In the movie Cool Hand Luke, perhaps one of the most memorable lines in film was spoken when Strother Martin's character Captain said, "What we have here gentleman, is a failure to communicate."  As he tried to work with the restless and rebellious prisoner played by Paul Newman.  I wonder if that is the underlying theme from what we saw last night from the Wild. 

 

I have to admit, last night's post game interview said it all, "We weren't ready to play, right from the drop for the puck, you get what you deserve and we got what we deserved.  They should be embarrassed, I'm embarrassed, I shouldn't have to say anything to motivate them, after a game like that you better want to come to the rink the next day ready to work."  Those were the words of Wild Head Coach Mike Yeo after Minnesota lost 5-2 last night at Staples Center.  You can see the rest of the post-game interview here.  The club believed its own hype after winning 5-straight; including a few of those games where it really didn't deserve to win and the complacency has been evident through the team's last 3 games.  You must understand something about Mike Yeo the person to see why such an effort bothers him so much.  Apart from being incredibly competitive, Mike Yeo spent his junior and professional career working his tail off as a 3rd line grinder who was the player that was willing to do anything to help his team win games.  If that meant dropping down to block a shot, dropping the gloves, scoring a goal, delivering a big hit he'd do it.  He was a heart and soul type and its what makes Yeo the coach that he is and is precisely why he is so irritated and annoyed with the poor effort he saw last night. 

The Ducks have always been a tricky opponent for the Wild but they've had their woes this season too.  For the most part, their top scorers Ryan Getzlaf, Corey Perry, and Bobby Ryan have had a muted start thus far.  Its only a matter of time before that group starts to heat up and they've traditionally done very well against Minnesota.  Last season, Bobby Ryan even picked up the dropped stick of Mikko Koivu and scored a goal with it in one of the more bizarre goals of 2010-11. 



Going back to last night's loss, every Wild player that was interviewed fessed up and admitted it was a terrible effort, well except one.  Team Captain Mikko Koivu didn't like being asked if it was a terrible effort last night.  He refused to admit the team played poorly, which is something we've sadly become used to as Wild fans and is a big reason why many are questioning whether he has the credentials to wear the "C".  Its pretty tough to have respect as a leader when you don't ever accept blame.  So will the Wild respond as Mike Yeo hopes they will or will they put up another lackluster effort? 

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	Record	Pts	Div. Rank	G/G	GA/G	PP%	PK%
Minnesota Wild	(8-5-3)	19	2nd NW	2.12 (29)	2.06 (3)	12.9% (25)	82.5% (14)
Anaheim Ducks	(7-6-3)	17	4th Pacific	2.00 (30)	2.81 (20)	14.3% (23)	86.2% (11)

 

Minnesota Wild
Top 5 Scorers:	G	A	Pts
1. #15 Dany Heatley	5	6	11
2. #9 Mikko Koivu	1	9	10
3. #7 Matt Cullen	6	2	8
4. #48 Guillaume Latendresse	4	4	8
5. #10 Devin Setoguchi	4	4	8
Top 3 Penalty Minutes:	PIM
1. #16 Brad Staubitz	29
2. #22 Cal Clutterbuck	20
3. #48 Guillaume Latendresse	18
Goaltenders:	GAA	SV%
1. #37 Josh Harding (4-1-1)	1.78	.948
2. #32 Niklas Backstrom (4-4-2)	2.15	.925
Anaheim Ducks
Top 5 Scorers:	G	A	Pts
1. #8 Teemu Selanne	5	10	15
2. #10 Corey Perry	6	5	11
3. #15 Ryan Getzlaf	4	5	9
4. #9 Bobby Ryan	5	3	8
5. #11 Saku Koivu	2	4	6
Top 3 Penalty Minutes:	PIM
1. #10 Corey Perry	31
2. #8 Teemu Selanne	30
3. #21 Sheldon Brookbank	23
Goaltenders:	GAA	SV%
1. #1 Jonas Hiller (5-6-3)	2.95	.903
2. #38 Dan Ellis (1-1-0)	1.90	.941
.

