Do you remember the old kids song, The Cat Came Back? “Old Mr. Johnson had problems of his own, he had a yellow cat that wouldn’t leave him alone, he tried and he tried to give the cat away, he gave it to a little man going far away, but the cat came back the very next day” which reminds me a lot of Minnesota’s issues with consistency of effort. Whenever the team seems to get over its problems, then those issues return and the team struggles its way through a losing streak. The struggle now is of course at the worst time and threatens to put Minnesota out of the playoffs. A woeful effort last night in Nashville saw Minnesota fall 4-0 to the Predators who leapfrogged the Wild in the standings. It is as though the the team has just been teasing us; being almost good enough but not quite. Yet as I think about it most Wild fans felt this is about where the Wild would be. No one predicted Minnesota to be the worst in the Western Conference, but not good enough to be in the playoff picture so in essence that “cat” seems to have returned as well. Can Minnesota prove everyone wrong and scratch and claw their way back into the post-season? Its possible, but Minnesota is going to have to reverse its fortunes in a hurry.
The Wild travel to Dallas, who decided not to move coveted center Brad Richards at the trade deadline and instead made a pre-deadline deal with Pittsburgh for Alex Goligoski by giving up promising youngster James Neal and Matt Niskanen. Minnesota have a miserable record in Dallas, and the Wild must look at nearly every game as a must-win, as they feel compelled to do so during regulation so as not to surrender any extra points to its competitors. That might be asking a lot for a team that has struggled considerably without captain Mikko Koivu in the lineup and not having Cal Clutterbuck deprives the team of some much-needed grit. The Wild are hoping the ‘Cap’ or even the ‘Cal’ comes back so they can get back to their winning ways. Will the Stars keep Minnesota’s slide going or will the team answer back from a poor effort the night before?
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1st Period Thoughts: The period had a really strange start with both teams trading penalties in the opening few minutes. Minnesota had the first power play thanks to a high stick by Jamie Benn. The Wild’s power play was reasonably effective at moving the puck and then trying to put shots on goal hoping for a lucky bounce. The team was moving the puck quickly but still too many players were looking to pass and not enough shots were being fired on Kari Lehtonen. The Wild were making their mistakes too, as the team would be tagged two times for ‘too many men on the ice’ penalties. One of those even came on the power play which simply cannot happen. Its another example of a general lack of mental focus. The Wild’s penalty kill would have to stand tall with these penalties and luckily for Minnesota they were able to keep Dallas to the perimeter and force them to settle for shots from the point. Minnesota had a great potential opportunity in what looked like a 3-on-1 between Kyle Brodziak, Martin Havlat and Pierre-Marc Bouchard and Brodziak would race into the Stars’ zone before dropping a pass back towards Havlat that missed by a few feet and this sent the Stars in a two on one of their own. Luckily for the Wild, Jose Theodore was sharp and he fought off a dangerous shot by Loui Eriksson. A few moments later it was Warren Peters taking the initiative to go on the attack as he raced up the ice in a 2-on-1 with Chuck Kobasew by Jeff Woywitka guarded against a cross ice pass so Peters took his best chance as he flung a backhander wide of the Stars goal. Both teams had lots of speed and were moving well trading rushes, overall the period would fly by. Unfortunately it was Jamie Benn flying on by Eric Nystrom off the rush and he beat Jose Theodore with a wicked backhander to put Dallas up 1-0. The goal seemed to stun the Wild a bit, but after a few indifferent minutes the Wild got their legs going again and began to press for the equalizer. The Wild nearly tied the game back up on a broken play that saw Marek Zidlicky set up all alone due to a bad turnover by the Stars in its own zone where he unleashed a wrist shot that was directed wide by Lehtonen. Minnesota had a great chance late as Brent Burns ripped a shot on goal that Lehtonen knocked down but was unable to cover before it was swept towards the boards by Niklas Grossman. It wasn’t that bad of a period effort-wise, but they need to try to take more shots and hope for something lucky to get their momentum back.
