Minnesota Wild vs LA Kings: Game Recap
by BReynolds on Dec 29, 2009 12:41 AM CST
in Events
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PrintMinnesota Wild 4-3 Los Angeles Kings
- The Kings have owned the Wild the past couple seasons. Will this continue? Not tonight. Except for the third period, the Wild seemed to contain them well, and the Wild did win the game.
- With Kobasew out, does this give Sheppard an opportunity to find his way back into the lineup? Shep did return to the line-up, but was a complete non-factor. Only 9:43 TOI and a -1.
- Can the Wild keep Anze Koptiar off the scoreboard? To this a resounding yes. No points, a -1 rating, and just 2 SOG.
- Guillaume Latendresse is using his size and skill and getting big minutes. The minutes are paying off. Will they continue to turn into points and wins? The Wild are now 12-2 with Lats in the line-up. No points tonight, but another solid game and a handful of chances.
- Kobasew's energy and effort has been paramount in the turnaround of the team. Who will replace that? No one really stood out as an energy guy tonight. Lats sure seems to provide a spark though. Between him and Clutterbuck, there is plenty of spark to go around.
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Blue Paint
I thought maybe they changed the rules making it legal to push the goalie out of the way so you can score. After the “goal” I thought Backs was going to murder the ref. I wouldn’t be surprised if Watson was the ref last night.
Maybe the NHL
is using substitution ref’s from the NBA, you now, where every call is determined by star factor, and betting lines.
Will the Real Thor Please Stand Up ... ?
Where's that sinking feeling?
I never get that sinking feeling with this years version of the Wild. No matter what happens to this team, I always feel like they are capable of turning the game in their favor, to compete, to be there at the end and probably win. I didn’t get sense of dread after the king’s first goal and not after the kings last goal. If i hit the zoom on my tv so that the scoreline on top is cut off, I might forget who is winning, because they seem to play exactly the same no matter what the score is. Kind of refreshing.
by W1ldfan on Dec 29, 2009 8:04 AM CST reply actions 1 recs
That is a fair take. It is easy to lose sight of the fact that this team has had, since November, quite a bit of tenacity where they do absolutely own the play. Win or lose, this seems to show up for at least 2-2.5 full periods of play and we do get the feeling they always have a chance.
The issue I’ve seen, and to which I directly commented on that “sinking feeling” last night [due in no small part to the Vikings earlier], is that at certain points in the game the team just stops moving their feet. It is then that the “bad things” tend to happen (e.g. giving up a 2 goal lead). Sometimes it doesn’t hurt them b/c of Backstrom or some puck luck, but there are noticable chunks of time that this team just stops moving their feet and allows the other team to absolutely control play.
Now, maybe this is true for all teams? We happen to be a little more critical here because we do pay too close attention. It is probably unreasonable for any team to expect every minute be perfect—even at the highest level. Momentum does shift and it is how a team survives these shifts that make the game. So, yes, very good point.
Let's Go Wild!
The funny thing is that I had not yet read your post when I wrote my post, I was just trying to state a noticible difference between this year and years past, when the team, even if leading always left me wondering, “are they goin,g to be able to hold on and weather the storm?”.
undoubtably they tend to have lapses, but those lapses are decreasing, compared to the preseason and first couple weeks, in which the entire game was a lapse. I believe Richards is still teaching this team his system and there are still improvements to make and those periods of confusion and disarray will decrease. There will likely be problems to come as other teams adjust and try different things against The Wild, We will hopefully be able recognize and adjust to those situations and improve through them.
I have to say that watching this team develope this season has been a ton of fun and makes me excited for what is to come.
GO WILD
Thank you, Wild, for restoring faith in Minnesota sports.
A franchise record for December wins, too…bonus!
"You can't sit on a lead and run a few plays into the line and just kill the clock. You've got to throw the ball over the damn plate and give the other man his chance. That's why baseball is the greatest game of them all." -Earl Weaver
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