Minnesota Wild vs Montreal Canadiens: Game Re-Cap

by BReynolds on Sep 27, 2010 12:37 AM CDT in News

I feel for this child. Poor kid has a life of Habs fandom ahead her.

This will be rather short, as I, again, did not see the game. The StarTrib had a man in Montreal that did a fairly decent job, so make sure you check that out. We'll discuss it more in the Walk in the morning, but the re-cap is pretty good.

For now, we'll just jump to a few note worthy things from the stats page:

- Of the four goals scored by Montreal, Clayton Stoner was on the ice for two of them.

- Marco Scandella was on the ice for three against, and one goal for the Wild.

- Cody Almond was on for three against, all at even strength.

- The Wild had five shots on goal through two periods, including just one in the second. They finished with just 14.

Positives, all pulled from the stat sheet look to have come from Justin Falk, Drew Bagnall, Cal Clutterbuck, Antti Miettinen, and Kyle Brodziak. Despite the positive looking score sheet, reports are that Guillaume Latendresse had another iffy game. Hopefully he can pull out of that after the team pairs down to it's near final roster tomorrow.

Hockey Wilderness Three Stars:

None. Not even going to venture a guess.

Five Questions:

1. With most of the regulars out of the lineup for the third game in three nights, can the Wild actually win a game this preseason? Nope. As the article in the Trib reports, Todd Richards did not believe the score accurately reported the game. From the stats, I would agree.

2.Does Drew Bagnall continue to impress? Certainly looks like it. Making the decision a rather difficult one, that's for sure.

3. How does the goaltending tandem slated to start in Houston look against the Habs? Sounds to me like the defense once again let down the goalies. Hackett did not play, as the Wild looked to give Khudobin a chance to show his stuff.

4.Does Staubitz drop the gloves tonight, and is there any on the Habs that knows how to fight? Staubitz did not, but Bagnall and Kalus got to dance. Former Wild Alex Henry is with the Habs right now, and was a willing partner.

5. Who provides the phone book for Scott Gomez tonight? Verizion or Yellow Pages.com? Reporters were denied access to this information.

Bonus:

6. If Pouliot plays, does he float out of the building? Pouliot did not play. Poor kid.

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Comments

Stoner facepalm

I had such high hopes for this kid (no pun intended), but it’s absolutely frustrating to watch him play in the pre-season. For the 3rd GA he put the puck right onto Boyd’s stick where it only lingered briefly before finding its way to the back of the net. I’m surprised the off-ice officials didn’t credit the kid with an assist on that goal.

Khudobin really didn’t look that bad. Out of all the goals only the 4th was really his fault — he was way the heck outside the crease with absolutely no hope of cutting off the angle on the shot that would eventually land itself in the back of the net.

The thing I’m starting to get worried about is we really only have 1 reasonably-solid puck moving D: Burns. Stoner is looking horribly out of place, same with Barker. What now? Stoner’s $500k is easy enough to bury in the minors if we’re forced to do it, but Barker @ $3.083m is just depressing beyond belief with the play we’re seeing out of the kid.

I really want to be optimistic heading into the season, but these guys aren’t exactly giving me a lot to work with.

by SpaethCo on Sep 27, 2010 3:54 AM CDT reply actions

Well, it often happens that teams don't do well in the preseason but do well in the regular season

Of course that won’t happen if the Wild keeps playing like shit… I pretty much saw the whole game and it was sad… furthermore because it was against my arch-nemesis Habs.

Falk’s goal was absolutely ridiculous! He just pulled that out of nowhere, split the D all by himself and the puck went out of the goal as quickly as it went in. Awesome goal for Falk. I’m also glad Lats got an assist against the Habs, that way I can at least brag a little bit. Too bad POOliot didn’t play.

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

twitter: BubbleWild48

by JSLandry on Sep 27, 2010 5:29 AM CDT reply actions

We've got to remember

that the Wild isn’t close to playing their full lineup. Today’s lineup featured 8 for sure NHLers. The Wild are making more cuts today, and play Columbus twice this week. If they keep up this shaky play with that roster, then I’ll get concerned, but not yet.

by nemo1107 on Sep 27, 2010 6:16 AM CDT reply actions

The score is no indication to the level of ass the Wild's play was last night

but on a positive note, Bagnell’s making a case for Stoner’s 6th spot.

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

twitter: BubbleWild48

by JSLandry on Sep 27, 2010 8:33 AM CDT reply actions

Maybe it's ignorant hope

since I haven’t watched/listened to any of the preseason games, but I’m not judging this team based on preseason play. Coaches don’t necessarily go into a preseason game with the plan to win; they usually go into the game with a certain number of objectives that they want to accomplish (i.e. scouting players, making cuts, testing new powerplay and PK strategies).

The Wild may be playing like crap regardless of gameplan/personnel changes, but the fact remains that these games don’t matter. The Wild may be losing because they aren’t bringing that mental edge to the game that is necessary to win. The players could be going into the mindset that “this game doesn’t matter because it doesn’t affect me making the team or it’s not going to get us into the playoffs.” Needless to say that mindset could be the cause of horrible play all around.

I don’t really have an excuse for Stoner. That dude’s ass is on the line and he’s choking. He should be competing more than anyone on the team. If he actually is, he doesn’t belong in the NHL. If he isn’t, he doesn’t belong in the NHL either.

by ADN on Sep 27, 2010 11:03 AM CDT reply actions

If there are players playing in preseason games with a “these games don’t matter” attitude, then they need to spend some time in Houston. I don’t care who they are. These games may not count in the standings, but they count for chemistry, for conditioning, for muscle memory, for any number of physical reasons. These guys need these games to get into game shape, and they need to be pushing 100% no matter if the game matters or not. This isn’t Allen Iverson, and this isn’t “practice.” They can’t turn it on and off.

Short version: if they have been holding something back, they all need to be punished and come out hard in the next two games.

Hockey Wilderness
Assistant Editor:SBN Minnesota

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

by BReynolds on Sep 27, 2010 3:18 PM CDT up reply actions

I agree with that

and I do hope that they do indeed come to play.

All in all, I’m trying to make excuses for them in hopes that they’ll turn it around. I do still think that most of the problems are mental, and Richards has some work to do before the season begins.

by ADN on Sep 27, 2010 7:17 PM CDT up reply actions