More photos » Jim Mone - AP

4 months ago: Colorado Avalanche goalie Craig Anderson, center, blocks a shot by Minnesota Wild's Martin Havlat, upper right, in the first period of an NHL hockey game Wednesday, Oct. 21, 2009, in St. Paul, Minn. (AP Photo/Jim Mone)

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Now, the negatives of the night. Frankly, for a team having to rebound from a horrible road trip, I'm going to give them a bit of a pass, as they did enough to win the game, aside from being outworked and outmanned for the majority of the evening. They didn't make the glaring mistakes that had been their downfall in the five game losing streak. No, tonight's negative goes to the Minnesota Wild PR team. I don't care what they say about tickets distributed counting as a sell-out. There were at least 2,500 empty seats tonight. You could see it clearly on television, and people online were commenting about how empty the place was. Yet they once again announced a sell-out. Not impressive at all folks.

I guess we'll see if they can build on tonight. Here's hoping they start to figure some things out. I liked the step they took though. We'll see what happens on Friday against the Blues.

Please read the game recap over at Mile High Hockey

Hockey Wilderness Three Stars

1. MIkko Koivu(1 G, 1 A)
2. Niklas Backstrom (35 saves)
   
3. Kim Johnsson (no goals allowed in 28:49)
   

Questions to Answer

1. Should the Wild look to the Avalanche as a team to emulate as part of a rebuilding process? The Avalanche have good young talent, but they make too many mental mistakes, or at least they did tonight. That being said, they are definitely headed in the right direction, but are still at least a year away from making an impact in the post-season. Craig Anderson has played well, but if he falters, they leave him hanging a bit too much. They'll age well though.
   
2. Will Chuck Kobasew make a difference? Kobesew did everything we would ask for except score. He drove to the net, applied pressure on the forecheck. Took the zone with speed, drew penalties and looked like he jumped into the system with little difficulty. If he keeps this up, he'll be a nice asset to the second line. Now he just needs to work on his defense a bit, as he was a -2 tonight.
   
3. Can the C on Mikko Koivu's chest have an impact? Who knows, but tonight he was vocal on the bench, performed on the ice and was every part of the captain. We all know this is his team, the C finally seals it.
   
4. How is the green sweater going to look? I love the color, I hate the lettering for the name and the numbers. They needed to add some piping or something around the letters and numbers. It looks like a replica or screenprint. Seems to be cheap.
   
5. Does Benoit Pouliot continue his solid play? Pouliot, for the third game in a row, played within himself, played physically, created problems for the opposition and worked his butt off. I like what I'm seeing over the past week.