Well hello again, Wild fans! Welcome to Your Name Is Wild: Week #13!
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?
What'd you miss? What'd you miss?!? The State Of Hockey is in full-fledged freak out mode after the things you missed!
Alright, quickly, when last we spoke the Wild were heading off for their Christmas break with visions of diminishing playoff odds dancing in their heads. They had lost three straight on an Eastern Conference road trip and found themselves on the outside of the playoff picture looking in.
Well, Week #13 was a brief week for the boys, but it'll likely go down as one of the most peculiar (and disappointing) of the season. Let's get into this.
The Week That Was
Friday 12/27 - Winnipeg: 6 Wild: 4
The boys returned from Christmas break to make the short trip up to Winnipeg. Heading into this game the Wild were 3-0 against the Jets and, more importantly, has used their division rivals to right the ship multiple times this season. Unfortunately, the Wild would have to attempt to right ship without the services of Josh Harding & Zach Parise.
Now, I don't know exactly what the Wild & Jets players did over their three day Christmas vacation, but one thing was clear: It only took three days for the goaltenders to completely check out.
The first period featured a combined seven goals, four lead changes, and three goaltenders as the Jets & Wild took turns making a mockery of each other's goaltending. And make no mistake, this was not two struggling offensive teams finally figuring it out, this was Ondrej Pavelec outsucking Niklas Backstrom followed by Backstrom outsucking Al "Colonel" Montoya. The period featured goals by the likes of Stephane Veilleux, Justin Fontaine, Olli Jokinen, Dany Heatley, Blake Wheeler, Evander Kane, & Dustin Byfuglien. That's a ginger, a plugger, two enigmas, two underachievers, one drunk boating enthusiast, and a partridge in a pear tree!
Now, with that wacky first period behind them, the two teams settled into what they do best: struggling in just about every facet of the game. Neither team's offense returned as both goaltenders played well enough to stop the few shots thrown their way. Eventually Mikko Koivu tied the game with his first (!) power play goal of the season.
With the game tied 4-4 and reduced to a mere 20 minutes, the Jet found a way to pull out the W. Blake Wheeler scored his second goal of the game (notably, from the crease) and Toby Enstrom cashed the emtpy netter to finish it off.
Wild Player Of The Game: Stephane Veilleux - I've been blogging about the Wild for quite some time and I have only one firm rule: When Stephane Veilleux scores he is the player of the game.
Bask in his reflected ginger glory!
Impression Of The Game: This game was set up as a collision between two things we know for certain: The Wild absolutely suck on the road vs. The Wild own the Jets. Unfortunately, "Wild suck on the road" proved to overpower "It's the JETS!?!" That's an 0-4 road trip, a tumble out of the playoff picture, and an unhappy fanbase. But hell, at least the Wild were returning home to face the hapless Islanders. Everything will be fine...
Sunday 12/29 - New York Islanders: 5 Wild: 4
Sunday 12/29 - New York Islanders: 5 Wild: 4
Oh no! Everything's not fine!
Let's rewind for a minute. The Wild have been a pretty dreadful road team all season, but they've been able to get away with it because they've been dominant in St. Paul. The Islanders visiting after the Wild pissed away yet another road trip is just another variation on the script the Wild have been reading from ever since Mike Yeo rolled into town on his eyebrow-less horse. The Wild would come out fired up, kick ass for three periods, and everybody would walk away thinking, "Good, the boys are back on track."
The first period and a half played out just the way it was supposed to. Ryan Suter got the show started with is first goal of the year just 3:22 into the game. The Xcel Energy Center exploded with a mixture of excitement and relief. The boys are back on track.
The second period brought quick scores from Jonas Brodin (0:39 into the period) and former Islander Nino Niederreiter (2:20 later). The rout was on and everybody was feeling saucy. Or was it...
(Cut to frozen shot of Niederreiter smiling, fade to black, commercial)
The Wild were riding high with a 3-0 lead at home against the lowly Islanders. It seemed like all the breaks that had eluded the Wild over the last week and half were finally going their way. Everything was coming up Milhouse.