Eight.  That was the number of penalties, including another major penalty the Wild took against Los Angeles last night.  Seriously, you cannot expect to win on a consistent basis if you continue to tally that many penalties every game.  All you will do is where yourselves out, and put yourself at an even greater risk of being behind.  As bad as Saturday's game was, Minnesota was very lucky that they only gave up one power play goal.  However, perhaps what Minnesota needed was to get scored on each and every time they were on the penalty kill. Maybe just maybe, that would teach them a lesson.

The penalties themselves were simply a reflection of the team as a whole.  They came out flat and sluggish.  When you come out that way, you make lazy plays and take lazy penalties.  Not one penalty last night could be classified as what is deemed a "good" penalty.  Feet were not moving, there was no emotion, and even worse, it looked like not one person really cared.  The one bit of emotion we did see was from Josh Harding as he pitched his fit heading down the tunnel when he was pulled after the fourth Los Angeles goal.

At the very least, we once again have a coach that is willing to put the players' feet to the fire.  After having Todd Richards who rarely said anything and rarely (if ever) called out the team in the press like his predecessor Jacques Lemaire did, it is nice to see Mike Yeo hold people accountable.  Yeo's best line after last night's loss, really says it best:  They should be embarrassed.  I'm embarrassed.  I've said it before, and I'll say it again.  If you or I performed in our jobs like the Wild played in theirs, we'd either be on a tenuous at best probation or we would be fired.  The best way I can compare it is this.  In my "day job" I am a customer sales/service associate for a catalog company.  People call me to order shirts, sweaters, sheets, etc.  Let's say you called to order a pair of men's dress slacks and a button-down shirt and instead I set up your order for a dog leash and a pair of little girls shoes, I'd be one of the millions in this country currently without employment.  I am easily replaceable at my job.  It's too bad that the men wearing Wild jerseys don't feel that they're easily replaceable as well.

Tonight, Minnesota has another chance to redeem itself on this roadtrip.  I don't know why, but I'm not holding my breath.  In a way, I'm glad I'm working tonight so I won't have to be subjected to possibly another disappointment.  Last night, I went to sleep after goal number five.  I missed the two Wild goals, and let's just say I'm not heartbroken over it.  Those two goals were akin to putting adhesive bandages on a crack on a crumbling Mississippi River levee.  Let's just hope that I"m wrong with those sentiments.


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Over the years, the Minnesota Wild has received a ton of flak for how it played the game.  Especially when Minnesota's bench boss was Jacques Lemaire, the team was maligned for its passive neutral zone trap.  During the early seasons where the roster featured a large group of NHL cast offs, this system was both efficient and effective at keeping games close and giving the Wild a chance to win games.  Teams and members of the media complained how the Wild's style of play was 'ruining' the game.  Most notably, Mario Lemieux whined about the Wild's trap going as far as saying they were killing the game.  Wild fans have had to endure such complaints for years, but as the team added more talent and was capable of scoring more goals the criticism subsided.  It should be noted that the team's adherence to the trap had also relaxed a bit with the more talented roster as well.  However, the trap, which virtually all teams in the NHL utilize either all of the time or in the role to defend leads is back in the spotlight after a game on Wednesday between the Philadelphia Flyers and the Tampa Bay Lightning.  Instead of 1-2-2 trap that most teams use; the Lightning utilize a 1-3-1 which has caused a lot of teams fits but in the aforementioned game, Flyers Head Coach Peter Laviolette had a unique solution: do nothing at all.  As the single forechecker waiting near the blueline waited for the opponent to carry the puck up the ice so they could spring their trap the Flyers defenseman stood near the faceoff dots and moved the puck around just enough not to draw a whistle.  This passive counter to the trap drew the ire of the Tampa Bay crowd as well as more than a few broadcasters.  The bombastic Mike Milbury even 'walked off the set' in protest during an intermission when asked to explain the Lightning's 1-3-1 trap.  The Laviolette strategy has started the conversation about whether the league should allow teams to implement a 'zone' style system like this or whether its truly harming the game.  Here is some of the debate that took place on Canada's Sports Leader, TSN. 



While its nice not to focus of all the ill-will towards the trap (as Tampa Bay's Guy Boucher has that mantle now), its still a system Minnesota leans on heavily.  What would happen if Minnesota had to go away from the trap?  Would it struggle and its deficiencies be exposed.  Its an interesting question to ponder.  Minnesota did not have its best effort on Thursday when it played San Jose and predictably the result was a 3-1 loss that broke its 5-game winning streak.  Tonight the Wild are playing a Kings team that has struggled to be consistent from game to game.  Will Minnesota get back to its winning ways or will it be longing for home?

