Backstrom, Backstrom, Backstrom

That about sums it up for how the Wild won last night's game against the offensive-laden San Jose Sharks.  Backstrom was a monster in net last night and was the difference maker in the game to even allow the Wild to have a chance for the 1-0 win over the Sharks.

The Wild seemed to have spent the entire night in its defensive end, playing prevent defense for the most part, sans the 9 powerplay opportunities that the Sharks gave them.  But apart from the lone tally of the night from Andrew Brunette on a 5-on-3 powerplay, the Wild weren't able to generate any prime scoring opportunities  on the powerplay.

The defensive play last night was huge against the Sharks. Mikko Koivu, Eric Nystrom, and John Madden were great in their own end, as well as many of the other forwards.  And the defensive pairing of Burns-Schultz was just awesome against the Sharks top line.

Notes:

• First shutout for Backstrom since April 3, 2009, a 4-0 win against the Calgary Flames.
• The Wild defeated the Sharks in regulation for the first time in 16 meetings.
• Koivu's assist on Brunette's powerplay goal gives in a 7-game point streak.
• I've honestly soured on my opinion of Marty Havlat since that article about his "misuse" came out :[ ...who knows, maybe if he starts scoring in droves my opinion on him will change.

UP NEXT: Friday vs. Calgary Flames, 7:00pm CT

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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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Wild's Powerplay Prevails Over Oilers

With so much hoopla surrounding the team and the team itself putting an emphasis on the game, home openers are always my favorite games to go to.  The pre-game ceremonies were well done, as usual, with the introduction of some members of the inaugural (loudest ovation going to Darby and Walz), the announcement of the number one moment (Bruno's OT goal, obvious), and the introduction of the roster.  On to the game...

The Wild had a good game, not a solid 60 minutes (and as a Wild fan you start to expect the Wild to only play 2 solid periods of good hockey), but at least a good 45 minutes. The Wild came out pretty well in the first period, but they got bogged down by penalty troubles.  The Edmonton Oilers weren't able to connect on their powerplay chances early on as the penalty killers were on their game last night.  Antti Miettinen was able to get the Wild into the 2nd period with a 1-0 lead but the Wild did what they always do and came out sluggish in the 2nd.  For the first 10-15 minutes of the game it was all Edmonton, with Dustin Penner's powerplay tally and Tom Gilbert's rocket off of the face-off giving them a 2-1 advantage, but you never really felt like the game was out of the reach for the Wild.  The Wild were able to tally 3 unanswered goals, all on the powerplay,  two from Mikko Koivu and from Matt Cullen, and essentially put the game away.

Obviously the Wild was great on the powerplay against the Oilers going 4 for 6 last night and generating great opportunities with Cullen at the point and Brunette behind the net, the real question now will be whether or nor the Wild can generate those same chances even strength.  The pkers have to be the unsung heroes of the night with some debatable calls, but they were able to keep the Oilers in check sans the Penner goal.

Notes:

• Loud ovation for Pierre-Marc Bouchard when the players who weren't dressed were announced...and I giggled to myself at the polite applause when James Sheppard was announced (though I kind of felt bad when I saw him wave).
• I'm totally in love with Cullen now.  He was great on the powerplay and I definitely noticed him, in a good way, everytime he was on the ice. 
• Honestly, I didn't really notice the Oilers' young phenoms.  Taylor Hall and Jordan Eberle were non-factors throughout the game, and I only noticed Magnus Paajarvi because of his size and him drawing penalities (and occasionally falling down).
• I don't really like the new game programs, it's probably because it's still the same price as the old ones but now they're smaller (just a folded up poster-sized paper).
• Oh, and I'm kind of late on this, but a great article by Mike Russo on former Wild now Oiler Kurtis Foster.
• Question: Were the refs in this game NHL refs or replacement refs because some of the calls were absurd.

UP NEXT: Saturday vs. Columbus Blue Jackets, 7:00pm CT

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2010 Skills Competition

Yesterday the Wild held their skills competition and it was pretty fun for me and my brother, who got to meet Clayton Stoner, John Scott and Derek Boogaard for their autographs. You just don’t realize how gigantic some of these players are, especially Boogie and Scott, until you see them in person or are standing next to them. I was really disappointed that I couldn’t meet Mikko Koivu or Cal Clutterbuck, who were reserved for Season Ticket Holders…but oh well. I got my picture taken with the Stanley Cup (my only regret, thinking back now, is that I didn’t actually touch the cup…stupid aren’t I :|), bought a signed mystery mini-helmet (Derek Boogaard), watched some of the Gustavus-St. John’s game and watched the This Week in Hockey presentation with guests Phil Housley, Neal Broten, Mike Ramsey, Chuck Fletcher, and Todd Richards.

