I’ve always loved superheroes. When I was a kid I used to have sheets that featured Superman, the Green Latern, Batman, Aquaman, Hawkman and Wonder Woman. I used to watch these super hero shows on TV back in those days and like many kids I wish I could become one myself. Seriously, who wouldn’t want to have super powers? Admittedly my favorite superhero is Spider-Man, and I liked the reluctant hero side of Peter Parker, and the classic axiom that went with Spider-Man, “with great power comes great responsibility.” Legendary comic book (yes I know the current term is graphic novel) author Stan Lee has teamed up with the NHL for what has been called the Guardian Project where he has created super heroes for all of the league’s teams. The Wild’s superhero looks like a very ripped werewolf who allegedly possesses great strength, tunneling capability, force of nature like energy projection but also superior intelligence akin to the Beast, another one of Lee’s creations. Either way, I like the look of Lee’s superhero compared to the team’s current mascot the mulleted Nordy. Although watching the Wild superhero rip apart Nordy might be kind of cool to watch. These new heroes will battle it out during the All Star Weekend in Raleigh on Sunday, January 30th where the winner will be determined by a fan vote via Facebook. Sure, this is a shameless attempt by the league to connect to younger fans but I like the creativity and the willingness to do something new and different. Recently, in a fan vote the Wild hero defeated the one made for the Dallas Stars, making it the lone victory over the Stars this season.
The Canucks superhero has not been released, but perhaps it seems unnecessary with how well Vancouver has been playing as of late. Vancouver has been rock solid in all facets of the game and their dominance has given them a giant 14-point lead over 2nd place Colorado for the Northwest Division crown so far. Minnesota may wish its superhero was playing tonight because it could use a little more tenacity as it has been mired in a 3-game losing streak. So will the Wild put forth a heroic effort or will they stand in awe at the mighty Vancouver Canucks?
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1st Period Thoughts: Minnesota was really moving well to start the period, flying all over the Canucks’ offensive zone. The Wild’s defense was taking every opportunity to shoot the puck and Minnesota had four different shots redirected on goal that forced the Canucks’ Corey Schneider to make some big saves. Minnesota was carrying the play, and their defenseman were pinching and supporting the attack as the Wild pressed for the ever important first goal. A cheap shot by White Bear Lake, Minnesota’s Andrew Alberts nearly turned into something pretty gruesome as the Wild’s Chuck Kobasew narrowly missed having his chin connect with the goal post as he was clotheslined by the former Flyer. The Wild were terrific on the man advantage, making quick passes that really had Vancouver scrambling in its own end. Yet, as great as the puck movement and set ups were, the team still didn’t finish when the opportunities presented themselves. A great example was a set up by Andrew Brunette to Antti Miettinen who was all alone in the slot and with Schneider hugging the left post the goal was virtually empty and Miettinen drove his shot wide of the mark. You have to bury those chances and those are the types of missed opportunities that usually come back to haunt you. After the failed power play it was the Canucks turn to really put pressure on the Wild. Of course this involved Daniel Sedin and Henrik Sedin who cycled the puck with near impunity in the Minnesota zone as it was the Wild’s turn to scramble. However, despite all of their puck possession, the Wild defense and backchecking forwards kept the Canucks to the perimeter. Anton Khudobin was, to be polite, very shaky and fighting the puck, his rebound control was terrible and only stellar support by his defense kept him from giving up a few goals in the first period. Vancouver nearly scored on a shot that was popped up into the air and fell behind him and only a desperate diving save by Brent Burns who swatted the puck out of danger at the last moment kept the Canucks off the scoreboard. Minnesota would go back on the attack towards the latter half of the period and it was the 2nd line of Pierre-Marc Bouchard, Martin Havlat and Kyle Brodziak outworked and outhustled the Canucks and forced Schneider to make some great saves. Brad Staubitz had a nice scrap with Vancouver’s Aaron Volpatti after he ran Jared Spurgeon, and Staubitz took over with a few well placed left hand hooks to put Volpatti on his back and give the crowd something to cheer about. Spurgeon was a little banged up, but he’d keep playing. I really liked the hustle I was seeing out of Eric Nystrom, who is a player who has not delivered offensively as I hoped but it is hard to argue with his effort or physicality. He had a great period throwing his frame around as well as winning battles for the puck along the boards. While Minnesota had its moments where it was put on the ropes, it was resilient and put lots of pressure on Vancouver offensively and the crowd gave the team a standing ovation as it appreciated the effort and energy.
