Whew! The game last night against Columbus was a lot closer than it should have been. But, the Blue Jackets are an improved team even without Rick Nash and they play a style similar to the Wild of yester-year: hang back, play a good defensive game, get some big saves from the goalie and capitalize on your opportunities.

The two story lines that stood out for me last night were (1) how well the former Wisconsin Badgers are playing for the Wild this year (Gilbert, Suter and Heatley); and (2) the guys who aren’t the Wild’s top players started to step up (Butch with his game winning goal with guys from the 4th line, five of six defensemen had a goal or an assist, Torrey Mitchell and Justin Falk each recording their first point of the season, 17 of the Wild’s 18 skaters hit the 10 minute mark in ice time and the 18th, Zenon Konopka skated 9:31). A full team effort will be required against the undefeated Blackhawks who are skating into St. Paul with a perfect record, 6-0-0 which is also a franchise best for them.

After posting last week that Minnesota’s re-build seems similar to St. Louis’, a lot of St. Louis fans chimed in correcting me that they never have gone out and paid the big contract money to one or two players and have, instead, patiently built from within and through trades, never having made that huge free agent splash. They pointed to Chicago as being more similar to the track the Wild are on. However, in reviewing Chicago’s re-build, I’m not sure that is accurate either as their team is built are Jonathan Toews (3rd overall selection in the 2006 Entry Draft) and Patrick Kane (1st overall selection in the 2007 Entry Draft). Unfortunately for the Wild, they have never picked higher than 3rd in the Entry Draft and that was the year they came into the NHL (Marian Gaborik). After that, 4th was the highest they have ever picked (Benoit Pouliot).

For the Hawks of today, balanced scoring attacks is the name of their game. Unlike the Wild, Chicago currently has two high-powered attack lines with Saad-Toews-Hossa on the first line and Kane-Bolland-Sharp on the second line. Kane (9), Hossa (8) and Toews (6) are the point leaders currently for Chicago; Hossa (5), Bolland (3) and Toews (3) are the goal leaders; Kane (7), Sharp (4) and Leddy (4) are the assist leaders.

Meanwhile, for the Wild, they are really only a one-trick pony currently led by Parise-Koivu-Heatley who lead this team, statistically in every category. Parise has 9 points, 5 goals (3 on the powerplay), 4 assists, and an NHL-best 29 shots. Koivu has 8 points, 2 goals and 6 assists. Heatley has 6 points, 4 goals (2 on the powerplay) and 2 assists. Parise, Koivu and Heatley also lead the Wild in shots.

In 6 games each, the Hawks have outscored their opponents 22-13 while the Wild have not outscored their opponents tallying 16 goals for and allowing 17 goals so far. You would think that Chicago has had a ton more shots, but that does not pan out statistically. Chicago has 172 shots for and 163 shots against, while Minnesota has 165 shots for and 157 against. Chicago has a better power play (8th in NHL compared to the Wild’s 16th in the NHL), a better penalty kill (2nd in the NHL vs. 10th in the NHL) and takes less penalties 63 minutes (3rd in NHL) compared to Minnesota’s 81 minutes (11th in NHL). On the man advantage, they have scored 5 times, but allowed 1 short-handed goal so far this season, whereas the Wild have 3 power play goals and have not allowed a short handed goal.

In goal, one would think that Harding starts tonight for the Wild given Backstrom’s history of not playing back-to-back games. Also, Harding has better stats, overall, against Chicago than Backstrom. In fact, Harding is a perfect 3-0-0 against Chicago at home. For Chicago, they have not played since Sunday and do not play again until Friday, so I would guess that Crawford is good to go. But don’t rule out Emery who has not lost in four starts to the Wild in regulation, having gone 3-0-1. Notwithstanding, Crawford still has better stats than Emery against the Wild, although not by a great margin.

So there you have it. The perfect Blackhawks tonight against your Minnesota Wild. The game will be broadcast on NBCSN as part of their “Rivalries” promotion. While Chicago used to be a heated rival of the North Stars in the old Norris Division, the Blackhawks hardly qualify as a rival for the Wild and vice versa. But, if the NHL gets it’s way and re-alignment is approved by the NHLPA, we will be seeing A LOT more of the Central Division teams, many of whom were once rivals of the North Stars, as well as the hated Dallas Stars (whom many in Minnesota mockingly refer to as the South Stars; those same people will never get over losing the North Stars to Dallas and will always have a hatred for Norm Green).

For those fans, I leave you with this: Bill Wirtz, deceased owner of the Blackhawks, once told Sid Hartman, “Over my dead body will Minnesota ever get another NHL team.”

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