Well hello again, Wild fans! Welcome to Your Name Is Wild: Week #18!
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?
First things first, let me apologize for the delayed post. The Wild opened the week in the middle of a Western Conference road trip before heading home to wrap up the pre-Olympic part of their schedule with a couple of home games. Technically I should have written a column before those two home games, but two things kept me from doing so:
1. This road trip was essentially a success, but it was bound to be reframed depending on the outcome of those two home games.
For example: The Wild lost in Colorado and lost in OT in Calgary, meaning they gained 1 out of 4 points. Had they returned home and dropped the ball against Tampa & Nashville, they would suddenly have gained only 1 of 8 points and I'd be sitting here writing their obituary for at least the third time this season.
However, that's not how those home games played out. The Wild won both of those games, so suddenly that four game stretch reads as 5 out of a possible 8 points. Frankly, I just wanted to see how the whole pre-Olympic schedule played out before digging too deeply into things.
2. I get very tired. I'm a sleepy, sleepy guy. In the blogosphere you get what you pay for.
Anyway, let's set the stage:
The Wild opened the week jostling with Vancouver & Phoenix for one of the two wild card spots. They'd just managed to steal a point out San Jose despite playing only 25 minutes of solid hockey. Three games remaining on the roadie, then two at home. Since we've got five games to cover I'm going to try to be a little more brief than usual.
Let's break this thing down.
The Week That Was
Tuesday 1/29 - Wild: 4 Anaheim: 2
During this game FSN flashed a graphic of the record between these two teams over the last three years. Much to my surprise, they had basically split three seasons worth of games. I was surprised by that stat because it seems like the Ducks have had the Wild's number for years now. The Honda Center, in my mind, has been a house of horrors for years now. Considering the Ducks had only lost once at home this season, it's safe to say that I had low expectations coming into this one.
Well, as has been proven literally dozens of times over the years, I couldn't have been wronger.
The Wild reversed a month long trend of slow starts by coming out with guns blazing. They fired 11 shots at Jonas Hiller during the opening frame, striking gold nearly 8 minutes into the game when Jason Pominville banked a shot off Hiller's back and into the net. Unfortunately, they allowed 11 shots by the Ducks as well. Dustin "Pancakes" Penner tied the game in the period's waning minutes.
The second period found the Wild firing 11 more shots on goal. This time, however, they held the Ducks to just four shots on goal. Mikael Granlund continued his impressive stretch of play by netting his fourth of the season on PP just 13 seconds into the period.
For three years now the Wild has struggled to play with the lead in third period. Tuesday's game told the same story (they allowed 18 shots on goal to the desperate Ducks), but didn't break. Rather, they thrived. Zach Parise netted the eventual game-winner when he somehow managed to tip a Marco Scandella shot from the point. Erik Haula added his second career goal just two minutes later to stake the Wild to a three goal lead. Two minutes later (with Mike Rupp serving a double minor), the Ducks forward Mathieu Perrault cut the lead to two, but that would be all the scoring on the night.
Wild Player Of The Game: Zach Parise - When Parise returned to the lineup in St. Paul last Thursday, it was a boon to the Wild. With Parise on the ice, opposing coach's are forced to dispatch their top defensive pairing against whatever line he's playing with. In the previous two games, Parise has shown a little bit of rust, but he returned to his former heights on Tuesday. Mike Yeo reconfigured his first line (or was it second line?) by teaming Parise with Jason Pominville & Mikael Granlund. That line combined for three goals & three assists, with Parise netting a goal & two helpers himself.
Impression Of The Game: Last year's Ducks team succeeded during the lockout-shortened season despite peripheral statistics that said they weren't as good as their record. This year, the Ducks have continued to thrive as well as well as tightening up their possession issues. To put it bluntly, this Ducks squad is really good. Fortunately for the Wild, they spent the weekend at Dodger Stadium as part of the NHL's Stadium Series. They seemed unfocused (at least for the first two periods), which can probably be attributed to spending the weekend dealing with all the extra-curriculars that come with participating in an outdoor game in Southern California. Frankly, the Wild caught a very good team at the right time. At the end of the day, though, these two points count just like all the rest in the standings.
Thursday 1/31 - Colorado: 5 Wild: 4
The Wild rolled into Denver Thursday night having taken 3 of 4 possible points on the first half of this road trip. Any roadie that consists of games in San Jose & Anaheim comes with the lowest of expectations, but here they were, back in the Pepsi Center playing with house money.
