Just recently decided to move my blog over to Wordpress, mainly because I want to write about more than Wild hockey and Wordpress give the option for categories AND tags. I’ll be able to keep things more organized over there. I’ll still babble about the Wild, but I’ll do more UMD Bulldogs, Minnesota Twins, even a little Vikings, and whatever else I need to rant about.

So if you have Wild View saved as a RSS feed or in your bookmarks, come find me over at http://minnyview.wordpress.com.

Just a real quick post before I fall asleep. I'm winding up a long day that included taking in a good portion of Hockey Day Minnesota and a good day of family, mixed in with some "day job" work. I'm actually quite spent.

The Wild put together a nice game and beat Columbus 4-2, although it should have been a shutout for Niklas Backstrom. He gave up 2 goals in the last 30 seconds of the game. The first one deflected off Kim Johnsson and Backstrom could do nothing about it, but his reaction annoyed me. He sorta dropped his stick in a weird way...seemed defiant. And the 2nd goal with 3 seconds left was a weak shot from outside the circles. Seemed to me he gave up on it after the shutout was broken up. But that's just me.

Mikko Koivu scored twice as the Wild tried something different called score first and play with the lead. Seemed to work out pretty well!

From the Dissappointing but Typical Desk, the UMD Bulldogs, who had jumped to #4 in the national polls after consecutive sweeps in the WCHA, lost in OT v. Bemidji State. BSU tied it up in the last seconds and won it in OT to complete a weekend home-and-home sweep over the Dogs. The loss doesn't hurt UMD from a conference standpoint so it's all about the bounceback next week.

I'm looking forward to BSU joining the WCHA next season along with Nebraska Omaha (who brings Dean Blais with them). I think the conference will be even tougher, and I'm looking forward to having a couple more teams in the mix.

Alright. Sortof a lame post but I have to get to bed. I hear there's a big football game tomorrow.

Welcome to the weekend! Here are a few talkers from off the ice that caught my eye from the interwebs.

More Winter Classic Speculation
Earlier in the week Russo held a live chat over on the Strib website. The one thing that caught my eye was that he answered a question about the Winter Classic. He stated that when we get it, it will be 2012 or later, and that it will be at TCF Bank Stadium. Obviously nothing is etched in stone here, but Russo is as inside as inside gets. This disappoints me a little. I really think Target Field is the sexier pick, as you can read here in an earlier post. Hopefully there’s still some fluctuation in the final details.

NHL Network Still Needs Work
I love the NHL Network for the most part. You get live games from time to time, great NHL feature shows, coverage of special events like the Winter Classic, World Juniors, presumably the Olympics. But the one problem I have with the network is that possibly it’s most valuable asset, NHL on the Fly, is unwatchable if you have an HD television. NHL on the Fly fills a void in the US left by NHL 2Night back in the ESPN days. It’s the only place you can get nightly NHL highlights. And so much of the other stuff on the network is in HD, they redid the studio, and still, no HD.

So I tweeted Kevin Weeks (@KevinWeekes if you’re so inclined), who is one of the personalities on On the Fly. I asked him if On the Fly is ever going to be in HD and his response was “We're pushing for it,hopefully next season (fingers crossed),it will make a huge difference for the viewer for sure !!”

Part of me says that next season is ridiculous when every other studio highlight show on MLB and NFL Networks, plus the ESPNs are HD, but alas I digress, and hope next season brings them up to par.

Upgrades at the X
It feels somewhat dirty to think about upgrades being needed at Xcel Energy Center. The X has been the NHL’s best building for the last couple years according to Sports Illustrated, and it’s been a big reason why the Wild have sold out every game in its 9-year history. It’s a fabulous building. But with TCF Bank Stadium and Target Field opening, apparently some things may need to be done to keep it on par with the new digs, and something that can be done is a new video board in the main scoreboard. More an upgrade in technology than anything I’d assume, HD and all that.

Wild owner Craig Leipold remarked in his most-recent blog that it’s something they are working towards. Obviously it would be a pretty big expense, and they need to work towards fitting it into the budget.

Before We Go
I’ll leave you with some good humor from the guys over at Hockey Wilderness. Go check it out, and laugh at our former #10.

Gaborik Makes it too Easy

Happy Saturday!

