Nicknames, they’re something hockey players and fans usually love. Sometimes they can be shortened versions of a person’s original name to make it sound a little more friendly, while others are earned for something funny or situation from their childhood that stuck. Nicknames were much more colorful back in the day then they are now. Names like ‘Mr. Hockey’, ‘Super Mario’, ‘Terrible Ted’, ‘the Golden Jet’, ‘the Great One’, Dave ‘the Hammer’ Schultz, Ken ‘the Rat’ Linseman and Maurice ‘Rocket’ Richard are all names which became famous and became an indelible part of the hockey lexicon. Now there seems to be less creativity and Alexander Ovechkin simply becomes ‘Ovie’, kind of weak compared to those names from the past in my opinion. Teams also can earn nicknames which can either be flattering or embarrassing or are more mean spirited names thought up by fans of opposing teams. For instance the Red Wings were known throughout the 1970’s and 1980’s as being the ‘Dead Things.’ For those who disliked the penchant of some Colorado players for flopping to the ice whenever an opponent skated by the team was given the name of ‘Divealanche.’ In the case of tonight’s opponent, during the many seasons in which Toronto was more of a practice in futility than being a contending NHL team fans maligned them as ‘the Buds’ or the ‘Maple Laughs.’ I have not heard too many nicknames for the Wild, apart from broadcasters occasionally saying ‘Minny’ instead of Minnesota (which annoys the hell out of me), but the most common name used to slam the Wild are to call them ‘the Mild’ which was a reference to the neutral zone trap employed by former Head Coach Jacques Lemaire. I wonder what you’d call the Wild right now? Apart from just from a few adjectives to describe the most recent epic fail, an 8-1 drubbing at the hands of the Montreal Canadiens on Sunday makes the one feel a bit angry to put it lightly, everyone except Head Coach Todd Richards who was his normal cliched, not going to call anyone out weak sauce post-game interview that makes fans (and reporters) roll their eyes in disgust. What sort of new nicknames could we give the Wild now? The Futile Ones? The Heartless? The Chokers? I know, none of them are all that great but neither has been the Wild’s play as of late as they’ve lost their last 6 games and are 2-6-2 in their last 10 contests.
The Maple Leafs who many felt had no chance of even coming close to qualifying for the post-season are in a all out drive for the final spot in the Eastern Conference. Currently, Toronto sits in 10th place with 74 points which is 5 points behind 8th place Buffalo. The Leafs have been absolutely stellar since the All Star break and the Wild can expect to see a very focused and determined opponent this evening. As far as the Wild goes its almost time to check if there is a pulse left. Seriously, someone may want to bring a defibrillator just to see if they can get a heartbeat going because the sort of play we’ve been witness to lately has been apathetic at best. So will the Wild show the fans it cares and embrace the role of spoiler and give Toronto a costly setback in their comeback bid or will they be a gracious opponent that rolls over and embraces its fate?
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1st Period Thoughts: Minnesota had a good first minute of the game, creating a scoring chance right away as Mikko Koivu forced James Reimer to make a few big saves early. For those first few minutes it looked as though the Wild might care about this game, but that would end pretty quickly as the Leafs found a little space off the rush and Joffrey Lupul rifled a shot that went top shelf by a indifferent Niklas Backstrom who just turned around to pick the puck out of the net as if it was routine, 1-0 Toronto. The goal was met by a host of cheers from the Toronto fans that have shown up to root their team on much the same way Montreal fans helped fill the building two nights before. Minnesota was punch drunk after the goal, as Toronto went right back on the attack and swarmed all over the Wild zone while Minnesota’s defense lazily chased them about. One of the other themes of the period was penalties. The first was a somewhat weak goaltender interference call on Eric Nystrom when he was sort of backed into Reimer by the Leafs’ Luke Schenn. On the power play, the Wild’s penalty killers were a bit lucky as the Leafs poor execution caused them to clear the zone a few times as they mishanded passes out to the point. Nystrom would get a little bit of revenge as he exited the box he crushed Nazem Kadri with a big hit in the neutral zone as he caught him with his head down. Minnesota tried to get back into the game, as Andrew Brunette, Mikko Koivu and Antti Miettinen tried to cycle the puck a bit down low but even though they were able to control it for about 30 seconds they were not able to turn that puck possession into any shots