Some teams just seem to have your number no matter what you do. It becomes an almost inescapable psychological hurdle to overcome. Shooters fan on shots trying to release it extra quick even when there is no pressure to do so, sure-handed defensive players now cough up the puck at the worst possible times. These are all symptoms of that psychological warfare at work. Even when you’re playing reasonably well you still find a way to make the mistakes to lose the game. No doubt it must give that opponent immense confidence in knowing that you’re already in the head playing games with your foe even before you line up in the faceoff circle against them. You know as that opponent that if you have one thing go right they are saying to themselves “here we go again.” I wonder if that’s what the Wisconsin Badgers football team think when they play Minnesota or if that’s what the St. Louis Blues think when playing against the Wild? The Blues have gone 9-1-0 over the last ten games against the Wild.
As a coach its frustrating to watch. Like a slow moving train wreck. You know its going to be awful, you know its going to happen but you seem powerless to prevent it. You try to convince your team to worry about its own game, but at a crucial moment a player tries to play it safe to the point they make a silly error and that is the one that costs you the win. Then you start second guessing your advice and now you’re battling the same inner demons your team is. The Wild must be doing a lot of that as the St. Louis Blues come to town, can they overcome their insecurities to earn a win tonight?
1st Period Thoughts: The Wild started the game with an up tempo style that seemed to keep the Blues on their heels a bit. Minnesota may not have been peppering Jake Allen with a ton of shots right away, but the Wild were able to generate far more pressure offensively than St. Louis at this point. The Blues were just kind of trying to stay with the faster Wild, who were able to generate good speed through the neutral zone. Still, shots were few and far between and most that were sent on goal were from the perimeter without the benefit of any sort of traffic in front of Allen. Zach Parise was particularly active in the 1st period. Defensively the Wild were backchecking well and preventing the Blues from having any kind of 2nd chance opportunities. Niklas Backstrom looked sharp and efficient in his movements. Even as the Blues tried to ramp up the physical game the Wild seemed to weather it rather well. Nino Niederreiter and Jason Zucker looked hungry to add to their totals but they’d have to wait for their opportunities as the coaching staff continued to give a preference towards the veterans when they finally went on their first power play halfway through the 1st period. The Wild continue to rely on a shot from the point to provide the initial chance and hope deflections or rebounds sort of materialize because beyond that there wasn’t a whole lot of creativity to their power play strategy. Still, it was a decent first period for the Wild and they were controlling the tempo of the game thus far.
2nd Period Thoughts: In the 2nd period, the Wild again did a nice job of keeping the game up tempo, and as the period wore on the Wild began to generate more and more scoring chances. The line of Parise, Jason Pominville and Mikael Granlund was really buzzing and causing the Blues to have fits as pucks were being funneled on goal and Jake Allen found himself pretty busy. The Wild were now doubling the Blues in shots on goal, but in classic Minnesota fashion that advantage was going to appear to be pretty insignificant about halfway through the period when St. Louis struck first. It started after a failed rush in the Blues’ zone and as they worked the puck back towards the Wild’s end a weak pass by Keith Ballard was intercepted by Vladimir Tarasenko and the smooth Russian winger would skate down towards the slot. Nate Prosser would try to turn and defend and actually get his stick on the puck as Tarasenko patiently waited for Backstrom to sprawl before lifting a shot up and over the Wild goalie to give St. Louis a 1-0 lead. Prosser’s stick was on the puck as the shot came out and it didn’t seem to matter at all as it went right underneath the crossbar. The Wild would answer back a few minutes later as some great work along the wall by Jason Zucker would be rewarded as he passed a puck out front that was one-timed perfectly over the shoulder by Mikko Koivu tying the game at 1-1. The Blues were starting to show signs of frustrations with the speed and pesky play of the Wild and it boiled over into an ugly hit. Kevin Shattenkirk would line up Ryan Carter who was playing a puck along the wall and hit the White Bear Lake-native from behind where he’d go face first into the boards and fall into a heap on the ice. He didn’t move for a little while, not until Wild Head Athletic Trainer Don Fuller arrived to check on him. Carter would slowly make his way off the ice under Fuller’s assistance and down to the Wild locker room, meanwhile Shattenkirk was tagged with a 5-minute major and a game misconduct for his hit putting the Wild on a long power play. This hit is certainly suspension worthy, as there was no reason for Carter to expect to be hit in that fashion. On the power play, after a few minutes of sort of doing the same things they always do they’d finally find the back of the net. Zach Parise would take a rare shot from the point that deflected off the shin guard of a Blues defender and by Allen to give the Wild a 2-1 lead with just under a minute left in the period. Because it was a major the Wild were still on the power play, but they’d make little use of it and they’d go into the 2nd intermission holding a one-goal lead.
