in the 1st period was tossed aside for the 2nd as they were trying to make it an up tempo game. Minnesota was happy to oblige and they would start to work their cycling game in the San Jose zone. The Wild would draw an early penalty as Zucker was tripped up by Tennyson. Unfortunately the Wild seemed way too passive on the power play as a few set up attempts failed to connect. As the power play was expiring, a great diving play by Zucker to work the puck back out to the point so Ryan Suter could hammer a shot from the point. Unfortunately, Mikko Koivu who was handling the puck like a live hand grenade would get frustrated and trip up Andrew Dejardins and the Sharks would go on the power play. Minnesota’s penalty kill was again very aggressive, not giving the Sharks any time and space at all. The Wild kill would quash the Sharks power play without even giving up a shot on goal. The Wild seemed to relax a bit and the Sharks were swarming all over the Wild’s zone. Minnesota tried to counter and after a nice effort by Nino Niederreiter to carry the puck in the San Jose zone and he set it up for Thomas Vanek who had a step and he inexplicably dropped a pass back to Jonas Brodin who’s shot was blocked. The Sharks would score off a bizarre deflection off the stanchion and bounce out front to Karlsson who dusted off a sneaky backhander that beat Kuemper 5-hole to cut the Wild’s lead to one. 2-1 Wild. The Sharks’ goal brought back that nervous anxiety as San Jose nearly connected on a long stretch pass from Joe Pavelski to Logan Couture who was tripped up by Koivu. Luckily for the Wild, Couture was given a weak diving call making it 4-on-4 for the next 2 minutes. The Wild certainly lacked cohesion at 4-on-4 and San Jose carried the play. Pavelski would ring a wrist shot off the post and the Wild seemed to be playing with fire as there was a lot of standing and watching in the offensive zone forcing Kuemper to stem the tide with a huge save on the Plover, Wisconsin-native. The lazy plays continued as Vanek hooked Justin Braun in the neutral zone. The Wild’s penalty killers again stepped up to keep the Sharks at bey, but at this point the Wild were playing rope-a-dope and they were lucky to escape with a 1-goal lead.
3rd Period Thoughts: The Wild started the 3rd with some more energy and the line of Nino Niederreiter, Charlie Coyle and Thomas Vanek was able to cause some havoc for the Sharks early on. Vanek was dangling around defenders but despite the fact he had the time and space he refused to shoot the trigger until a few seconds later but his shot was blocked by a Sharks’ defender. The line kept buzzing and keeping Stalock busy. A clearing attempt would hit NHL linesman Ryan Galloway in the head, which would send him to the ice in clear distress. Head Athletic trainer Don Fuller would head out onto the ice to attend to the injured official and the game would continue with just 2 referee and 1 linesman. The Wild would continue to frustrate fans as a turnover in the neutral zone turned into a 2-on-1 between Zucker and Pominville but instead of pulling the trigger the two passed it back and forth before it was deflected away and Minnesota did not get so much as a shot on goal. The Sharks seemed emboldened by the Wild’s lack of initiative to fire the puck on goal and predictably Minnesota would be punished for being too selective. Right off a face off, Joe Pavelski one-timed a shot by Kuemper to tie the game at 2-2. The pain wasn’t going to stop anytime soon and a bouncing puck would draw a big rebound off the peg pad of Kuemper right to the stick of Tommy Wingels who skated right by Suter and would fire it home. 3-2 San Jose. You could sense the apathetic crowd was stewing with anger in their seats at the team’s lack of focus and execution. The Wild tried to answer back as Charlie Coyle won a battle along the wall and passed it out to Matt Cooke for a quick shot that was deflected up into the netting by Stalock. The Wild would tie the game a few moments later as Charlie Coyle entered the San Jose zone and then sent a pretty saucer feed out front that was tapped home by Zucker. After the Wild got the equalizer they seemed to be caught in the afterglow of the goal as few lazy clearing attempts kept Minnesota bottled up in its own end as Kuemper found himself under siege. Justin Falk would be hurt after blocking a slap shot and the Wild decided to call a timeout to talk things over after that ugly shift. Both clubs were wary of making a critical mistake and the game would get a little more conservative over the waning minutes of the 3rd. With 2:02 left to play, Thomas Vanek would step in front of Patrick Marleau as he was trying to race for the puck and the Sharks would go on the power play. It was another lazy penalty by a player who personifies lazy play. Luckily the penalty kill would stand tall and the game would go to overtime.
Overtime Thoughts: Minnesota started with some speed for overtime and it nearly worked as Zucker tapped away a puck from the Marc-Edouard Vlasic and he’d motor into the Sharks’ zone and with no better options he’d wind up and rip a slap shot that Stalock fought off. After a few minutes of posturing the Sharks would get the game winner as Vlasic blistered a shot from just above the left faceoff dot and over the shoulder of an unscreened Kuemper and off the post and in. 4-3 Sharks win.
