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Minnesota Wild @ Detroit Red Wings: The Morning After

By nathaneide Feb 12, 2009, 10:35pm CST

Detroit Red Wings 4-2 Minnesota Wild

The Minnesota Wild's woes at Joe Louis Arena continue. The Red Wings owned play all night long, and seemingly toyed with the Wild. It was nice to see Boogaard as a healthy scratch after last night's horrible game, but I'm not sure why Lemaire put Josh Harding in for Niklas Backstrom. The Wild controlled Datsyuk and Zetterberg all night long, but Marian Hossa made the WIld look silly, creating opportunity after opportunity all night for his linemates, and both Jiri Hudler and Kris Draper took advantage, beating Harding on great shots. Mikael Samuelsson opened scoring in the first period, taking advantage of Harding's inability to freeze a Brett Lebda shot, and buried it from the crease.

The only time the Wild seemed to be in the game, was after Brent Burns' 5 on 3 power play goal in the first period to tie the game with both Hossa and Datsyuk in the box. However, after that it wa all Red Wings until garbage time, when Mikko Koivu scored shorthanded.

Hockey Wilderness Three Stars

Marian Hossa (2 A)
Antti Miettinen (2 A)
Jiri Hudler (1 G)

Questions to Answer

Will Bouchard score tonight? The Wild are 30-3-1 in the last 34 games in which Bouchard tallies a goal. No.
Can Owen Nolan and Andrew Brunette continue to play a solid role and provide veteran leadership against the red-hot Red Wings? Well, they didn't get on the score sheet, and Brunette took an ill-advised hook.
Will the Wild go into a defensive shell, and play counter-attack, or try to take the game to the Wings? Looks like they didn't quite go into the shell, but did play a counter-attacking game tonight, but again, the Wings are just too good.
Will Chris Osgood's return to the net prove to be a mistake for Babcock's club? Nope. Osgood was not a problem tonight for the Wings.
Ultimately, can the Wild break out of the slump at Joe Louis Arena, and finally win for the first time in over 3 years there? Afraid not. The Red Wings own the Wild.