Well hello again, Wild fans! Welcome to Your Name Is Wild: Week #16!
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?
Well hey there, everybody. Thanks for coming back around after I spent most of last week's post giving examples of just how terrible I can be at predicting the ebb & flow of this year's Minnesota Wild team. It's not an easy challenge and last week I didn't even come close to getting it right.
Those surprising wins, however, thrust the Wild right back into a playoff spot. This week brought three consecutive home games against teams that are sitting on the outside of the playoff picture, providing a rare mid-season opportunity for the Wild to bank a little bit of breathing room between themselves & ninth place.
Let's break this thing down.
The Week That Was
Tuesday 1/14: Ottawa: 3 Wild: 0
The Wild welcomed an unfamiliar opponent to the Xcel Energy Center on Tuesday night in the form of the Ottawa Senators. The Sens were a trendy pick to build on their surprising success of the last two seasons and really throw their hat in the ring that is a pretty wide open Eastern Conference. So far, they've struggled. As the last couple of years proved, it's easy to exceed expectations when there aren't any. This season's Sens squad has struggled with the weight of expectations from goaltending on out.
Tuesday night's game, however, served as a reminder of just the kind of talent the Sens can put on the ice.
Yet again the Wild turned to the hot hand in net, giving young Darcy Kuemper another start after he earned his first career shutout in Nashville on Sunday. Unfortunately, he was just about the only Wild player to show up for this one.
The boys opened this one up by sticking to the same pattern that somehow earned them 6 points last week: getting absolutely thrashed in the first period. Ottawa came out guns blazing in the opening frame, outshooting the Wild 15-3. Despite that disparity, it took a moment of shaking officiating for the Sens to get on the board. With Justin Fontaine in the box for a lazy hooking penalty, Sens forward Kyle Turris carried the puck over the blue line and into the Wild's zone. On the other side of the ice, it appeared that fellow Sens forward Clarke MacArthur was just a quarter of a step offside. No whistle was blown, MacArthur crashed the net, and Turris put the puck on his stick. Boom. The puck was in the back of the net & the Wild were livid.
Thanks to FSN's uncanny ability to have only the worst possible angles covered with their cameras, replays were inconclusive as to whether or not MacArther was offside. Frankly, it doesn't matter. Much like they did in St. Louis when an early call didn't go their way (a Zach Parise high-sticked puck in that case), the Wild quickly wilted. Seriously, two year olds leaving Target without candy handle adversity better than this group. It was clear at that point that this just wasn't going to be the Wild's night.
(Quick Offsides Sidenote: Any time there is a questionable onside/offside call, I remember former Wild coach Jacques Lemaire summing up the subject by saying that whenever he & his staff went over replays after games the linesmen got the call right nearly every time. As my dad is fond of saying, when in doubt I tend to side with the guy who has 11 Cup rings. It may have been a close call, but I'm inclined to give the guy standing at the blue line the benefit of the doubt for the no-call).
The two teams spent the second period treading water throughout the second period. In the third the Sens somehow managed to take the lead in heartbreaking fashion despite the fact that neither team was showing much heart.
As per the usual routine, the Wild finally decided to show up in the third period, peppering Sens goalie Robin Lehner with four quick shots to begin the period. Unfortunately, as Marco Scandella prepared to fire a one-timer for their fifth shot, his stick shattered. Sens forward Erik Condra quickly pounced on the loose puck and took off alone toward Kuemper. Scandella caught up to Condra in the slot, but, still without his stick, wasn't able to thwart the play. Rather, he gave Condra a bit of a shove (enough so that, had Condra not scored he would have been awarded a penalty shot), but all the shove accomplished was confusing Kuemper. Condra slid the puck between Kuemper's pads and the Xcel Energy Center faithful conceded defeat. Kyle Turris added a goal with just over 5:00 left in the game to end the scoring on the night.
Wild Player Of The Game: Darcy Kuemper - The young netminder continues to show his stuff as an NHL-caliber goalie. Lord only knows how the three-headed hydra that is the Wild's goaltending situation is going to play out over the rest of this season, but right now Kuemper's the man.
Impression Of The Game: Not a debacle on par with the loss to the Islanders, but an incredibly disappointing night nonetheless. By being shut out at home by Robin Lehner (!) & the Sens, the Wild basically gave back two of the points they fought so hard for in L.A. & Phoenix last week. The loss itself was disappointing, but the double trend whammy (coming out flat, folding when dealt adversity) brought plenty of questions about this Wild team back to the forefront.
