Did you know that you can’t close your hand on the puck? Anyway, moving on to the issues…
Why the Wild won:
1) Drive to the net/Shoot the puck – Funny when you shoot, and shoot, and drive, good things happen. The Wild threw at least 32 pucks at the net, and got 4 goals. Never mind the let down at the end, we will get to that later. There was a good fore-check and a good offensive style they tried tonight.
2) Cal! – What a nice little game for Cap’n Clutterbuck. He hit about a billion people, and dropped in two goals. Congrats Cal, you are the new Aaron Voros. Skate hard, hit everything, be a fan favorite.
3) He Who Must Not Be Named – All kidding aside “Marty” is looking good. He is getting in the shot lanes, and he is playing a decent physical style of defense. Hats off to you he who must not be named.
Why the Wild could have lost:
1) Umm…letdown? – The Versus guy said it well, the wild celebrated their 4 goals, and decided to stop playing. I am so used to seeing a very strong defensive effort with the lead, but that simply didn’t happen tonight. I felt like I was watching the “prevent” defense in football. Its like they forgot that they could let a team back in a goal at a time. Lets not revisit that boys!
2) The first 5 on 3 – The wild had one shot in nearly 1:45 of 5-on-3 time. Absolutely unacceptable. I was going crazy, and yes, yelling at the HD feed. Bad news Wild, I want 1 goal, not one shot. Ugh. Luckily they got things going, because that lack of production could have cost them.
3) A lack of Sharpness from Antti – There were at least 5 passes that he had incorrect weight on, and he just looked lost out there tonight. We need him to produce a good solid game from the wing. I am not expecting 25-35 goals this year, but we need that 10-15 from you.
I was all ready for talking about the dominating performance, but I had to change gears after the last six minutes. Hope you guys can enjoy the Wild win, even with the bad ending.