I have to admit, I hate matinee games. I know for families they can be nice so you don’t keep the kids up so late. Although as a fan of a team who is in the Central timezone playing in a division which spans into the Pacific timezone I am used to stying up fairly late to watch the Wild play. Its not always the best thing for work the next day, but it is something I expect. I just find it tough to get pumped for a game that starts at 1PM. I like the day-long build up of expectation and excitement culminating into an 7-9PM start. Yet on a nice day outside, and I am inside watching a game it feels as if something has been stolen from me. I know the league tries to offer a smattering of games throughout the day in an effort to capture viewership all day long, so I guess its the Wild’s turn to start early. There is another caveat as the Wild play another matinee game tomorrow against the Detroit Red Wings. Ick.
The Wild in the past had admitted they’re not a big fan of matinee games either and when you prepare most days for games that start in the evening it effects your schedule. For many players that is a routine of meals, naps and pre-game stretching rituals that make an individual feel confident they’ll be at their best. I think all people are sensitive to their routines, and disruptions seem to make day just feel wrong. C’mon, we all know an older relative who insists on specific times for meals, etc. They’re simply set in their routines. Will the Wild be able to make the proper adjustment to their routines to earn a win or will Tampa Bay who plays more matinee games throughout the course of their season show Minnesota fans what all the hype is about this team from Southwestern Florida?
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1st Period Thoughts: I have to admit, I thought this was a tremendous period for the Wild. Perhaps one of their best ones all season long. The team had lots of hustle from top to bottom, and for the most part kept its feet moving and never waiting too long with the puck. The two new additions to the blueline, Justin Falk and Maxim Noreau were moving it quickly. The Lightning were testing that pairing right away by putting out their top line against them but they did pretty well. Falk especially was impressing me with great mobility and a quick first pass out of the zone. The Wild were able to get their forecheck working, especially the 2nd line of Martin Havlat, Chuck Kobasew and Matt Cullen. Early on they were not creating much in the way of shots but they were able to possess it pretty well along the boards and work the puck out to the points where Jared Spurgeon, Brent Burns, or Maxim Noreau were waiting to unload blasts from near the blueline. Defensively the Wild were not giving Tampa Bay a lot of time and space and Niklas Backstrom was pretty solid making stops with a fair amount of traffic in front of him, and Minnesota’s defenseman were helping out by escorting rebounds out of danger before the Lightning could pounce on the loose pucks. Minnesota would earn an a power play on a holding call on Pavel Kubina. The Wild’s power play was ineffective, due large in part to the lack of assertiveness to send the puck on goal; playing perfectly into the hands of a mildly aggressive Lightning penalty kill. The same cannot be said for the Lightning power play which moved the puck very effectively as they had Minnesota chasing around its own zone. Tampa Bay nearly scored on a sneaky toe drag and heavy wrist shot that glanced off the paddle of Backstrom. Minnesota was persistent, and their goal was a good example of that. Kyle Brodziak would race into the zone and wind up and blast a slap shot that created a huge rebound that was pounced on by Pierre-Marc Bouchard who ripped it by Dwayne Roloson to put Minnesota up 1-0. Brodziak fired a low-lying shot but it was a ridiculous rebound that should not have happened but either way it worked out for the Wild. Minnesota had a great shift right after the goal as the 2nd line again applied some forechecking pressure and Martin Havlat almost was able to make it 2-0 only to be thwarted by a diving stop by Roloson. The period ended and you had to feel good about the effort and energy the Wild had, easily its best period in a month.
