Wild Limit Reigning President Trophy Winner, Win 2-1

The Wild by far played one of its better games against the Washington Capitals last night, holding them scoreless until the last 1:36 of the game when Alexander Ovechkin scored spoiling Niklas Backstrom's shut out.  The Wild put out a solid effort defensively against a offensive juggernaut with the likes of Ovechkin, Nicklas Backstrom, Alexander Semin, and Mike Green, holding them to 22 shots in the game (4-7-11=22), and it didn't hurt that the Capitals were in Carolina the night before.

Chuck Kobasew scored the first goal of the game, his first point of the season, in the first period burying a great feed across the goal crease by Andrew Brunette.  Kobasew, who has been bothered by a groin injury this season, was moved to the first line with Antti Miettinen not playing because of an illness, played well along side Brunette and Mikko Koivu.  Koivu would later score the game winning goal late in the second period with the Wild on powerplay and with a delayed penalty being called.

Backstrom was just solid last night, making the easy saves along with a couple spectacular ones like this post to post save on Mike Knuble on the powerplay.

Backstrom, along with the defensive corps, was able to stymie the Capitals, frustrating them at times.  Brent Burns and Nick Schultz were a solid defensive pairing, and were often pitted against Ovechkin.  Just a good solid 60-minute effort by the Wild, one of the few ones that fans have seen in a long time.  If the Wild could play like this the rest of the season they'd be set =).

Notes:

•  I'm really starting to like Justin Falk-Clayton Stoner d-pairing.  For a pair of rookie defensemen they haven't made any glaring mistakes, they've just been solid.  Stoner didn't play well in camp so I had my reserves about him and Falk has impressed me so far.
• With all eyes on Martin Havlat after his agent Allan Walsh comments on his underuse in the Wild lineup, he did nada.  Havlat ended the night with one shot in 17:27 of ice time.
• Colton Gillies played his first NHL game since the 2008-2009 season and Casey Wellman made his home debut.  Gillies and Wellman replaced Guillame Latendresse (groin) and Miettinen (illness).
• When a sellout streak stops, it really stops.  I was surprised that the X wasn't sold out seeing as it was the Caps the Wild were playing.
• The Wild took only 2 penalties last night...YAY!

UP NEXT: Saturday vs. Chicago Blackhawks, 7:00pm CT

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Gameday vs. Washington

Washington will be without the service of Alex Semin, Mike Green, and Sergei Federov, which is kind of too bad for the fans, but great for the Wild. It'll be the first time in his career that Ovechkin's visited the Wild, and he'll be looking for his first goal against the Wild. Jose Theodore'll be in net for the Caps, and it will be his first time against the Wild since almost single-handly dismantling the Wild in the first round of the playoffs last season. And of course, it'll be Backstrom against Backstrom, and let's hope our Backstrom wins all the battles.

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UHHH!!!

While I go away and try and get an education and Gaborik goes and gets himself injured. "Lower body", they're saying but who knows with the new injury disclosure policy the NHL has. Right now I'm just going to go into my room, lock it and start swearing up and down. Why are players dropping like flies when it's only the 3rd game of the season? Are we supposed to infer this as Risebrough making a move soon on the Gaby situation? We'll see what comes out of this, let's just hope that something will happen, Gaby miraculously gets healthy or a solution to the situation of which I am so sick of hearing about.

In other news, Denis Savard, coach of the Chicago Blackhawks was fired today, and former Colorado Avalanche head coach Joel Quenneville will be announced as the new coach of the Blackhawks. I can't say that I saw this one coming, but seeing as the Blackhawks got their first win last night, and with the expectations that people have for them, I can see the logic behind it, kind of.

On a happier note, I'm looking forward to watching the Washington Capitals vs. Pittsburgh Penguins game tonight. Of course I'll be watching the Wild play tonight, more because I want to see how the Wild are going to play without Gaby and without three of its top 6 forwards, but I'll keep an eye on the Caps and Pens (it's the beauty of Center Ice). With the top two forwards in the league playing in this game, and arguable the top three in Evgeni Malkin, this game is bound to be a must watch. You know that Crosby and Ovechkin will be the ones to watch in this game, but I want to see the match up between Ovechkin and Malkin. In previous games, the two have been very physical toward each other, and in their first match up of the new season, it will be interesting which Russian comes out the better of the two.

~ FOTW

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