Devils Hand Wild a 4-0 Loss for Brodeur's 101st Career Shutout

Every game now for the Wild is a critical game and the outcome is either a crucial game won or, in this case, a frustrating blow. And that was what came out of this 4-0 loss to the Devils, FRUSTRATION. After playing a "safe" first period, which saw a total of 10 shots (6-Devils, 4-Wild), Zidlicky (as Russo described it) executed a gorgeous, blind backhanded pass in front of the net, too bad it went right to Patrik Elias who got it past Niklas Backstrom for the 1-0 lead. The Devils took a 2-0 lead 20 seconds when Brian Gionta scored after killing off a Johnny Odyua penalty when Zidlicky ill-advisedly stepped up in the offensive zone and allowed Zach Parise and Gionta to have 2-on-1 with Martin Skoula "backchecking". And a little over a minute later Odyua scored to give the Devils the 3-0 lead, and drove Backstrom out of the net as Harding came in to replace him. The Devils eventually made it 4-0 when Elias scored his second goal of the game on the powerplay with Nick Schultz in the penalty box.

I think that this has been the most frustrated that I've been with the Wild since I've been following them. When did it become commonplace that they fall behind their opponents so often. At the beginning of the season, it was the powerplay that was helping the Wild win games when they couldn't score 5-on-5, and now at this point in the season when they still can't score 5-on-5, the powerplay hasn't been able to generate any offense either. The powerplay may have essentially cost the Wild this game. On a night where the Wild ended up 0 for 7 on their powerplay opportunities, and they had 5 consecutive powerplay, 2 back-to-back opportunities, the Wild were not able to capitalize on their man advantage. And as I like to point out, if their opponents want to take that march to the penalty box, you have to make them pay for it, and the Wild were just not able to do anything on the powerplay tonight, or anything during the game for that matter.

Some quotes from tonight's game via Russo:
"We couldn't come up with nothing. Nothing!" Lemaire said.
"[Mistakes] have haunted us all year and [they] continue to haunt us," veteran Andrew Brunette said.

Notes:

• Stats from the game: Skoula -3, Zidlicky -2, Clutterbuck -2; Clutterbuck credited with 7 hits (14 total for the Wild), for a league leading 297
• The Wild have been down 3-0 to an opponent in 4 of the last 9 games , that's 5 of the last 9 that the Wild have been down at least 2-0 to an opponent.
• The Wild have allowed at least one powerplay goal in
  
• I don't know if I can watch this type of play from Zids for another year, sure he's good on the pp as a point man, and can score those goals, but he ends up putting more in the net against us than for us.
• With Edmonton defeating Chicago 5-4 in the SO and St. Louis defeating Calgary 3-2, the Wild have fallen to 12th place in the Western Conference.
  

UP NEXT: Sunday vs. Edmonton Oilers, 2:00pm CT (Gaby is aiming to return Sunday...let's see if he will be this "shot in the arm" that I keep hearing about, though it maybe too late)

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