2nd Period Thoughts: Minnesota had a great start to the period, moving its feet and carrying the play through the first five minutes. The Wild were starting to put more shots on goal and Roloson was still struggling with his rebounds. The difference was the Lightning defense was tying up Wild forwards and preventing them from getting a stick on the rebounds. Minnesota was taking opportunities to go on the attack and it appeared as though it had a perfect set up in a 3-on-1 but there was too many passes as Martin Havlat dished it to Pierre-Marc Bouchard decided not to shoot and opted to pass it back to Brent Burns who was now skating down the slot and his shot would carom off a few legs and then pushed back up the ice as the Lightning counter attacked. Minnesota scrambled back defensively and Vincent Lacavlier tried to feed the puck towards a crashing Martin St. Louis where Backstrom was a little out of position thinking Lecavalier was going to shoot but he was bailed out by the smart stick of Jared Spurgeon who saved a goal. A few minutes later the Wild would be burnt on a missed defensive assignment as Bouchard left his man, Ryan Malone, and he was found all alone in the slot and he moved in and beat Niklas Backstrom 5-hole with a backhander before getting hit by Justin Falk who was a half step too late. Backstrom received the worst of the collision as he was knocked backwards into his goal that left him a lttle worse for the wear. Wild trainer Don Fuller would make his way out to talk to Backstrom a little bit before the Finn decided to tough it out and he would stay between the pipes for Minnesota. The goal seemed to take the wind out of Minnesota’s sails and the Lightning started to assert itself more offensively. Minnesota would feel more pain a few minutes later as Chuck Kobasew just sort of gave up in a puck battle along the boards against Steve Downie, and the result was Minnesota couldn’t get the puck out of the zone and the Lightning’s 2nd line continued to swarm near the crease before Downie poked home a shot to put Tampa Bay ahead 2-1. You could sense the growing anxiety in the home crowd; and they let a little bit of their frustration out on the much-hated Mattias Ohlund as he held down Andrew Brunette (which is kind of redundant don’t you think?) near the Tampa Bay bench. The Wild would get two bogus penalties called on them with a weak hooking call to Antti Miettinen and an even more non-existent hooking incident attributed to Greg Zanon. In both cases the Wild penalty kill did a fine job of denying passing and shooting lanes. The Wild also had a great shorhanded chance when Cal Clutterbuck won a battle for the puck deep in the Tampa Bay zone that was passed out to the slot where Eric Nystrom was all alone and his wrist shot went high and wide of the mark. Minnesota tried to rally back late with some good hustle that drew a hooking call on Victor Hedman but it wasn’t meant to be. Poor passing doomed it to failure and a botched play of the puck near the goal line forced Cullen to hold up Dana Tyrell to negate the man advantage. Another woeful 2nd period for the Wild.
3rd Period Thoughts: Minnesota had a slightly better effort in the 3rd period, but would be enough to make up for the let downs in the 2nd period? The Wild just didn’t have quite enough jump to win all the little races for the puck; and when it managed to create some chances off the rush a bad pass or the ability of the Lightning’s defense to sweep away the rebounds was the difference. Minnesota had its chances though as Kyle Brodziak hammered a slap shot that rang off the pipe and out. Matt Cullen had an outstanding chance on a breakaway just as a Wild penalty had expired, but his 5-hole attempt was denied by Roloston. Tampa Bay was playing rope-a-dope but their superior team speed allowed them to sit back and wait for the Wild to over commit and make a mistake. That is precisely what happened as the Wild felt the desperation of needing to sustain offensive pressure would get caught as Brent Burns dove to keep a puck in the offensive zone and he would knock down Mikko Koivu that gave Tampa Bay a 2-on-1 for Martin St. Louis and Sean Bergenheim. St. Louis dished the puck to Bergenheim at the last minute and he buried it and with it the Wild’s chance to comeback in this game. Minnesota had one last opportunity to claw its way back into the game with about 12 minutes left when Mattias Ohlund went after Antti Miettinen. It was ludicrous, Miettinen hit him so Ohlund just decided to go after him but all he got was a roughing minor. On the power play the Wild moved the puck well but still there was not a lot of shots going towards the goal and when they did Roloson was able to absorb it to get the whistles the Lightning needed. Minnesota would pull Backstrom with almost 2 minutes left but despite the hustle and show of desperation it wasn’t enough as Roloson again shut the door to give the Wild a 3-1 loss.
Niklas Backstrom was ok, making 20 saves in the losing effort. He had some great stops in traffic, but he had to be even better in order for the Wild to have had a chance. Defensively I felt the Wild were pretty good considering they were dressing two players from Houston. Justin Falk and Maxim Noreau; looked upon in different situations didn’t look all that out of place in my opinion. The only sequence where I felt the Wild were really poor defensively was on Downie’s goal where a lack of hustle from both its forwards and defense is what resulted in the game winning tally.
Offensively the Wild’s biggest failure was on the power play where I felt it was plagued by being too passive and spending too much time working the puck along the wall. Minnesota had 29 shots, but they passed up on a plethora of opportunities by trying that extra pass. Antti Miettinen, Chuck Kobasew and to a lesser extent Pierre-Marc Bouchard were guilty of this. Someone has to want it more to shoot the puck and take opportunities.