I've come to accept the fact that this year's version of the Avalanche is not an overachieving team. Rather, this is a young, well-constructed team that is finally coming into its own after a half a decade spent wandering in the wilderness. They're big, strong, young, fast, talented, and have avoided prosecution on all of their arrests. They've got a lot of things going for them.
This year, they've been the thorn in the Wild's side. Even the most optimistic of pundits figured this Avs team would be fighting it out with the Wild, Yotes, & Stars for one of the wild card berths. Instead, they've managed to maintain a firm grasp on the three seed in the Central mainly by beating the Wild, their lone competition for that spot. The Wild entered this game trailing the Avs by eight points, a significant difference that seems even larger when you remember that the Avs have gained 7 of 8 possible points in the four games the two teams have played this season.
Unfortunately for the Wild, Thursday's game (the last of the season between the two teams) proved to be just another example of the Wild won't have Colorado to kick around anymore.
The two teams played to a draw in the first period, with Ryan O'Reilly & Zach Parise trading goals within the first ten minutes. In the second period, however, the wheels came off for the Wild. John Mitchell & Paul Stastny both scored early to stake the Avs to a 3-1 lead. The kicker, however, came at the 15:26 mark of the period. Darcy Kuemper, doing his best to hold back the tide, stopped another Mitchell wrister, but left the rebound in the slot. Fortunately, Kyle Brodziak was there... well, maybe unfortunately, Kyle Brodziak was there... Brodziak's status as "whipping boy" reached it peak on this play when he hesitated to clear the puck, allowing Maxime Talbot to take a swing at his stick. Talbot guided the puck into the net off of Brodziak's stick. Kuemper was pulled for his own sake. Shame was felt by all.
Blogger confession time: I missed the third period. I was out with my folks and, considering the three-goal deficit, terrible play, and fact that we all had to be up by 5:15 the next morning, we packed it in. With Backstrom in net the Wild managed to rally to make it 4-2, 4-3, & 5-3 before eventually falling short at 5-4. All three goals in the period were scored the new line of Granlund, Pominville, & Parise, with each getting one. Unfortunately, it wasn't enough.
Wild Player Of The Game: Zach Parise - I'm loathe to give the award out to the same player in consecutive games, but when you put up four points in a loss you're probably going to be WPOTG. That's seven points in two games for Parise and that wasn't even the highlight of his week. When the Wild arrived in Calgary to wrap up this roadie it was announced that Parise will captain Team USA in Sochi. Nothing but whole milk in that dressing room!
Impression Of The Game: I dislike the Avalanche for reasons that go well beyond their on-ice product. Their building is a dump, their sweaters are embarrassing, their fans are the definition of "fairweather..." the list goes on and on. Watching them repeatedly kick the shit out of the Wild has been the biggest blemish on what's been a pretty fun ride this season. I can't wait until the Blues or Blackhawks dismantle these guys in the playoffs.
Saturday 2/1 - Calgary: 4 Wild: 3 (OT)
When looking over this road trip last week it was easy to think, "OK San Jose: loss, Anaheim: loss, Colorado: win? maybe..." and then wrap it all up by thinking, "well at least it finishes in Calgary. That's probably a win."
For better and worse, that's not how this roadie was going to play out. Yes, they cashed in on points early. No, they didn't get a W in Denver. And, OH GOD!, the Flames have won four in a row in the Saddledome and now the Wild are limping into town having just been thoroughly relegated to the "wild card" discussion.
Saturday night the Wild saw both sides of the Flames. They found themselves down 1-0 after a first period in which the Flames crashed into each other, dumped the puck off teammates backs, watched their goalie just up and fall down, and generally played like the Bad News Bears. They also held the Wild to just 6 shots on goal and drew first blood when T.J. Galiardi abused both Jonas Brodin & Darcy Kuemper for an ultra-sexy backhand goal. What the hell?
The Wild tied the game 1-1 in the second period when Matt Cooke absolutely lasered a slapshot over Reto Berra's shoulder.
Unfortunately, the Flames bookended the second intermission with two more tallies. Dennis Wideman (Dennis Wideman!) regained the lead for the Flames by netting a goal with just more than 90 seconds left in the period. Flames forward Lance Bouman took a penalty just 0:19 into the third, giving the Wild an opportunity to tie the game back up. Instead, they ceded a shorthanded goal to Mikael Backlund, extending the lead to 3-1 with 19 minutes to go.