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	Record	Pts	Div. Rank	G/G	GA/G	PP%	PK%
Minnesota Wild	(8-4-3)	19	2nd NW	2.13 (28)	1.87 (1)	11.9% (27)	82.5% (14)
Los Angeles Kings	(7-6-3)	17	4th Pacific	2.25 (24)	2.25 (6)	20.6% (8)	84.4% (13)

 

Minnesota Wild
Top 5 Scorers:	G	A	Pts
1. #15 Dany Heatley	5	5	10
2. #9 Mikko Koivu	1	8	9
3. #7 Matt Cullen	6	2	8
4. #48 Guillaume Latendresse	4	4	8
5. #10 Devin Setoguchi	4	4	8
Top 3 Penalty Minutes:	PIM
1. #16 Brad Staubitz	27
2. #48 Guillaume Latendresse	18
3. #22 Cal Clutterbuck	18
Goaltenders:	GAA	SV%
1. #37 Josh Harding (4-0-1)	1.18	.965
2. #32 Niklas Backstrom (4-4-2)	2.15	.925
Los Angeles Kings
Top 5 Scorers:	G	A	Pts
1. #11 Anze Kopitar	8	12	20
2. #10 Mike Richards	4	8	12
3. #14 Justin Williams	3	9	12
4. #23 Dustin Brown	3	7	10
5. #12 Simon Gagne	5	4	9
Top 3 Penalty Minutes:	PIM
1. #25 Dustin Penner	21
2. #19 Kevin Westgarth	18
3. #17 Ethan Moreau	13
Goaltenders:	GAA	SV%
1. #32 Jonathan Quick (6-4-3)	1.96	.934
2. #45 Jonathan Bernier (1-2-0)	3.37	.873
.

It seems lately that the Minnesota Wild could use a little instruction fictional goaltender Denis Lemieux from that classic movie, Slapshot.  Now they don't need to learn about his "allergy to deese fans," nor do Josh Harding and Niklas Backstrom need lessons on ineffective flopping in front of the net.  However, what they can learn from poor Denis is about penalties.  As demonstrated, the hapless Charlestown Chiefs goalie gives great examples to poor sports broadcaster Jim Carr as well as explains what happens when you commit those penalties.  Now if Minnesota would just pay attention.

Lately, instead of going on a scoring tear (although I'm not sure that would ever happen), what Minnesota has consistently done is commit penalties.  Let me give you a break down on the numbers.  Now both Detroit games had acceptable number of penalties, however, that has not been the case since then.  Against Vancouver, there were seven penalties.  St. Louis, there were also seven penalties.  That number (seven) continued in Calgary, including the infamous phantom headbutt that garnered Nick Johnson a match penalty (which the league also didn't see, since there was no suspension, and the Wild have petitioned to have that penalty rescinded).  In San Jose on Thursday night, the Wild had an additional six penalties.  Those kinds of numbers are simply unacceptable. 

Now, prior to the San Jose game, those infractions had not cost the Wild.  Not only did Minnesota enter the Shark Tank with a five-game winning streak, but they ended they're rather lengthy streak of not allowing a power play goal.  One has to realize, that when you continue to march to the penalty box, eventually that is going to catch up with you.  And in San Jose it most definitely did.  Let's face it, the Sharks definitely have more firepower than the Wild, and when you struggle to score in general, you simply cannot make it easier for a team like San Jose to score. 

Los Angeles has a good powerplay, and by 'good' I mean it's the eighth best power play in the league.  I don't know about you, but with a stat like that, Minnesota cannot continue to tempt fate by continually heading to the box.  First off, Los Angeles has players that can and will score.  But more importantly, if you're continually on the penalty kill, you're simply going to wear yourselves out.  Plus when you continue the march to the box, you're not getting your own offensive zone time.  It's hard to win games, if you're rarely in front of the opposing goaltender. 

I don't like to put blame on the officials, but it's starting to feel like certain officials, say Tom Kowal, are looking for the tiniest of infractions, or in Kowal's case, letting an opposing player make the call.  There are some games, where both teams keep getting called for truly minor things, the the flow of the game keeps getting interrupted.  As a fan, that's a bit annoying.  In (dubious) honor of Kowal's meltdown on Thursday, I'll close with this other gem from Slapshot.  Head's up if you're at work or you have young children, this might be one to mute or use headphones for.

