Wild mount furious comeback against Oilers

Nearing the end of the second period with the team down 4-1 Saturday night, the fans at the Xcel Energy Center were so quiet that they could have heard a stick drop on the ice. Luckily for the fans, the Wild had other ideas about the remainder of the game. Wild Center Eric Belanger looked down the bench at his teammates and one thought popped into his mind: We can still win this game.

"We just knew, you know?" said Belanger after the game. "We just knew we were going to win this game."

It took the Wild nearly 10 minutes to get themselves back into the game after being down 4-1, but on this night, the Wild knew it was their game to take. With just over 2 minutes left in the second frame, Brian Rolston fired home a wrist shot to cut the Edmonton lead in half. Going into the locker room, the team felt as though it had a great chance to get themselves back into this game. Wild coach Jacques Lemaire was relieved the Wild were able to get a goal to close out the second period.

"Four to one would have been tougher than 4-2," Lemaire said. "The way we were playing, that's what we were hoping for, a goal at the end of the second."

It took the Wild less than 5 minutes into the third period to get them within a goal. Mark Parrish placed a perfect pass right to the stick of Marian Gaborik who shot it home past Edmonton goalie Dwayne Roloson just 4:44 into the third period. From there, the Wild just settled back and waited for their chances. After giving up double-digit shots in each of the first two periods, the Wild gave up only 6 in the third, limiting the Oilers scoring chances with much-improved defense from guys like Sean Hill and Petteri Nummelin. After spending most of the third period in the Edmonton zone, the Wild finally cashed in again to tie the game at 4 exactly 10 minutes after their third goal. Brent Burns took control of a Pierre-Marc Bouchard rebound and poked it home for his career-high 8th goal of the season. From there, the Wild tried to end the game before it got to overtime, but were unsuccessful. The Wild knew that they had the Oilers on the ropes, and they weren't about to let it slip away.

The Wild got started right away in overtime when Gaborik took the puck and split the defense on his way to the goal. Edmonton defensemen Steve Staios, realizing that there is no way they could catch up to Gaborik, did the smart thing and hooked Gaborik to give his team a chance to kill off a penalty. Unfortunately for the Oilers, the Wild were not going to let this game get away. The Wild quickly took control of the puck and moved it around the Edmonton zone. After about a minute of passing, Rolston found the puck and slid it over to Bouchard, who in turn flung the puck out to Nummelin who then took a wicked snap shot to send the Wild out with a bang. It was the first time in franchise history the Wild had come back from a 3 goal deficit in the Xcel Energy Center, and only the second time they had done it in any venue.



OK, so I wrote that trying to be fairly nice to the Wild when re-capping that game. The truth is though, it was a horrible game, aside from the fact that they won. I'll admit it was a hard-fought game and a great comeback, but the way the Wild played in the first two periods, there was no way they deserved to win that game. The Wild should be counting their lucky stars after this game in which they gave up two short-handed goals (which had never been done against the Wild), played absolutely awful defense, and only managed 7 shots on net in the second period. I refer to the Wild's defense as "absolutely awful" simply because I could not find any other words to express how dismal they really are. There is not one defensemen right now that is playing anywhere near where they need to be. Brent Burns is letting guys get behind him, Sean Hill is making terrible mistakes with the puck, and Martin Skoula...is Martin Skoula. I truly and honestly do not know why on earth Lemaire feels the need to put Skoula into the game. He can't hit, he can't block a shot, he can't stick-handle, and he can't skate. It's honestly like watching a guy that's been skating for maybe a couple months, and this guy is playing in the NHL, logging more than 20 minutes a game. Everybody on the defense needs to be more aggressive in order to cut down the opponents scoring chances. Now I'm not going to pretend like I know what is best for the team, I trust Lemaire and I trust the rest of the coaching staff, but after watching the Wild every year since their inception, I can tell what is and what isn't working with this team. When the puck is in the neutral zone and our defensemen is 10 feet away from the puck, and the opponents forward is 15 feet away from the puck, why would we let the other team take the puck and skate it into our zone? The idea just seems ludicrous to me, yet I see it every game. If we don't have our defense go after that puck, the other team is going to get it, do a little dance around our defensemen, and shoot and score. If we go after that puck, at the very least we can disrupt the play they are trying to set up and maybe get possession of the puck again. It seems so easy yet so hard when watching this club struggle. And yes, even with this recent comeback win, I am still calling the Wild a struggling team.

Mark Parrish is finally doing what he was brought in here to do last year: stay in front of the net, and don't move for any reason. We have four other guys that are there to back him up. If we can keep possession of the puck, Parrish has to be the one to stay in front of the net to screen the goalie, as well as be there to pick up any rebounds. And when Parrish isn't out on the ice, somebody else has to step-up and do the same thing. Aaron Voros, the one good constant on this team since he was called up, has been doing that, and it has paid off dearly for him. Voros, playing in only his 23rd game of the season last night, has recorded 7 goals and 6 assists this year. That's more goals than Pierre-Marc Bouchard who has 6 goals in 38 games this year. The Wild have so many things to work on if they want to become a top contender in this league. It is easy to see what makes a team dominant in today's NHL. Look at the Detroit Red Wings: The ultimate passing team that isn't afraid to get pushed around in front of the net. Their finesse style of play may not be able to be matched by the Wild, but there are plenty of aspects of the Red Wings game that the Wild can try to mimic and become a better team with. It's the same thing with the Vancouver Canucks. The Canucks play a brand of hockey that virtually no one else can copy: They have the perfect mix of hard-nosed players to go along with skill players and they have one of the best goaltenders in the league. I'm not in favor of the Wild taking a page out of the Canucks dirty plays book, but there are definitely many parts of Vancouver's play that the Wild need to look at if they want to become a top contender in the West.