At this point, the Wild put their foot back on the accelerator. They outshot the Flames 12-3 over the course of third period. Dany Heatley & Keith Ballard each netted goals to force OT and guarantee the Wild a point. That second point would prove elusive, however, as Mikael Backlund netted his second of the game just 2:25 into bonus hockey, giving the Flames a perfect homestand and sending the Wild back to St. Paul on a low note.
Wild Player Of The Game: Matt Cooke - One of the tried and true methods of squeezing success from a talent-deficient hockey team is to have them play up their grit & muscle. Flames coach Bob Hartley has done an admirable job of coaching up his Flames squad to do just that. On Saturday night they decided to pick the lowest hanging fruit by directing a good amount of that energy toward fucking with Matt Cooke. Now, as this year has played out, it's become clear that the version of Matt Cooke that the Wild signed during the offseason has been neutered. He may have cleaned up his game on the ice, but rather than removing merely the physical aspect of his game, Cooke's removed a good chunk of his on-ice banter. Most nights he's an effective third-liner and excellent penalty killer. That's fine, I suppose, but when he lit up Reto Berra with that slapper in the second period, it wasn't hard to draw the line from him launching that puck back to the Flames taking digs at him during the first period. Take it from somebody who knows, Matt Cooke lives a revenge-based lifestyle. Here's hoping more teams decide to poke the bear.
Impression Of The Game: I watched this game with my buddy Phil and numerous times over the course of the game we found ourselves cracking up over the ineptitude of the Flames. There were points during this game when I wouldn't have trusted that team to get to the dressing room without somebody falling down in the tunnel. And yet, they deserved the two points they took from this game.
So, that's the end of the road trip. The Wild took four of eight points in the least expected manner. They proved their mettle against the best of the Pacific Division, got beat by their Central rivals, and left a point on the table in Calgary. As I've said many times before, if the Wild can go .500 on the road, they're doing just fine. Go back an extra game (to the Blackhawks visit last Thursday, a Wild victory), and the Wild have taken 6 of the last 10 possible points. Two home games left before the Olympic break. Let's go!
Tuesday 2/4 - Wild: 2 Tampa Bay: 1
As you may have noticed, there's one recurring character that I've yet to touch on in this week's column.
Young goaltending phenom Darcy Kuemper hasn't turned up much in this column because, frankly, he hasn't played a major role. He was very good in Anaheim, but had forgettable games in Denver & Calgary. Yet here he was, starting again, against the high-powered Lightning. Head Coach Mike Yeo claimed that starting Kuemper after two rough outings would be, "a huge growing moment" for young goaltender.
(Of course, it's since been revealed that Niklas Backstrom injured his abdominal muscles in Calgary, meaning that Yeo had no other viable option in net. But sure, roll with that "growing moment" bullshit.)
Kuemper stepped up yet again on Tuesday night, ultimately stopping 34 of the 35 shots he faced. The star of the show, however, was Jared Spurgeon. Making his return to the ice after missing a month with a foot injury, Spurgeon showed just why he's unique among Wild defensemen.
On the Wild's first goal, Spurgeon returned to his usual spot on the point with the second power play unit. He fired a puck on net that was tipped by Nino Niederreiter, getting the Wild on the board with just 4:00 left in the first period, essentially assuring the Wild would take the first frame and be in the driver's seat for the second.
The two teams combined to play an absolutely useless period of hockey during the second, but picked up the pace for the third. The Wild doubled their lead to 2-0 just 0:34 into the period. Spurgeon did a great job pinching in and maintaining puck control. He slid the puck to the top of the crease where Dany Heatley gave Bolts defender Radko Gudas an "Ole!" that would have made a matador proud. Heater tapped the puck past Ben Bishop for the goal.
Unfortunately, Mike Yeo decided it would be a good idea to go into a defensive posture with 18:26 remaining in the period. The Wild were then outshot 13-4 and gave up a goal to Valtteri Filppula, but Kuemper (with some goal line help from Ryan Suter) managed to hold down the fort long enough for the W. Two more points in the bank.
Wild Player Of The Game: Jared Spurgeon - Spurgeon took his time healing from this foot injury, but patience paid off Tuesday night. He looked like Spurgeon 2.0 out there, playing confidently with the puck and soundly without it, racking up two apples in the process. Not only did he perform well, but he did so with more minutes than expected after Marco Scandella left the game just three minutes in. I was in favor of just sitting him through the Olympic break, but clearly Spurgeon is ready to go.
