WILD HOCKEY!

[schmitty3]

One of the best periods the Wild have played all year. Outshot Nashville 2:1, were 100% on the special teams, and didn't give up much for chances against Harding. It's really nice to see Heatley putting the puck in the net like he has. Here just as i'm typing this Clutterbuck keeps the good play going as he puts one in early in the 2nd to take the 3-0 lead.

[schmitty3]

Wow! what a meltdown. That last goal Harding gave up was terrible

[Bran32]

AWFUL!!!!!!!!!!!!

[broodwich]

Don't bother trading now! Their season is over! They should have won their 3rd straight, instead they will feel sorry for themselves and lose 12 in a row and take themselves out of the playoff picture. I'm very surprised the xcel didn't explode with boo's. The fans need to stop excepting this garbage. There is no excuse for giving up 4 goals in the 3rd. NONE! One more thing if I see Zanon in a Wild jersey next year I'm gonna have to become a Jets fan.

[MNice]

That game was...dare I say it... quite Viking-like. Snatched defeat from the jaws of victory

[archerystud]

Glad I decided to go to bed after the second period. Ouch!

[Bear55]

That was painful.

[solbes]

This has been one of my worst weeks ever watching Hockey. Dogs and Wild playing like [PoorWordUsage] to lose huge leads. Ugh.

[archerystud]

So I went and watched the goals that Nashville scored. Most of those just appeared to be poor coverage by the Wild. Lift some sticks or clear out the front of the net!!!

Except that last one, that one is on Harding!!!

[wormdunker]

I was at the game last night with my 3 kids. For perspective almost a $500 night. To make matters worse I had to skip my hockey game to go to the Wild. The first two periods were great. The third was attrocious. The wild should have changed their name to the Turtles. They basically shut it down and tried to survive. They quit.

In periods one and two the breakout was great, d maintained tight gaps up the ice, we dominated the offensive zone. When the PReds did come out of the zone the forwards were on them, here was no one to drop to, they were covered.

In the thrid the plan (coach induced for sure)was gain the red, dump in, change lines, endure prolonged D Zone time....repeat.

It was Awful. If all you saw was how the puck went in the net you are not assessing the game properly.

All I can say is if the Wild are only going to play for 2/3 of a game, I want 1/3 of my money back.

[schmitty3]

Good to see the Wild come back from Tuesday night and get the W. They definately didn't play their best but a win is a win. Funny how they play so well most of the game Tuesday night and lose, and then win a game like this. Backstrom played great. The Ave's didn't put too many real good chances on him, but when they did he came up big. This was a big win for the playoff picture, and hopefully they can keep it up next game. That's 3 wins in the last 4. (should be 4 for 4)

[OnAFly]

Yeah, imagine the feeling in the locker room if they'd beat Nashville. They would be back on a legitimate streak. Oh well.

They just gutted out this one. How many shots did they have in the 3rd? Had to be fewer than 5. Backs made a couple real good toe saves. They didn;t look great in action, but on the replay, there were a couple that easily could have gotten through. Powe needs to score that open netter. He had a step on the guy, he had control of the puck, just drive to the net and put it in.

[solbes]

I didn't watch the end of the game, but it sure looked like we squeaked one out here. Maybe makes up for getting hosed against Nashville (our own fault I guess).

Speaking of getting hosed...

[OnAFly]

I heard about this. It kind of hoses us really, as LA is now 3 points ahead of us in the standings.

[Bear55]

Speaking of getting hosed...

There goes a $300 stick.

[Bran32]

Wild just traded Casey Wellman to the Rangers for Erik Christiansen and a 2013 7th round pick. Not quite a blockbuster but maybe they will start making a little noise!!

[OnAFly]

Sounds like he's nothing too special, but could help in a few key areas like faceoffs and shootouts. As long as he isn't a defensive liability, it should be good for the team.

[solbes]

I heard Erik had some good shootout moves. Maybe this guy can give us some extra point-age in the final standings.

[schmitty3]

The guy has some sweet hands, and makes some great plays, but he's been real inconsistent over his career. He did have 18 goals and 15 assist in 33 games in 06-07 with the Pens when Yeo was still there, but hasn't really done much since. Hopefully he can bring some playmaking to the powerplay, and create chances 5 on 5. Check out this shot top cheddar from a sharp angle in last years playoffs.

[10,000 Casts]

a pretty blah blah trade in my book. a future 3-4 liner for a now 3-4 liner and a 7th rd pick. Christensen was a healthy scratch for half the games this year, hopefully yeo and fletcher know something everyone else doesn't. The shootout goals will be nice but the Rangers must have cared too much about that...

who will they scratch to get Christiensen in the lineup???

[10,000 Casts]

answered my own question, Rau will be sent down. Christiansen hasen't played since Dec 17. Tonight will tell alot..

[OnAFly]

Hopefully he's got a fire under his a$$ tonight. Word is he needs one to perform. Oh well, Wellman wasn't going to get the shots he wanted out here with all the prospects we've accumulated and if Chistiansen doesn't work at least we get a pick. If we sign him, we get nothing. From what I've heard, we should go for the pick and hope for a diamond in the rough.

[OnAFly]

Man we just can not win at Dallas. Good to get a point out of it, but that second one would have been key. I thought we were going to get at least one in that first. We were really swarming the Dallas net, just couldn't get the puck on their sticks in the right place. Great goal by Brodziak, BTW. His first break was pretty weak, but he sure made up for it.

Zids looked better too. At least he wasn't giving pucks away left and right.

[OnAFly]

Prosser got signed. $1.65mil total for 2 years one way.

Good to hear the kids getting rewarded for his play after being up and down from Houston so much.

[Bear55]

Prosser has been a pleasant surprise this year, happy for him.

[Bear55]

I though it might be time to assess the season, 30 games to go and we are sitting in 8th place. We have had one epic winning streak and one epic losing streak. On top of that we have had a plague of injuries that border on rediculous. The last month and a half hasn't been easy but overall its hard not to feel somewhat good about where we are after all we have been through.

We play a pretty terrible columbus team tonight, time to right the ship and take two points and lay claim to a playoff spot, I don't really care where just get us in!

[OnAFly]

Here's my take:

On October 3rd, if someone told you we were sitting in a playoff spot with 30 to go, we would be pretty happy about it. I think the win streak got a lot of hopes up and set a standard we couldn't possibly have held up. Be it injuries, bad luck, or bad play that led to the losing streak, we were just due.

What's good to see is that the players were winning games when they played Yeo's system. They were losing games when they strayed from Yeo's system. Now they've played they way Yeo wants and have done real well the last 5 games (minus 10 minutes). Hopefully the message is clear, play the way you're supposed to and good things will come.

I don't expect us to win the Cup this year, but I do expect us to play some good hockey. Hopefully it's in late April.

[Bear55]

We play a pretty terrible columbus team tonight, time to right the ship and take two points and lay claim to a playoff spot, I don't really care where just get us in!

I had to open my big mouth.

[OnAFly]

We always play poorly in Columbus for some reason. I think they were looking past this game and forward to going home. Too bad cause this was two points we desperately need.

[schmitty3]

Just when you think they're starting to come together back into form they give you that.