2nd Period Thoughts: Minnesota had another solid start to the period. Hustling and winning the races to the puck and their effort would draw an early penalty on Dan Hamhuis who hauled down Miettinen. Minnesota’s power play again moved the puck well, but the Wild would crash the crease and after a ton of hacking and whacking it was Andrew Brunette who dove in Superman style and tapped the puck in to give the State of Hockey a 1-0 lead. Vancouver Head Coach Alain Vigneault was unhappy with the officials who he felt should’ve blown a whistle as it was a good 10 seconds of chipping at a sprawling Corey Schneider before it was shoveled home. However, the replay clearly showed how NHL official Dean Morton had a view of the loose puck the whole time before Brunette poked it in. The Canucks predictably tried to pour it on to even the score, as the Sedins’ again went to work cycling the puck and Khudobin was again pretty suspect with the puck giving up a rebound that drew an interference penalty on Miettinen. Minnesota did a great job on the penalty kill of disrupting passing lanes and battling for the loose pucks as some hard work by the team’s penalty killers, most notably John Madden and Eric Nystrom to frustrate the Canucks. Defensively the team’s blueliners kept doing whatever they could to help out Khudobin as he got an assist on a save on Jannik Hansen who found himself alone near the top of the crease as a diving Greg Zanon bumped into his goalie but between the puck hitting them both it kept Vancouver off the scoreboard. Minnesota was scrappy as well as Chuck Kobasew dropped the gloves with Baudette, Minnesota’s Keith Ballard. Kobasew did a great job of keeping Ballard in a position where he didn’t have much of a chance to get punches on him while he threw a few jabs of his own as this little bout kept the crowd into the game. The Wild would get a little lucky as Alexander Edler fanned on a pass and Havlat quickly jumped on the loose puck to race in on a break away where he beat Schneider with a sneaky forehand 5-hole to give Minnesota a 2-0 lead. Minnesota was hustling at both ends of the ice, forwards backchecking and kept Vancouver at bey with a two-goal leading going into the 3rd period.
3rd Period Thoughts: Predictably it was Vancouver that was pressuring early to start the 3rd period. Minnesota started to get into penalty trouble John Madden would be tagged with a holding penalty for a marginal play on Vancouver’s Mason Raymond who drew the call by turning his head back towards the pass. Minnesota’s penalty killers were challenging well, being physical near its crease as Clayton Stoner was really bouncing Canucks who were attempting to camp out near the crease and knocking them on their backsides. The Wild would get a bit lucky and a little pass by Nick Schultz turned into a break away for Matt Cullen who rifled a wrister by Schneider to give Minnesota a 3-goal lead on the shorthanded tally. The Canucks was even more focused and if you can call flopping around his crease like a fish settled in that is what you had in Khudobin who went post to post to stop Mikael Samuelsson. Khudobin also continued to be the beneficiary of good defensive support as Nick Schultz allowed the stocky Russian goalie make the first stop and then take away the rebound out of danger. The Wild were counter punching well, looking to take advantage of the pinching Canucks defense to go on the odd man rush. Minnesota would get a huge goal nearly at the halfway point when another Edler error with the puck became a turnover to Kobasew who fed a pass to a waiting John Madden at the top of the crease for the easy tap in goal to give the Wild a big 4-0 lead. The Canucks were doing their best to take away the shutout bid, but Khudobin was at his best making key stops on Daniel Sedin from close range and you could sense a level of frustration growing within Vancouver as Raffi Torres tried to charge the crease but he’d be flagged with an interference penalty. Late in the game, you could see that the Wild coaching staff was rewarded the effort of its role players as Brad Staubitz, Eric Nystrom and John Madden some time on the man advantage as the crowd gave the team a well-deserved standing ovation over the last 30 seconds of the game as Minnesota earned a 4-0 victory.