2nd Period Thoughts: Minnesota really would start to pour on the pressure, with some of its best pure puck possession that they’ve had all season. The Wild’s pressure started with a long-range wrist shot by Matt Cullen that hit the crossbar. At times it looked like the Wild were on the power play as they’d have an outstanding shift where Andrew Brunette, Martin Havlat and John Madden cycled the puck very well down low where Havlat nearly managed to wrap a backhander around a sprawling Lehtonen before he was hooked by Stephane Robidas. The Wild continued to attack as John Madden stepped around a Stars’ defender before threading a pass towards the goal that was smacked at by Brunette before Lehtonen pounced on the loose biscuit. Minnesota was having just about everything go its own way. Even when Dallas had some scoring chances they were getting lucky as a quick shot by Brendan Morrow would hit the shoulder of Theodore and then off the crossbar. Little did anyone know this was when the wheels were going to come off in this game. The Stars tried to counter attack with some good cycling pressure of their own and it was Dallas defenseman Trevor Daley turning and throwing a puck towards the Wild crease that Kyle Brodziak attempted to intercept and the puck would go off his stick and over the shoulder of Backstrom to put Minnesota down 2-0. The pain wasn’t going to end there as just about a minute later the Stars struck again as Loui Eriksson dropped off a puck to Tom Wandell who turned near the top of the right faceoff circle before pulling the trigger on a wrister that went through the legs of Matt Cullen and surprised Jose Theodore as the puck flew underneath his arm into the back of the net to put Dallas up 3-0. The game was spiraling out of control in a hurry, and just 18 seconds later they’d light the lamp again with a poor decision by Matt Cullen to attempt a weak backhand pass from beneath the Wild goal line out towards the crease to no one other than the Stars’ Mike Ribeiro who ripped a shot by Theodore to give the home team a 4-0 lead. The Wild were all but out of it and Dallas nearly added another goal when Jamie Benn raced in on a breakaway only to be denied by a nice save by Theodore. Minnesota would head to the locker room, trailing by 4 and the look on Wild Head Coach Todd Richards face (completely demoralized) said it all. What an ugly end to a period and stick a fork in the Wild because they’re done. It just goes to show you the difference in talent and taking advantage of your opportunities as Dallas was making theirs count while Minnesota was coming up empty. Some terrible mental errors late. Very painful.
3rd Period Thoughts: The 3rd period looked as though the Wild were going through the motions, with the lone hope of avoiding any further embarrassment. The Stars continued to dictate the pace of play while the Wild just played rope-a-dope. Latendresse is now hurt and didn’t play which may not be a bad thing because his lack of speed and acceleration was starting to bother me. Minnesota was working hard but they just didn’t have the ability to mount much of an offensive attack. I really tried not to watch, the team just dug themselves in too deep.
Jose Theodore wasn’t his best, but he didn’t get much help at all either. Poor turnovers put Theodore out to dry on a few occasions. He did make some big saves at times to keep Minnesota in the game but it just wasn’t enough to counteract the fact the Wild had no offense whatsoever. Defensively I thought we looked as though we had 4 defenseman in the lineup. Too passive and not physical enough; another game where we really missed having Clayton Stoner in my opinion.
Offensively the Wild had some good moments but early on they were too picky with their shots, but found themselves shutout for the 2nd straight game. 14 shots on goal, and 19 in the game against Nashville simply not going to get it done. SHOOT THE PUCK!!! Yes Dallas was dropping and blocking shots but that means you have to pull the trigger that much more. This team isn’t good enough to be fancy. It needs to look to create an ugly goal and then they can try to be pretty. Even on the great cycling shift, the Wild didn’t register a shot and that was indicative of the whole game.
Minnesota has virtually fallen out of the playoff hunt. Minnesota have two more games left in this road trip and no matter how optimistic you are its tough to look at the team’s current trajectory and say you’re hopeful. I know I’m not.
Wild Notes:
~ Wild roster tonight is as follows: Antti Miettinen, Andrew Brunette, John Madden, Matt Cullen, Kyle Brodziak, Chuck Kobasew, Brad Staubitz, Warren Peters, Guillaume Latendresse, Pierre-Marc Bouchard, Martin Havlat, Jared Spurgeon, Marco Scandella, Greg Zanon, Nick Schultz, Marek Zidlicky and Brent Burns. Niklas Backstrom backed up Jose Theodore. Clayton Stoner, Cal Clutterbuck and Cam Barker were the healthy scratches. Josh Harding (knee), James Sheppard (knee) and Mikko Koivu (broken finger) are still on injured reserve.
~ The 3 Stars of the Game were: 1st Star Kari Lehtonen, 2nd Star Mike Ribeiro, 3rd Star Jamie Benn
~ Attendance at tonight’s game was 14,545 at American Airlines Arena.
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