on goal. The Wild would get another penalty as Matt Cullen was called for boarding on a hit to Joffrey Lupul. Minnesota’s penalty killers continued to be solid for the Wild as they kept Toronto to the perimeter. Minnesota would kill off another as the trash talking began to heat up between the two benches as they took offense to the way Cal Clutterbuck was throwing his body around to break up some of the Leafs’ play in the offensive zone. The Wild started to take some chances on the stretch pass and John Madden would find himself behind the Leafs’ defense for a breakaway where he moved in and attempted a forehand that was steered aside by Reimer. A few moments later the Wild were able to connect on another stretch pass this time to Chuck Kobasew and he raced into the Toronto zone where he tried to rifle a wrist shot that was blocked to the corner by the should of the Leafs goalie. The home crowd would let their frustration be known late in the period as Pierre-Marc Bouchard is tagged for tripping up Kadri. Minnesota’s penalty kill played pretty well to give Toronto nothing through the closing seconds of the period; even going on the attack a bit but they’d still trail at the end of the period. Shots are 8 to 7 but neither team has had that many quality chances. Some of the Wild players look like guys just going through the motions and collecting a check. Disappointing, although the officials have made it pretty tough to have much flow in this game no matter who you are rooting for. As the horn sounded the boo’s resounded, for the officials but that very well could change if Minnesota continues to trail in this game.
2nd Period Thoughts: Minnesota still had a little left on Bouchard’s penalty to kill, and the Wild were aggressive creating some shorthanded chances early. After the big kill, Nate Prosser would give a nice outlet pass up to John Madden who worked a 2-on-1 with Martin Havlat and as he approached Reimer he fanned on the pass and took a quick shot that was steered wide by the Leafs goalie. The Wild had some more quality chances as John Madden would find a little space for another breakaway. He’d race in and try to fire a shot by Reimer but he’d make himself big and block it away without harm. Minnesota’s pressure would draw a penalty as Carl Gunnarson was called for tripping up Pierre-Marc Bouchard. The Wild’s power play was not able to do much of anything; even getting set up was more of a confused mess than an exhibition in execution and strategy. The Wild’s best chance was by Andrew Brunette who was shut down on the doorstep and as he looked for the rebound he’d hook Matt Lashoff for a penalty negating the power play. With the crowd boo’ing another marginal call the Wild could not get much flow going. Just as the Wild were about to kill off the power play Clayton Stoner would earn 2 minutes for a crosscheck for knocking down Jay Rosehill. Minnesota just didn’t seem to have the energy to do much more than fire a few long range shots on goal and when they did get close Wild shooters were firing the shot right at the big blue Maple Leaf on Reimer’s chest. Toronto didn’t have that problem and Mikhail Grabovski would find a little room and work his way just inside the right faceoff circle and unleash a heavy wrister that beat Backstrom to put the Wild down 2-0. Minnesota was able to draw a few penalties but there clearly was a communication issue as the Wild forwards playing along the wall would push the puck out to the point where no one would even be there. Two players who were impressing me were Jared Spurgeon who was one of the few Wild players that seemed to have a little mustard on his shot, and Elk River, Minnesota-native Nate Prosser who was making simple plays with the puck but other than that there was a lot of floating and gliding throughout the period. Ugly, give up style hockey.
3rd Period Thoughts: Its only fitting that my satellite dish lost its signal for the last 30 seconds of this game, because that is kind of a testament to how irrelevant Minnesota’s last push for a pride goal. Minnesota had not bad pressure to start the period but it would fade quickly after a high sticking call on Mikko Koivu who got the blade of his stick into the grill of Lupul. Toronto wasted little time making them play as Minnesota’s passive penalty kill was lulled to sleep as they chased the Maple Leafs around their zone before the puck ended up on the stick of Carl Gunnarsson who thought about dishing it before flinging a wrister up and over the shoulder of Backstrom who was getting beat high all night giving the road team a 3-0 lead. With home crowd effectively neutralized the game would sort of degenerate into lots of little plays through the neutral zone without much happening at either end. Minnesota tried one last ditch effort to score a pride goal in the closing minutes but they could manage to beat Reimer and the Leafs would get a 3-0 shutout.