Khudobin was good enough, playing especially well down the stretch as he made 32 saves in the shutout. It wasn’t pretty, it was classic Khudobin, unorthodox and frantic but it was effective enough to give Minnesota a huge victory over the hottest team in the NHL. Khudobin had great support from his defense who helped made two saves of their own to help preserve the shutout, and the Russian would be smart to buy Brent Burns and Greg Zanon a beer or two. Burns’ dive and swat to bat a puck from crossing the goal line was absolutely huge. The Wild were tremendous on the penalty kill, preventing the Canucks from mesmerizing them with the crisp cross-ice passes they normally expose teams with as they had great active sticks all night disrupting those attempts to thread the needle.
Offensively, Minnesota battled through some snakebitten play through the 1st period to be opportunistic in the 2nd and 3rd periods of play to pull away from Vancouver. The Wild were aggressive at the right times and the two breakaway goals really took the wind out of the sails of the Canucks who were starting to get going offensively themselves. The goal was big for Matt Cullen who has not scored a goal in 11 games, and hopefully this can heat him up a bit and his shorthanded tally was a big dagger to Vancouver who looked poised to cut the Wild lead in half. Eric Nystrom certainly is due, his effort has been outstanding and it was nice to see him get some time on the power play late as a reward for his hard work. Havlat was more involved in this game and when he’s assertive offensively he’s also more active defensively.
This was a giant win for the Wild to put an end to the team’s freefall in the standings. This game was all about hustle and heart and the team needs to find a way to bring this kind of energy each game. Vancouver is a very solid team and while defensively they had some gaffes, the Wild executed when they needed to. The Wild now go on the road where they will face Edmonton Tuesday night and Calgary on Wednesday. Minnesota needs to keep stringing wins together to continue to close the distance on the playoff window. Hopefully they can build on this effort tonight.
Wild Notes:
~ The Wild roster this afternoon was: Mikko Koivu, Antti Miettinen, Andrew Brunette, John Madden, Kyle Brodziak, Chuck Kobasew, Pierre-Marc Bouchard, Martin Havlat, Cal Clutterbuck, Brad Staubitz, Eric Nystrom, Jared Spurgeon, Cam Barker, Clayton Stoner, Greg Zanon, Nick Schultz and Brent Burns. Niklas Backstrom backed up Anton Khudobin. Marco Scandella and Jose Theodore were the lone ‘healthy’ scratches. Marek Zidlicky is still attempting to recover from a shoulder injury while Guillaume Latendresse is still rehabbing from lower body surgery.
~ The 3 Stars of the Game as selected by Let’s Play Hockey were: 1st Star Anton Khudobin, 2nd Star Matt Cullen, 3rd Star Martin Havlat
~ Attendance this afternoon at Xcel Energy Center was 18,458.
Wild Prospect Report:
LW – Jason Zucker ~ Denver Pioneers (WCHA)
22GP ~ 16G 8A = 24pts 28 PIM’s
There was a little concern towards the end of this year’s World Junior Championships that Jason Zucker’s progress may be stalled after taking a vicious hit from Slovakia’s Martin Marincin. Zucker would return for the medal round of the tournament but you could tell he still wasn’t at 100%. He would return for the Pioneers who had an additional weekend off beyond New Year’s gave the Las Vegas, Nevada-native a chance to clear out the cobwebs and the result was a wonderful weekend for the Wild prospect. Zucker had 2 goals and an assist in two games against Minnesota State including a game-tying goal in the 2nd game that gave the Pioneers the chance to earn a 4-3 overtime victory. He’s currently playing as a 2nd line winger on a line with center Drew Shore and right winger Luke Salazar.
