West Coast Wrap Up

Wild 2, Kings 4      Wild 3,  Ducks 2

Wild Remain in 6th Place 

Late Games Suck
Everybody who knows me knows what I think of the Wild being lumped in with the California time zone teams.  So I won't spend a whole lot of time whining about having to stay up past midnight on a weeknight in order to watch my team - win or lose.  I mean, it's not really the league's fault that Blogger doesn't publish posts until after midnight.  Sometimes, depending on how much longer after midnight it gets to be while I'm writing, my posts will sit until the next 24 hour cycle.  That means unless I'm blogging while watching the game it can take up to 2 days before you all are treated to my rantings.  And then it's kinda like, why bother? 
**Note to self - check out hosting a web site.  That may be the ticket to instant publishing?  Any of you technogeekyinternetsuperhero types out there with some advice for me?

Wild vs Kings
The Wild took on the Kings and gave them a run for their money, for the most part.  Driving Miss Daisy kept popping up in my head while watching this game and it's because I kept screaming for the boys to be Driving The Net.  They tried, but not as much or successfully as the Kings did.  For me this game felt a lot like watching the Wings game last Sunday.  The Wings are very aggressive on their forecheck and don't like to give their opponents a lot of room once across their own blue line.  They also drive to the net like maniacs, believing that every shot on goal has the potential to go in. 
That's how the Kings played us and it paid off in the end.  I'm not saying our guys didn't try to do the same thing.  I'm saying our guys just didn't do it for all three periods, losing big time in the faceoff department.  I'm not saying our guys didn't play their hearts out for three periods.  I'm saying our guys, minus Koivu and Brodziak, just didn't have what it took to dethrone the Kings - who were wearing their royal purple throw back jerseys.  I'm sorry, but I swear those jerseys were blue, not purple.  I kept thinking we were in St. Louis.

Taking A Licking and Still Ticking...For Now
The Wild centers appear to be falling apart like a cheap watch.  

• Koivu's out with a broken finger. 
• Brodziak's got the plague, according to Russo's blog.  Just stay home and keep your germs to yourself Kyle, please. 
• Cody Almond played in L.A. and is now out with a lower body, er - let's go with mid body, wait - make that upper body injury.  Russo and the Wild's web site are at odds on the actual location of said injury but Cody is also out of the lineup.  
• John Madden got checked into the bench (pause for Paula's tsk-tsking me about this) during the Kings game and played hurt the rest of the game against the Kings.     

Up and Down
Houston Aeros center Warren Peters was called up to replace Cody.  For those of you wondering if our GM is frantically making calls to get a healthy and raring-to-go center by Monday's trade deadline - probably not.  Russo explains there's not much out there to choose from without making a negative impact on the salary cap.  That doesn't mean something's not brewing but chances are we'll go with what we've got and pray for miracle-type healing along with stellar effort from our rookies. 
Wild and Russo stating Nate Prosser was sent back down to make room for Warren Peters to come up.  That's a good enough reason for this time around.  Sorry, hometown boy fanatics but I'm of the opinion that Nate's not ready for the NHL.  I understand that defensemen take longer to develop and I really believe that Nate needs more time to do just that - in the AHL.  Why have him up here just to be scratched after one game when he could be logging ice time in Houston?       

It's now just a couple of hours before the Ducks game and so far nobody else has fallen to a flu bug or a new injury so I'm hopeful the remaining players are ready to go.  Note to Wild training staff: please carry Matt Cullen into the arena and carefully place him before his stall in the locker room.  

Wild vs Ducks
I hate Corey Perry.  He's a thug.  He's a skilled thug, but a thug nonetheless.  And he's just plain old stoopid.  I mean really, what the hell was he thinking when he skated across the rink to commit a charging penalty while his team is on the powerplay?  IDIOT.  I also hate Ruutu, but who doesn't?       

That first powerplay had me hyperventilating over how UNDERWHELMING the Wild were with the man advantage.  I don't know why I'm not used to that from our guys, but I'm not.  Seemed to me there were three shorthanded drives to the Wild net the Ducks made over the course of two minutes while killing a boarding penalty.  Good thing Jose wasn't showing any signs of rust.  The remaining Wild powerplays weren't any better.     
  
Faceoffs were an issue for the second straight game and here's where we're really missing Koivu and Brodziak.  Good thing Kyle's feeling better and is expected to be ready to go for Monday's game at home against the Blackhawks.

Penalties were an issue for the Wild in this game.  There are some professional divers on the Ducks but mostly the Wild were a step behind, having been caught flatfooted or they were turning pucks over and running to catch up.  I'm guessing Ortmeyer is in the doghouse - while he's on his way back to Houston.   

With every point being so important in the Western Conference right now was it any surprise the Ducks were taking cheap shots on every shift? 

