Sabres @ Wild – Thurs Oct 23rd 2008 – View from My Recliner
Actually tonite I watched sporadically through the nite on the DVR…you know, baby stuff. I saw the ugly start the Wild had – they had no flow and were very sluggish. Just didn’t seem to have any step. Drew Stafford scored on a nifty play to put the Sabres up 1-0.

Then, when I was about midway thru the 2nd period, I made the mistake of logging on to Facebook…figuring I could avoid the news feed. Well, my eyes glanced to one, and only one status update, and that was enough. I won’t name any names (Niki) but the result of tonite’s game was spoiled for me. And ironically, this happened just Benoit Pouliot scored to tie it at 1-1, and shortly that after Stephane Veilleux scored to put the Wild up 2-1. So I was left to wonder how we blew the lead in the 3rd. Then, in the 1st minute of the 3rd period, Brent Burns got credit for putting the Wild up 3-1 when Sabres G Ryan Miller misplayed the puck into his own net. So now it’s “Really? We blew a 2-goal lead?” Then it turned into “Really? We blew a 2-goal lead with 4 minutes left?”

Sure enough, the Sabres scored on a weak deflection shot, then Thomas Vanek (former Goofer) tied it after being left wide open by the again-sluggish Wild D. In the OT, Derek Roy won the game on after a scrum in front of G Niklas Backstrom.

Moral of the story, if you’re going to be watching on the DVR, apparently not only do you need to seclude yourself from any interaction with anyone in real life, you need to turn your virtual life off also.

I was way off on my thought that this would be a fast-paced game. It really wasn’t a great game to watch, even when I didn’t know who won yet. I did have the score right, just the winner flip-flopped.

So, the only positive is the Wild are still undefeated in regulation and they have points in each game. But the overshadowing negative is the way they lost the game. Coach Jacques is most-likely not happy.

Zidlicky
New Wild D Marek Zidlicky played his 1st game of the season, and I liked what I saw. He moves the puck well so that will create offense on the breakout. And he has a nasty shot from the point. He and Marc-Andre Bergeron will definitely help create offense.

Next on the Docket – Blue Jackets @ Wild – Sat Oct 25
Don’t know much about Columbus, except that they haven’t contended for a playoff spot since they came into the league with the Wild in 2000. Oh and they have Rick Nash. They’re 3-3-0. Maybe we’ll see Josh Harding. Wild should win, 3-1.