Minnesota’s task does not get any easier as the Wild head to Detroit to take on the Central Division champion Red Wings. The loss also officially eliminates the Wild (mathematically) from playoff contention, not that anyone here was touting a great chance at the post-season. The Wild have battled Detroit pretty well this season, but with inexperience on the Wild’s blueline that is a recipe for disaster. Hopefully they can prove me wrong.
Wild Notes:
~ Wild roster this afternoon is as follows: Mikko Koivu, Antti Miettinen, Andrew Brunette, Kyle Brodziak, Matt Cullen, Eric Nystrom, Chuck Kobsew, John Madden, Brad Staubitz, Cal Clutterbuck, Pierre-Marc Bouchard, Martin Havlat, Maxim Noreau, Justin Falk, Jared Spurgeon, Clayton Stoner, Greg Zanon and Brent Burns. Jose Theodore backed up Niklas Backstrom. Cam Barker, Marek Zidlicky, Marco Scandella and Guillaume Latendresse were the ‘healthy’ scratches. Nick Schultz (post-concussion syndrome), Josh Harding (knee) and James Sheppard (knee) are on injured reserve.
~ Maxim Noreau wore #34 for the Wild.
~ The 3 Stars of the Game as selected by Let’s Play Hockey were: 1st Star
~ Attendance for this afternoon’s game was 18,591 at Xcel Energy Center.
Wild Prospect Rundown:
RW – Dylen McKinlay ~ Chillwack Bruins (WHL)
Playoff Stats: 4GP 0G 2A = 2pts 0 PIM’s -1 ~ McKinlay has had an injury plagued season, where since returning almost two months ago never really got going. He found himself supplanted in the Bruins’ lineup, and now his team is on the ropes in their first round series against the Spokane Chiefs. Trailing 3-1 in the series, the Bruins must pull off a win tomorrow night in Spokane.
G – Darcy Kuemper ~ Red Deer Rebels (WHL)
Playoff Stats: 4GP (4-0) 1.50GAA .948%SP ~ I remember a phrase uttered during the film ‘The Miracle‘ where Herb Brooks was talking about legendary Soviet goaltender Vladislav Tretiak saying he was so good that if you score you should keep the puck because it may never happen again. I wonder if that is how opponents feel going against Darcy Kuemper who has been a complete tour-de-force between the pipes going a perfect 4-0 in a sweep of the Edmonton Oil Kings.
Houston Aeros Report:
2010-11 Record: 78GP 44-28-1-5 94pts 2nd West Division
Top 5 Scorers:
1. #14 Jon DiSalvatore ~ 27G 32A = 59pts
2. #17 Robbie Earl ~ 23G 27A = 50pts
3. #16 Patrick O’Sullivan ~ 17G 25A = 42pts
4. #20 Chad Rau ~ 11G 26A = 37pts
5. #12 Cody Almond ~ 14G 19A = 33pts
Top 3 PIM’s:
1. #42 Matt Kassian ~ 130 PIM’s
2. #12 Cody Almond ~ 113 PIM’s
3. #29 Drew Bagnall ~ 110 PIM’s
Top Goaltenders:
1. #31 Matthew Hackett ~ 43GP (21-16-4) 2.39GAA .915%SP
2. #41 Josh Tordjman ~ 8GP (4-1-0) 2.44GAA .911%SP
Most Recent Game: Houston 2, Milwaukee 5 ~ The last few games the Aeros have struggled which included last night’s game against the Milwaukee Admirals who they have been battling for 1st place in the West Division. Despite their recent lapses, the Aeros have clinched a spot in the AHL playoffs and look primed to do some damage. However how far they go will likely sit squarely on the play of rookie goaltender Matthew Hackett who has been humbled in the last two outings. Josh Tordjman is a reasonable insurance plan but Hackett is going to be the go-to man and he must play better than he has if Houston wants to avoid early round disappointment. Offensively Houston has a scoring by committee approach led by team captain and leading scorer Jon DiSalvatore. The Aeros have a number of young prospects playing key supporting roles at forward and defense and at the very least Houston is going to give many of the Wild’s future quality big-game experience. Houston plays Chicago this evening at Allstate Center in Rosemount, Illinois.
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