Closed-circuit to the men at Xcel Energy Center wearing iron range red, forest green, Minnesota wheat and harvest gold…

“Who are you and what have you done with our favorite offensively-challenged hockey team?”

With 6 goals v. Phoenix on Tuesday, and 5 goals tonite v. Edmonton, I hope these impostors can keep the real Wild players captive for a while longer. A Pierre-Marc Bouchard and Andrew Brunette that shoot the puck? An Antti Miettinen that makes moves and gets scoring opportunities? A physical Marek Zidlicky and a fighting (sorta) James Sheppard? Let me get the more rope to keep them tied up.

Tonite had to be one of the best games the Wizzy have played all season-long. This group was energized and flying around the ice from the opening faceoff. They had a jump I haven’t seen for a long time. They played tough and capitalized on turnovers.

Add to that 2 pretty pretty goals, one by Krystofer Kolanos set up by a great one-on-one move by pretend Miettinen, and the other by Brent Burns after Mikko Koivu ducked around 2 Oiler defensemen. I suppose it is possible the Oil may have just been bad on this nite, but you still need to execute, and these unknown men in Wild uniforms certainly did.

Next up is Hockey Day Minnesota!

Or in the case of the Wild, maybe Defense Gets You the 8th Seed! Wild win in Beantown Tuesday nite 1-0. I saw the 2nd and 3rd periods. The story of this game is, play very strong defensively, get a great nite of goaltending from Niklas Backstrom, take advantage of powerplay opportunities and get a goal from Marek Zidlicky, and play Jacques hockey to get the money.

The Wizzy continue to give us all hope of at least making the playoffs by being sound defensively and playing team hockey. You might think 1-0 is boring, but for me, a W is a W. I learned that over the last month.

Wild in Philly Thursday nite. I really like seeing these Eastern Conference teams. Good work on the scheduling NHL. Now let's see if they can shut down yet another division leader.

Wasn’t that a Tesla song? They had more songs than “Signs” ya know…

Wild put together a very nice game tonite in Colorado. Niklas Backstrom got the shutout in net and Owen Nolan scored both Wild goals and the Wizzy win 2-0. Tonite’s game is how I envisioned the Wild needing to play to make the playoffs. Gritty on offense and very strong defensively. It helped that the Avs are not very good right now and can’t score goals, but we’ll take ‘em where we can get ‘em. And just like that the Wild are starting to look like a team that could make some headway.

FSN color guy Mike Greenlay made an interesting point. Actually I think it was a question from a fan via text message, but Greenlay answered it. It just might be that with Marian Gaborik having surgery tomorrow and now the team knows he will be out for most of the season, they now know they don’t have him waiting in the wings to “rescue” them. Each player knows that they need to get their job done and step up their games. The Gabby thing isn’t hanging over their heads anymore. So hopefully now they know what they need to do to beat teams. I harp on the the fact that the Wild are not very talented up front, especially without Gaborik, but if you think about it, a few of the Wild forwards have not lived up to expectations this year. Pierre-Marc Bouchard needs to find himself. James Sheppard has developed slowly (although he’s been good of late). Benoit Pouliot is back on coach Jacques’ bleep list. Andrew Brunette hasn’t scored in quite some time. Add to that the fact we’ve got a bunch of kids from Houston trying to play NHL hockey. It’s easy to see why it’s been a tough go the last month.

But the recent play of Owen Nolan has me fired up. If he can stay healthy, he gives this team grit, leadership, and a sense that they can persevere. Keep the “C” on Koivu, keep Nolan with the “A” and I think we’ll see the Wizzy build some character they will once again make us proud.

And if not, then we go after Risebrough. At least this fan is watching again.

I only saw the 3rd period of tonite's Wild v. Red Wings game, but it was a pretty good period for the Wizzy. Trailing 1-0 at the start, Owen Nolan scored a powerplay goal on a rebound to tie it, then Antti Miettinen scored a legitimate goal (as opposed to one for the other team) off a turnover shortly after to give the Wild the lead. The Red Wings eventually tied it on a borderline high stick that was initially waved off but was counted after a lengthy review, and it was close for sure. I am not up in arms with the decision to allow the goal, just a little surprised after the KSTC guys were so certain it would not count. Wrong again boys. The Wings won it in the shootout with Pavol Datsuyk's toe drag goal the only one to go in.

I really wish Nolan could stay healthy. He still has a nose for the puck and can score goals. He just is old and breaks down too much.

I think overall the last two games against the best in the league are encouraging and the Wild are poised to make a stand to get back in the playoff picture before the All-Star break. We will see how the next game goes in Colorado.

Team USA
I am clearly not a great hockey mind. After recapping the USA v. Canada game in the WJC yesterday, and pontificating that the US could beat Canada if they played again, the US squad laid an absolute egg in today’s 1st quarterfinal game, losing to Slovakia 5-3. The US goalie was soft, letting in a couple goals from 10-15 feet out, and after being stopped on a couple breakaways and a penalty shot early, they could not muster enough to catch Slovakia, who was in command for the majority of the game. Another disappointing showing for USA in the WJC.

Groin-Gate 2009
It has been confirmed that Marian Gaborik will have surgery on his hip on Monday, a procedure that will have him missing 10-14 weeks. He could return just in time for the end of the regular season, which could be the start of the playoffs, or most likely the end of the year for the Wild unless things turn around in a hurry. Gabby may have played his last game in a Wild sweater.

