Well hello again, Wild fans! Welcome to Your Name Is Wild: Week #11!
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?
Some things in life are certain. Death, taxes, the loudest person being the dumbest, one last blizzard in March, the Columbus Blue Jackets mediocrity, the Timberwolves underachieving, and, for the purposes of this blog, the Wild season going off the rails on a West Coast road trip.
Like many Wild fans, I've become accustomed to this annual December tradition. Because of realignment, these Western trips don't carry quite the significance they used to, but "points is points" is a two-way street.
This week found the Wild avoiding the landmines of Canada, but found two California heavyweights waiting for them on back to back nights before a quick trip to Denver for a game against the Avs.
Let's break this thing down.
The Week That Was
Wednesday 12/11 - Anaheim: 2 Wild: 1
Allow me two quick comments about this one right off the bat:
1) Heading into this game the Ducks were 12-0-2 at home. Considering they're routinely hosting the Kings, Sharks, Coyotes, & Canucks, that's pretty incredible.
2) This was the first Wild game this season that rolled past midnight. It nearly killed me. Thank God the Wild don't play in the Northwest anymore.
While there's a list of things that are certain in life, there's also a list of things that are certain every time the Wild visit Anaheim. The Wild's offense will struggle, Corey Perry will score, Ryan Getzlaf will remind me that, even though I hate him, he's one of the best captains in the league, some guy I've never heard of will score, Saku Koivu will win faceoffs against his brother, and every Wild fan will find themselves shaking their head for staying up so late.
That's exactly how Wednesday's game played out. Corey Perry netted his 21st (!) of the year as the Wild defense floundered around him. Rookie defenseman Alex Grant scored his second goal in his second career game. Jonas Hiller was adequate in net (though, had he actually been challenged, he probably would have been up for it).
Watching the Wild play in Anaheim is like watching an episode of How I Met Your Mother. There are no surprises, every episode follows the exact same formula, and we're all dumber for having sat through the entire thing.
Wild Player Of The Game: Josh Harding - I'm starting to feel bad because I only give Harding the WPOTG award when the team loses. Yet again, Harding played well enough to give his team a shot at a point and yet again the offense failed him. Harding's a great team guy, but I can't help but wonder if his mind ever drifts to Manny Fernandez's famous, "It doesn't really matter how I play if we don't score any goals" quote.
Impression Of The Game: I have to work at 6 AM and I stayed up for this?!?
Thursday 12/12 - San Jose: 3 Wild: 1
Just 24 hours after being defeated by the Ducks the Wild found themselves facing off against the Sharks in San Jose. That would be the same Sharks team that lost in St. Paul just a week earlier despite outplaying the Wild in pretty much every facet of the game. Like a boxer who loses to an inferior opponent, the Sharks came out intent on reasserting their place in the Western Conference pecking order.
This being the second game of a grueling back-to-back, head coach Mike Yeo decided to go with Niklas Backstrom in net because, evidently, Mike Yeo doesn't give a shit about getting Niklas Backstrom's confidence back. As a testament to their tired legs, the Wild handed San Jose five power play opportunities (with the refs handing them two more). The Sharkies went 3-7 on those power plays, racked up 39 shots, and pretty much ran the tired Wild out of the building.
The big story after the game was Mike Yeo firing shots at the Sharks for "diving" or "embellishing," but as far as I'm concerned that was just Yeo looking for any excuse not to have his team look in the mirror. The Sharks are big, fast, tough, and have talent up front, in back, both young and old. This time around it was Joe Pavelski netting two goals and rookie Tomas Hertl notching one himself.
Wild Player Of The Game: Brett Bulmer - Bulmer didn't do anything exceptional to earn this spot, I'm just so excited to see him back with the big club. I was very impressed with Bulmer's game when he had a 9-game cup of coffee with the Wild a couple of seasons ago (so much so that I thought it made Kyle Brodziak expendable. I still haven't been proven wrong). Welcome back, Mr. Bulmer.
Impression Of The Game: I have to work at 6 AM and I stayed up for this?!?