Darcy Kuemper is going to be a major story line as the last goal he gave up was on an unscreened slap shot taken from a sharp angle. With his 6’5″ frame, he should have no trouble at least deflecting away. Kuemper started out well, but after the strange bounce off the stanchion seemed to bring back the doubts in his game. Toss in the bad rebound that led to Wingels’ goal and you really have to question if he has what it takes to help this team climb back towards playoff relevance. Defensively, I thought the Wild were somewhat victimized by the injuries as Falk and Scandella went down to injuries which forced Minnesota to give bigger minutes late to Christian Folin than it probably wanted to. The Wild were perfect on the penalty kill, but I thought that was mostly due to the hard work of the forwards especially Ryan Carter.
Offensively the Wild became its own worst enemy as its started to get too fancy with the puck and passing up shots. Thomas Vanek was guilty of this on multiple occasions. Then like a disease it spread to Pominville, Coyle and even Zucker for a short time. Luckily, Zucker’s willingness and initiative was the main reason the Wild came away with a point tonight. Zucker was active all over the ice tonight, but there were still too many guys coasting tonight. Mikko Koivu was a train wreck, no shots on goal and 4 penalty minutes. That is contributing just about nothing to the team at a price of $6.75 million. He looked sluggish all game long and whenever he handled the puck he juggled it like a live hand grenade.
This was another huge missed opportunity after the Sharks had done Wild a big favor by beating the Winnipeg Jets just prior to the end of the 3rd period. The Wild keep getting complacent with a lead and they relax their guard and stop shooting the puck and their opponents have a chance to mount a comeback. The same mistakes continue to happen and Wild fans are treated to the same “its not good enough” press conference. Sure it isn’t, but its time they actually do something to change it. Only they can work their way out of it.
Wild Notes:
~ The Wild roster tonight was as follows: Mikko Koivu, Jason Pominville, Thomas Vanek, Nino Niederreiter, Erik Haula, Kyle Brodziak, Ryan Carter, Justin Fontaine, Charlie Coyle, Brett Sutter, Matt Cooke, Jason Zucker, Ryan Suter, Marco Scandella, Jared Spurgeon, Jonas Brodin, Chritian Folin and Justin Falk. Niklas Backstrom backed up Darcy Kuemper. Nate Prosser and Zach Parise were the scratches.
~ The 3 Stars of the Game were: 1st Star Joe Pavelski, 2nd Star Jason Zucker, 3rd Star Marc-Edouard Vlasic
~ Attendance was 19,043 at Xcel Energy Center.
Iowa Wild Report:
Recent Score: Iowa 2, Utica 1
Saturday night’s game started off slowly, with not a lot of great scoring chances for either side. It seemed destined to become a goaltenders duel between Iowa’s John Curry and Utica’s Joacim Eriksson. Iowa would finally break the stalemate as Jordan Schroeder took a Marc Hagel pass and rifle a shot by Eriksson, 1-0. The Wild would add another goal in the 3rd as Zack Mitchell kept poking and shoveling at the puck until he finally lit the lamp. It was a key goal, as the Comets would strike midway through the period as Utica’s Will Acton finally managed to beat Curry to make it 2-1 but that’s as close as it got. Curry had 27 saves in Iowa’s victory.
Wild Prospect Report:
C – Adam Gilmour (Boston College, H-East) ~ The lanky center had another nice night for the Eagles as he anchored their 2nd line, chipping in a goal in Boston College’s 3-2 win over Dartmouth on Saturday night. Gilmour is the Eagles’ 2nd leading scorer with 4 goals (all of them on the power play), 14 points, 12 PIM’s and is a +6 in 19 games this season.
G – Alexandre Belanger (Rouyn-Noranda, QMJHL) ~ The athletic goaltender is starting to string some quality starts together as he stopped 15 shots in the Huskies 5-1 win over Sherbrooke on Saturday night. Belanger has a 12-7 record, a 3.38 goals against average and an .874% save percentage and one shutout.
C – Pavel Jenys (Sudbury, OHL) ~ Its been a rough weekend for the Sudbury Wolves, having given up 13 goals and having scored none of their own. It was only marginally better on Sunday night as they scored twice, including one from the Wild’s Czech-born prospect in a 6-2 loss to North Bay. Jenys has 7 goals, 24 points, 26 PIM’s and is a -17 in 32 games played this season.
College Hockey Report:
This is a new feature here at the State of Hockey News, where I am going to profile some of the smaller college hockey programs in and around the State of Hockey. One of the most successful has been my alma mater, the University of Wisconsin: River Falls. The University has had notable success in both their men’s and women’s programs over the years with its women’s team getting 2nd place in the NCAA tournament for Division III. This year it seems to be the Men’s program chance to shine.
University of Wisconsin: River Falls Falcons ~ Record: 13-0
The Falcons are a young team which attacks you in waves, scoring by committee. Senior forward Blake Huppert leads a forward core made up of mostly freshman and sophomores which indicate a bright future for the club. The teams greatest strength might be its junior goaltender Tanner Milliron, whose 1.69 goals against average and .938% save percentage means the Falcons last line of defense is in good hands. Head Coach Scott Freeman, who has coached the Falcons for the last 18 seasons hasn’t reached the meat of the WIAC schedule yet but he will no doubt have the kids primed and ready to go.
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