Well hello again, Wild fans! Welcome to Your Name Is Wild: Week #19!
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?
Welcome back, everybody! Did you have a good Olympic break?
(crickets)
(crickets)
(crickets)
Yeah, unless you're Finnish or Canadian that pretty much sucked. Ah well, nobody on the Wild got hurt and really, that's the important thing.
When last we spoke the Wild had just won two straight home games and gained 10 out of the last 14 available points. They'd manage to push themselves 5 points up in the race for the Wild card, turning a four horse race for two spots into a three horse race for one spot.
This week found the Wild on the previously dreaded Western Canadian road trip. However, this time around most of the squad was well rested & the teams they're facing were no longer division rivals. There are times when I miss the old Northwest Division, but this week wasn't one of them. Let's break this thing down.
The Week That Was
Thursday 2/27 - Wild: 3 Edmonton: 0
Thursday night found the Wild rebooting their season in the best place possible: Edmonton.
Despite hopes that the Olympic break would give him ample time to recover, the Wild were again without captain Mikko Koivu as he continues to recover from a broken ankle. Technically, Niklas Backstrom was healthy enough to play, but realistically, I'm not sure Niklas Backstrom is every going to be healthy enough to play an NHL game ever again. Fortunately, this Edmonton Oilers squad is embarrassingly bad. It really wouldn't have mattered what 20 guys donned Wild sweaters Thursday night, if they had even a rudimentary knowledge of hockey they would have been able to compete with these guys.
It didn't take long for the Wild to assert their dominance. Mikael Granlund, who's clearly feeling extra saucy after a stellar Olympic performance, got the Wild on the board just 2:04 into the game. Playing 4-on-4, Jared Spurgeon led the rush by dishing the biscuit up to Zach Parise. With Keith Ballard crashing the net, Granlund was left all alone in the slot. Parise hit him in stride, Ben Scrivens (who was evidently expecting Parise to try to shoot through Keith Ballard) was nowhere to be seen, and boom! Back of the net. After the game Granlund said the amount of space he had to work with on the play was, "unexpected." Edmonton Oilers Hockey: Unexpected!
The second period offered more of the same for the Wild. The Oilers continued their incredibly sloppy play, dumping pucks into each other's feet and literally crashing into each other on the ice. At the 9:37 mark the indomitable Stephane Veilleux was left all alone on top of the circle. Evidently Edmonton does not respect the Ginger Hammer. Erik Haula took the puck behind the net and hit Veilleux with a centering pass. Veilleux, gun cocked, fisted a one-timer through a screen and past Scrivens. 2-0. The legend continues...
The third period was highlighted by one of the funniest goals I've seen this year. With Charlie Coyle & Nino Niederreiter cycling furiously in the Edmonton zone, Dany Heatley planted himself on the right side of the net with his stick cocked for a one-timer. Oilers defenseman Anton Belov did his best to tie Heater up, eventually leading to the two cross-checking each other. Just as it seemed Belov had neutralized Heatley, the puck bounded off Scrivens and toward the two. Heatley promptly chipped the puck over Scrivens, fell down, got up, and celebrated like a fuckin' all-star. Salt in an old wound for the Edmonton faithful, but at this point I'm assuming they're pretty numb.
That was all she wrote for the Oilers. Darcy Kuemper stopped all 21 shots he faced (including a stellar save on a Jordan Eberle one-timer in the second) to post his 9th victory of the year.
Wild Player Of The Game: Stephane Veilleux - Frankly, it would make a lot more sense to give this one to Granlund or Kuemper, but I have a strict "Any time Stephane Veilleux scores he's automatically the Player Of The Game" policy and I'm sticking to it.
Ginger Solidarity!
Impression Of The Game: I was pretty concerned that the Wild, who went into the Olympics scorching hot, would stumble out of the gates (it's not cynicism, it's realism). Not only did they come out flying, they looked more powerful than they were before the break. Then again, kicking the shit out of Edmonton only counts for so much. That's 12 of the 16 available points in the bank. Bring on Vancouver!
Friday 2/28 - Wild: 2 Vancouver: 1 (SO)
Friday 2/28 - Wild: 2 Vancouver: 1 (SO)
This game was riddled with pros & cons before the puck even dropped:
Pro: The Canucks sent a ton of players to the Olympics, so they may be an exhausted team.
Con: The Wild played the night before, so they may also be exhausted.
Pro: The Canucks were in a freefall before the break & had fallen out of the playoffs.
