Minnesota Wild vs Carolina Hurricanes: Game Re-Cap

by BReynolds on Oct 7, 2010 2:24 PM CDT in Events

Minnesota Wild 3 - 4 Carolina Hurricanes

For enemy reaction, please visit Canes Country.

What more can be said? The preseason struggles, and the weaknesses exposed, are still there. Team defense is non-existent, the forecheck is reliant on two or three players who understand it, and the special teams are ineffective. I'm all for holding on to tired cliches such as "It's only one game," but the old patterns are still there. Old habits have not been broken, and it certainly appears as though Todd Richards has lost control of this team, if he ever had it.

Following the pattern that the Wild displayed last season and this pre-season, the Wild came out sharp. Solid forechecking, faceoff wins, defense playing fairly well and supporting the forwards in the offensive zone. The Wild struck first with Latendresse taking a pass from Koivu (has a nice ring to it, doesn't it?) and burying it behind Cam Ward. The Wild had the Canes pinned back, out dueling them in every facet of the game. Then, with just under ten seconds left, the Wild gave up a power play goal after a stupid interference penalty by Cam Barker, allowing one of those late period goals that never haunt anyone in the NHL.

The question had to be asked. Which team would come out in the second? Would it be the team that played the first ten minutes of the game, or the one that played final ten minutes of the period. It would take just 5:58 to find out. Carolina pulled ahead after a defensive breakdown.The Canes had the Wild right where they wanted them, but Matt Cullen continued to show that he is one of the leaders on this team as he buried a rebound to tie the game yet again.

Having momentum on their side, the Wild would use it to their advantage by surrendering another go ahead goal, and then finishing the period by giving up another late period goal. This would be what Russo would call a "trademark three period goal" for the Wild.

The third period would round out the Wild's pattern, as they started the period flat, wasted two power play opportunities, and played sloppy again for most of the period. As time wound down, the Wild would begin to show signs of life, with Guillaume Latendresse getting into a scuffle behind the Carolina net, Havlat coming to his defense, and Brent Burns burying a PP goal late. However, the pattern complete, the Wild came up just short, losing 4-3.

Tomorrow is another day.

Positives: Well... Carolina's offense looks good. Jeff Skinner is going to be a very good NHLer. Anton Babchuck scored a goal, helping out all of my fantasy teams. Matt Cullen looked good for the Wild, played hard every shift, and he and Koivu won the majority of faceoffs. Brent Burns looked good, and Clayton Stoner was not on the ice for a single goal against.

Negatives: In a loss? They are everywhere. Playing old style Wild hockey is the worst. Nick Schultz was on the ice for every goal against. The team just does not seem to have what it takes.

Hockey Wilderness Three Stars:

1. Brandon Sutter (2G, 3 SOG, 19:08 TOI)

2. Anton Babchuk (1G)

3. Cam Ward (26 saves)

Five Questions:

1. To quote some someone from the West Virginia highlands: "We ain't saw nuttin from dees here boys." Which Wild team comes out tonight? The one that can play, or the one that doesn't seem to care? We got both. Problem is, the good team didn't stick around for very long.

2. Zidlicky is listed as "questionable." If he can't go, who steps up for the Wild to lead the breakout? No one. Without him, the Wild struggle to get out of their zone. Huge source of weakness.

3. Can the Wild continue a relative dominance of the East? Nope. While they outplayed Carolina in several aspects, the categories that matter weren't among them.

4. Will Clutterbuck skate with Havlat / Cullen? If so, is he a factor in the offense? He did, indeed, skate with Cullen and Havlat, and he was indeed involved in the offense. It still just doesn't seem like the right move, though.

5. How do the Wild Finns play in one of the most exciting games of their lives? Miettinen played a solid game, with three shots on goal. Koivu was his usual self, and Backstrom showed flashes of his old game.

BONUS:

6. The Twins proved last night that Minnesota teams only show up for most of the game, not all of it. Can the Wild buck the trend? More of the same. Took the last half of the first period off, the entire second period off, and until the final four minutes of the third, looked as though they were ready to pack up and go back to Saint Paul.

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Comments

Pretty sure Brent Sutter didn't have much to do with that win ;)

Brandon did a great job though, thus deserving the first star….TYPOOOOOO :)

JS, Champion of the first ever Hockey Wilderness Playoff Bracket Challenge! WHOOOOOOOO!