 


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They say possession is 9/10ths of the law, and in NHL rules terms you can say an official's call is nearly 9/10th's provable guilt.  When officials make a call, its almost a given that half of the fans watching will love the call and about the same number will hate it.  They may gain some cheers for the calls benefiting the home team, but those fans can become instantly hostile in a blink of an eye if a call is made on their local heroes.  Its not a fun job, where more often than not you're maligned, jeered and fans take joy whenever you get hit with a puck or get knocked to the ice.  Fans at home have the benefit of near instantaneous replay and slow-motion where they never give the official the benefit of the doubt for being unable to make that determination in the fraction of a second.  So what about the most recent controversy involving an official when NHL referee Tom Kowal called a match penalty on Nick Johnson for headbutting Jarome Iginla during a fight.  After Johnson's head made contact to Iginla's chin, Iginla complained to Kowal about a head butt and then fired a few right handed hooks towards Johnson who tried to answer back with a few left handed jabs before the officials moved in and picked it up.  As Johnson was taken to the box, and Iginla continued to complain about the headbutt all of the way to the sin bin Kowal skated over to the Wild's bench to explain the call.  As he was explaining what happened to Wild Head Coach Mike Yeo, team captain Mikko Koivu was attempting to interject and Kowal lost it.  Turning towards the Wild captain with a look of exasperation he let loose with an expletive-filled tirade as he dressed down Koivu right in front of his teammates.  It was an absolutely over the top and ridiculous overreaction from prompts coming from the team's captain, which equaled the match penalty call that was given to Johnson.  The league more or less exonerated Johnson by not giving him a suspension for the alleged 'head butt' but this has stirred a bit of a furor from some fans as they felt Johnson got off easy in comparison to Buffalo's Patrick Kaleta who was tagged with a 4-game suspension for his head butt to Philadelphia's Jakub Voracek.  Watch that hit for yourself and tell me if there is a difference between Johnson's head butt and what Kaleta did. 

Kaleta's head butt...



Now Johnson's head butt...(you can also see Kowal's tirade as well)



I think the differences are rather apparent don't you think?  One has a player putting his head down in the middle of a fight as he's being pummeled by a superior fighter has his head bump into the chin as they grapple with one another.  The other shows a player driving his head right into another opponent; attempting to catch him with the crown of his helmet.  So for Sabres fans to clamor for a 4-game suspension for Johnson simply because that's what Kaleta got is comparing apples to oranges and while they both may be fruit they're not nearly the same kind of thing.  

Minnesota now tries to refocus itself after its 3-0 victory, and making the trip to San Jose to take on the red hot San Jose Sharks.  It is a reunion for Wild snipers Devin Setoguchi and Dany Heatley as well as former Wild players Brent Burns and Martin Havlat.  I have no doubt the always loud Sharks crowd will have a bit more vitriol than normal, but the Wild must put that out of their mind.  Heck, even the normally respectful Brent Burns added some interesting fodder for the locker room when he was quoted as saying, "I've been watching how they've been doing, hoping that they would lose every game. You have to be competitive to reach this level and I'm a pretty intense guy. And when a team doesn't want you, you sure don't want them to go 82-0. I have a lot of friends there and you want them to score six goals and lose."  He may or may not have been serious when he made this statement but I have no question it will be discussed by the members of the Wild before this game.  While Heatley and Setoguchi may try to use that to add a bit more fire to their game the rest of the Wild need to continue with the formula that has brought about its recent success.  Great hustle, finishing checks and funnelling shots on goal.  The Sharks have a lot of depth and if Minnesota tries to play run and gun with San Jose I think they'll find themselves overwhelmed real quick.  Possession matters, and success at the faceoff circle has been an unsung element in Minnesota's success thus far.  So will Minnesota put together another solid road effort or will Burns, Havlat get their revenge over their former team? 

