Minnesota Wild 2-5 Los Angeles Kings
The Minnesota Wild couldn't take advantage of their fantastic play during the last two games of 2009 to give themselves a franchise record number of wins in a month. Instead, they'll have to settle for a franchise record number of wins in December and a month in which they find themselves back in the playoff hunt.
With a blue moon on New Year's Eve, the Wild found themselves on the wrong end of a team looking for revenge. The Kings came out with both barrels tonight, and after the first period, they were down 3-0 and outshot 14-6. The Kings found the mismatch they liked and exploited it all night. The line of Cal Clutterbuck, Owen Nolan and Eric Belanger were brutalized by the Kings tonight. Clutterbuck and Belanger were on the ice for four LA goals and Nolan on the ice for three. Inface, the first four goals of the game (all by Los Angeles) were scored with that line on the ice. I guess the Kings were looking to stick a knife in Belanger's back after his two goal performance bet the Kings two games ago.
This was an all around rough night for the Wild, and we're going to forget it even happened and put 2009 in the books.
If you have comments, please share them below. I'm going to take a pass. It wasn't a pretty game, and we're looking for 2010 to be filled with positivity!
- Kim Johnsson is absolutely on fire. He leads all defensemen in goals. Can he stay on this pace? Afraid not. He was a pretty weak -2 tonight.
- Any chance Eric Belanger has a repeat performance against his first team? Well, he certainly was a factor tonight, just not in a positive way.
- Will Drew Doughty be flying high after his selection to Team Canada? One assist for the Olympian.
- With Petr Sykora back in the lineup (likely with minimal ice time), can he make the most of those moments and build on the positivity surrounding the franchise? He was absolutely robbed by Quick and looked decent in his 10:44 TOI. He'll be ok, just needs to get comfortable again.
- Will tonight be the night the Wild set a new franchise record for wins in a month? Nope. Let's try again in January!