Game #62: Minnesota Wild at Calgary Flames, Wednesday March 3, 2010 at 9:00pm (CST), Pengrowth Saddledome [GAME PREVIEW]

Welcome back hockey fans!

I don’t know about you, but after the Olympic break, today almost feels like the first regular game of the season, and it is October again.  However, that’s not the case and it’s now the race towards the playoffs.  And with the mention of the playoffs, both Wild and Flames fans are wondering if the playoffs will be part of the hockey experience this season.  Going into tonight, Calgary is sitting in the frustrating position of ninth place and Minnesota in thirteenth place.

For the Wild, it may feel if as if the fates are working against them.  Not only are they on the road, but in Calgary as well.  This season, the Wild are an abysmal 9-19-2 on the road, which has them tied for worst in the league with fellow Northwest Division rival, Edmonton.  However, Wild fans should probably not complain about their road schedule as the Vancouver Canucks are in the middle (albeit it was broken up by the Olympic break) of a league record, fourteen game road trip.  What also works against Minnesota’s favor, is that the first road game back would have to be against Calgary.  Yet, one could also say that it doesn’t really matter where the Wild and Flames meet.  All one has to do is look at Flames’ goaltender Miikka Kiprusoff’s 24-8-4 record against the Wild to know that things won’t be easy.  At the very least, Minnesota did win the last game at the Saddledome.

Today marks the official trade deadline.  In recent years, there has traditionally been a flurry of moves prior to the deadline.  This year feels rather sane and quiet.  Instead of moving players, the Wild locked up at least two players.  Yesterday, the Wild announced that it had reached a 3-year, $12 million deal with defenseman, Marek Zidlicky.  Since the Wild traded Kim Johnsson to Chicago, Zidlicky has in a sense taken over as leader of his fellow defensemen.  Of course, if Brent Burns gets back to form and becomes the defensemen he was meant to be, I’m sure Zidlicky would gladly give up that leadership role.  Looking towards the future of the Wild’s blueline, they also reached an agreement with young defenseman, Clayton Stoner. The agreement is a two-year deal worth $1.1 million.  However, it should be pointed out that the second year of the deal is a two-way deal, which means that he could still see some time in Houston with the Aeros of the American Hockey League.  If you’re wondering where Stoner is these days, he was placed on injured reserve in order to rehab after a sports hernia surgery.  Wild General Manager, Chuck Fletcher has said that unless a “deal that is too good to pass up” comes across his desk, Owen Nolan will remain in a Wild sweater.

Returning to action tonight for Minnesota is Chuck Kobasew.  He has been out of action since December 26th when he sprained both is ACL and MCL.  In the twenty-seven games he played this season, Kobasew has tallied four goals and five assists.  Like Martin Havlat he struggled to find his place on this team.  It seemed that just as Kobasew found his identity, he like Havlat, got injured.  Havlat finally found his scoring touch post-injury so it can only be hoped that Kobasew can find his as well.

So here we go, the final push.  The final countdown.  Regardless of where the Wild finish this season, it has at least been an interesting season.  However, I doubt it’s the kind of “interesting” any of us wanted.  And as the old sports cliche goes, there’s always next season.