Wild at Avs recap, Wild take over 8th place with 3-2 win

A little bit later, Winnik got straight up boarded – NO CALL – and since the refs didn’t want to do their job, Daniel decided to police things himself and immediately challenged his assailant. Both went off for 5 mins, but DW also got 2 mins for a slash to kick off the scrap.

Terrible non-call. Absolutely ridiculous. Dangerous hit by Falk, and he deserved to be called for it. Too bad both guys were at the end of their shifts, because the fight was lame.

That sucked

I thought Landy had a good game. Saw him playing his heart out and really amped up his physical play towards the end of the game.

Also just realized that since I’m in a place that hockey fans are few and far between, I had a friend who gave me a puck as a gift. The only downside – it’s a FSN Greatest Wild Goals at Xcel Energy Center featuring Pierre Marc Bouchard’s Spin-o-Rama Goal in a shootout vs. Chicago on Dec. 5th, 2006. Should I get rid of this and give it back since it seems like a bad luck omen? The Wild are 8-1-2 against Colorado in the last 11 games at the Pepsi Center.

I hate the motherfucking “all star” break.

And I have accepted my verbosity, so this is probably not going to be short.
In the locker room Duke may be the Captain, but we were missing our on-ice Captain tonight. I’m with Moser here – the team looked out of sorts without him. O’Reilly plays in every situation and does so with fire and dedication. Without him, the team looks flat. If nothing else, he bails out their collective ass a lot of the time by getting some big goals or making big plays or winning critical faceoffs or protecting the puck in his zone or stealing the puck at the perfect moment or…. you get the idea. He’s not looked like himself in the past few games, and now we know why. Get better soon, Ryan. You’re the heart and soul of this team and they clearly need you back on the ice.

Landy had a good game, but not even he was as sharp as he usually is without his Center. This is his first NHL game/scrimmage/whatever without Radar on his line. Those were made to play together – they just make each other better hockey players. Still, Landy extended his point streak to 3 games, so good on him. Good luck at the skills comp this weekend!

What’s up with Varly? Seriously, why didn’t he start tonight? After the LA game, yeah, I wasn’t concerned with Sacco playing Jiggy, but 3 in a row, 2 of which are now losses because Jiggy got beat on breakaways? Jiggy’s not been terrible by any stretch, but the best cure for breakaway goals is some Ninja Spider. I’m not exactly worried, just…. concerned… by the situation.

EJ however had a good night. Hits, shots, good defensive plays – he’s been quietly getting better for a lot of this season. He started getting it under control around the same time the Avs did. It might be a chicken/egg debate, but he’s certainly played a large part in our recent run.

I hate to say it, but Elliott and surprisingly Hejduk are becoming liabilities out there. Elliott needs more seasoning – there’s a reason he was almost scratched tonight and probably will be back in Cleveland soon. But the Duke? He did have one assist, but he played nearly 20 minutes tonight and just seemed invisible unless he was turning the puck over. I know he’s got his hands full trying to teach these kids how to be hockey players, but we need him on the ice too.

Hejduk goal count: 8 needed, 31 games remaining

Luckily we’re now on the All-Star break. What a great time for the boys to get healthy and take a look on what they need to work on. I’m hoping we come back rested, sober (Duchene’s not at the ASG this year), and ready to work our asses off to lock up that 8th spot.

Johnson and Winnik were good tonight.

Whoever is responsible for the next breakaway against needs to get doghoused imo. That shit has to get stopped now. The defensemen can jump into the play all they want, if they and their partner are being smart about it and working together. But we have forwards to lead the rush. We don’t need O’Brien and Wilson doing it all the time. Elliott gets a pass because of that wrister.

I thought Wilson was terrible tonight, and so was Elliott. There was a moment in I think the third where a Wild skater was bringing the puck out of the corner toward his side of the net and he actually started to back up. Dude come ON! Not one of O’Brien’s better games either, giveaway leads to game winning breakaway goal and that can-opener in the corner was just dangerous.

Missing O’Reilly sucks. I’m not gonna sit here and play the injury game because I watched last season, but the difference is palpable when you don’t have Radar leading a forecheck. NBC was on the Avs all night for being too soft in the neutral zone. A Ryan O’Reilly forecheck clogs you up. Missing that, and with guys having to be double-shifted all night thanks to 11 forwards, and the forecheck was brutal—and Minnesota’s killed us. Just brutal.

It would be nice if Giguere would make as many saves as he allows goals on the breakaway. He’s not awful in the shootout… And I don’t get the decision to ride Giguere another game here. Much like I don’t get why this team can’t seem to beat divisional opponents. I’m gonna attack this with maths over the all star break, and possibly do an update on my Stastny things or two (the data missing is maybe 30 minutes of work tops).

Hejduk has to be better. He’s scored 5 goals since Thanksgiving.

ALL OF THAT SAID…. the Avs were beaten by one goal, and that one goal was a turrible breakaway. Before Bobby O’Brien handed McMillgimimlmaaimipam that puck, the ice was tiliting and the Avs were starting to look like they had a chance to steal a point out of this bed-shittery. The put 15 shots on goal in the third period—compared to 11 in the first two combined—and may even have squeaked out a ROW if they hadn’t given that one up. Just back breaking but the fact that, after that total egg-laying, they still had a back to break…. damn.

Is Stastny too comfy in Colorado?

Someone needs to take a stick to the dmen and get all spartan with them, cuz they’ll need it to feel another beating. WAY too many breakaways in the last two games, and while 1, maybe 2 can be written off to dumb luck, the others were just plain dumb. No excuse to have all five guys on the off. blueline in a 2-2 game. None. I realize the O corps is thin right now, but at least leave ONE guy back. Please. Thank you.

#BlameSacco #FireSacco

It find it interesting that the Avs had yesterday off. They had back to back games Saturday and Sunday and any smart coach would give them the next day off. However, I find it strange that this is the fourth of fifth time that the Avs have come out flat and unmotivated after having the previous day off. I wonder if they are the sort of team that needs that constant discipline and whether another thing they need to learn as they mature is how to be in “game mode” without practicing the previous day. Food for thought.

Gotta say, I did enjoy Johnson laying out Clusterfuck

This team needs Duchene….

My game summary: I hate it when the Avs suck ass.

Twitter is reporting that JML is signing a 4 year extension. Don’t suppose the accountant got future considerations in the event that this happened?

I can’t recall a game where the team half-assed the puck around in their own zone so much. Just fricken brutal. The worst offenders, imo:

Elliot, Quincey, SOB, Stats, Square Peg, and Jones. Almost everyone was bad, but those guys were noticeably atrocious.

So the “jumbo” tron really needs to be replaced now. There was a huge black square of broken pixels in the middle of one side. Incredibly frustrating as it was the only angle we really had. I’m sure the Nuggets will put up a big enough stink that Enos Jr will do something about it. Okay, so I hope that will happen.

Seriously what is going on in the picture? It looks like he’s has some run in with Agent Smith in the Matrix and his mouth has been sealed shut or something. At least that would explain the lack of a whistle on a few plays.