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	Record	Pts	Div. Rank	G/G	GA/G	PP%	PK%
Minnesota Wild	(8-3-3)	19	2nd NW	2.21 (26)	1.79 (2)	12.5% (25)	82.6% (13)
San Jose Sharks	(4-4-1)	17	2nd Pacific	3.00 (6)	2.69 (16)	21.3% (7)	72.3% (29)

 

Minnesota Wild
Top 5 Scorers:	G	A	Pts
1. #15 Dany Heatley	5	5	10
2. #9 Mikko Koivu	1	8	9
3. #7 Matt Cullen	6	2	8
4. #48 Guillaume Latendresse	4	4	8
5. #10 Devin Setoguchi	4	4	8
Top 3 Penalty Minutes:	PIM
1. #16 Brad Staubitz	27
2. #48 Guillaume Latendresse	18
3. #25 Nick Johnson	17
Goaltenders:	GAA	SV%
1. #37 Josh Harding (4-0-1)	1.18	.965
2. #32 Niklas Backstrom (4-3-2)	2.05	.926
San Jose Sharks
Top 5 Scorers:	G	A	Pts
1. #8 Joe Pavelski	9	8	17
2. #19 Joe Thornton	4	9	13
3. #12 Patrick Marleau	4	8	12
4. #39 Logan Couture	6	5	11
5. #29 Ryane Clowe	4	7	11
Top 3 Penalty Minutes:	PIM
1. #69 Andrew Desjardins	21
2. #29 Ryane Clowe	18
3. #10 Brad Winchester	13
Goaltenders:	GAA	SV%
1. #31 Antti Niemi (5-2-1)	2.96	.898
2. #1 Thomas Greiss (3-2-0)	1.99	.928
.

When I was a kid, there were two words one could hear during the coveted summer vacation, that could almost ruin that vacation.  Often parents would spring them on you almost at the last minute, so they wouldn't have to listen to the complaining as long.  Parents today are almost more fortunate than mine, because now kids will "plug in, and tune out" in the back seat with their iPods and smart phones.  If you're wondering what those two words are, they're "family reunion."  I don't know what your family reunions were like, but mine tended to have few kids there, especially on my dad's side of the family.  In fact there were times when my parents were the youngest adults in attendance.  I often couldn't wait to get home, and I grew up in a town of 1,000 people where there was absolutely nothing to do.

Tonight, the Minnesota Wild and San Jose Sharks meet in was is essentially a family reunion.  With former members of the Wild, Brent Burns and Martin Havlat now in San Jose (sorry, but I refuse to count James Sheppard in that equation because he still hasn't done anything this season either) and former Sharks' members Dany Heatley and Devin Setoguchi in Minnesota things could be interesting.  In Minnesota, fans were particularly frustrated with the play of Havlat, so he may feel a need to prove to Wild management that they may have made a mistake.  The trades involved this summer, might bring out some extra competitiveness in the players involved.  At family reunions, you sometimes see brothers who have always tried to outdo the other when it comes to money, success at work, houses, cars, etc.  If the four players involved use that competitiveness to their respective benefits, tonight just could turn out to be an exciting game.

So far, Minnesota head coach, Mike Yeo has been rather mum on the topic of starting goaltender.  Personally, I'm not surprised.  It is a big decision for the night.  With Niklas Backstrom's outstanding play in Calgary Tuesday night along with Josh Harding's four straight wins, Yeo should feel confident with his decision.  Of course much of the success of a goaltender is dependent on the skaters in front of him.  First and foremost, while the Wild's penalty kill has been fantastic lately, you begin to test fate when you allow a team to go on the power play as many times as Calgary.  Eventually, someone will score on the power play against us.  Plus, not every team will have such an ineffective power play as Calgary.  San Jose has a fairly successful one, and I could easily see them scoring.  Staying out of the box and not giving them the opportunity would be the best place to start.    And of course the best way to help you team, especially the goaltender, is to score on one's opposition.  In fact, a repeat of the Vancouver game when it comes to scoring would be nice.

Personally, I would like some good-natured competition, the kind you see between close siblings.  What I don't want to see is when the competition means more than the people involved, meaning people get injured because someone used poor judgment.  As the old saying goes, blood is thicker than water, and hopefully there's just enough family affection between the two teams that they'll play hard against each other but not dangerously.  However, hopefully this family reunion is more exciting than the ones we all attended as children.