Wild lose tonight, 1-0 in St. Louis. I didn’t see the game, but if you don’t score a goal, obviously you didn’t have much going offensively. It was sort of expected really, after an emotional game last night v. Vancouver with a bunch of fights at the end, the squad was likely tuckered. One thing that I did see come across the Twitter feed was another world-is-against-us call from the refs, this time a “slew-foot” by former UND Fighting Sioux TJ Oshie that sent Wild F Andrew Ebbett awkwardly into the boards, and now Ebbett apparently has a neck brace and is having spasms. Oshie got 2 minutes, but the Wild wanted more.

Looks like the Wild will end the night 3 points out of that 8th spot in the West. The important thing isn’t necesserilly this loss, but how they bounce back. They need to avoid a losing streak and get back on the horse. We’ll see what happens Saturday in Phoenix.

That’s all I got for this one since I didn’t see the game. Check out Hockey Wilderness for a comprehensive recap.

Just a quick post via phone before seepy time. The Wild beat the Vancouver Canucks tonight, 5-2. It was certainly an interesting game with alot of different nuances to it. The Wild scored 2 goals before the game was even 4 minutes old. The Canucks pretty much dominated the rest of the 1st and all of the 2nd period, and eventually tied it up. The 2nd was pretty ugly if you're a Wild fan. Nothing was working and they were lucky to get out of it tied. But the 3rd belonged to the Wild. They scored 3 unanswered goals to semi-blow out the Canucks, and then the Canucks turned thug-nation and initiated 3 seperate fights, pretty much losing all of them, and definetely losing to John Scott. He pummeled a guy whose name escapes me at the moment. Actually he might not remember his own name either after the 5 or 6 rights Scott landed in his ear and face.

Antti Miettinen scored 2 goals on the night, one of them on a pretty one-touch pass from Mikko Koivu.

Koivu scored on a 2 on 1 in the first with a nasty wrister past Canuck G Roberto Luongo.

Speaking of Luongo, he appeared to be fighting the puck the whole night. I guess that's obvious when you give up 5 goals, but he just didn't have it.

The win is the Wild's 4th in a row, negating the 4-game skid they were on just before the homestand. They beat some quality teams on this stretch.

The Wild are now 2 points out of 8th in the Western Conference. That's amazing.

They've gotta get ready in a hurry to face the Blues tomorrow night in St. Louis. Back to backs are a killer, and let downs are no fun. 5-in-a-rows are funner. Look for Josh Harding in net.

And now it's seepy time.

After a week or two of losses where the Wild played decently but not good enough to win, they’ve suddenly strung together three big wins and are back to 4 points out. After losses to ANA, LA, NJ, and CHI, they’ve now beaten CAL, CHI, and PIT. After falling to 8 points out of a playoff spot, they’re back to within striking distance at 4 points back.

This current stretch looked to be the toughest of the season for the Wild. Although they probably should have beaten Anaheim and LA and looked pretty bad in Chicago, they played well v. New Jersey and in all 3 home wins in the current streak. The squad even pulled of the biggest comeback in franchise history (down 5-1 v. Chicago in the 3rd) and tonight beat the defending Cup champion Penguins.

This team trends a bit differently from last year’s team. When they needed wins, last year’s team would win 1, then lose the next, through the balance of the schedule. This year’s team goes on runs...runs of losses, then runs of wins. If it can have one more winning run than losing, we may still get to talk playoff hockey this season.

A lot of other interesting stuff has gone on in the last couple weeks.

• Jacques Lemaire returned to the X behind the NJ Devil’s bench. He appeared to be moved by a nice reception from the Wild and Wild fans. Then he beat the Wild 4-3.
• Petr Sykora is upset that he is a consistent healthy scratch, and his agent is tweeting mad about it.
• Guillaume Latendresse is winning fans like mad with 15 points since the Benoit Pouliot trade.
• Backup G Josh Harding was in danger of taking a loss in a game where he entered trailing 5-1.
• Harding also unveiled a sweet new mask, paying homage to the team’s burned equipment van in Ottawa.
• In that same game, Marty Havlat was not chosen to shoot during an 8-round shootout.
• Two Minnesotans will be part of the core leadership for the US Olympic hockey team. Jamie Langenbrunner will serve as team captain and Zach Parise is one of 4 alternate captains.

All good stuff. The Wild will attempt to continue this run Wednesday at the X v. Vancouver Canucks.

Here’s a bonus for you: Latendresse’s game-winning goal from tonight’s game v. Pittsburgh. The goal was sweet, and so was how Kyle Brodziak created a sneaky 2 on 1. Great goal. Enjoy!

