Well hello again, hockey fans! Welcome to Week #3 of Your Name Is Wild!
For those of you who are new to the column, here's the scoop: The NHL season is a long, tedious journey. We decided that this season we would ask TCDroogsma of the blog Wildly Biased to stop by each week and give us an update on our local squad.
Droogsy, what'd we miss?
Hello again, everybody. Thanks for coming back for Week 3 of my Wild column. You could have gone to any hockey blog in the world, but you're here with me, and I appreciate that...
The Wild entered the week looking extra saucy. Despite a middling opening to the season the boys looked like they had finally found their game, ending Week #2 by posting consecutive victories over the Jets & Stars in St. Paul.
Week #3 brought the first road trip of the season, a four game tour of the newly configured Atlantic Division. While points on the road are never a given, they were bound to be there for the taking on this road trip. The trip began with the boys visiting an awful Buffalo squad followed by a game in Toronto against the good, but beatable, Maple Leafs. After that it was off to Florida where the boys could work on their tans in between thrashing the Lightning & perennially awful Panthers.
At least that was the plan...
The Week That Was
Monday 10/14 - Wild: 2 Buffalo: 1
Quick refresher, Buffalo was terrible last year. In an effort to begin rebuilding in earnest they fired longtime head coach Lindy Ruff and traded their captain, a man we now as Wild right wing Jason Pominville.
Monday's game was Pominville's first time in Buffalo as a member of the opposing team. Pommer spent 10 years as a Sabre, which evidently is not enough to warrant any sort of mention from the team he formerly captained. Proving yet again that they're one of the most mistreated fanbases in the NHL, Sabres fans at least had the courtesy to applaud Pominville when he was announced as a starter.
The past, however, is the past. Doing his part to add to what is bound to be a season of misery in Buffalo Pominville netted the game winner with 10 second left in the second period. Those poor Sabres fans. Watching Pominville finish off a coast-to-coast, seven-pass rush must have been like seeing your ex in a bar looking as fit & happy as ever. I wouldn't be surprised if Sabres GM Darcy Regier spent the night getting hammered and drunk dialing Chris Drury.
Wild Player Of The Game: Jason Pominville - By all accounts it was a stressful trip for Pominville. It was his first time in Buffalo since the trade, which meant it doubled as his first time seeing all the peripheral folks (stadium workers, coffee shop baristas, casual friends) that make living & playing in a city memorable. The fact that he was able to net the game winner after a day of dealing with those stresses is pretty impressive.
Impression Of The Game: The vibe around the squad is mostly positive. Wins on the road are never easy and it's always important to start road trips on a good note. However, Buffalo is a truly bad team. The fact that the Wild were only able to manage a 2-1 victory (against backup goalie Jhonas Enroth no less) was a little disconcerting. Wins are wins. Two points available on the trip and two points acquired.
Tuesday 10/15 - Toronto: 4 Wild: 1
This Tuesday marked one week since the Wild lost goaltender Niklas Backstrom to a knee injury in Nashville. While backup Josh Harding had played well in the interim (allowing only one goal in each of his three stars, winning all three), this game would also mark the first time that the consequences of Backstrom's injury became apparent.
With the team playing on back-to-back nights for the first time this season, head coach Mike Yeo decided to rest Josh Harding for fear of pushing him too hard. Instead the Wild turned to backup Darcy Kuemper. While Kuemper may one day turn into a legit NHLer, Tuesday was not that day.
For reasons that continue to baffle hockey minds around the league, this Maple Leafs team has become notorious for their ability to be outshot, outhit, and generally outplayed only to come away with wins. Playing right into that script, the Wild came out with guns blazing in the opening period, outshooting the Leafs 17-4 only to find themselves down 2-1 after the opening frame.
While Kuemper shouldn't be slighted for the Leafs first goal (a Tyler Bozak PP goal), Trevor Smith's goal at the 13:51 mark was both stoppable & deflating. When former Wild nemesis Mason Raymond netted the Leafs third goal of the night halfway through the second period it was curtains for Kuemper. Josh Harding came in and stopped all 6 of the shots he faced.
The Wild battled valiantly the rest of the game, but Mason Raymond eventually iced the game with an empty netter. When the final horn sounded the Wild had outshot the Leafs 37-14 and come away with nothing to show for it. Credit is due to Leafs goalie James Reimer for his job stopping 36 of those shots. That was 33 more saves than Kuemper, who stopped 4 of the 7 shots that came his way.
