Alex Stalock made 28 saves including 16 in the third period to earn his first shutout in a Wild uniform. Stepping in for the injured Devan Dubnyk, Stalock has been solid for the Wild and actually brings a dimension to the Wild game that Dubnyk does not possess.

That being his puck handling ability which gives the Wild in essence a third defenseman making it that much more difficult to dump the puck into the Wild zone. Stalock is also incredibly fast which only adds to his ability to get to pucks that most goalies would never even attempt to.

Last night's shutout was especially sweet for Stalock, as it came against the Leafs, the team that virtually told him that they didn't want him a year and a half ago.

Stalock has given the Wild something else that has been missing from this team for a very long time, and that is a backup goaltender that gives his coaching staff and teammates confidence that he can give them a chance to win every time he either starts the game or enters the game in relief.

Four in a row now for the Wild and holding down the top wildcard position in the Western Conference. It is going to be a battle from here on out as the parity has never been more evident than it is this season. A look at the standings shows that there is no margin for error and losing streaks can take you to the bottom of the standings faster than a win streak will take a team up the board.

The alarming streak of taking penalties has reached 10 straight for the Wild as they had to kill four Toronto powerplays, while only getting one man advantage of their own. I know Boudreau was not happy as he quipped that the second Wild goal was great, because it was only a matter of time before the Wild got another penalty for doing nothing.

There may be some truth to that to a degree, but that argument does not hold up over a ten game subset in which the Wild have been shorthanded 44 times to their 20 man advantage opportunities. Over a ten game subset one can see that this is more a trend than an aberration.

Edmonton comes to town tomorrow and if this trend continues, Connor McDavid and Company are hitting their stride, and things could get ugly.

The Wild are 6-1-0 in their last 7 and 7-3-0 during this 10 game stretch where they have worn out the ice to the sin bin. That tells me a couple things. One the team is resilient and has the talent and ability to overcome adversity to claw out points. It also unfortunately says that these things have a way of evening themselves out over time and the good fortune could soon turn to sorrow if the right adjustments are not first recognized and then addressed.

The line juggling is all a part of the game. but last night through much of the first period the Wild looked as though they had very little continuity among any of the lines. The saving grace was that all four lines were effective in the neutral zone and the defensive zone playing position and getting into and taking away lanes from the Leafs.

The team is winning, and that is what matters in the end. We know that it is a work in progress and that no team wants to be peaking in December. The Wild are doing their part to claw their way up the standings board. There is a lot of work ahead for the boys, it is only mid-December and the road will get bumpier along the way.


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