Thursday 1/16: Wild: 4 Edmonton: 1
Fortunately for the Wild, all of the questions that arose during Tuesday's loss were rendered moot when the Edmonton Oilers rolled into town. Nothing cures an ailing team like a visit from the LOiLers.
Now, a typical visit from the Oilers is pretty much an automatic two points, but for the second consecutive time, this Oilers visit wasn't quite typical. First, a little past:
The last time the Wild & Oilers met in St. Paul was game 47 of last year's lockout-shortened season. The Wild had returned home from yet another loss in Columbus with a chance to clinch a playoff spot in front of their restless, raucous fans. All they had to do was beat the Oilers. Seems easy, right?
Well, not so fast. Not only did the Wild lose, they lost handily. The Oilers, playing there now-annual role as spoiler, pasted the Wild 6-0 in a game that is best remembered for Wild fans booing Josh Harding's performance even though it was his first game back after battling MS for the entire season. Not a fun day in St. Paul.
Tuesday's game did not have the stakes of last spring's meeting, but it was curious game nonetheless. On Wednesday Oiles GM Craig MACTAVISH! made a couple of moves designed to jump start his struggling squad, first acquiring goalie Ben Scrivens from Los Angeles then acquiring Minnesota native Matt Hendricks from Nashville. Both suited up for their first game with their new team on Thursday.
However, much like every trade, free agent acquisition, & draft pick made by the Oilers over the last 8 years, it didn't make any difference whatsoever. Despite outshooting the Wild 9-7 in the first period, the Oilers left the period down 1-0. Wild forward Mikael Granlund made yet another highlight reel play when he beat the Oilers to a loose puck behind Scrivens' net and threw an impossible angle pass to a crashing Jason Pominville. Pominville patiently pulled the puck to his backhand and slid it past Scrivens to stake the Wild to the lead.
After Jordan Eberle opened the second period by tying the game at 1-1 with a filthy wrister past Darcy Kuemper, the wheels came off for the Oilers thanks to Nate Prosser. Prosser's been a thorn in Edmonton's side for a couple of years for his on-ice chippiness, but he finally landed a blow when he fired off a slapshot that was destined to sail over the top of the net. Fortunately, Scrivens proudly upheld the recent tradition of Oilers goaltening by handling the shot in the worst possible manner. Scrivens through his catching hand in the air an inch too high, redirecting the puck off the bottom of his glove and into the net to restore the Wild's lead. The goal provided an awkward moment in which both Ben Scrivens & Edmonton's brass must have been thinking, "Shit, what have I/we signed up for here."
Justin Fontaine added a goal just 2:00 later to make it 3-1. He was followed by Jason Zucker finishing off a Dany Heatley assist just 0:08 into the third period (an especially filthy apple from Heatley on his Bobblehead Night). That was it for the scoring and Edmonton limped back out of St. Paul just as hapless as when they had arrived.
Wild Player Of The Game: Dany Heatley - It was Heater Bobblehead Night at the Xcel Energy Center and Heatley proved just why he gets the honor. His assist on Zucker's goal was saucy enough to warrant mentioning, but, for the first time this season, Heater showed some anger in this game, getting into several scrums with Oilers. I suppose we shouldn't have been surprised. After all, Heatley has a long history of trolling Edmonton fans.
Impression Of The Game: I take as much away from the Wild kicking the shit out of Edmonton as I do from the sun rising in the East each morning.
Saturday 1/18 - Wild: 3 Dallas: 2 (OT)
Sunday was Hockey Day In Minnesota and, as per tradition, it brought the Dallas Stars to town for what was by far the most important game of the week. In years past FSN has tried to shoehorn these two teams into a rivalry simply because the Stars used to call Minnesota home. It was a tired and ultimately pointless exercise until this year, when realignment finally gave this matchup the heft lazy FSN execs had been hoping for.
This year's edition of the Stars has been remade on the fly by new GM Jim Nill. He brought in Lindy Ruff to coach the team and pulled off one of the biggest trades of the offseason by acquiring burgeoning star/housekeeping aficionado Tyler Seguin from the Bruins. The hope was that these moves would be enough to push the team from perennial also-rans to lower-tier playoff flotsam. So far, so meh. The Stars entered the game in 10th place, eight points behind the Wild in the wild card race. Doing some simple math, that meant that a Wild win would push the Stars 10 points back, whereas a Stars victory would vault them to a mere six points back. With a rematch awaiting both teams in Dallas on Tuesday (where a Wild loss is all but assured), Saturday's game took on extra significance.