Wild Player Of The Game: Mikael Granlund - While it's tempting to say that a guy who failed on two breakaway opportunities had a rough game, I think the opposite was true for Granlund on Tuesday. He's been steadily improving all season and this game was the first where he actually seemed like a stand-alone offensive weapon. He's come a long way from the kid who showed up last season.
Impression Of The Game: This proved to be a troubling loss for a couple of reasons. First, it exposed just how thin the Wild are when it comes to goaltending. Josh Harding wasn't given the night off because he played poorly or even because he asked, Yeo sat him as a precaution against giving him too much work due to his battle with MS. Combine that ongoing struggle with the fact that Niklas Backstrom seems more fragile than ever and it becomes clear that we may be seeing a lot of Darcy Kuemper this season. Based on this Leafs game, that's a troubling thought.
Second, as any longtime Wild fan will tell you, watching the Wild struggle to score on Tuesday felt like watching just about any random game from the last decade. It's easy to gloss over the goal-scoring issues when the boys are still finding ways to win. When they take losses like this one, however, all the talk of this being a new, aggressive, goal-scoring team starts sounding a lot like the empty promise it's been every offseason. Two out of four points acquired on the roadie.
Thursday 10/17 - Tampa Bay: 3 Wild: 1
Alright, at this point the Wild were 1-1 on the trip. No shame in going .500 on the road. They beat beat Buffalo, a team they were supposed to beat, and ran into a hot goalie in Toronto. It happens. No harm done.
Now, it's time for the Florida half of the trip. The rest of the division (at least the teams not named the Jets) are playing well. If the boys are going to keep pace they need to get two points in Tampa Bay. The Lightning like to play offensive hockey, leaning heavily on Martin St. Louis & Steven Stamkos to outscore the other team. Typically the Bolts an easy two points as long as you play solid defense and wait for your chances. Still, the Wild proved in Toronto that they have some horses up front. If this turns into a track meet the Wild should be able to hold their own and get at least a point, right?
Nope. Turns out Tampa Bay has a goalie now. Oh sure, they've always had guys who wore goalie pads and stood in front of the net. Now, however, they have Ben Bishop, a 6'7" octopus of a man who proved far too vexing for the Wild's pop gun offense.
Much like the Toronto game, the Wild carried play for stretches of Thursday's game. Unlike the Toronto game, however, the Wild spent the night shooting themselves in the foot. Despite carrying play for stretches (and even proving Bishop mortal when Mikko Koivu buried his first of the year), the Wild handed the Lightning seven (!) power play opportunities, forcing skill forwards like Pominville, Koivu, & Parise to expend most of their energy killing penalties rather than attacking.
Perhaps most disappointing of all was how the Wild lost this one. Josh Harding, back in net as the starter, was great again, proving the old saying that a good goaltender is the team's best penalty killer true. Unfortunately for Harding, the Wild let Steven Stamkos in alone on a breakaway with the game tied and 5:00 left.
Yes, Steven Stamkos, arguably the most dangerous goal scorer in the game. That Steven Stamkos.
Of course Stamkos buried his chance. Sami Salo added an empty-netter and that was all she wrote.
Wild Player Of The Game: Josh Harding - Poor Hards. Another Grade A effort, another loss. With the Wild's goaltending tandem held together by scotch tape & hope it's especially disappointing to watch the Wild waste away this Harding hot streak.
Impressions Of The Game: This was, by a large margin, this season's new high-water mark for obscenities muttered under my breath. The Wild didn't play poorly, necessarily, but the Lightning were just a bit better in every facet. The underachieving offense is slowly trending from "disappointing" to "expected" while this new found penchant for penalties (and the struggles of the penalty killing units) is starting to make it seem like the candle is burning at both ends for the Wild. Six points available on the roadie, two acquired. Off to Sunrise.
Saturday 10/19 - Florida: 2 Wild: 1 (SO)
OK... so, this roadie isn't going so hot. Still, despite all the negativity of the last two games, the Wild can still salvage a .500 trip. All they have to do is head down to Sunrise and kick the shit out of the Panthers. Easy peasy, right?
Turns out, not so much. In a surprising move Wild head coach Mike Yeo and Panthers goalie Tim Thomas joined forces to thwart the Wild's attempt to turn this road trip into something better than utter failure.
Rather than concede that the Wild had run into hot goalies in Toronto & Tampa Bay and sticking with the plan, Yeo basically undermined everything he'd said after those two losses by shuffling his lines around. Nino Neiderreiter was bumped down to the second line despite meshing with Parise & Koivu better than anybody in the last two seasons. Jason Pominville was moved back to his previous role on that first line, a combination that had worked so well that Yeo already broke it up once this season because it was failing to score.