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I remember back in the mid-1990's I really got into games on my personal computer.  One of my early favorites was Microsoft Golf.  As much as I loathe golf as a 'sport' in fact, I'll be honest I can't even bring myself to call it that it was a fun distraction on the computer.  One of the attractions of the game was being able to play on real professional level golf courses that had been mapped in minute detail digitally giving the player the actual contours and challenges of the real thing.  You started off in San Diego's Torrey Pines golf course, and if you spent a little more money you could purchase other courses like St. Andrews or Firestone Country Club.  I would play the holes just as any golfer would, but simply enough for me if I hit a shot I didn't like I could simply click 'mulligan' and try again until I got the shot I was looking for.  This meant through a full game of golf I birdied most of the holes, maybe even was lucky enough to eagle a few and at worst I'd accept par.  By the time I was finished I may have accumulated 120-130 'mulligans', but I didn't care I finished the course -12 under.  Wouldn't that be awesome though?  Whether you're a golfer or not, to simply click a 'mulligan' button and have an instant do over?  While I know that would erode the integrity of the game, imagine if you applied this to life.  To have a 'mulligan' so you could undo those mistakes you've made.  What sort of mulligans do you think the Columbus Blue Jackets might be wishing it had right about now as it sits at the bottom of the league standings with just 2 wins and a pathetic 5 points to its credit?  Would Scott Howson have decided to hire Scott Arniel (who somehow has avoided termination, despite an embarrassing 9-2 loss to Philadelphia last weekend in addition to its aforementioned abysmal start)?  Would Howson have decided to sign a more proven backup to work alongside struggling #1 goaltender Steve Mason than Mark Dekanich who has missed the early part of the season with injuries forcing them to put Allen York between the pipes for games when Mason can't stop a beach ball?  I'm sure Columbus would be using a lot of 'mulligans' right now if it could, but what about the Minnesota Wild?  What 'mulligans' would Wild General Manager Chuck Fletcher consider using in his tenure with the franchise? 



Maybe he is wishing he could call in a 'mulligan' for his terrible 3-year contract he tendered to Marek Zidlicky who between being hurt and generally ineffective hasn't been a good value for his $4 million annual stipend.  Or how about his decision to trade Nick Leddy and Kim Johnsson for Cam Barker?  Unfortunately there are no mulligans in life or all that often in professional sports.  You get one shot, and that's it.  Minnesota makes its first big 5-game Western swing starting this evening against the Calgary Flames.  There are lots of good things going on for the Wild right now, will this Western trip and tonight's game be apart of those good feelings or will they be hoping for a 'mulligan' by the time its all said and done?   

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	Record	Pts	Div. Rank	G/G	GA/G	PP%	PK%
Minnesota Wild	(7-3-3)	17	2nd NW	2.15 (27)	1.92 (2)	11.1% (27)	82.2% (17)
Calgary Flames	(6-6-1)	13	5th NW	2.31 (23)	2.46 (10)	17.8% (13)	82.6% (15)

 

Minnesota Wild
Top 5 Scorers:	G	A	Pts
1. #7 Matt Cullen	6	2	8
2. #15 Dany Heatley	4	4	8
3. #10 Devin Setoguchi	4	4	8
4. #9 Mikko Koivu	1	7	8
5. #96 Pierre-Marc Bouchard	1	7	8
Top 3 Penalty Minutes:	PIM
1. #16 Brad Staubitz	20
2. #48 Guillaume Latendresse	18
3. #22 Cal Clutterbuck	16
Goaltenders:	GAA	SV%
1. #37 Josh Harding (4-0-1)	1.18	.965
2. #32 Niklas Backstrom (3-3-2)	2.30	.912
Calgary Flames
Top 5 Scorers:	G	A	Pts
1. #40 Alex Tanguay	3	8	11
2. #13 Olli Jokinen	3	6	9
3. #12 Jarome Iginla	4	4	8
4. #20 Curtis Glencross	4	4	8
5. #17 Rene Bourque	5	0	5
Top 3 Penalty Minutes:	PIM
1. #6 Cory Sarich	23
2. #15 Tim Jackman	22
3. #5 Mark Giordano	12
Goaltenders:	GAA	SV%
1. #34 Miikka Kiprusoff (6-4-0)	2.19	.925
2. #35 Henrik Karlsson (0-2-1)	2.94	.910
.