Now, if you can believe it, the Wild came out flat in the first period (I know, crazy, right?). They were outshot 9-3 by the Stars but were once again bailed out by Darcy Kuemper, who stopped all 9 of those shots. That first period provided a highlight for one of Minnesota's "homegrown" talents (he went to the U, anyway) when Erik Haula scored his first NHL goal by snapping a wrist shot behind Stars goalie Kari Lehtonen. It was an appropriate start for Haula as most of the fans in attendance had passed the time before the opening faceoff by watching the Gophers kick the shit out of THE Ohio State University on the Jumbotron.
The Wild continued their lackadaisical play in the second period, outshot this time by a 13-6 margin. Unfortunately, Kuemper wasn't able to stop all of those shots as Ryan Garbutt tied the game nearly 12:00 into the period. Through a series of fortunate events, however, the Wild regained the lead just 2:00 later when Ryan Suter deflected a Justin Fontaine shot behind Lehtonen. I'm almost sure I'll never type that sentence again.
The Wild put up a fight during a sloppy third period that saw neither team really playing well enough to deserve a in outright. Yet again the Stars outshot the Wild (11-8) and yet again they found a way to get the biscuit past Kuemper when Alex Chiasson fired a backhander from the top of the crease into the back of the net at the 9:32 mark of the period. Neither team was able to finish it off in regulation, which meant a point for everybody involved (Woooh?), but also added significance to the extra point available in OT (Wooooh!).
Fortunately, for a crowd that had slogged through an entire day of televised hockey (and a rather lackluster NHL game in person), everybody was rewarded for their perseverance when Nate Prosser ended the game 2:42 into OT with a wrister. It was Prosser's second goal in as many games and it was a big one, ensuring that the most ground the Stars could make up on the Wild over the course of this home-and-home is one point.
Wild Player Of The Game: Nate Prosser - As I mentioned above, Saturday was Hockey Day In Minnesota. This year's festivities kicked off in, of all places, Nate Prosser's hometown of Elk River, so it was appropriate that the day ended on his stick. Even if Prosser hadn't buried the shot, though, the very fact that he was on the ice in overtime of an important game is a major sign of progress for the ever-patient Prosser. He's come a long way from the consistent healthy scratches that have defined the past year of his life. He may or may not ever score a more memorable goal in his life. Good work, Mr. Prosser.
Impression Of The Game: This was not a pretty game. The longer it went on the more clear it became why these two teams are battling for the last available playoff spot. Neither team was disciplined or talented enough to grab the bull by the horns. Regardless, gaining that extra point in OT was obviously huge for the Wild. Like I said, they'll likely be defeated in Dallas (where they are notoriously bad), but that pill will be significantly easier to swallow knowing that they banked two points in St. Paul.
The Week Ahead
Tuesday 1/21: Wild at Dallas
Rematch! As I mentioned, I have little faith in the Wild's ability to finally figure out a way to win in Dallas on Tuesday, but hell, we live in a world where Nate Prosser scores OT winners. Anything is possible.
Thursday 1/23: Chicago at Wild
The Blackhawks head to St. Paul on Thursday, meaning that the Xcel Energy Center will be filled with the filthiest, stupidest, drunkest hockey fans in the Midwest. Oh, and the hottest team in the NHL not named after a Disney movie. Rumors persist that Zach Parise will make his return Thursday night, which would give the squad a boost against a team that always seems to bring out the best in the Wild.
Saturday 1/25: Wild at San Jose
The Wild open a brutal four game West Coast trip on Saturday night with a visit to Brent Burns, James Sheppard, Martin Havlat, and the rest of the Sharkies. If the Wild could somehow get out of this game with a point I would be thrilled. If they just get out of there without anybody separating their shoulder I'm calling it a victory.
The Big Picture
After a two week slide that saw injuries rob the Wild of Zach Parise, Mikko Koivu, Jared Spurgeon, & Josh Harding (and nearly Mike Yeo), the Wild have somehow found a way to make incremental progress in the playoff race.
It's been a different hero every night for the Wild lately (with the exception of the night-to-night heroics of Darcy Kuemper) which, frankly, is the way this team was built. As good as Zach Parise, Mikko Koivu, Jason Pominville, & Ryan Suter can be, they're not so good that you can surround them with a bunch of stiffs and make the playoffs. Perhaps the absence of two of those stars (and the ice time/responsibility afforded some of the lesser lights on the roster) will actually make the Wild more formidable in the long run.
This upcoming week consists of three difficult games with the following week consisting of three more. They may still be clinging to a wild card spot, but the Wild have put themselves in the driver's seat with reinforcements on the way. Given the circumstances of the last month that's a great place to be.
Until next week...
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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