D – Sean Lorenz ~ Notre Dame Fighting Irish (CCHA)
26GP ~ 4G 5A = 9pts 28 PIM’s
Safe and steady is a pretty basic way to describe Sean Lorenz’s game, but that would ignore the leadership qualities he brings to the Fighting Irish. Already having his best offensive season as a college player, Lorenz is never going to be a big point producer but his poise under pressure and excellent positioning set him apart from his peers. The junior defenseman is playing on Notre Dame’s top pairing whoever Head Coach Jeff Jackson wants, where he seems to change from game to game but the one constant is that Lorenz is on the top unit shows you he has the coach’s trust. The Fighting Irish have struggled this season as they’ve been using more freshman than they have in years. This weekend, Lorenz had a single assist in a series split against the Alaska-Fairbanks Nanooks.
Houston Aeros Report:
2010-11 Record: 24-18-1-2 51pts 4th West Division
Top 5 Scorers:
1. #17 Robbie Earl ~ 11G 17A = 28pts
2. #26 Maxim Noreau ~ 7G 19A = 26pts
3. #14 Jon DiSalvatore ~ 8G 16A = 24pts
4. #12 Cody Almond ~ 11G 12A = 23pts
5. #62 Jean-Michel Daoust ~ 7G 12A = 19pts
Top 3 PIM’s:
1. #42 Matt Kassian ~ 100 PIM’s
2. #12 Cody Almond ~ 82 PIM’s
3. #29 Drew Bagnall ~ 71 PIM’s
Top Goaltenders:
1. #41 Josh Tordjman ~ (2-0) 1.54GAA .938%SP
2. #31 Matthew Hackett ~ (10-10-1) 2.55GAA .910%SP
3. #30 Anton Khudobin ~ (12-9-1) 2.58GAA .911%SP
Most Recent Game: Houston 2, Grand Rapids 1
The Houston Aeros have resurrected their season with some strong play as of late and are currently riding a 4-game winning streak. Like the Wild, the Aeros are in an immensely competitive West Division where just a few wins can have a team quickly climb the ladder just as a few losses can put you in the division basement. The Aeros are not led by just one player, but have solid scoring depth that means goals can be chipped in from any of its 4 lines. It could be argued that this is the most talented team the Aeros have had since 2005-06, and one of those scoring leaders back then, Patrick O’Sullivan has returned and gives the Aeros another scoring threat. O’Sullivan wasted little time in getting back into the swing of things after scoring the first goal for Houston in a 2-1 win over Grand Rapids. In that win the Aeros did not play all that well, but thanks to the outstanding goaltending they’ve had from ECHL call up Josh Tordjman the Aeros stole a game last night. Another catalyst to the Aeros as of late has been the fast and physical play of Jed Ortmeyer who has also helped out offensively adding 5 assists in just 7 games with Houston. The return of Chad Rau has also had a major effect as he is a skilled playmaker and has a lot of chemistry with leading scorer Robbie Earl who has been the Aeros best player most nights. First year Head Coach Mike Yeo has done a great job of keeping his team battling hard despite all of the call ups. The Aeros play Grand Rapids this afternoon in a rematch from last night, Houston must play better if it wants to get the weekend sweep. (UPDATE: the Houston Aeros squandered a 2-0 lead to lose 3-2 in the shootout. In the shootout the Aeros got up 2-0 but couldn’t seal the deal as Matthew Hackett gave up 3 straight goals for Houston to fall in the extra session. Hackett had 33 saves in the shootout loss. Earl and O’Sullivan had the goals for the Aeros. The loss is particularly painful because a win would’ve put the Aeros in 3rd place in the West Division.)
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