New year’s day was the NHL Winter Classic in Boston’s Fenway Park. Hockey in an outdoor baseball stadium. It was the NHL’s 3rd New Year’s Day outdoor hockey game, and 4th outdoor game overall. At one time I thought every year would be too much, but it has proven to be one of the most exciting days of the year in the NHL. I’d much rather watch this game than a nondescript college football bowl game. It has truly carved out a niche in New Year’s Day tradition. This year’s game was again full of spectacle, history, and really turned out to be an exciting game. Just another great event.

Each year I get to thinking about the event in Minnesota, and how much fun it would be to go to that game. Now that the Gophers new football stadium TCF Bank Stadium is open and the Twins new ballpark Target Field is less than 100 days away from opening, we finally have 2 great venues that could host the game. The latest I have read is that the Wild is pitching TCF Bank Stadium to the NHL. Not much is known about that proposal and I have to believe that the Wild would be interested in holding the event at Target Field as well. Assuming that the Wild get the Winter Classic in the next couple years, and assuming that both the U of MN and the Twins are interesting in hosting the event in their respective buildings, here’s a breakdown of how I see where the game should be played…

Sightlines
In all of these outdoor games, the sightlines for hockey definitely seem to be of secondary importance. Of the 4 outdoor games, 2 of them have been in football stadiums, 2 in baseball stadiums. If the game were at Target Field, seats would be great behind home plate because the rink is laid out from 1st base to 3rd base, but in the outfield not so much. It would seem that a football stadium, being of rectangular or oval uniformity, would lend itself better to being able to see the action on a hockey rink.
Advantage: TCF Bank

Theme
The Wild have spoke of this event to include college and possibly high school games as well. Makes sense, because this year Boston College and Boston University will be playing at Fenway (Friday Jan 8th 6:30PM NHL Network). Obviously Minnesota’s event would include the University of Minnesota Gophers, probably both Men’s and Women’s teams. That being said, it would make sense to have the Winter Classic at TCF Bank, because it’s on the U of MN campus and they could continue the college vibe. The NHL could focus it’s tradition theme on college players in the NHL. And maybe it could be some sort of MN college showcase. Bring in MN Duluth, MSU Mankato, St. Cloud State, and Bemidji State to join with the Gophers and you’ve got a tremendous event. Actually, the more I think about that the more I like it. Hope Wild PR Guy Billy Robertson reads this!
Advantage: TCF Bank

Secondary Money
This one is the most controversial, because it is about alcohol. Current policies at TCF Bank Stadium do not allow alcohol to be sold anywhere in the building. It’s a weird state legislature thing where the U of MN wanted to sell it only in the club areas, the state got involved and said either everywhere or nowhere, and the U went with nowhere to avoid sending a bad message about college kids drinking. It’s noble, but it also comes at a price. Revenue. When a glass of beer is $7 you’re giving up quite a bit of potential profits when you decide not to offer it in a stadium. Profits of which the NHL would get a piece. Do you think they’d want to give it up?

Across town at Target Field, there’s plenty to go around. Budweiser is a major sponsor, there are I think 4 different bars/restaurants, there are specialized concession stands dedicated to beers from the state of Minnesota, and then there’s the Budweiser Rooftop Party Deck, complete with a gas firepit . Add to this the fact that NHL fans enjoy a beer or two as part of the experience, and that a little libation may help to keep the body warm at an outdoor hockey game.

Many may not believe this is something that should matter, but I think it will be the deciding factor in where the game is played.
Advantage: Target Field 

Me?
My personal opinion here. Sightlines are secondary in this event. It’s about the pomp and circumstance, the vibe, and just the awesomeness of an outdoor game. The beer thing plays into the party vibe. I’m not a Gopher hockey fan, but I am a huge Twins fan, so I guess Target Field wins my bid. For the history perspective the NHL is looking for, the teams should be Wild v. Dallas Stars. The college game(s) should include UMD at the very least, and preferably all the D1 teams in MN since I just thought of that great idea.

So how bout it Commissioner Bettman? Who’s next?

What do you all think about Minnesota’s Winter Classic? Post in the comments!