Not the loser of the first official Hockey Wilderness Fantasy Hockey League

Owner of the Bertrand Acadians of the Hockey Wilderness Fantasy Hockey League

twitter: BubbleWild48

by JSLandry on Oct 7, 2010 2:33 PM CDT reply actions

Whoops. Will fix. Was on auto pilot.

Editor:Hockey Wilderness
Assistant Editor:SBN Minnesota
Owner: Komissaari erämaa

Rule #17: You may not impersonate representatives of Hockey Wilderness and handout NHL themed wrist bands.

by BReynolds on Oct 7, 2010 2:35 PM CDT up reply actions

Fixed. Thank you, sir.

Editor:Hockey Wilderness
Assistant Editor:SBN Minnesota
Owner: Komissaari erämaa

Rule #17: You may not impersonate representatives of Hockey Wilderness and handout NHL themed wrist bands.

by BReynolds on Oct 7, 2010 2:39 PM CDT up reply actions

No prob buddy!

I’ll chalk this up as a typo as well, but how is Cullen not in the three stars?

Also, don’t know if you already fixed it, but the score under the cute picture should read 3-4 (actually, i would prefer it read 8-1 Wild)

JS, Champion of the first ever Hockey Wilderness Playoff Bracket Challenge! WHOOOOOOOO!

Not the loser of the first official Hockey Wilderness Fantasy Hockey League

Owner of the Bertrand Acadians of the Hockey Wilderness Fantasy Hockey League

twitter: BubbleWild48

by JSLandry on Oct 7, 2010 2:43 PM CDT up reply actions

He was screwed by the rest of the team.

Editor:Hockey Wilderness
Assistant Editor:SBN Minnesota
Owner: Komissaari erämaa

Rule #17: You may not impersonate representatives of Hockey Wilderness and handout NHL themed wrist bands.

by BReynolds on Oct 8, 2010 8:32 AM CDT up reply actions

Justin Falk looked really good in this game. Covers his ice well in the zone and can skate, so at least one player had a positive impact in his own zone.

by JDesthubert on Oct 7, 2010 4:29 PM CDT reply actions

Anyone taking bets on how long Richards keeps his job?

by shleske on Oct 7, 2010 5:06 PM CDT reply actions

I give him 2 months max. if he keeps this pace up... and that's a large max.

This team looks really good on paper, but for some reason, they can’t make it work and in most such cases, it’s the coach.

And to think, almost everyone disagreed with me: http://www.hockeywilderness.com/2010/3/30/1396941/the-official-todd-richards-rant
Sure, my points may not have been the best ones, but the general feel of it was Richards not doing too good.

JS, Champion of the first ever Hockey Wilderness Playoff Bracket Challenge! WHOOOOOOOO!

Not the loser of the first official Hockey Wilderness Fantasy Hockey League

Owner of the Bertrand Acadians of the Hockey Wilderness Fantasy Hockey League

twitter: BubbleWild48

by JSLandry on Oct 7, 2010 6:08 PM CDT up reply actions

It’s easy to write off nay-saying in the coach’s first year. Sadly, this is his second year. I think he’s feeling the pressure and is cracking under it.

I like the guy, but the Wild need someone to light the fire, and Richards isn’t doing it.

Owner of The Haves & Havlats in the Hockey Wilderness League

by ADN on Oct 7, 2010 6:20 PM CDT up reply actions

Sure the season's just starting...

But we’ve seen no progress whatsoever… he was desperately switching lines up today… The team’s weakness right now is chemistry and you’ll never build chemistry if you’re changing your players’ roles all the time and switching the lines every other shift…

JS, Champion of the first ever Hockey Wilderness Playoff Bracket Challenge! WHOOOOOOOO!

Not the loser of the first official Hockey Wilderness Fantasy Hockey League

Owner of the Bertrand Acadians of the Hockey Wilderness Fantasy Hockey League

twitter: BubbleWild48

by JSLandry on Oct 7, 2010 6:39 PM CDT up reply actions

last year i gave him a break because it was his first year, and i know there’s only been one official game this season, but there’s no excuse for it anymore. we have the talent. the coach is there to make it work, and he’s proven he can’t do that. the line changing, i agree. that’s not the way to fix this team.

by shleske on Oct 7, 2010 6:51 PM CDT up reply actions

I'm not sure I buy this

you’ll never build chemistry if you’re changing your players’ roles all the time and switching the lines every other shift…

We went deep in the playoffs in ’03 and won the NW Division in ’08 with Lemaire constantly changing up the lines.