Bulldog Bites
Minnesota Duluth beat Massachusetts Lowell 2-1 tonite in the Shillelagh Tournament…something in Illinois. That extends UMD’s unbeaten streak to 8 games, a nice surprise in this season. UMD will play Notre Dame Saturday nite.

Lots of fun hockey stuff to talk about from the New Year’s holiday. Let’s break it down, game summary-style.

1st Period – New Year’s Eve – Sharks @ Wild
I wasn’t able to watch this game. Not that I made an effort. We went to a friend’s house for the NYE so I was busy with various pre-party preparations. I did tune in Bob Kurtz a couple times in the car tho. While on our way to the party the Wild were up 2-1 and holding on for dear life. I have to give mad props to the crowd at the X Wednesday nite. With the Wizzy in free fall, sitting in last place in the Northwest division, the crowd came across super loud over the WCCO airwaves. I know a couple people that were there, so I give a shout out to them.

Unfortunately the Sharks tied the game with around 29 seconds left, but Brent Burns won the game for the Wild in OT. Great win over the Sharks who are virtually unbeatable this season. Could this game can be the harbinger for turning the season around? Goodness let’s hope so.

2nd Period – New Year’s Day – USA v. Canada
This 3^rd game for each country in the World Junior Championships was actually played New Year’s Eve, but due to the party I watched it early New Year’s Day, with Baby Girl. If you had a chance to catch any of this game, what an atmosphere. This year’s WJC is being played in Ottawa, so naturally it is a very Canadian crowd. The fans were passing a huge Canadian flag all around the concourse, they were loud, and it was a fun game to watch. USA jumped out to a surprising 3-0 lead, but by the end of the 1^st period it was tied. Ultimately Canada won the game 7-4, but they scored 2 empty net goals. The final score makes sense because earlier in the tournament Canada beat Kazakhstan 15-0, while the US was 3 goals off, beating the Kazakhstanis 12-0. Canada is the more-talented team, but if they meet again, USA could have a chance for an upset. 

The US takes on Slovakia in the quarterfinals Friday at 2:30 CST. You can catch the game on the NHL Network.

3rd Period – New Year’s Day – NHL Winter Classic
This one was the main event of the holiday. The most hype as well as my most-anticipated. Add on fry bread and uff-da tacos and it was a great event in our house. Most of you know this, but this year’s Winter Classic was played in Chicago at Wrigley Field. The Detroit Red Wings beat the Blackhawks 6-4. For me the result wasn’t too big a deal; it was about the spectacle of a hockey game in a baseball stadium…in historic Wrigley Field. The aerial views were excellent. The fans were into it and loud, starting with the National Anthem. And it was a good game to boot.

However, I do have to say that the uniqueness of this event was lost on me a little bit. This was the 3^rd outdoor game the NHL has put on, and this one was too soon. I know it is all about marketing the NHL and capitalizing on momentum, but I hope they take a year or two off before the next one. It will undoubtedly be in the Twin Cites eventually, but I hope it doesn’t happen for a while, so the event still seems like an event.

Overtime – Marian Gaborik
After the hockey New Year’s had wound down, a story appeared in my RSS reader from Michael Russo. No biggie I thought, because he is quite the blogger to go along with his Strib writing for the paper. But as I read on, it was not good news at all. It appears the Wild and Marian Gaborik are contemplating the possibility of surgery to repair a “deficiency” in his hip, which has been causing his groin problems this year. This surgery would likely be season ending. Now, this is not bad news because Gabby is a important cog on this team. Unfortunately that’s not his status anymore. But it is bad news because this team that can not score is losing the one guy that is dynamic enough to score, and now he is not tradable. We are looking at seeing the most talented player in Wild history leave the team at the end of the year and getting nothing in return. Quite the disastrous turn of events.

The Wild are back in action Saturday v. Detroit. Could be ugly for the Wizzy, but maybe this is the point in the season where it turns around.

Hey…New Years is a time for optimism afterall.

New Year's resolutions. I've always considered them to be extremely overrated. But after quite an eventful year in my life, I'm prepared to make one. But what resolution to make? Come along in my journey to
decide.

Resolution Option 1: Lose Weight
Great idea. But this really needs to be a lifestyle change. Does anyone's New Year's resolution to drop weight ever work? Like for more than 6 months? If you seriously want to get in shape it has to be more than about New Year's. Do it for you, not because it's trendy.

Resolution Option 2: Be a Better Employee
Great idea. If I still have a job in 2 months I'll make sure I do that.

Resolution Option 3: Drink Less Beer
Yeah. That's probably a pretty good idea. It would help out with option number 1. I'll take that into consideration.

Option 4: Drink More Beer
That's a very collegy-non-parenty thing to do. I've got a daughter to think about now.

Option 5: Be a Better Husband
Really I have no room for improvement here. Just ask my wife.

So Then What?
I'm left with this blog. I've been really bad about posting over the last month or 2. I've been really disconnected from our Wizzy club of late. I've felt guilty when people ask about the Wild and my best answer is "Not enough talent." Duh. Brilliant answer.

Then Russo published a Strib story this week about Doug Reisbrough being on borrowed time with the fans. That was a come-to-blog Jezus for me. That was my take before the season started on the blogosphere podcast. Clearly I need t get back into the Wild View.

Official Resolution: Own This Blog Like I Mean It