The skills competition was really interesting, green basically killed red in all of the events, but the best part was just watching the players be so laid back. Mikko was hilarious, hooking and smacking the high school players with his stick, taunting Tim Shaughnessy, the Hill-Murray goalie. Bruno was hilarious too, running from bench to bench, doing some interviews and just being the funny Bruno that he is. Probably the funniest moments were when Mikko tripped over himself in the puck control relay while he was head to head with Eric Belanger, Greg Zanon getting taken out by Shaughnessy on his shootout attempt, and John Scott’s shootout “attempt”.
I learned today that I’m a good influence because the best part of the day was probably when we got home and my brother started saying Wild players’ names. Before today he only knew Owen Nolan, Mikko Koivu, and Brent Burns, and now he practically knows the whole roster…his favorites to say are Cal Clutterbuck and Derek Boogaard :)

P.S. I know that this is my first post since the home opener, and I promise to be more diligent in blogging :))

NEXT UP: Wednesday vs. Detroit Red Wings, 7:00pm CT

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Wild Rally Back from 3-0 to Win 4-3 in OT

It's a good thing that I decided not to leave the home opener early like I was planning to after it was 3-0 at the end of 2, but who would have blamed me or anyone who left after 2 the way that the Wild were playing.

The first period was uneventful, mainly because most people in attendance were still wrapped up with the Twin-Tigers game (and the crowd roared with applause and cheer when the Twins won). The second period was just an utter disaster. Passes weren't on target, the Wild couldn't get any sustained pressure in the offensive zone, and when the Wild were able to get shots, they were either not on target or they were shooting into the body of Ducks player (note that they were shooting into the Ducks player, not that the Ducks players were blocking them). And like Richards said in his postgame, the defensemen were trying to create something that wasn't there and stepping up in the offensive zone at unnecessary times creating odd man rushed (I saw a 4-on-1 twice) and the Wild, like in the Columbus game, were scrambling in their defensive zone, and just like that it was 3-0 Ducks. The lazy and lackluster play of the first 40 minutes of the game took the fans out of the game, but the turning point in the game has to be the George Parros vs. John Scott fight, it definitely woke the crowd up again.



Mikko Koivu, Petr Sykora, and Eric Belanger scored in the third to tie up the game, and Andrew Brunette score in the overtime on the powerplay after James Wisniewski took a retalatory penalty on Kyle Brodziak to secure the overtime win for the Wild, and Todd Richards' first win as an NHL coach.

Fans saw in the third period how well Todd Richards system could work for the Wild, we'll see if the Wild can do what they did in the third for a full 60 minutes.

Notes:

• Pierre-Marc Bouchard was a late scratch due to ongoing headaches. He'll be out indefinitely until the organization figures out what's wrong with him.
• Loudest ovations during lineups to Brent Burns, Koivu, Niklas Backstrom and Cal Clutterbuck.
• A Wild player got hit in the first period and was just dumped into the bench...can't seem to find who it is though, anyone know?
• Joffrey Lupul took a puck to the face in the first period, but came back in the second to score the first goal for the Ducks.
• The Wild actually won in the faceoff department, winning 63 percent of the faceoffs, with Koivu winning 76 percent of his faceoffs.
• Can you honestly tell me that the home opener was a sellout when the suites and club levels were mainly empty, the lower level had a bunch of rows that were empty, and the end opposite of the one that I was sitting across was just bare?...Well, it is tickets distributed, not how many people actually show up...

UP NEXT: Thursday @ Los Angeles Kings, 9:30pm CT

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2009-10 NHL Season Predicitons

With the 2009-10 NHL season about to get underway, here are my predictions for the season:

Western Conference:
1. San Jose Sharks
2. Detroit Red Wings
3. Vancouver Canucks
4. Anaheim Ducks
5. Chicago Blackhawks
6. Calgary Flames
7. Dallas Stars
8. Columbus Blue Jackets
9. Minnesota Wild
10. St. Louis Blues
11. Nashville Predators
12. Edmonton Oilers
13. Los Angeles Kings
14. Phoenix Coyotes
15. Colorado Avalanche

Eastern Conference:
1. Washington Capitals
2. Pittsburgh Penguins
3. Boston Bruins
4. Philadelphia Flyers
5. New Jersey Devils
6. Carolina Hurricanes
7. New York Rangers
8. Buffalo Sabres
9. Ottawa Senators
10. Montreal Candiens
11. Florida Panthers
12. Atlanta Thrashers
13. Toronto Maple Leafs
14. Tampa Bay Lightning
15. New York Islanders

Conference Finals:
Western: Detroit Red Wings vs. Vancouver Canucks
Eastern: Washington Capitals vs. Philadelphia Flyers

Stanley Cup Finals: Vancouver Canucks vs. Philadelphia Flyers
Winner=Philadelphia Flyers

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Wild Preseason Schedule Released

The Minnesota Wild officially announced their preseason schedule today, which consists of seven games, four on the road and three at home. Preseason tickets will go on sale August 22.

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