Again I bring up the point of the Wild not having their top center, Mikko Koivu. But the way they are struggling right now, offense is not my main worry. Eventually Koivu will make his way back into the lineup, lines will get shifted back to the way they were, and the scoring will come easier. It is the defense that worries me right now, and it is the defense that should be worrying the coaching staff of the Wild. The Wild have plenty of top-tier defenders in Brent Burns, Nick Schultz, and Petteri Nummelin, but none of them are playing up to their potential, or even anywhere near their potential. There are no trade possibilities for the Wild, nor do they have any solid defensive prospects down in Houston. That leaves the only option for the Wild on the guys that are carrying the load now. They need to be more aggressive when dealing with the puck, and they need to start taking more shots and getting the puck at the net. If they don't start doing that soon, they could very well fall out of the top 8 in the conference.

Let's Play Hockey

So the Wild are officially back on track after a 5-2 victory over the currently hopeless Edmonton Oilers. With Gaborik and Demitra out, and Dominic Moore not quite ready to take the ice, the Wild were forced to shift defensemen Petteri Nummelin up to a forward position. Although the shift wasn't ideal, it couldn't have worked out any better. Moving Nummelin up quickly paid dividends when he shot a perfect pass across Edmontons zone setting up Mark Parrish's first goal of the night just 5 minutes into the game. From there, the Wild powerplay just picked apart the Edmonton penalty kill scoring a total of 3 power play goals in just the first period. Although Niklas Backstrom was not tested very often in net at the beginning, he made the saves needed to give the team confidence going into the locker room.

The Wild came out in the second period even faster than they did in the first, scoring just 3:21 into the period. The Wild and Oilers finished the period switching goals, and at the end of the second period the score was 5-2. With the game already in hand, all the Wild needed to do was prevent any scoring opportunities in the third period, and that is exactly what they did. Shutting down the Oilers in the final frame led to the Wild coming out with a victory. Parrish ended up with two power-play goals, Nummelin ended up with two big assists, and Kurtis Foster chipped in a goal and an assist. All around it was a game the Wild desperately needed.

So now to an article I caught on espn.com this morning. Todd Bertuzzi, who to me is a guy who should never have stepped back onto the ice after his incident with Steve Moore back in 2004, apparently offered to settle the $15 million lawsuit brought on by Moore by paying him $350,000. Seriously, that number isn't a joke. He wanted to give the guy who's career he ruined not even 1% of what he's asking for. I don't know if he was purposely trying to insult Moore, but whatever his intent was, it made him look like even less of a man. What he did back in '04 was totally dirty and should not have happened, and the punishment handed down to him was just a slap on the wrist. Thirteen games and the playoffs for ending a 23 year-olds fairly promising career? You have go to be kidding me. When I read this article today, I just kept thinking that I couldn't wait for the Ducks to come to town so Boogey can beat the crap out of him on the ice. If you want to read the article, here's the link for you:
http://sports.espn.go.com/nhl/news/story?id=3096818

Also going on last night was Monday Night Football. The Steelers and Ravens were supposed to be playing a Football game, but it looked more like the Steelers were playing a team of kids. The Ravens commited 4 turnovers on the night, including 3 fumbles in the first quarter, en route to a 38-7 pounding by the Pittsburgh Steelers. Ben Roethlisberger looked unstoppable in the first half, tying a Steelers record by throwing 5 touchdown passes in the half. Big Ben finished the game with 209 yards and 5 touchdown passes with no interceptions and a perfect quarterback rating of 158.3. The Steelers defense also looked unstoppable, especially James Harrison, an undrafted free agent signed by the Steelers after they released pro-bowl linebacker Joey Porter. Harrison finished the night with 2 1/2 sacks, 2 forced fumbles, 1 fumble recovery, and an interception. Those numbers are wicked for an entire defense, much less one player. Even though it was a blowout, it was a good game to tune into during the breaks of the Wild game.

The only thing really that I can think of that is going on tonight is the Timberwolves host the Orlando Magic. Everybody's been hating on the Wolves this year, thinking they won't be able to recover from the departure of KG and the arrival of a lot of young guys, but I think that we should reserve judgement until we get a good look at these guys. Sure they have started 0-2, but like I said, they're a young team and they need some time to adjust to eachother. Plus, Randy Foye isn't even playing, and he is one of our top guys. I'm not saying the Wolves are gonna win 50+ games this year, but I do think they will exceed most peoples expectations.

Unfortunately with all the games going on last night I had to miss a new episode of Heroes, so I will have to catch that online some time today. I'm hoping it answers more questions than last weeks episode, I really thought they were going to clarify some things and it turned out to just be more questions. Either way, it is still one of the best shows on TV right now and I hope the writers end their strike soon so that the season doesn't have to end prematurely at the beginning of December.