Minnesota Wild @St. Louis Blues: Game Recap

by BReynolds on Jan 14, 2012 10:09 PM CST in Events

Minnesota Wild 2 - 3 St. Louis Blues (SO)

For St. Louis perspective, please visit St. Louis Game Time.

The Wild desperately needed two things in this game. A win, and to not play poorly.

The first period was a lesson in mixed messages. The Wild played decently, with a goal from David McIntyre, his first of his NHL career, but mustered just four shots on goal. The Blues had them pinned at times, but Josh Harding come up huge time and time again, keeping his team in the game.

The worst news for the Wild was Mikko Koivu leaving the game with either a shoulder or arm injury with just 3:44 TOI.

The real story of the first will be the two fights, one between Justin Falk and David Backes after a big, clean hit from Falk on David Perron. Backes got a slew of penalties, earning himself 19 PIMs, and missing the entire first period. Then, there was another fight between Chris Stewart and Clayton Stoner that was better than the first fight, but still nothing special.

The start of the second period was all Blues. Exactly what the Wild needed to avoid. They got a goal from David Perron as the defense collapsed and Josh Harding was so far out of position, he looked to be trying to play center. The second came from Alex Pietrangelo on the power play after Brad Staubitz decided he needed to fight Ryan Reaves and took an extra two.

The Wild would find it's game, a bit, late in the second. In a twist of fate in which clearly someone paid for hell to freeze over, the Wild scored a power play goal. From Jared Spurgeon no less. Somehow, after a terrible start to the period, the Wild came out tied.

With the way the refs were calling this game, the Wild and Blues needed some serious discipline to stay out of the box. The Blues found it, the Wild... not so much. At one point, the Wild had more penalties than SOG in the third. After two rather exciting periods of hockey, the third period was painfully dull. With Harding once again bailing the team out time after time, the Wild accomplish not looking stupid as the pull the game to OT.

A save of the year candidate from Harding in OT continued his victory tour over illness. T.J. Oshie had the entire Wild squad beat, but Harding came up huge with the glove. If the beginning of the third was all St. Louis, the Wild simply weren't even involved in OT. Harding seemed to be out there alone, save for a couple big blocked shots from Justin Falk, who had an amazing game.

The shootout ended as Wild fans would expect, with a loss. The three shooters for the Wild, Matt Cullen, Dany Heatley, and Devin Setoguchi all put up weak attempts. And that's being nice.

There were a few postivies to be had in this game, but they were few and far between. Players were still giving up on plays and not giving 100%. Harding, Falk, and Mike Lundin all had solid games. The fourth line looked good. Other than that, the loss of Koivu was, once again, a give up moment for the Wild.

Take the point, move on. Eventually, the power play has to be a focus, and winning games has to start again.

Shuttlebus_medium

The Bennett's Chop & Railhouse Stars of the Game:

Josh Harding (47 saves)
David Perron (1G)
Jaroslav Halak (29 saves)

Five Questions:

From aggressive to passive. Which team shows up tonight? Both. Need to find some consistency.
Did the team get the message yet, or is it going to take benching Koivu? A few players got it. Falk was a beast.
Can these two teams get through a game without trying to kill each other? Nope.
Can Harding spring back from a soft performance? Big time. Great game.
How does Lundin look in his first game back? Better than Greg Zanon, so there's that.

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Comments

This has nothing to do with the Wild, but...

Glad to see that at least one level of hockey is finally getting the message. The Minnesota State High School League has done an overhaul of the rules regarding penalties for three hits: checking from behind, boarding, and contact to the head.

http://www.otsn.tv/news_article/show/128960?referrer_id

I’ve been advocating for this, especially the extra game suspension. It’s just too sad that it took 2 major injuries to high school players to finally get the ball rolling.

You know you're a Wild fan if Spam Whoopie Gerald-buns comes up in conversation
Regressing all the way back to high school hockey.
Mikael Granlund = Suomi Savior

by JDesthubert on Jan 14, 2012 10:18 PM CST reply actions 1 recs

Just saw that myself. Good for them.

Editor:Hockey Wilderness Swarm Beat Writer:In Lax We Trust Now with more Twitterness: ReynoldsSBN

Master of unsustainable passive regression.

by BReynolds on Jan 14, 2012 10:39 PM CST up reply actions

Doesnt do anything.

Stop signs didnt stop players from doing wrong, why would a simple rule change? A 1 game suspension will not deter players from making stupid decisions. The penalty needs to be stiffer, say 5 games for first offense and season suspension for second. That would get people to think twice before they make a bad choice.

And about the injuries sustained by Mr. Jablonski, and Ms. Privette, Jabs was a hit from behind, Privette was not, some believe she wasnt even hit. Privette has a history of a spinal injury, who knows what happened there.

by wild32384 on Jan 15, 2012 7:18 PM CST up reply actions

OK, first, the stops signs are in youth hockey. From what I can tell, parents and leagues love them. Gives them a very basic way to get through to the kids. See the stop sign, don’t hit. I don’t think I have ever read anyone with an issue with them.

Why would a simple rule change have an impact? It isn’t simple. It changes the entire way the game is called. Coaches are going to be forced to hold the kids who make these hits accountable, or lose the game, and thus their jobs. Simple as that. You see it as a game of checkers. Try looking at it as chess. Think a few moves ahead. A rule change doesn’t just impact the kids.

An automatic 5 game suspension? Draconian. Would it work? Maybe. But what does it do in game? It punishes the players, who have been coached and trained to hit this way. Maybe it has the same result as above, but unless you can prove the kid went against something he was taught to do, it’s a bit much to lash out with a five game suspension.