• Pierre Marc Bouchard  (Bob Kurtz Calls The PMB Play) will be the number 1 player of the game for the winning goal in overtime but...
• Jose Theodore was clearly The Man Of The Game.   
• Cullen and Madden - making plays happen no matter how they're being pressured.  I'm still not a huge Madden fan but he's working his way off of my 'Why'd We Sign Him?' list.  At least he's starting to score goals.
• Miettinen finally stepping up his game, getting three assists tonight.
• Good for Clayton Stoner, getting his second goal of the season. 
• Not the best game from the Wild but this was a great showing for the second night in a back to back game schedule.   
• I want to give out hugs and kisses to the Wild Blue Line but when they let Jose face 45 God Damn shots in regulation I just can't.  I know they threw themselves in front of pucks, threw themselves at the Ducks, threw themselves into the net behind Jose.  But it's absolutely unacceptable for them to hang their goalie out like that.  

 This and That

• Great article by Russo here: Ortmeyer and his personal journey to live the dream.  
• Russo indicated via twitter that chances are 'good' regarding a Kobasew trade.  Not surprising, in my opinion.  Yes, he played well tonight but it probably was due to having multiple NHL scouts in attendance.  

 

Big Night For Oiler Natives, Former Oiler Players, Schoolers of Khabibulin

WILD 4 - OILERS 1

SPURGE!!
What a great night for Jared; finally getting his first NHL goal, doing it in front of the Wild fans, doing it to his actual hometown team.  Spurge, my nickname for the little guy-which seems to have stuck according to the three texts I got from folks when he scored, is from Edmonton.  Very apropos and not at like what Bertuzzi did to us on Sunday, despite what Todd would have us believe.

Kyle Kicks Butt
Brodziak scored the winning goal, his 13th of the season, against his former team.  That's gotta feel good, huh?  

Class Is In Session
Pierre -Marc-Bouchard executed his spin-o-rama move to score the 4th goal, successfully making a fool out of Kabibulin's for the second time in his career.  The last time PMB laid that move on the Bulin Wall was when he was goaltending for Chicage and it was during a shootout. 

This wasn't the prettiest of games and there were an awful lot of stupid puck turnovers (Bouchard, Miettinen) and bad passes (Burns, Spurgeon) much like in the Detroit game, but our guys pulled together and figured out what they had to do.  Backstrom had at least three monster saves again tonight in addition to standing on his head, as usual.  And if he's going to give a goal up it might as well be from our good friend and forever honorable-Wild-team-member, Kurtis Foster.  This was a must win game, not only from a playoff berth standing, but as a means of recovery from the Detroit game on Sunday.  It took the guys until the third period to figure out how to play hockey but once they picked up on it they never looked back.

Chicks vs Guys
 It was the Dagget women plus myself in our upper level seats tonight while those Dagget guys sat in the lower level.  We girls had much more fun and had a better perspective on the game.  Here's how much of a hockey mom Paula is - she's busy talking defensive moves with Alex during the game, just like Dave does.  You can't tell me this game isn't in her blood just as much as her kids! 

Video Judge/Replay Booth Tour
Dave was kind enough to invite me along for a one-on-one tour of the video judge booth and replay booth after the game.  Dave refs with one of the judges and we got a nice tour of the press box, Fox Sports North Stage in addition to getting some great insight into how these guys do their jobs.  I'll share the pictures and how ga-ga we all were over the replay process in the next day or two.

Coach's Day!
The most important thing about tonight's game is that it was Coach Dave's birthday.  This guy is all about the hockey; coaching, reffing, hockey dad, fundraiser, shuttlebus driver, mentor.  And where does he spend his birthday?  At the arena with his family watching the Wild win.

Show And Tell

In a perfect world my photoshop elements software would actually synch up with my photoshop.com account like it's supposed to and sharing pictures here wouldn't be so much of a monumental pain in my ass.  I did come up with a way to get a couple of shared albums out there for you all to see so for the time being I'm a happy camper.  I'm sure once the good folks at the Adobe Help Desk call me they'll be able to point out what it is I'm doing wrong and make me feel like the idiot I am.  

Why Am I Here?
I'm a big believer in God's reasoning behind everything that happens in life, even the craptastic stuff.  There's a reason why I haven't left Minnesota just yet, and it really comes down to not being ready to say goodbye to my hockey team just yet.  There are those loved ones in my life, in any number of states, who think I'm completely off my rocker for having decided to stay put this last 18 months.  They don't understand the amount of comfort I've found over the last ten years being a part of growing a franchise from the ground up as a season ticket holder and as a passionate hockey fan.  Any given night at the arena, win or lose, it's my place of zen and peace.  Yes, there's an awful lot of screaming and yelling during the games, which doesn't seem very peaceful or zenlike on the outside.  But when everything around me was crumbling to pieces and I had no control over it, there was hockey at the X to get me back to my center.  Once I park the truck and fall in line with fellow Wild fans walking into the arena I'm always well on my way to being healed.  

When your evening with the Wild starts like this you gotta believe that being here is the right thing, for right now.       

Chalk Talk 2.20.11

On the loose in the arena and loving every minute of it!  Wandering around the belly of the X, watching as Nick Schultz and Chuck Kobasew make their way to the locker room before the game.  

Arena Tour and Rookie Roundup 2.12.11

I'll be back later with actual hockey stuff but now I'm off to tackle the driveway, for the third frigging time in 24 hours.  I'm really not going to miss this.  AT. ALL.