Who would have ever predicted 5 wins in a row for this team? Tonight the Wild take it to Nashville, winning easily save for a couple late goals for the Preds. I can’t remember the last time a Wild team scored goals at this kind of a pace. I’m trying hard to temper myself…but I’m excited that it’s exciting to watch Wild hockey again. I actually looked at the standings tonight. I’m not yet ready to talk about it here, but it’s not too bad!

Josh Harding got the win in net, and the goals came from Ebbett, Sheppard, Miettenin, Brunette, and Belanger. The Ebbett and Miettenin goals were of the pretty passing play kind, Ebbett deflecting an airborne pass from Havlat and Miettinen taking a beauty pass from Brunette from behind the net. Speaking of Havlat, he had 2 assists tonight to remind us he’s still on the team.

But the best part of tonight’s game was that we were able to listen to Nashville’s Tim McGraw goal song without being stupendously annoyed by it. When the Wild are on the losing end at Nashville nothing makes me grumpier than “I like it, I love it, I want some more of it…” as documented here.

On a WCHA side note, the UMD Bulldogs rallied to beat the UND Fighting Sioux tonight at the DECC in overtime…scoring the tying goal with 33 seconds left in regulation and netting the game winner 12 seconds into overtime. They salvaged a split in the weekend series, and staved off my own humiliation of wearing Sioux garb in public. The “friendly wager” between my wife and me is a push until February when the Dogs play the Sioux at REA in Grand Forks. B-U – L-L – D-O – G-S YEA BULLDOGS!

Just a great game @ the X tonight. Wild come back from 2 goals down not once, but twice, tie it up with a minute left in the game, take it to the shootout sudden death round, and get their 4th win in a row, 5th in the last 6 games, and have at least a point in their last 6.

The #1 line was just excellent tonight. Koivu 2 goals, Miettenin 2 goals (plus a SO goal), Brunette 3 assists. That’s exactly what the Wild need in order to contend.

Now I’m not going to get all gushy and predict Stanley Cup here, so here is the question…is the team’s recent play the real deal? They’re scoring more. They’re winning faceoffs like crazy. The ridiculous defensive lapses have all but vanished.

Could our Wild squad have a shot at the playoffs?

Ok, calm down. Gotta keep it rolling. They’ve shown flashes a couple times this season, and have gone into the tank only to lose 3 in a row. And they’re going to have to win in regulation eventually. But right now I’m not going to be picky. 2 weeks ago I made no time to watch the Wild. Now there’s reason to pay attention.

Props to Todd Richards for hanging in there, and to Chuck Fletcher for making some moves that seem to have sparked the squad. Shout out to tonight’s crowd at the X, representing with a loud ovation for Mikko’s individual effort to kill the Duck’s PP in OT, for standing for most of the OT and SO, and for being a force again.

Perhaps this winter won’t be as cold as we had expected.

Hello old friend. Great to see you again.

Tonight I was in the house at Xcel Energy Center for my first Wild hockey game in a year and a half. Yes, the Wild View from Section 216 has been a view from the couch for that long. I did see the UMD Bulldogs crush the UND Fighting Sioux there last year, but from a Wild perspective, it’s been a long time.

I don’t know why, but over the time I’ve been away from my friend, “The X” as I call it because we’re tight, I didn’t feel like I’d missed it. Too much going on over the last year and a half. Adjusting to parenthood, crackdown in the wallet, a product on the ice that wasn’t compelling enough to make the extra effort. But tonight, walking up to the building I felt a bit of excitement and it all started to come back to me. First game in the 2000 preseason v. Blackhawks. Inaugural game v. Flyers. Exorcising Minnesota’s hockey demons v. Stars. On-the-Glass seats, row 2 birthday seats, hat tricks, “Who needs Gaborik” chants, playoff games, sneaking-by-the-club-level-security-guards-to-see-the-band nights. We’ve been through a lot in 9 years. Tonight I felt like a part of the Team of 18,000 again. Wild jerseys all over the place. Loud fans. Great hockey conversation with the stranger in the seat next to me (including an NHL2Night reference). Good luck to the Dartmouth women’s hockey team.

I’ve re-caught the bug. I will see you again X. I’ll bring my wife by to see you next, and introduce you to our daughter soon. We will hang out often – our family has alot of catching up to do with you.

Wild 3 Rangers 2
Oh by the way, the Wild played their best game of the season so far, beating the NY Rangers 3-2. They scored first, built a 2-goal lead, and played solid D to hang on. Petr Sykora returned to the lineup after his benching and had a goal and an assist. They won in regulation even. It’s a pretty important win in gaining a little confidence in this rebuilding year. Antti Miettinen and Eric Belanger also scored, Niklas Backstrom gets the win in net.

