A win is a win!
By Editorial Staff
The Wild beat the Edmonton Oilers last night in a 4-2 victory at Rexall place. While it was not the best of wins, a win, is a win, is a win, is a win.
The Wild came out to play from the jump last night. They played hard, but the penalties were way too much. They could not stay out of the box all night. They tied the all time Wild record of 10 penalties in a single game. 10! The discipline was lacking from the get go. Can you imagine if Jacques Lemaire was still coaching? That actually brings a smile to my face and makes me laugh. His face would be considered priceless, and the gum chewing would be extreme! On a different penalty note for the game, I watched a lot of non calls against Edmonton. I can only go to my belief, again, that this is a fast game, and not one ref can see it all, and I don’t usually call them out. The only one that was ridiculous that I will call out, is the penalty against Kyle Brodziak, and Gilbert Brule gets nothing. If you saw the game, you know exactly what I am talking about. Moving on…
The first period brought us 4 penalties, at the same time, we racked up the goals. Everyone played very well, even Niklas Backstrom! [see “pre stupid contract play”] “Backs” was on his head all night! Kyle Brodziak, one of my favourite “squeaky clean” players of The Wild, netted 2 goals, and hushed the crowd at Rexall Place. Coming from The Oilers, of course he had fans there. A few Brodziak jerseys could be seen in the stands. They love him up there. This was tweeted by Ryan Stanzal last night:
"Little known fact #mnwild paid for icetime at suburban practice rink last year with Brodziak jersey. Really loved around here. Well, not now"
Speaking of now, I wonder if “Zeke” was sitting there saying to himself, “how do you like me now?”
The second period brought out an entire new Oilers team. [see “typical Wild play”] The “kids” came out hard, and fast, and The Wild looked not as good as the first. Not even close. But between the 3 Wild penalties of the period, and keeping up with the Joneses [see kids] the effort was there. This is what matters. They held their own, and then some.
It was not a pretty 3rd either. More penalties, and came down to the wire with a 3-2 lead. It was a very intense last 5 minutes. Martin Havlat takes a tripping penalty with 3:13 left in the game. Here we go! This is not happening again, it is not! Why now? Just play it hard, and stop the Oilers! You have this game, you have it! Tom Gilbert to the box for interference about 20 seconds later, which felt like days! Although “Backs” was on his head all night, all I could think was OT and shootout. [see death to the shootout] I didn’t want this Wild effort to go to a stupid shootout . We were still a man down with Nikolai Khabibulin on the bench. And then we ice the puck? This is terrible at this point, just terrible! My dogs are trying to break free out of the fence, they cannot handle me right now. I am all over the place, pacing, and yelling, and going out of my mind! Brent Burns, and that way too long of stick of his [see only “Burnsie” can rock that stick] gets the puck on his tape to get the ENG! Now I am still yelling, but in a good way? Maybe not, dogs are yelping! For me it was good anyway! We won on the road! To a young team with a lot of potential, and will be fun to watch this year for sure. 4-2 Minny Wild! That’s my boys! They never gave up! [see need more bag skates] We are already over our 1-9 start last year, 2nd in the division, and 7th in the conference. Too soon? No way, it is exciting!
Tonight we play The Vancouver Canucks again. This will prove a lot of things. Can we win a back to back on the road? Can we beat 2 division rivals back to back? Jose Theodore gets his start in net tonight. Well deserved break for “Backs” after last night. He was definitely sweating out there, and stopping the pucks.
The things we need to do tonight are this. #1 Stay out of the box, this is certain. #2 Come out strong as we did last night. #3 Put in the same effort as last night, never giving up. #4 Win more faceoffs. We did well in faceoffs on the PK, but the 5 on 5 was not exactly stellar. #5 More shots on net. 22 last night. Not acceptable. #6 Stay out of the box. #7 You guessed it, stay out of the *$@#%*^ box!
And the Rick Rypien hearing is over. 6 game suspension. Totally ludicrous if you ask me. That is all I will say about it…..
Comments always appreciated and answered! My Wild theme song coming up tomorrow!
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And now *drumroll*