Niklas Backstrom looked uninspired, making 14 saves in the loss. The Wild gave up just 17 shots, so it wasn’t like Backstrom was standing on his head all game long as he found himself under siege from a ton of shots. The shots that beat Backstrom for the most part were unscreened and high and has been indicative of the team’s losing streak which now sits at 7 games and counting. Defensively I didn’t think the Wild played all that badly. The officials were calling things really tight and that made everyone’s defenseman a little more passive than normal, I thought Backstrom was getting reasonable support in blueliners clearing away the dangerous pucks near his crease.
Offensively I thought we looked beat right from the start. Apart from a few breakaways we failed to capitalize on I thought Minnesota did very little to threaten the Maple Leafs all game long. Martin Havlat was a complete non-factor. Minnesota’s power play looked befuddled and incompetent. No one seemed to really want to take the shot or press the attack and when the Wild did pinch it was random and often rather reckless. Toronto has one of the worst penalty kill units in the league and the Wild were not able to create many quality chances at all and they’re allegedly among the league’s best in that category. To Reimer’s credit, he did do a fine job of preventing rebounds but even when he did give them up no one was there to pounce and more often than not the Wild were already retreating after the first shot on goal.
Todd Richards did his typical shoulder shrug and threw out the same cliches in his post-game interview aired on Fox Sports Net North, “When we got our opportunities, we were talking early in the year we were talking about confidence, and at one point we had it and now we’re getting looks but were unable to finish and they were able to bury theirs. Its the confidence.” Whether he’s babbling about confidence or compete level, it was the same weak answer to the reporters questions. While I’ll agree with Richards mentioning how penalties disrupting the flow of this game but Minnesota still had its chances to turn this game around.
Perhaps worse of all is the fact that some fans paid to watch this, and they were there for a 2nd night where opposing fans had every reason to cheer while they did not. Where is the pride from any of these guys? Where is the pride from the coach instead of just a few shrugs of the shoulder, shouldn’t he be angry? Sorry, if my team played like that, in front of the home fans that paid pretty decent money to watch that the last two nights I’d be irate and I’d be calling people out. Knowing Richards, he’ll probably give his team the day off because that worked so well for tonight?!?! The Wild only have a home-at-home against St. Louis starting this weekend so why worry?
Wild Notes:
~ Wild roster tonight is as follows: Mikko Koivu, Antti Miettinen, Andrew Brunette, Matt Cullen, Kyle Brodziak, John Madden, Chuck Kobsew, Brad Staubitz, Eric Nystrom, Cal Clutterbuck, Pierre-Marc Bouchard, Martin Havlat, Nate Prosser, Jared Spurgeon, Clayton Stoner, Nick Schultz, Greg Zanon and Brent Burns. Jose Theodore backed up Niklas Backstrom. Warren Peters, Cam Barker, Marek Zidlicky and Guillaume Latendresse were the ‘healthy’ scratches. Josh Harding (knee), Marco Scandella (broken finger) and James Sheppard (knee) are on injured reserve.
~ The 3 Stars of the Game as selected by Let’s Play Hockey were: 1st Star Mikhail Grabovski, 2nd Star James Reimer, 3rd Star Nikolai Kulemin
~ Attendance tonight was 18,761 at Xcel Energy Center.
Where are they now:
C – Morten Madsen ~ Modo Ornskoldsvik (Eliteserien)
2010-11 Stats: 55GP 14G 15A = 29pts 6 PIM’s
Its been a good year for former Wild 4th rounder (122nd Overall, 2005) Morten Madsen as he’s found a bigger role on Modo squad. After languishing in the Wild’s farm system he decided to return to Europe last year where he had an adjustment period but this year he’s been more of a contributor and the Rodovre, Denmark native is just another quality player to come out of the ‘other’ Scandinavian nation along with a growing group of other Danes making an impression. Madsen has grown to accept more of a secondary role on Modo, but with departures of talent like Mats Zuccarello-Aasen to the NHL he gained more ice time and his production increased.
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