Shoutout to Ticket King
So tonight was the first time I’ve ever actually used Ticket King. I gotta say, it was pretty slick. I paid $30 per seat – face value was $38. No doubt this below-face pricing was the result of a poor start and no Marian Gaborik in the Ranger lineup, but it worked out beauty for me. Picked up the tix just across the street from the X and was in and out of their office in about a minute. They even bumped us to row 2 when the tix we selected were row 9. I was impressed and will with out a doubt be using them again.

Next
Wild @ Pittsburgh Penguins Sat Oct 31 6PM CST FSN HD

We’ll see if this win builds a little momentum against the Stanley Cup champion Penguins. No Evgeni Malkin, so that’ll help. Still a tough task to get a W. I just want to see consistent improvement. Don’t follow this nice win up with a dud.

Guess we won’t be making the playoffs by going 41-0 at home.

Tonight the Wild lost their first game of the season at Xcel Energy Center, dropping their home record to 3-1. Lump that in with their 0-8 record on the road and the Wild have a Western Conference-worst 6 points. 12 games into the season, the Wild are ahead of only the Toronto Maple Leafs and the Florida Panthers in the entire NHL.

Tonight’s game wasn’t exactly entertaining. The Wild were down 1-0 early and 2-0 at the end of the 1st period. Things were looking sweet at the start of the 2nd, as surprisingly the Wild scored 3 goals in the first 2:18 – Burns on the PP, Clutterbuck from the right circle in transition, and Nolan on a weird cross-ice play that had Preds G Dan Ellis going the wrong direction. But that 3-2 lead lasted about as long as the Twins postseason, and the Preds soon had a 4-3 lead. That was that. My head was buried in my laptop for most of the 3rd. Figuring out what is new in Windows 7 was more interesting, and that’s sad commentary.

There’s alot of things not going well for this team. Obviously offensive flow is a big one. But another that’s becoming apparent is poor defensive play. I don’t know if it’s lack of talent on the blueline or trying to implement a activating D system with D that can’t play that style, but it’s difficult to watch. And Marek Zidlicky is the new Martin Skoula.

Speaking of that offensive flow, I don’t get why Petr Sykora would be a healthy scratch after playing only 2 games since coming back from injury. This team doesn’t have alot of offensive talent, and scratching Sykora takes out a major piece of that talent. Don’t you need to play your best players and allow them to work on that offensive flow?

Oh yeah, and the boo birds were out tonight at the X. Oh hey, the T-Wolves won tonight. How long before the discerning Minnesota sports fan chooses to spend his or her hard-earned money in Minneapolis instead of St. Paul? Just sayin…

Mostly more of the same from the Wizzy tonight. A very poor start…Down 1-0 in the first 2 minutes. Outshot 8-0 before they got their first shot. Gave up a 2 on 1 shorthanded goal. It all added up to the Blues’ first win at home and yet another Wild road loss.

If you couldn’t see this game, you didn’t miss a whole lot. Here’s a couple things…

• Newly acquired F Chuck Kobasew scored his first goal in a Wild sweater.
  
• Brent Burns continues to look like he’s lost something. He’s certainly not the guy we were ready to anoint the next Chris Chelios. Actually, I wonder how Cheli is doing with the Chicago Wolves…
  
• The Wizzy played better in the 2nd and 3rd and closed the shot margin to 26-20 by the end of the game.
  
• Still waiting to see this “offensive” style of hockey kick in. Mostly I see chickens with their heads cut off.
  
• Wild D Kim Johnsson left the game in the 1st period with some sort of injury and didn’t return.
  
• The loss wrecks the Wild’s perfect record with their new third sweater. Sure, it was only 1-0, but there hasn’t been much else to get excited about. Now that’s gone too.
  
• Has Marty Havlat played in a game yet? Maybe I should tweet him and ask.
  
• I’ve seen alot of commentary on Benoit Pouliot’s game looking alot better so far this season, so I decided to pay attention tonight. I have to say, I was impressed. At the risk of saying this again and looking stupid, might he have finally figured it out?
  
• I love listening to Darren Pang do color commentary. How does a guy like him wind up in St. Louis, and we have to listen to who we have to listen to? Also, there was no obnoxious “Face Off” bit in the intermission. Good on ya Fox Sports Midwest.