I think one of the issues is that Richards appears to be a player’s coach, and this team seems to badly need a drill sargent.

by SpaethCo on Oct 7, 2010 7:45 PM CDT up reply actions

You can’t compare Richards to Lemaire, it can’t be done. Plus, Lemaire’s system was well implemented at that time, so everyone knew what to do. Right now however, adding to the burden of actually understanding Richards’ system, they have to try and build chemistry with new players. They can’t get used to each other, that’s what I mean by this.

He stills has the benefit of the doubt however, because it’s still early in the season, but he better get his act together fast, because there’s no way this team’s supposed to lose 7 straight (I’m not counting the Ilves game)

JS, Champion of the first ever Hockey Wilderness Playoff Bracket Challenge! WHOOOOOOOO!

Not the loser of the first official Hockey Wilderness Fantasy Hockey League

Owner of the Bertrand Acadians of the Hockey Wilderness Fantasy Hockey League

twitter: BubbleWild48

by JSLandry on Oct 7, 2010 8:19 PM CDT up reply actions

and yet...

Lemaire’s main complaint about his team was that they often lacked the heart and commitment to make the system work. You could always tell if the Lemaire Wild would win if the team came out moving their feet… which often only happened for 1.5 to 2 periods at a time.

Lemaire and Richards don’t belong on the same page as coaches, or hockey people. Yet their struggles with this team are similar. There is a disconnect somewhere between the coaching staff and the players, and I’m not all that certain it can be squarely blamed on the coaches. In all the years that I’ve played hockey, coaches can give a pep talk, make an adjustment or two on the fly, but the real gut-check, the real motivation always comes from the players on the ice. I’m not saying that Richards belongs behind the bench, or that he doesn’t, but I am saying that this team always seems to be missing a little something.

by Krotz the Wall on Oct 8, 2010 7:48 AM CDT up reply actions

A guy like Tortorella...

I would take over TR any day, we need fire, we need electricity, a punch to the face. Richards, much like Brad Childress, might be a great guy at setting up and implementing a system in a new place. He’d make a great assistant coach. But when a guy turns a puck over in his own zone or gets pyloned, we need a coach who is going to tell that guy how much of an ass he is so that he doesn’t make that mistake again. If I let my man blow past me and he ends up scoring and I come to the bench and ol’ Todd “ho-hum” Richards is busy looking balefully into the camera then it’s like there is no recourse.

Maybe I missed it on the feed yesterday but it doesn’t seem like Richards was doing much of anything other than staring woefully at the scoreboard and sometimes “talking” to the guys during play stoppages.

Hockey Wilderness Fantasy Team: 12th Legion

by JMarushin on Oct 8, 2010 8:05 AM CDT up reply actions

Tortorella would be... interesting.

It’s odd that Richard’s came in having the reputation of being rather intense, coming out of his extreme competitiveness, because we certainly haven’t seen it behind the bench, or heard rumors about it from the locker room.

I give this a month. Either the team starts competing or Richards is gone… fair to him or not. If things haven’t started clicking, a change needs to happen and the only change the Wild have a budget for is for a Coach.

by Krotz the Wall on Oct 8, 2010 8:38 AM CDT up reply actions

I only saw the last 13 minutes or so..

because I was at work for the majority of the game. So I can’t really judge on how they played.. but at least they made it interesting in the last few minutes.

"Danny Valencia is a fricking stud! Hide your daughters!"
-Denard Span

by taralynn09 on Oct 7, 2010 8:40 PM CDT reply actions

same here

and there were a few players that were doing really well. Havlat, Cullen, Burns, and Falk seemed to be having great games.

Owner of The Haves & Havlats in the Hockey Wilderness League

by ADN on Oct 7, 2010 10:22 PM CDT up reply actions

I saw zero minutes of this game

But Backstrom just screwed me for my goalie stats in my fantasy league. I had Backs playing today, other guy had Khabibulin playing. Big hole to get out of considering my 2nd goalie is Lehtonen. Anyways.

Coaching change, anyone? Or too early?

by plopperrawr on Oct 8, 2010 12:27 AM CDT reply actions

Just saw the highlights

And where the hell was Backstrom going on that 4th goal?

by plopperrawr on Oct 8, 2010 12:30 AM CDT up reply actions

My biggest comment about the game...

listening to hockey on the radio is difficult because there is no way the commentators can keep up with the play. Oh well… will be doing it again today.

by Krotz the Wall on Oct 8, 2010 7:51 AM CDT reply actions