The holidays bring both cheer and stress. Whether its gifts, travel, crazy schedules, weather, dealing with the relatives it is a dose of insanity whether its a big deal to you or not. Because lets face it, we get to hear about everyone else’s holiday drama at work, “oh, you found a ‘fantastic deal’ on partially burn-damaged Christmas Wreaths?” Are you thinking ‘Sweet deal’ or are you thinking someone is so holiday crazy you don’t realize how sad that actually sounds? Reason, logic and good sense often are more of a luxury this time of year and the NHL Scheduling Department certainly was feeling it as they have the Wild playing the Edmonton Oilers less than a week since we last played them.
It’s that kind of scheduling that you’d think Minnesota and Edmonton were back in the halcyon days of the Northwest Division. So grab yourself a nice warm cup of cocoa (maybe with a little Bailey’s mixed in) and sit back and watch some Friday night hockey and think about the fact its about 2 weeks from when the real craziness begins. So can the Wild beat the Oilers twice in the span of a week or will Edmonton get their revenge in St. Paul?
1st Period Thoughts: Well, I guess we should be grateful that tonight is already looking better than the opening two minutes in Toronto. Of course, I don’t know if they could look any worse. Now, that’s not to say much is happening in these early minutes. I do prefer a much more deliberate looking opening to a game than complete chaos. Yet I’m still seeing some basic mistakes, like the inability to clear the zone when it should be easy to accomplish. Even though Devan Dubnyk has had a few not so good goals this season, tonight he is showing why he has the numbers he has. It seems like his ability to track the puck has returned, and he did it with some flair against Connor McDavid. It might make me a bit petty, but I love to watch the highly-touted players denied. The Wild’s new “big” line of Chris Stewart, Curtis Gabriel and Tyler Graovac would draw the first penalty through their hard work and determination. Thinking of past Wild teams, it’s probably the biggest line as far as size goes that we’ve seen in some time. Of course that hard work by that line would go unrewarded by the typical, underwhelming Minnesota power play. And when they’re not making much of a power play, they’re also not making much of even strength. The lack of shots on goal should be a concern for Wild fans everywhere. I mention the fans, because there are times where we seem far more concerned about issues than the players themselves. With just under five minutes left in the opening period, the Wild have managed a paltry five shots on goal. That kind of effort (or rather, lack thereof) tends to make for a long night. What makes it worse. is that Minnesota has had a power play and decent zone time, yet has only five shots on goal. There would come some decent scoring chances (and a shot on goal) in the last two minutes of the period. However, that would come to no avail. Then to add insult to injury, Dubnyk made a great initial save, but Leon Draisaitl would get the rebound past the Wild goaltender. Of course it should come as no surprise that the Oilers goal came as the result of an odd-man rush, which is another struggle this team has been fighting. Late period goals are painful. Now it’s up to the Wild just how painful it’s going to be.
2nd Period Thoughts: It looks like this period is also going to be one of minimal zone time for the Wild. While it would be easy to say that the Oilers are doing a great job and playing defense, Minnesota hasn’t done a heck of a lot to make things difficult for Edmonton. Of course, as I’m seeing the same issues we saw in the first period (and dealing with some tech issues), Matt Dumba finds a way to tie things up. If there was a player who desperately needed to find his game again, it is Dumba. So far, this season has not been kind to him. Probably one of the best words I could use to describe his season that wouldn’t get my mouth washed out with Lifebouy, would be ‘floundering.’ I know many fans have had great hopes pinned on Dumba. We haven’t had a faster defenseman in a long time (if ever), but when everything else about your game is a liability, his speed doesn’t do much for the team. One additional benefit to the tying goal, is that it has given the team a bit of pep. They’re finally getting shots on goal and are closing the gap. One thing many of us should be looking forward to is the return of Christian Folin. Being short a defenseman has forced the team to play Nate Prosser on a regular basis and he just doesn’t have the skillset needed. Folin was having a great season and I can only hope he returns to his great play instead of gingerly returning. I still remember when Jonas Brodin came back from an injury (I can’t remember if that was last season or the one before) and he played like a much smaller player. Minnesota would take its first penalty of the game with a hooking infraction by Marco Scandella. The Wild would kill the man-advantage, but even then there were those moments where the puck should have been cleared, yet the Wild skaters would fail. I just don’t understand it. If there was a player who should get some sort of award for tonight’s performance and hard work, it would be Graovac. He has had some great chances and often finds himself in the right place, just nothing has completely connected tonight. The Wild would get their second power play of the night after Edmonton’s Adam Larsson was called for interference. Where the Oilers scored late in the first period, this would be the time for the Wild to pay that favor back and on the power play to boot. But then this is the Minnesota Wild we’re talking about. And it seems that during the early moments in the power play, Wild head coach Bruce Boudreau is yelling at his players to make “simple plays”. Minnesota is not a fancy team, yet the players seem to continually think they are. It’s like they go out of their way for the highlight reel goal, where slow and steady should be the name of the game. Well not slow, but simple and basic. A goal is a goal. You don’t get extra points for it if it’s one of those amazing, once in a lifetime type goals. So instead of doing something with the power play, it was another waste of two minutes. I’ll count my blessings that Minnesota headed to the locker room with a tied game.
