If you haven't come to the realization that the 2016-17 Minnesota Wild are a legitimate contender yet, last night should have told you all you need to know.
Coming off a big road win Tuesday night in Winnipeg, the Wild traveled home arriving late and then to go through customs, while the Blackhawks were resting up waiting for them.
No excuses made for the schedule and the ultimate 4-3 OT loss result.
The point is that the Wild were clearly the better team for the majority of the contest and yes the result was not what they had hoped for, but the effort sure as heck was. There was no sign of fatigue from the Wild as they came at the Blackhawks in waves.
Yes, there was a questionable offside non call on the second Wild goal, but the fact of the matter was that goal was created by a relentless effort from the entire five man Wild unit. I understand the argument if the call was reversed, but the point I am going to make is that the Blackhawks did not all of a sudden slow down thinking well this whole play is offside. No, they continued to play as it was in the course of the game.
As for the issue of offside review, I will just say this, I disagree with it regardless of any of the previous results good or bad for any team involved. Every hockey player is taught to play until the whistle from the very day they begin playing, and I will leave it at that.
Bruce Boudreau again keeping his team fresh made a couple of more lineup tweaks inserting Gustav Olofsson and Nate Prosser into the lineup for Christian Folin and Mike Reilly, and getting Jordan Schroeder back into the lineup in place of Tyler Graovac. The move to play Darcy Kuemper in net against the Hawks shows just how confident Boudreau is with his backup netminder and Kuemper stepped up and played very well. That is a great sign for the Wild as they will be entering the condensed part of the schedule at the end of this month.
The Wild once again showed great resiliency as they forced OT with Erik Haula's conversion of a tremendous Marco Scandella rush for his 11th of the season with just 3:03 remaining in the 3rd period. They play every game the same way, and with a confidence that has them believing that they can win every night and in any situation.
The result may not have been what the Wild had hoped for but a very valuable point keeping them up five on the Chicago with two games in hand.
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