The reconfigured second line now consisted of Nino, Mikael Granlund at center, and Matt Cooke. Cooke was being bumped up from his role as the overachieving heart & soul of one of the best third lines in the league. Now, instead of being asked to provide checking, energy, and defense he's being asked to score goals with two second year players (and to do so against better defensive pairs than he faced on the third line).
These moves left Dany Heatley as the odd man out. Of course Yeo, despite claiming that he wanted to "get him going," dropped Heater to the third line, a line devoted to providing checking, energy, & defense. Do any of those words describe Dany Heatley?
This was all before the game (and I leveled all of these complaints before the game as well). How did these reconfigured lines perform? They failed to score a goal against a defense that included both Brian Campbell and Tom Gilbert.
In fact, if not for Jesse Winchester's foolhardy attempt to block Jonas Brodin's slapshot with only his stick (and inadvertently redirecting the puck past Thomas) the Wild would have been shut out for the first time this season. To his credit, Timmy Thomas did come up big, stopping 30 of the 31 shots he faced over 65 minutes (and stopping both shots he faced in the shootout).
Wild Player Of The Game: Zach Parise - It became abundantly clear during this game that Zach Parise has had enough. He played like a maniac, firing 8 shots at Thomas and laying 5 hits on the rest of the Panthers. It's tough not to feel for the guy. Sometimes you just need to thrash around for a while before you figure it out.
Impressions Of The Game: Negativity. Pure, unadulterated negativity. Mike Yeo claims his system works but keeps shuffling the lines trying to make that true. Zach Parise's angry. Something's off about Ryan Suter. Dany Heatley's a boat. Josh Harding's shoulders are starting to hurt. Eight available points on this road trip, three acquired. 0-for-Florida. Bad times.
The Week Ahead
Tuesday 10/22: Nashville at Wild
The Wild open up a two game homestand this week by facing the Predators for the first time since Eric Nystrom injured Niklas Backstrom. Though the season is young it's beginning to look like the Wild & Predators are going to be battling each other for a lower rung on the playoff ladder all season. Last week I compared this budding rivalry to the Blur & Oasis rivalry of the 90's in the sense that only Preds & Wild fans will understand why the two teams dislike each other. Considering the Wild need to stem the bleeding form this road trip I'm expecting Round Two to be a good one.
Thursday 10/24: Carolina at Wild
Near-Minnesotans Eric & Jordan Staal roll into town with the Hurricanes on Thursday night. I'll be honest, the Canes missed the playoffs last season and haven't faced the Wild since 2011-2012. I haven't watched a Canes game in years so I don't really know what they're about right now. Regardless, if going 0-for-Florida left the fanbase feeling like the Wild aren't playoff contenders then losing at home to the Canes will drive the point home for sure.
Saturday 10/26: Wild at Chicago
Here we go, folks! It's the first time the Wild & Blackhawks as division rivals! It's also the first time they'll be seeing each other since the Hawks dismissed the Wild in five games in last year's playoffs. On the one hand, the Hawks are sporting much the same roster as last season and are still a good bet to win the Central Division once the Avs cool off. On the other hand, fuck Chicago. This is the first half of a home & home that picks up back in St. Paul on Monday. Should be great for stoking the embers of a rivalry that's easing from infancy to legitimacy.
The Big Picture
Traditionally the Wild have been a franchise that starts hot and cools off during January & February. Sitting at 3-3-3 after nine games is not where a lot of us were expecting to see the Wild after an opening couple of weeks that brought games against the Jets, Stars, Sabres, Preds. Bolts, & Panthers. As you can see above, facing two division rivals (with an unfamiliar opponent in between) is going to make for a tough week.
Goaltender Niklas Backstrom looks ready to resume his season, but he wasn't great when he was healthy. Then again, we've all seen Harding go on hot streaks before only to cool off and/or get injured. If Yeo is too slow to make the switch he risks pissing away a game, a luxury he can't afford right now.
The bottom line is that if the Wild don't start scoring goals soon the losses will keep coming and, more importantly, the fanbase will call out this year's edition of the Wild as yet another in a line of goal-starved underachievers. Angry fans make for an angry Craig Leopold. Angry Craig Leopold makes for drastic moves. This is a surprisingly big week for the Wild.
For more of TCDroogsma's hockey ramblings be sure to give him a follow on Twitter (@WildlyBiased). He can also be found writing about the Wild in greater detail on his hockey blog Wildly Biased.
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