Return of Latendresse, HUGE Freakin' Win!

95 Points To Make Playoffs

Wild Total: 77 Points

Games Remaining: 15

Wins Needed: 10

First things first - another Chalk Talk session with Wes Walz tonight prior to the game.  Sally was along for this one and she got the full Wes Walz experience: from asking him a question to getting her picture taken with him to having her Wild sweatshirt signed by him.  All that and a really informative whiteboard session by Wes on how the Avs were expected to play and how the Wild needed to react.  The more of these I attend the more the lightbulb goes off in my head when I see how the guys line up for faceoffs and how they position themselves going up ice.  And the more I get to gaze at Wes with his salt-n-pepper hair and that melt-my-heart-smile and his utter candor when answering questions about himself or the team the richer I am for having experienced it.  

Game On!
Great first period by the Wild... I mean GREAT, as in Tony the Tiger!  Forechecking like mad men and applying pressure just like Wes said they needed to.  How freaking fabulous is it to have GLat back?!!!!  Love me some Latendresse hulking around the corners and taking up BIG space in front of the opposing team's net.  Gui put in 10 minutes worth of work in his first game back - I'd say he tested himself for sure.  How about the Wild scoring first for a change?  Talk about stoking the team up!  You could feel their energy all the way up in our seats, not just part way up - like to the club level where Vicki and Emily were sitting ;)   Having that 1-0 lead at the end of the first period earned the team cheers, hoots and hollers as they headed down the tunnel.  
Then came the second period and we watched as the Wild tried their very best - to implode upon themselves in typical Wild fashion.  The Avs tied the game on a sneaky goal that had to be reviewed in order to show it hit the in-net camera and bounced back out in a flash.  The Avs continued to outwork, outskate and outshoot the Wild and it paid off with the go ahead goal with four minutes left.  It looked like our guys were giving up.  Then, just when you really need him to, Bruno steps up and says that's enough of that crap - and scored the tying goal with three minutes left in the second.  There was a collective deep breath from the 18,000 plus fans and I'm sure the Wild players were doing the same thing on the bench - whew!    
The third period was glorious!  The guys got their act together during that second intermission and came out gunning for the win.  There were hard fought battles at both ends of the ice and it took until the 11 minute mark but John Madden buried a second or third rebound shot for the lead and the guys never looked back.  SPURGE! got his second NHL goal and his first 2 point game in the NHL (assist on the Bruno goal in the 2nd).  It's the little guys succeeding that make me so proud :)  Jared got himself the third star of the game for his effort tonight, and rightly so.  It took three tries in the last 2 minutes of the game but Kyle Brodziak finally potted the empty netter at 19:52 to make the final score 5-2.  Avs coach Sacco sent out his head hunter, Cody McLeod, with 3 seconds left in the game.  He heads straight for Zhidlicky and hits him up high in the shoulder AFTER the buzzer sounded for the end of the game.  McLeod got 2 minutes for roughing and 10 minute misconuct but I really think that Sacco should get fined.           

Side Note: Gui's new nickname going forward, compliments of Wes Walz: Diesel.  Wes spoke about getting Gui back into the game at this point and what some of the concerns are regarding his 'conditioning'.  Wes acknowledged that Gui is a big guy, compared to the 170 pound guys around him in the locker room.  He likened Gui to diesel engines, needing more time to come up to speed, due to their size.  I think he nailed it on the head.  Wes also said that at some point guys just need to get into the game in order to stop second guessing themselves about where they're at with conditioning and their confidence level.    

Hey Emily - hope your eye and cheek feel better soon!  Way to take one for the team ;)

Testament To Getting The Job Done:
Bruno - played sick tonight after being down for the count yesterday with the flu bug that's trying to make the rounds through the team.  Coach Richards said Bruno looked like crap after the game but said he wasn't surprised by Andrew's dedication to playing through it.  Bruno got the game tied up when we desperately needed to.       

Dave - look down, right underneath this sentence...see the word "comments" ?  Click on it!    