Editor:Hockey Wilderness Swarm Beat Writer:In Lax We Trust Now with more Twitterness: ReynoldsSBN

Master of unsustainable passive regression.

by BReynolds on Jan 16, 2012 12:14 AM CST up reply actions

This obviously goes without saying but

if Koivu misses any time, we are done. Start making your sping plans now and prepare yourselves for a sell off of sorts from management.

by cgp711 on Jan 14, 2012 10:41 PM CST reply actions

The Wild are a 10th place team WITH Mikko

I would rather be a 14th place team without him. This year was going to be a wasted year from day 1. I am concerned with the 2013-14 Wild team than this years.

by Jacks2345 on Jan 14, 2012 11:14 PM CST reply actions

Hello from St. Louis, MO

I did not get down to the arena tonight for the game (had to work too late as expected), but caught up with it at a local watering hole midway through the 2nd.

First, holy shit there are a lot of passionate hockey fans here in the great state of Missouri. Great time. Great people.

Second, the Wild are lucky to get away from this game with a point after having the puck for virtually none of the 3rd period.

Third, I guess I should have remembered this is a “Tobacco” state and that smoking in bars/restaurants is still okay. Guess the coughing made me drink more. Good thing…

Fourth, holy shit the beer was cheap compared to my favorite St. Paul establishments. The same must be true in Chicago as my esteemed colleague from that area lamented the same sentiment.

Go Mediocrity!

Being from Minnesota, it would be rude to put something clever here.

by redheadzeb on Jan 14, 2012 11:44 PM CST reply actions

Glad to hear such a positive review of my city/fans.

1) It’s kind of a dirty little secret in St. Louis. While the Carsinals have more fans as a whole, the Blues have always had the more passionate following.

2) Who says the Blues play a trap?! They’re just tenacious little waterbugs (as Pang says).

3) Missouri’s in transition into a nonsmoking state. Only bars under a certain square footage and below a certain percentage of food sales can allow smoking. And casinos. What was the place you went to?

4) Yep, beer is nice and inexpensive at most places in STL. Somewhat surprising in the “beer mecca,” but the city had always been working class and its beer prices reflect that.

5) About time the Blues won a Saturday game against the Wild. It only took fifty shots and a shootout. Jeez.

I once shot a man just to see him die...then I got distracted and missed it.

by TheDuke32 on Jan 15, 2012 9:22 AM CST via mobile up reply actions

Also...

I saw a clip of Mikko going down the tunnel. Only now after catching up on Russo, do I realize this might be serious. Not good… not good… not good… not good…

Being from Minnesota, it would be rude to put something clever here.

by redheadzeb on Jan 14, 2012 11:51 PM CST reply actions

Holy fuck

47 saves? Thanks for the point, Hards.

I'm that ''ignorant dumbass'' who writes with the ''whiny idiot homer'' over at Hockey Wilderness.

Twitter: BubbleWild48

by JSLandry on Jan 15, 2012 1:19 AM CST reply actions

The radio is totally deceiving.

I was driving from Warroad to St. Cloud tonight, so I didn’t get to watch the game, but the radio kinda of told me a different story tonight. Apparenlty, according to them, the Wild sucked in the first, came out firing in the second, and sucked in the third. I’m going with your version, because you have never lead me wrong. :]

I’m pissed about Koivu’s injury… At least we proved we can get a point without him, but still…. He’s the heart of this team. He really is. We don’t have the talent to pretend otherwise. I hope he won’t be out long. If there’s any hope of getting into the playoffs this season, he’s it. :[

by Rhomy777 on Jan 15, 2012 2:32 AM CST reply actions

Can we overtake Columbus for the lottery pick?

by cgp711 on Jan 15, 2012 9:21 AM CST reply actions

Effort

I felt the Wild showed signs of effort tonight. I thought they battled and scratched and clawed to get that point against a very good Blues team. After losing Koivu we all knew we were in for a long night. But they got in front of shots (I don’t remember the actual total, but I think it was in the upper 20s) as well as did not back down from the Blues. I thought McIntyre had a decent game and think he can replace Gillies just fine on the fourth or slide in on the 3rd line. The Blues dominated the game, don’t get me wrong. I just felt like we were completely outmatched, but put up a good fight. Just the skill wasn’t there. Only problem is I don’t see it coming from anywhere anytime soon. Oh, and Oshie is a BEAST, would be nice to have a guy like that on the team.

by eamon17 on Jan 15, 2012 9:26 AM CST reply actions

Oshie

I agree. He’s a fire hydrant on the ice. I never knew he was as physical as he is. Gotta be a fun player to watch night in and night out.

by Pewterschmidt on Jan 15, 2012 3:36 PM CST via mobile up reply actions

Shootout, Staubitz

At the start of the season, Yeo had all players participate in a shootout after every practice. Has that been scrapped the last month or so? Last night’s SO attempts were laughable.

Also, for the love of Pete, can we PLEASE sit Staubitz? Someone needs to tell management there’s a difference between an enforcer (Boogard, Laraque) and an agitator (Burrows, Cooke). We don’t need 2 agitators on the team … we already have Clutterbuck. I know mid-game fights are supposed to get the bench fired up. But how pumped up can the rest of the team be when they see opposing players wipe the floor with one of their team mates (apparent ‘tough’ guy). I’ve yet to see a fight where #16 convincingly took down his opponent. Also, Staubitz should be credited with an assist for that second Blues goal on the PP. Thanks, dumbass!! #BringUpKassian.

Son-of-a-bitch is dug in like an Alabama tick!

by Mark It Zero! on Jan 15, 2012 10:32 AM CST reply actions