3rd Period Thoughts: In the 3rd period I thought the Wild were guilty of taking their foot off the gas a bit. It wasn’t to the point where they were just sitting back in a passive 1-2-2 and waiting for the Blues to attack up the ice over and over again, but they were not taking the same chances offensively to wear down St. Louis by forcing them to play a lot of defense in their own zone. The Wild were more content to work it deep, then waste time and then retreat. The Blues seemed a bit gassed but they’d wait patiently for Minnesota to make a mistake. Niklas Backstrom was showing a little bit of nerves at times as a point shot by Alex Pietrangelo was deflected by Paul Stastny and the shot trickled under the arm of the Wild goalie but fortunately it would miss wide. Still, Backstrom was coming up with save after save and seemed to have the game to give Minnesota a win. Yet it wasn’t meant to be as Ryan Suter retreating for a puck after T.J. Oshie had fallen just after crossing the Wild blueline tried to clear the puck but instead fanned on the pass which was swept up by Patrik Berglund who made a quick pass to David Backes who made no mistake when he roofed a forehand over the shoulder of Backstrom and underneath the crossbar to tie the game with 5:33 left play. The Wild looked confused and out of sorts in the closing minutes of the game. At this point the Wild had to feel lucky it was guaranteed at least a point in the standings.
Overtime Thoughts: The Wild looked disorganized and passive throughout most of overtime. Minnesota basically used 3 different forward combinations which were sadly predictable but ineffective as well. Koivu-Parise, Granlund-Pominville, Brodziak-Vanek all combined to do little more and chase the puck around the ice as the Blues controlled the play 4-on-4. The Blues didn’t have a lot of scoring chances either, but they executed in overtime far better than the Wild whose lack of initiative both squandered potential scoring chances as well as created dangerous turnovers. Case in point, with 23 seconds left in overtime and a faceoff in the Blues’ zone the Wild called a timeout. The team decided not to switch its forward group of Granlund and Pominville, and after winning the draw the puck went to Ryan Suter who then whiffed on a pass and it nearly boomeranged into total disaster as the Blues went on the attack. Instead of the Wild creating a quality scoring chance, it was Backstrom being forced to make a great save on Alex Steen as time expired. Why the the team didn’t opt for faster forwards like Erik Haula, Jason Zucker, or even Nino Niderreiter is beyond me. The latter two are Minnesota’s ‘hot hands’ right now, why not use them with a little extra open ice at 4-on-4?
Shootout Summary: The Wild elected to shoot first and its first shooter was Zach Parise. Parise raced in where he tried to do a little deke in close but he lost control of the puck and Allen was able to make an easy save. The Blues first shooter was the deadly T.J. Oshie, and the former Warroad star would take a slow approach where he deked then pulled the puck back for a quick shot that Backstrom anticipated perfectly as he made a pretty glove save. Minnesota’s next shooter was Mikko Koivu and everyone in the State of Hockey knew what he was going to do. He didn’t surprise anyone as he went forehand to backhand and Allen moved across to stop his backhand bid with ease. The Blues next shooter was Alex Steen and he’d take a Koivu like approach, perhaps hoping Backstrom would make the same guess Allen did but instead of going to the backhand he tried to pull the puck back in on the forehand side only to be denied by the outstretched leg of Backstrom. The Wild’s next shooter was the snakebitten Jason Pominville. Pominville would take off for the Blues end where he didn’t make much of a move before trying to fire a puck 5-hole that Allen dismissed without a problem. This put the game on the hands of Vladimir Tarasenko, and the slick Russian would move in change his speed a bit before unleashing a wicked wrister that beat Backstrom cleanly to give the Blues a 3-2 shootout victory.
Niklas Backstrom played well enough to earn a victory tonight, making 24 saves in the loss. I thought he saw the puck well through traffic and made some remarkable saves after some terrible defensive breakdowns; especially in the 3rd period. Backstrom deserved a win tonight. Defensively the Wild’s defense were often the ones guilty of the ugliest turnovers. Keith Ballard’s lazy pass led to Tarasenko’s opening goal, and then later it was Ryan Suter’s failed clearing attempt that led to David Backes’ game tying goal. Suter told reporters after the game he felt as though the loss was on him. While that’s admirable, it does fail to mention the fact two forwards overcommitted giving Backes the open lane to bury the goal. Still, the Wild did a reasonable job at muting one of the more potent offenses in the league.