Impression Of The Game: As I mentioned at the top of this column, I waited to get to these two games because they were bound to reframe the road trip. Well, here we are. With these two points, suddenly the Wild have gained 8 out of 12 points while going .500 on the road and staying unbeaten at home. That's a fine stretch. One game left before the break.
Thursday 2/6 - Wild: 3 Nashville: 2 (OT)
Of course the last game before the Olympic break would be against the resurgent Predators. The Wild and Preds have a long history of playing bizarro games against each other. Thursday's game would prove to be pretty run-of-the-mill, but that doesn't mean it wasn't another chapter in the long, strange, shared history of these two franchises.
During the morning skate, longtime Preds play by play man Pete Weber suffered a heart attack at the Xcel Energy Center. He was brought to a local hospital and has since made a full recovery. Strange, right? Well, hold on.
During that same morning skate, Preds GM Dave Poile (who is also the GM of Team USA) was standing in the tunnel at ice level when an errant puck ricocheted over the boards and caught him right above the eye. Poile too was rushed to a local hospital where he had two surgeries on the injury. Getting hit in the eye with a puck would suck anytime, but getting hit in the eye with a puck, catching a major shiner, and missing your flight to Sochi (where your heavily damaged face is about to be shown during every Team USA game), that's a a tough day.
Oh, right, the two teams played a game too. The Wild started hot, with Nino Niederreiter finding Jonas Brodin open in the slot just 4:05 into the game. Brodin fired the puck past Carter Hutton. The Preds answered just over a minute later when Craig Smith beat Darcy Kuemper with a wrister. The Wild regained the lead at the 13:27 mark of the period when Zach Parise buried a PP goal.
The Wild continued their solid play in the second, limiting the Preds to just three shots while firing nine of their own at Hutton. Unfortunately, none of those nine shots found their way past the Preds netminder, while one of the Preds three shots (another wrister from Craig Smith) managed to get by Kuemper. 2-2 at the end of the second.
The Wild played the third period like they had no desire to go to overtime, but rather wanted to get on with their Olympic vacation. They fired 15 shots at Hutton while carrying play for the duration of the third. Hutton was up to the task, as was his counterpart Kuemper, who stopped 6 shots of his own. On to OT.
OT would provide one last memorable goal to hold Wild fans over until the season resumes in a few weeks. When Shea Weber's stick broke attempting a shot, Kyle Brodziak was able to push the puck out to center ice. There, it was scooped up by Nino Niederreiter, who managed to work his way past fellow Swiss Olympian (and good friend) Roman Josi before firing a puck past a surprised Carter Hutton. Two more points in the bank and we're off to the break!
Wild Player Of The Game: Nino Niederreiter - One of my big hopes for these Olympics is that Niederreiter & Granlund will both head over to Sochi, play well, and come back to St. Paul with an, "I'm as good as anyone" swagger to them. After watching the game Nino put together Thursday night, I may have underestimated his confidence.
Impression Of The Game: The Wild wrapped up a productive week in dramatic fashion. The Preds are not what you would call a "good" hockey team, but they certainly aren't a bad one. More importantly, games like this one are just the type of games they build seasons around winning. It may not look difficult in hindsight, but this was a tough, impressive win for the Wild.
The Big Picture
So just like that, the Wild head to the Olympic break. They managed to take 10 out of 14 possible points over the last two weeks. They find themselves 10 points behind Colorado for the third place spot in the Central Division with 23 games to play. That dream is dead and gone.
On a positive note, however, the Wild are now holding down the first wild card berth with 69 points. That puts them five points up on Dallas & Phoenix (currently tied for the second wild card berth), six points up on Vancouver, seven up on Winnipeg, and nine up on Nashville.
Now, that's not to say the Wild have their playoff berth locked up. The way this teams has collapsed the last couple of years, nothing is a given. However, we're definitely to the point where those five teams that I just mentioned are focusing on each other. Those teams aren't going to catch the Wild unless the Wild start playing down to their level. Considering the Wild should enter this home stretch with Mikko Koivu back in the lineup and, barring any injuries in Sochi (hold on, I need to knock on every piece of wood in my apartment), the Wild should be ready to roll with a full complement of players when the season returns.
Which, not coincidentally, is when I'll return. I'm taking the next two weeks off! I might even have myself a cappuccino, fuck it! USA! USA! USA!
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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