Minnesota Wild lose to Vancouver Canucks in Thanksgiving Eve match-up at Xcel

All of the Wild fans who paid big bucks in hopes of seeing a Wild Vancouver boxing match may have been a little disappointed. One of the Wild ticket scalpers said he was getting $75 for an upper level seat (face value < $30) and that this game was even hotter than the Sidney Crosby Pittsburgh Penguin appearance at the end of October.  

The big ticket and pre-game media hype didn’t exactly pan out how the Minnesota Wild had hoped.  Vancouver captain Markus Naslund scored three goals on the Wild and Ryan Kesler added one more to lead the Canucks to a 4-2 victory. Marian Gaborik scored twice for the Wild, but the lack of team energy in the second and especially the third period led to the loss. Boxing fans only got to see one fight between Vancouver's Mike Brown and the Wilds Aaron Voros in the first.

"For people that wanted to see something that wasn't good, clean hockey, it might have been a bit of a letdown," Minnesota defenseman Sean Hill said.

Marian Gaborik was disappointed the Wild didn't put forth a better effort with crucial points on the line.

"The games against Colorado, Calgary, Vancouver, they are always tight and physical," he said. "We just have to be extra ready for those games and try to win as many games as we can. Too bad we didn't win this one."

Too bad indeed, the Minnesota Wild are on a downward spiral in a super tight division. Let’s hope a little turkey in the belly can turn this team around.