Offensively, the Wild still are guilty of being a little too fancy with the puck and depending way too much on the point shot on the power play. In overtime, the Wild’s lack of selfishness more or less stymied scoring chances on their own without too much help from the Blues defense. On the power play the Wild seem to think just about every power play chance has to start with a shot from the point. The team doesn’t seem to have any real plan or idea how to create a quick shot from the slot or just taking the puck to the crease and hoping for an ugly goal. Jason Pominville is ice cold these days, and I know Yeo loves to lean on the veterans its time to start shifting some of his minutes; especially on the power play to Niederreiter or even Zucker in my opinion.
I know the Wild PR spin doctors are going to try to sell that earning a point against the Blues is a great accomplishment, but considering they were less than 6 minutes from earning 2 points and giving St. Louis none to go home with it doesn’t feel so good. The Wild outplayed the Blues most of the game, out shooting St. Louis 38-26 but it doesn’t matter unless it is also reflected in the final score. Minnesota wants to gain ground on those ahead of them and tonight marks another missed opportunity much the same as the overtime wins against Winnipeg and Dallas. Its tough to climb the ladder as it is, but when you give up a point or two here or there in games you more or less have in hand you make it that much more difficult. The Wild have a few days to reflect and regroup before they go to play Montreal so hopefully they do some soul searching to figure this out.
Wild Notes:
~ The Wild roster was as follows: Mikko Koivu, Thomas Vanek, Jason Zucker, Jason Pominville, Mikael Granlund, Zach Parise, Erik Haula, Nino Niederreiter, Justin Fontaine, Ryan Carter, Kyle Brodziak, Charlie Coyle, Ryan Suter, Jared Spurgeon, Jonas Brodin, Marco Scandella, Keith Ballard and Nate Prosser. Darcy Kuemper backed up Niklas Backstrom. Justin Falk and Stu Bickel were the healthy scratches.
~ The 3 Stars of the Game were: 1st Star Zach Parise, 2nd Star Mikko Koivu, 3rd Star Vladimir Tarasenko
~ Attendance was 19,124 at Xcel Energy Center.
Iowa Wild Report:
Recent Score: Iowa 3, Texas 4
The Iowa Wild have not have had much luck against the Stars so far in its history and tonight was no different. The Stars would jump out to a 2-0 lead on goals from Greg Rallo and Julius Honka. The Wild would answer back with Christian Folin‘s 2nd goal in as many games to make it 2-1 going into the 2nd. Just 21 seconds into the 2nd the Wild would tie the game as Zack Mitchell buried a pass from Zack Phillips. The good feelings were short-lived as Texas took back the lead just 10 seconds later as Travis Morin found the twine behind Johan Gustafsson to make it 3-2. Iowa would tie the game about 12 minutes later as Michael Keranen finished on another pretty Phillips feed. In the 3rd period the Stars would bury the game winner as Curtis McKenzie scored a little over a minute in. The Wild threw everything they could against Jussi Rynnas but were unable to get it done and they’d fall 4-3. Gustafsson had 16 saves in the loss.
Wild Prospect Report:
G – Stephen Michalek (Harvard, ECAC) ~ The goaltender’s hot start continues as he stopped 15 shots in the Crimson’s 4-2 victory over UMass-Lowell on Saturday night. Michalek has a 7-1-2 record, a 1.57 goals against average and a .947% save percentage in 10 starts this season.
C – Reid Duke (Brandon, WHL) ~ The Calgary-born center helped the Wheat Kings earn a 6-3 win over the struggling Prince Albert Raiders by chipping in a goal in the victory. Duke has 8 goals, 25 points, 28 PIM’s and is a +10 in 24 games played this season.
C – Pavel Jenys (Sudbury, OHL) ~ No one can say the Czech Republic-native hasn’t tried to carry his own weight for the lowly Sudbury Wolves as he contributed another assist in their 4-3 loss to Barrie on Saturday night. Jenys has 5 goals, 19 points, 22 PIM’s and is a -10 in 25 games this season.
D – Dylan Labbe (Shawinigan, QMJHL) ~ The two-way defenseman continues to plug away for the middling Cataractes as he added an assist and 2 PIM’s in Shawinigan’s 4-2 loss to Gatineau. The St. Benjamin, Quebec-native has 4 goals, 16 points, 17 PIM’s and is a +6 in 25 games this season.
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