Dan Wallace: Trends Continue As Wild Win in Edmonton

IMO, i think the Wild win last nights tilt much more convincingly if Dubs in in net. I've said it before and i'll say it again, I do not like Stalock, i don't like his tendencies or his style. The guy is constantly looking for a reason to leave the crease, he was lucky on several of those occasions last night that the puck didn't end up on an Oiler stick for an easy open net goal.

With that said, i liked the way this team looked overall last night despite getting off to another slow start. 3 for 3 on the PP was a nice nuance that we've not seen from this squad for a long time... not to mention the PK has been pretty solid so far this season, but maybe slow the march to the penalty box a bit.

I'm gonna have to disagree with you on this Gump. I think that Stalock's ability to play the puck as well as he does helps out the defense. Yes, there are times when maybe he shouldn't be roaming away from his crease...but so far, I haven't really seen him caught out of position. And if you think he comes out to play the puck now, you should have seen him when he played at UMD. You would think he was a forward he was out so much. He has really curtailed that a lot compared to when he was a Bulldog.

As for the team, I'm starting to wonder about an idea...this is a veteran team, are they playing a little "rope-a-dope" with the 1st periods? Are they thinking "yeah, we can coast along and let the other team think they are dictating the flow of the game" to start off every game? I really doubt it, because in all those player interviews, they sure sell the idea of they can't figure out why they start off slow. It's almost like they are taking a page out of the Mikko Koivu / Ryan Suter hockey playbook...no need to exert yourself to start off, save energy for the final push. If that IS true, that is a real dangerous mindset to be taking...