3rd Period Thoughts: For a long time, this team has struggled to skate with the puck into the zone. I’ve decided I’m also going to say that this is a team that rarely skates out of the zone as well with the puck, and instead relies on a weak shot or pass. So as I’m typing this complaint/observation, the Wild do something to get off of my naughty list. With players like Mikael Granlund and Jason Zucker who can skate with the puck and actually do something with their chances, they take their first lead of the night. First it was Zucker trying to set up Granlund, so when that didn’t work, Granlund shipped the puck back to Zucker, who made it a 2-1 game. So after the excitement of the goal, Minnesota would lose Erik Staal. He collided with Charlie Coyle and as Staal was going down, an Edmonton stick hit him in the face. He was sent down the tunnel to get some medical attention. Because Staal was in the process of falling down, no penalty would be called. However, the Oilers would go back to the penalty kill shortly after that, for a slashing call on Kris Russell. Thankfully Stall would be back for the power play. Imagine my shock however how much difference a few periods can make. I look up at the shot clock on the screen, and surprise, surprise, surprise. The Wild finally have the lead in shots. With the way this game had gone for the first two periods, it feels like a miracle that they’re finally ahead in shots. It started to feel like the ice was starting to tilt Minnesota’s way as well. Yet, the Oilers would head back to the power play after an interference call on Kurtis Gabriel. One should expect Edmonton to come out desperate on this power play because they need to find the equalizer. The fact that they have some firepower to do so can be scary. Minnesota would kill it with sticks in Edmonton’s passing lanes. And the Wild would have to test their penalty kill again, this time because of a holding penalty by Dumba. With the way the Oilers have been maintaining the zone even strength here at the end of the game, it shouldn’t come as a surprise that the Oilers tied it up almost immediately by a goal by Ryan Nugent-Hopkins thanks to an impressive screen job by Patrick Maroon. Boudreau would challenge the goal due to goaltender interference, which was quickly decided to not be interference. With it being late in the game, it’s the kind of challenge you might as well take. The Wild would take chances again with a quick shot by Zucker however it was easily stopped. And just like the last game against the Oilers, this game would head to overtime.
Overtime Notes: Just because Mikko Koivu scored the overtime winner in Edmonton, doesn’t mean he should automatically get to be on the ice to start overtime. Instead of being heroic, tonight he’s skating in circles and wasting precious power play time. While you hate to see a player like Zach Parise take a stick to the face, thankfully it was McDavid who did it, so he is now off the ice for two minutes of overtime. And of course, the Wild also gets a power play out of it. Unfortunately, they’re going with the slower vets for an overtime power play. This team has gone back to its old, inefficient ways. And guess what, the puck isn’t getting past Cam Talbot. It makes you wonder who is making the decisions. This one is going to shoot out.
Shootout Notes: The Wild’s first skater, would be Jason Pominville. He would score with a simple snap shot, over the shoulder, glove side. The Oiler’s first shooter would be Mark Letestu. He would go wide, off the pipe. Next for Minnesota would be Koivu. He made a forehand shot right into Talbot’s leg pad. Matt Hendricks would be next. He tried to trick Dubnyk, but ended up going high. For Minnesota, they would go to Parise for some strange reason, which was pointless and unsuccessful. The Oilers would even up the shootout with a goal by Draisaitl, which will force this into extra skater. Charlie Coyle would be the first extra skater, and he too was unsuccessful. The Oilers would send out McDavid, which Dubnyk stayed with. Surprisingly, the Wild would go with Chris Stewart. He dragged to his backhand and lifted the puck past Talbot. The Oiler then sent out Jordan Eberle who out-waited Dubnyk, tying things up again. Minnesota would then go to Staal. He pulled and dragged and outwitted Talbot. Dubnyk would next face Nugent-Hopkins, who fired a wrist shot and missed high. Minnesota would come out ahead by the smallest of margins.
Wild Notes:
~ The Wild roster tonight was as follows: Charlie Coyle, Christ Stewart, Mikko Koivu, Zach Parise, Erik Staal, Jason Zucker, Nino Niederreiter, Jason Pominville, Tyler Graovac, Erik Haula, Kurtis Gabriel, Mikael Granlund, Marco Scandella, Ryan Suter, Matt Dumba, Jonas Brodin, Nate Prosser, and Jared Spurgeon. Devan Dubnyk would get the start with Darcy Kuemper serving as backup.
~ The 3 Stars of the Game were: 1st Star, Eric Staal; 2nd Star, Devan Dubnyk; 3rd Star, Jason Zucker.
~ Attendance was 19,019 at Xcel Energy Center.
Wild Prospect Report:
D – Gustav Bouramman (Sault Ste. Marie, OHL) ~ the smallish defenseman has been left off the scoresheet the last few games, but he chipped in an assist in the Greyhounds 7-4 win over Niagara on Thursday night. Bouramman has a goal, 13 points, 18 PIM’s and is -1 in 27 games.
Add The Sports Daily to your Google News Feed!