It was depressing to turn on the weather report this morning.  Here in the Upper Midwest, snow is now in the forecast.  Don't get me wrong, I absolutely love winter.  I love the temperatures, the clean look and feeling of freshly fallen snow.  I do not however, like winter travel.  With the Wild heading out on a five-game roadtrip and snow in our forecast, I start to hear the words of one particular Christmas carol: Over the river and through the woods...

In the past couple of weeks, the Minnesota Wild have appeared to turn the proverbial corner.  They went from a struggling team, to the number five spot in the Western Conference.  With the way the season started, I wasn't sure if we'd ever see that.  I'm glad I was wrong.  Now, we have to deal with the next test.  Five games on the road, and the teams they'll be facing will be tests in various forms.  Tonight's opponent is definitely multi-faceted.

First off, the Calgary Flames are clearly not having the season they would wish to have.  Currently, they are sitting in last place in the Northwest Division, a place many felt would belong to Minnesota.  This season, they're having some scoring issues, much like the Wild (albeit not as abysmal).  For Wild fans, we don't usually equate scoring woes with Calgary.  And if that means that Jarome Iginla is not scoring as much as he normally does, I'm not going to complain.  It also appears, that some additional struggles for Calgary is overall team defense.  Miikka Kiprusoff's stats are not bad.  For whatever reason, they're just not as gifted when it comes to team defense.  Once again, another thing I'm going to complain about.

With Calgary's own struggles, I am worried about how the Wild will come out tonight.  I've talked about this over the years, but Minnesota often chokes against teams that are not having a good season.  Calgary is definitely a team that wants and needs to turn things around.  They'll definitely take advantage of the home crowd, and they'll want to please that crowd.  The Calgary fans have watched a 3-3-1 team inside the confines of the Saddledome.  They'll want to turn that three wins into four.  The other problem I see for Minnesota is they're riding a wave of confidence.  They need to continue that confidence, and turn that confidence into shots on Kiprusoff.  This is even more important when you consider that goaltender Niklas Backstrom is slated to get his first start in five games.  Sure, Backstrom has good numbers against Calgary, I'm just worried that the night we need Backstrom to be a number one goalie, will be the night he comes out flat.  I seriously hope I'm wrong.

Tonight will set the theme for the Wild's roadtrip.  Hopefully it's a merry ride through the Western Conference.  Hopefully we can get back to grandmother's house (Xcel Energy Center) with more wins than losses. 

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"When I'm enraged, or hittin' the stage, Adrenaline rushing, through my veins, And I'd say we're still kicking ass, ooh ah, kickstart my heart, hope it never starts, and to think we did all this to rock, ooh yea, kickstart my heart, give it a start, ooh yea baby," is a small part of Mötley Crue's song Kickstart My Heart.  I have to admit, this is one of my favorite songs to get pumped up to; its fast and intense just like the title implies.  The Minnesota Wild really gave all of us in the State of Hockey a lesson in just how important intensity can be in a hockey game after their 5-1 domination of the Vancouver Canucks on Thursday night.  In one of the best 60-minute efforts in recent memory, the Wild out hustled, out skated and out muscled their arch rival to overcome an early 1-0 deficit to respond with 5 unanswered goals.  45 shots on goal were most shots registered by the Wild in franchise history and the 22 they peppered Vancouver's Cory Schneider was their most impressive effort since 2009.  I am not sure what was said, or what music Minnesota was listening to in the locker room but whatever they did they should replicate that as closely as possible for tonight's tilt against St. Louis. 

If Minnesota can play like that I think any Wild fan would like the chances for the home team tonight.  St. Louis is also coming into this game with a victory over the Canucks in their recent memory after prevailing 3-2 last night.  St. Louis has a good young core of forwards and defenseman and Davis Payne has the Blues employing a physical, hard-working style of hockey that has caused Minnesota problems in the past.  The Wild though are also playing much more physical, and perhaps they are ready to match that intensity the Blues normally bring.  Can the Wild keep their momentum going or will the Blues add a sour note to what has been a great week for the State of Hockey? 