Con: They'd already won once since the break, so maybe they've righted the ship.
Pro: The Vancouver hockey press was abuzz with news that Ryan Kesler demanded a trade.
Con: No Koivu, No Scandella, No Backstrom (meaning Kuemper playing just 24 hours after his shutout)
Pro: John Tortorella still coaches the Canucks.
Con: Goaltender Eddie Lack has supplanted Roberto Luongo & looked great.
Pro: The Canucks entered this game 6 points back of the Wild, meaning a Wild victory would bury them 8 points back. For revenge's sake, that's a good thing.
Well, the game itself was just this sort of back and forth. Ryan Kesler opened the scoring when former Canucks whipping boy Keith Ballard coughed up the puck on the power play. Kesler sped past him (seriously, how slow is Ballard?), retrieved the puck, and beat Kuemper.
Ballard would get his sweet redemption just a few minutes later when he tied the game by blasting a puck behind Eddie Lack. Or did he? Referee Brad Meier waved the goal off immediately, claiming that Erik Haula had interfered with Lack. Replays showed conclusively that no such contact occurred, but this isn't a reviewable play. No goal.
No matter. Just a few minutes later Kesler's Team USA teammate Zach Parise buried a laser of a wrist shot on the power play. 1-1 game after 1.
And that, folks, is all of your scoring for the night. The two teams spent the majority of the second period playing tug-of-war in the neutral zone, while the third period tilted the ice in the Canucks favor. The Wild, clearly feeling the effects of playing the night before, held on for dear life, eventually forcing OT & earning a road point.
The extra frame would prove memorable when Zach Parise, the Wild's lone goal scorer, took a completely unnecessary boarding penalty on Chris Tanev. The Wild sent Kyle Brodziak, Matt Cooke, & Nate Prosser out to kill the penalty. While playing just about the most passive triangle in the history of the NHL, the trio stood tall, killing off the majority of the penalty with "good sticks" and a willingness to block shots. It was a tense & satisfying penalty kill that suddenly made it seem like it just might be the Wild's night after all.
The boys escaped OT unscathed only to find themselves in one of the more epic shootouts in franchise history. Both Kuemper & Lack stopped the first six shooters they saw. Finally, Justin Fontaine solved Lack by sliding the puck five-hole. Darcy Kumper stopped noted animal enthusiast David Booth and it was all over but the shouting.
Wild Player Of The Game: Darcy Kuemper - In addition to playing for the second straight night, Kuemper managed to fight off the negativity of Kesler's breakaway goal, stay sharp as his team sagged in front of him, and then stand tall during a seven round shootout. Not bad for a 23 year old who was fourth on the depth chart at this time last year.
Impression Of The Game: That's 14 of 18 points! Not only that, but the boys managed to gut out an ugly, ugly win on a night when they didn't have the legs, were missing key players, in a brutal building, against a desperate team. It was not the most entertaining game of the year, but it may have been the defining one.
The Week Ahead
Monday 3/3 - Calgary at Wild
Allegedly both Mikko Koivu & Marco Scandella will return to the lineup Monday night. One thing's for sure, this potentially mundane March game against Calgary will go down as the first chapter of "Granlund v. Granlund" as the Flames have called up Mikael's kid brother Markus. The Flames are also the last team to defeat the Wild (nearly a month ago). That's some shit that needs to be rectified post-haste.
Saturday 3/8 - Wild at Dallas
Amazingly, the Wild enjoy four days off before heading to the house of horrors that is Dallas. The way things are shaping up now the Stars will be playing for their playoff lives Saturday night. Can the Wild win in Texas for the first time since the Lemaire Era? Probably not, but hell, stranger things have happened.
Sunday 3/9 - St. Louis at Wild
After Dallas the Wild head to St. Louis. After acquiring Ryan Miller this week I'm terrified to see what this Blues team is going to look like post-deadline. The Blues are legit Stanley Cup contenders. I don't know how you could improve this team, but here's hoping Doug Armstrong fucks it up.
The Big Picture
The Wild have found a regular home in the rumour mill over the last month thanks to their goaltending situation. With Wednesday's trade deadline we'll finally have some clarity as to just what the plan is going forward.
Fortunately, none of that gossip seems to be affecting the on-ice product. The Wild just keep racking up points, leaving Phoenix, Dallas, Vancouver, & Winnipeg to fight for enough scraps to earn the second wild card. Good times all around.
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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