After a heart-breaking shootout loss at home to the Winnipeg Jets and a lifeless shutout loss to the Blues in St. Louis, the Minnesota Wild showed to a national audience why they should not be counted out yet as Niklas Backstrom backstopped the Wild to a 2-0 win in the marquee match-up during Hockey Day in America.
Much to the delight of the Minnesota fans, two of their home grown NHL-ers scored both goals for the Wild. Recent AHL call-up, Chad Rau, opened the scoring in the 2nd period with a great head fake, catching Thomas cheating half-expecting Rau to pass when, instead, he lasered the puck past Timmy "Tea Party" Thomas. Matt Cullen notched his goal when he attempted a shot, muffed it, but hit it on the second attempt.
Thomas was playing the first shot attempt and was out of position when Cullen finally was able to get a handle on the puck and shoot it. After that, it was all Backstrom who, again, was solid in goal for the Wild.
Coming in to the game, my thoughts had turned to a "why not trade them" philosophy and included everyone including Koivu and Backstrom. After the game, however, the Wild announced that Kyle Brodziak had been re-signed.
To me, that points out that the Wild are going to keep their core players in tact, regardless of how this season turns out for them. These core players will provide the foundation for the young guns that will make their way to the NHL next season and will provide the framework for Coach Mike Yeo to continue teaching his system. So, win lose or draw, expect the Wild to have very few moves leading up to the trade deadline and one week from today.
The only players I would expect to see moved would be Zidlicky and Harding. I'm sure there could be a few other guys in that mix, but only pending UFA's in my opinion.
Also, the Wild are currently 12th in the Western Conference with 61 points, but are only 4 points behind 8th seeded Calgary at the present time. Should the Wild be able to put a string of games like yesterday's together, they could very well find themselves back in the playoff hunt. However, this time of year, making up 4 points can be alot like moving mountains. But what the heck. This has been that sort of crazy year for this club. Why not?
Interesting Stat: The Wild is 10-1-1 all-time against the Bruins, outscoring them 35-15. Boston is 0-for-36 all-time against Minnesota on the power play, including going 0-for-1 yesterday.
Minnesota Wild Blogger • 
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