Except that, when push came to shove, the Islanders had the most talented player on either team: John Tavares. Tavares showed exactly why he's the supernova of young stars in the NHL when he pulled his team back from the abyss with a goal at 8:45. The rest of his team followed suit, tightening up and playing smart hockey until returning hero Cal Clutterbuck changed the narrative of the whole period by netting goal with just over a minute left in the second. Suddenly, this was the Islanders period and they were heading into intermission down just one goal.
The St. Paul faithful were definitely restless (I was there, trust me, nobody felt confident that this one was over), and there fears were realized 6:30 into the third when Thomas Hickey tipped the puck past Harding. Tie Game.
The teams traded shots for the next six minutes, but eventually St. Paul native (and one of the most unfairly cast villains in Wild history) scored to give the Islanders the lead they had been building toward since Tavares got them on the board. The Xcel Center was silent (excepting the boo birds and their week's worth of pent up frustration).
From there it was an exciting, if disappointing, finish. Justin Fontaine scored just one minute after Okposo, restoring hope to the Wild faithful & order to the world, but both were plunged back into the darkness yet another minute later when Okposo delivered the knockout blow. 5-4, 5:48 to play.
Proving that the hockey gods have a sick sense of humor (and/or humour), Calvin de Haan took a tripping penalty with 4:58 left in the game, sending the Wild's power play unit out for a chance to tie the game (and save Mike Yeo's job). Inevitably, failure ensued. The power play came up empty and, just to give the fans one last disappointment, Kyle Brodziak took a penalty with 2:31 remaining, robbing the Wild of the opportunity to pull Harding at the end of the game.
Wild Player Of The Game: Nino Niederreiter - There's an awful lot of blame to go around for this one, but we should acknowledge Nino's efforts against his former team. By all accounts his relationship with the Islanders was one of mutual disdain. I doubt he'll score many more goals as satisfying as the one he scored Sunday.
Impression Of The Game: Fear. Anger. Regret. Disappointment. Resignation... These were all feelings felt by me, every other Wild fan, Wild players, Mike Yeo, Chuck Fletcher, & Craig Leopold as the Wild pissed away a three-goal lead at home to the Islanders. I don't know if/who the fall guy will be for this loss, but it definitely felt like the low-tide moment of the season.
The Week Ahead
Tuesday 12/31 - St. Louis at Wild
One of the many reasons that the Wild's loss to the Islanders stung was the fact that the Blues were coming to town New Year's Eve. As much as I'd like to see something different, I just can't imagine a scenario where the big, bad Blues do anything less than kick the shit out of the fragile Wild. If Yeo isn't fired before this game I wouldn't be surprised if he's fired afterward.
Thursday 1/2 - Buffalo at Wild
The Wild beat the flailing Sabres earlier this year, but that was back when Ron Rolston was the coach. The Sabres are still flailing, but with Ted Nolan back at the helm, it's flailing with a purpose.
Saturday 1/4 - Washington at Wild
Alexander Ovechkin & the good Nicklas Backstrom come to town for a Saturday night showdown. Will Mike Yeo be coaching for his job? Will Mike Yeo be watching from his own personal island in Ontario? Tune in to find out!
The Big Picture
Most of this losing streak was covered in last week's post, so I'm going to do my best to focus on just these two losses.
Two things jump out immediately:
1. The Wild gave up 11 goals to the Jets & Islanders! Holy shit!
2. The Wild scored 8 goals in two games without Zach Parise and came out of it with zero points.
When a team lays an egg like that there's usually a scapegoat. In this case blame likely falls on the defense (atrocious) and the goaltending (equally bad). But, as the old saying goes, you can't fire the players.
It's become clear that Mike Yeo's voice is being tuned out in the dressing room. We have several seasons of evidence now that points to Yeo being unable to pull his team out of tailspins, tailspins that have occurred in each of his seasons. Frankly, I'm surprised Leopold (via Fletcher) didn't pull the trigger already. Yeo will likely have to win both the St. Louis & Buffalo games to keep his job secure.
Meanwhile, the Wild are now sitting in 10th place, losing ground quickly. Should be a fun week.
Until next time...
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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