Saturday 12/14: Wild: 2 Colorado: 1 (SO)
The last time the Wild visited Denver they salvage a loser point despite being run out of the rink for much of the game. That was the second half of a home-and-home and the Wild sure played like it. Despite that, however, the Wild notched their lone highlight of that week when Mikko Koivu scored with 6 seconds left to force overtime. At the time, this is what I wrote:
"I'll admit right away that I'm reading too much into this, but don't underestimate the mental ramifications of Koivu's late goal. If the Avalanche had just flat-out beaten the Wild two nights in a row they would have been able to file the Wild away under the "We got these guys" section of their brain. Now, ever so slightly, there's a crack in that confidence. The Wild and Avs will likely be battling all season for third place in the Central Division and every little edge helps."
Much like that game, the Avalanche spent the better part of Saturday's game knocking the Wild around like they were Semyon Varlamov's girlfriend. What? Too soon?
Fin, the Avalanche spent the better part of Saturday's game knocking the Wild around like they were Patrick Roy's wife. But yet again, the Avalanche weren't able to shut the door. Again, they had a chance to put the Wild in the "We got these guys" file failed to finish the job.
The Avs took a 1-0 lead (a Maxime Talbot goal) into the third period, but allowed the Wild to outshoot them 10-5 in the period. The Wild finally broke through with just 3:53 left in the game when Ryan Suter fired a wrister on net. Nino Niederreiter managed to tip the puck and just like that, the Wild had rallied yet again in Denver. The shootout brought goals from Zach Parise & Mikko Koivu, Josh Harding stopped P.A. Parenteau & Ryan O'Reilly, and the Wild wrapped up the week with two points in the bank.
Wild Player Of The Game: Ryan Suter - Suter had the primary assist on Nino Niederreiter's game-tying goal, but that's not why he's getting the award. The Wild played three games in four nights, all on the road. The first two nights he had to square off against Ryan Getzlaf, Corey Perry, Joe Thornton, Logan Couture, & Patrick Marleau. As if that wasn't enough, Mike Yeo had him on the ice for 32:51 against Landeskog, McKinnon, & Ryan O'Reilly in the thin air of Denver. He & Broding kept all three of those guys off the scoresheet, Suter notched a helper, had three takeaways, and zero giveaways. In a season in which Yeo has leaned heavily on Suter, this performance in Denver has to rank among his best of the season.
Impression Of The Game: I firmly believe that the Wild are in the Avs' heads. It's a classic little brother/big brother situation, with the Avs getting better and better, but the big brother Wild still able to come out ahead in the end. Fun times.
So that's the week that was. The Wild came away with two out of a possible six points, but honestly, the two they got were the most important. Anaheim & San Jose will almost assuredly be in the top three in the Pacific. The Wild & Avs, however, appear destined to battle all season for either the three seed in the Central or one of the wild card spots. Every single point against those guys counts.
The Week Ahead
Tuesday 12/17: Vancouver at Wild
The Wild welcome their longest-running rival to the Xcel Center for a Tuesday night matchup that has nothing to do with nostalgia. With the Wild sitting in the 8th spot in the West and the Canucks in the 6th, this first-of-three meetings is not to be taken lightly.
Thursday 12/19: Wild at Pittsburgh
The Wild head to Pittsburgh on Thursday to face Sidney Crosby, Evgeni Malkin, and... it has to be mentioned, Pascal Dupuis and the rest of the Penguins. Saying the Pens are easily the class of the Metropolitan is a bit like singling out the most attractive Green Bay Packers fan.
Sunday 12/22: Wild at New York Rangers
The Wild head to the Big Apple to square off with the underachieving Rangers. I know it may be hard to believe, but a team that relies on Rick Nash, Henrik Lundqvist, & Brad Richards (and is coached by Alain Vigneault) is underachieving. Who could have seen this coming? (Cue every Rangers fan, Stars fan, Canucks fan, and, well, you'll just have to imagine a Blue Jackets fan).
The Big Picture
The West Coast is where Wild seasons go to die. Much like the gauntlet they were put through two weeks ago the Wild floundered when facing the cream of the Western Conference, but, yet again, they managed to salvage the week by sticking it to Colorado. The week played out in a very predictable fashion and, as such, has the Wild treading water (which is pretty much what all the pundits predicted for the team). Kick back and enjoy the three games this week. Win or lose, they're bound to be less predictable than the last three.
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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