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UPDATED: No Nino, Wild Head to Chicago: All-Star Staal! |
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Wild Game Day number 44
Wild Record (22-17-4 48 pts)
Road Record (8-13-1)
Opponent: Chicago Blackhawks (21-15-6 48 pts)
Home Record (11-6-2)
Site: United Center, Chicago, Il
Time: 7:00PM CT
TV: NBC Sports (NBCSN)
Last season results:
1/15 Wild 3 @ Blackhawks 2
2/8 Blackhawks 4 @ Wild 3 (OT)
2/21 Blackhawks 3 @ Wild 5
3/12 Wild 2 @ Blackhawks 4
Last results:
10/12 Wild 5 @ Blackhawks 2
11/4 Blackhawks 2 @ Wild 0
12/17 Wild 1 @ Blackhawks 4
After last night's third period comeback, but ultimate OT loss against Calgary, the Wild hopped on their plane and headed east to Chicago where they will face the Hawks tonight. This will be the fourth meeting between the two Central Division foes with Chicago taking the last two in convincing fashion.
Blackhawks coach, Joel Quenneville, made a bold decision yesterday prior to the Hawks game in Ottawa, by making 13 year veteran and assistant captain, Brent Seabrook, a healthy scratch. Seabrook has been the subject of criticism lately, but the move is still eye opening.
The interesting piece of the Seabrook benching is the fact that he still has six more years left on his contract, which carries an annual $6.875 million dollar a year cap hit. That is a year longer than Patrick Kane, Jonathan Toews, and Duncan Keith's deals. A side note, Seabrook's deal is still a year less than the contracts of the Wild's Zach Parise and Ryan Suter, but that is a topic for another day, and years to come.
Quenneville is one of the top coaches in the NHL and one of the reasons that he is so, is because of decisions that he makes. He does not make the popular decisions, he makes the tough ones. Yes, they are not always right, but that is not reality. Quenneville is the leader of his troops, there is no denying that. And his latest decision is just another example of just how Quenneville pushes his teams' buttons.
On the flip side, Wild bench boss, Bruce Boudreau, could take a few pages from the Quenneville book. Boudreau is absolutely one of the league's better head coaches, but he still has not figured out how to get his teams over the hump.
Last night was a prime example of Boudreau and his loyalty (or tunnel vision) to players rather than what is best for the team. In OT Boudreau reverted back to the old game plan midway through the overtime period putting Koivu and Suter on the ice with Mikael Granlund.
That combo has been absolutely dreadful in 3 on 3 and by combo I am talking about Suter and Koivu. They once again cost the Wild with Suter taking a skating tour of the ice at one point with no plan. Suter did however get a breakaway in OT but came up empty, and the play came back into the Wild zone where Dougie Hamilton won the game off a good feed from Johnny Gaudreau.
The alarming fact is that Suter's shift in the overtime was 1:38 seconds!!! And Koivu's was 1:04!!!
Nino Niederreiter missed last night's game and will be out until after the next weeks bye week. Nino it appears, returned a bit too soon from his ankle injury and will now miss additional time.
That means someone else needs to step up in Nino's absence. We have talked about the internal competition the last week with the Wild healthy for the first time all season. Although that lasted just two games the fact is that every player needs to be on notice and these next few games are a good chance for the guys that have been part of the healthy scratch rotation to step it up.
There is not going to be an easy game the rest of the way, no time to take the foot off the gas. The team needs to start winning on the road and within the division and that must begin tonight.
The Wild catch the Blackhawks without Corey Crawford, out with an upper body injury. Crawford has been a real problem for the Wild an d in particular the last couple times they faced him.
For the Wild to be successful, they must approach each and every game with a shoot first mentality, looking to create offense from the shot. That was no more evident than last night where the Wild skated through two periods of what seemed like a bad chess match where they tried to make the perfect move/play only to find it either countered by the Flames or missed altogether.
When they finally decided to get the puck going to the net they were able to generate better scoring opportunities and ultimately get the game back to even.
The Wild have got to start winning, and they need to beat teams that they are battling with in order to get back into playoff position.
UPDATE: Special congratulations to Eric Staal on being named to the NHL Central Division All-Star roster. The 14 year veteran has silenced the critics with his play ever since his arrival in Minnesota. Staal leads the Wild with 19 goals and 37 points through 43 games and is coming off a 28 goal, 65 point season a year ago, which was his best year since the lockout shortened season of 2012-13 with the Hurricanes.
Staal is doing more than just scoring, he is a leader in the locker room and on the ice and this honor is well deserved.
It's always Hockey Day in The State of Hockey!
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