Numbers Game

95 Points To Make Playoffs

Wild Total: 75 Points

Games Remaining: 16

Wins Needed: 11

In the waning moments of this, the Wild's 10th anniversary in the NHL, the team finds itself having to play each remaining game like it's for the Cup - before ever getting into the the playoffs.  This is not unfamiliar territory for the team, in fact it seems to be their mode of operation.  The team's history and stats don't lie when it comes to seeing why they struggle to secure a playoff berth.  The Western Conference is tight and that's not just this year, it's every year.  Yet the Wild can't seem to figure this out, until it's way too late.  They're slow to pick up on the fact they've got to put in the effort night in and night out, for a FULL season, in order to clear the top 5 seeds in the Western Conference.  That's something the Wild just don't seem to be able to do, regardless of who the coach was, or is.  It has nothing to do with learning a particular style of hockey.  It has nothing to do with 'gelling' as a team.  It has to do with each and every player giving 100% of themselves, putting their very best effort out on the ice for every game.  It means coming to the arena ready to play your heart out, whether it's a road game or in front of the home crowd.  It means being able to say at the end of 99% of those 60 minute matches - we played the whole game and we played to win.

The Wild didn't play 60 minutes of hockey Sunday night.  The Wild didn't play good hockey Sunday night.  That pretty much sums it up.  Yes, the team rallied from a 2 - 0 Sabres lead to tie the game and send it into overtime.  Yes, one point is better than a total loss for the night's effort.  But there really wasn't an honest effort put forth by the Wild, was there?  It speaks volumes for where this team is at right now when a call-up player from Houston, Warren Peters, can put things into perspective so succinctly: "Moral victories, there's no room for those anymore, I don't think."


Nope, there's only room for 10 wins.

Russo tells it like it is regarding the Wild's standings and their lack of effort. 

Wild vs Hawks, Birthday Surprise!

*** Before anyone starts emailing me with Hobbit news - I already knew.  I follow Russo on Twitter.  I'll blog about it, and the other Wild moves, on Tuesday

Wild 2, Hawks 4

20 Minutes of Hockey Does Not a Hockey Game Make

Boy, where have you heard that before?  In classic Wild fashion, which I think we had all either blocked from our memories or at the very least hoped we'd never have to witness again, the Wild only showed up for one period of hockey tonight.  Granted, it was a fairly exciting period but it was not enough to put the guys back in the game.  Our guys were behind the Chicago players by a good step for every shift in the first.  They were missing passes, missing opportunities and generally just had the look of being out of it.  The Wild was booed, lightly, off the ice after the first period. 

Knowing how much the booing at home bothers Coach Richards, a Wild fan might expect that the team would come out with mucho gusto in the second in order to make it right.  One would think that, right?  Instead the Wild came out even flatter than in the first period.  They stunk.  They really stunk.  And I was in a funk.  A pretty big funk.  So much of a funk that when the team finally did make a drive to the net for a scoring chance I was yelling at them for going the wrong way...which they had been doing for almost 40 minutes up to that point.  Perhaps I was thinking we were still in the first period when Backstrom is in our end of the arena.  Perhaps the Wild's play was so bad up to that point that the 2 periods had just melded together for one bad dream sequence.  Perhaps I had a small stroke from yelling at the team for 40 minutes straight.  Perhaps it was the margarita I had for dinner before the game. Whatever the reason behind the Freudian slip, at least it was a comical highlight of the evening for the four of us and let's face it - the game wasn't going to provide any highlights worth cherishing afterwards.  I'm always game to be the reason for laughter among friends - if you can't laugh at yourself then you're not any fun to be around, right?  Too bad Vicki couldn't have caught Dave's expression as he was trying to figure if I had truly gone mad.

Back to the game...why, you ask?  Well, because I lived through it and so all of you have to now as well.  The Hawks take a 3-0 lead going into the second intermission and the arena ERUPTED into boos as the Wild went down the tunnel. 

Third period starts and it's like the Wild received shock therapy treatments while sitting on the bench.  Just 45 seconds in Havlat scores a breakaway goal on his way out of the penalty box.  This, by the way, is exactly what Dave said the team needed to do.  Message received, Coach Daggett!  The team made more of an effort and Burns did score on a 'never say die' drive to the net where he got his own rebound off of Crawford and buried the puck to put the game within 1 goal of a tie in regulation.  Now it's a 3-2 game and the arena has come alive - FINALLY, something to get jiggy about.  Wild go on the powerplay at the 16:38 mark and pull Backstrom for the extra-extra man advantage.  And then the air gets sucked out of the arena as Hossa gets a shorthanded goal - you know, the kind of goals the Wild owns the record for giving up the most of this season?  I hate that.  Too little, too late is the motto of tonight's game and just like that, we went from 5th place to 9th.  