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	Record	Pts	Div. Rank	G/G	GA/G	PP%	PK%
Minnesota Wild	(6-3-3)	15	2nd NW	2.17 (27)	2.00 (3)	11.8% (27)	81.4% (19)
St. Louis Blues	(6-6-0)	12	3rd Central	2.58 (17)	2.75 (20)	7.9% (30)	71.8% (29)

 

Minnesota Wild
Top 5 Scorers:	G	A	Pts
1. #7 Matt Cullen	6	2	8
2. #10 Devin Setoguchi	4	4	8
3. #96 Pierre-Marc Bouchard	1	7	8
4. #15 Dany Heatley	3	4	7
5. #9 Mikko Koivu	1	6	7
Top 3 Penalty Minutes:	PIM
1. #16 Brad Staubitz	20
2. #48 Guillaume Latendresse	16
3. #22 Cal Clutterbuck	16
Goaltenders:	GAA	SV%
1. #37 Josh Harding (3-0-1)	1.22	.964
2. #32 Niklas Backstrom (3-3-2)	2.30	.912
St. Louis Blues
Top 5 Scorers:	G	A	Pts
1. #20 Alexander Steen	6	3	9
2. #44 Jason Arnott	3	5	8
3. #74 T.J. Oshie	3	5	8
4. #42 David Backes	4	3	7
5. #22 Kevin Shattenkirk	1	6	7
Top 3 Penalty Minutes:	PIM
1. #25 Chris Stewart	27
2. #5 Barret Jackman	13
3. #42 David Backes	10
Goaltenders:	GAA	SV%
1. #1 Brian Elliott (5-1-0)	1.72	.941
2. #41 Jaroslav Halak (1-5-0)	3.58	.843
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Let's face it.  The fans, including yours truly, were getting nervous, frustrated, and to a degree angry.  It had gotten to a point where no one was sure whether or not the Minnesota Wild was able to score or at the very least, shoot.  We had been promised an up-tempo form of hockey with an emphasis on scoring.  With the off-season roster acquisitions, I know I expected to see results much earlier in the season.  Yet it seemed that Minnesota was stuck in a rut, and not a good rut.  The rut was full of lack of shots and more importantly, a lack of goals. 

But then a funny thing happened.  First the home-and-home series against Detroit, a team considering how they'd played as of late, they should not have beat.  Sure, they didn't a ton of shots on goal, but it appeared that they were at least trying.  Going into Thursday's game against Vancouver, the Wild were riding a wave of confidence on the shoulders of one Josh Harding (who currently leads the league in save percentage).  Watching Harding in those two games against the Red Wings, I think many fans were beginning to think "this is the Harding we've been waiting to see since we drafted him in 2002.  Then the 2011 Western Conference Champions, the Vancouver Canucks, rolled into town.  Their fans believe every year that they're going to win the Stanley Cup, and even with their struggles this year, they're not about to let you forget that they went to the Stanley Cup Finals this past year.  I was nervous considering how the game started, especially after Dan Hamhuis scored just over two minutes into the game.  Early goals like that often don't bode well for a team, especially a team like the Wild where scoring is a struggle.  Yet, the Wild manages more shots than their opponent and kept them from scoring additional goals.  Whatever they talked about during the first intermission combined with the effort they put forth, changed the dynamic.

The important thing for tonight's game is two-fold.  First, they need to continue peppering the net, and in tonight's case that will most likely be St. Louis' Brian Elliott.  Like Vancouver's Cory Schneider, Elliott is another one of the goalies that Minnesota needs to find a way to crack.  The best way to do that, is to keep shooting at him, and to get in close.  They're called "garbage" goals for a reason, meaning they're not pretty, but they count just as much as a highlight reel goal.  I don't need beautiful goals or a wide open skating game to be happy.  Win the game, and I'm a happy camper.  You can't win if you can't (or in the Wild's case sometimes, won't) score.

The other important element for tonight's game is to shut them down.  The Wild are currently tied for second with the Los Angeles Kings for Goals Against per Game.  The Blues are middle of the pack when it comes to even strength scoring.  You have to shut that down.  When it comes to the Blues' power play, which is worst in the league, it become just that more important for Minnesota to continue to execute its recently perfect penalty kill.  And since their penalty kill isn't much better than their power play, Minnesota absolutely needs to capitalize on the man advantage when it comes their way.

Minnesota should be primed to extend their winning streak.  However, with this team, I've learned never to count on anything.  When they should win, they lose, and when I expect them to lose, on occasion that surprise me.  All I ask for is a game of confidence.  Go out to win and grant no mercy.  No taking time off during the game.

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