Key notes from the game:

• Backstrom battled the puck all night and that second goal he let in shouldn't have happened.  He's now allowed 3 or more goals in two consecutive starts.  Take that stat for whatever you want to.
• Havlat, while getting his 20th goal of the season tonight, was a defensive liability for the other 59 minutes and 30 seconds of the game.  At one point he actually flinched and turned away from a Hawks player making a pass out of their defensive zone.  He's a cherry picker and a blue line floater and yet he gets all the praise in the world from Richards like he's the second coming of Ovechkin.  
• Eight players with a minus rating tonight, 4 of them were defensemen.  Zhidlicky not showing good form yet and it makes me wonder if his shoulder is really okay.  
• Staubitz showed bad form, judgement and timing when he checked a Hawks player after the touch up on an icing call.  Former Wild player Big John Scott beat the snot out of him for it - and deservedly so.
• Evidently the team was a little shocked and dismayed that GM Chuck Fletcher didn't make a significant trade before the deadline today.  WTF???  You mean to tell me our players aren't keeping up with their own team's salary cap numbers as well as who's out there for trade purposes?  Was Zanon willing to get shipped off for a high scoring center?  I'm guessing not, so STFU, Greg.  What on earth did these guys think Fletcher could with 2 old pennies and a buffalo nickel, an analogy of our cap space, FFS?       

We ♥ Dave!

Because embarrassing public displays of affection is just the way Vicki and I roll, you can imagine Coach Dave's surprise when we caught him off guard by celebrating his birthday a week late during the game tonight.  For those of you who are newer to the world of Dee-Icing via blog here's some history which will explain the bag of goodies Dave received tonight.  

I used to do this little rant in email format which would prompt some very entertaining 'reply-all' email strings and some great week long debates.  That's definitely something I miss these days with people's disdain, or perhaps fear, of leaving comments on the blog - subtle hint right there. 

Anywho - during one of my trips south in the early months of 2010 there sprang to life a string of email responses to one of my game reviews which went a little something like this:

Vicki: I'll take the hit for the team's most recent loss since I wasn't wearing my rally nails.

Bobbi: What are rally nails and where does one get them?

Vicki: One gets them at Target or Kmart with a bottle of green nail polish and a botlle of red polish and then paints them on.  

Dave: What would us guys have to do then in order to support the team? 

Tim: Perhaps paint our toenails or wear special socks to rally behind the Wild
Vicki: Yes, Dave, paint your nails as well! 
The actual email string was several pages long by the time I stumbled across it two days later when I signed into my email while in Georgia.  Here's my response:
Dee: Holy Hockey Hall of Fame, people!  I leave for a week and you stage a mani/pedi uprising??  I'd probably pay good money to see Dave and Tim with Wild Rally Toenails but I'm not sure their loved ones would understand ;)  And what's this about Vicki going Wild with her hair?? 

This tickled Dave's funny bone to no end and he still talks about this particular exchange from one of the game reviews as a highlight of hanging out in 'cyberland' with this group of passionate Wild fans.  Here's the contents of his birthday gift bag:

• Bottle of Red Nail Polish
• Bottle of Green Nail Polish
• Red and Green Argyle socks, in case polish on his toenails will undermine his bad-ass rep while refereeing.  
• 'Wilds' Rally Scarf, lovingly made by Vicki.  In case Dave didn't already know how much we adore him, this pretty much seals the deal.  It's a pretty elite group of people who get a Wilds scarf.

Happy Birthday, Again, Coach!  Thanks for putting up with us hockey chicks all these years!


Sporting that coveted Wilds Scarf - Very Nice!




The arena was full of Hawks fans tonight, grrrrr.  Okay, these folks from Fargo (ya sure dontcha know) were good natured - but I still couldn't get them to take Havlat, Madden or Barker back with them.  Curse you, Hawks fans   ;)