Next: Hurricanes @ Wild Saturday 7PM FSN (HD)
The Wild will put their perfect home record on the line tomorrow against Carolina. The ‘Canes only have 2 wins as well, so it should be riveting hockey. You would like to see the Wizzy win this one, and hopefully in regulation.

All 30 teams will be in action tomorrow as well. These are fun nights if you have the Center Ice package. 

Just a quick update on the TV situation for tonight's Wild @ Blues game. It's not on MSP local, but if you are getting the NHL Center Ice free preview from your cable or satellite provider (DirecTV, Dish, Comcast, etc.) you can catch the St. Louis broadcast.

It's always fun to hear the out of towners prattle about your team, so check it out if you can.

UPDATE: Via Russo's Twitter feed, the Wild will be wearing their third jerseys in St. Louis tonight, so there's another reason to watch. Apparently they will wear them tonight, tomorrow @ the X and Monday in Chicago. Interesting that they're wearing them on the road.

Tonight the Wild looked a liiiiitle bit better than they have over the last couple weeks. They got to practice the powerplay alot as well, and that certainly helped. The Wild had 8 powerplay opportunities while Colorado had 3, and both regulation Wild goals came on the powerplay .They scored the lone goal in the shootout to get the extra point and just like that we’ve doubled our win total for the season! We’re comin!

Mikko Koivu
Mikko Koivu, in his first game as the first real Wild captain, had a very strong game. He scored the tying goal in the 3rd on a redirected puck in front of the net, and he scored the game winner in the shootout. However, I will not call him “Captain Koivu” as FSN play-by-play guy Dan Terhaar chose to do. Ugh.

Niklas Backstrom
Backy was great again, making 35 saves plus 3 in the shootout. He is the constant on this team, again not flashy but there when you need him.

2nd Period Still Ugly
The Wild dominated the 1st period with the help of Avalanche penalties. But in the 2nd they reverted to the team we saw on the west coast. The Avs outshot the Wild 18-4 in the 2nd when we saw sloppy defensive play, poor breakouts, and an inability to clear for long stretches. Wild D Brent Burns looked especially lost as he ineffectively tried to clear the puck, regained it, then turned it over inside the defensive zone, which led directly to the Avs go ahead goal. Gotta tighten that up.

Busted Glass
It seemed the loudest cheer of the night from the “Team of 18,000” came when an Avalance player knocked Wild D Nick Schultz into the glass at the scorers table just before the end of regulation and the glass shattered into at least 1,394,238 pieces. It was a little comical to see the official timekeeper shield himself from the wreckage while stopping the clock. Good work sir.

Third Jersey
I really like the new sweaters. It was awesome to see the boys in green again, and I think the script lettering on the front is striking. Also, I like that they are 1-0 in them.

Next
Wild hop a plane for a quick rodie to St. Louis on Friday, 7PM No TV (FSN FAIL) The Blues look improved over last season, but they don’t exactly instill fear into my heart.The Wild should show some pride, play a “good road game” and get their first road win of the year.

ETC
Congrats to the Philadelphia Phillies for putting away the Dodgers tonight to advance to the World Series. Assuming it’s Phillies v. Yankees, I’m all about a Phils repeat.

It's been a long couple weeks since the Wild have played at Xcel Energy Center. A long west coast road trip resulted in a no wins and 5 losses, giving the Wild a depressing record of 1-6. It sucks being a fan of that team. I'm not going to rehash that 0-5 trip - that's been done at nauseum. Let's look at why things will turn around soon for our favorite hockey team.

Back Home
Gotta start somewhere, and the X is the last (only) place they won a game. It's only for one game and they're back out to St. Louis, but then they come back here Saturday. The long road trip is over and at least they get some familiarity with their surroundings. Should impart a better state of mind.

Third Jersey Debut
The Wild will wear their new green third jersey for the first time tonight. Some teams rack up wins in their alternate jerseys and this is obviously purely coincidence, but if it makes the day feel like a special occasion and amps the team up a bit more I'll bite.

More Work on the System
Veteran Wild F Andrew Brunette was on KFAN with Lavelle E. Neil this morning, and they talked a bit about learning the new system. Bruno is always pretty candid in media interviews and he sounded sincere in speaking to the difficulty in going to a new system that is pretty much the exact opposite of what most of the team is used to playing. He said it in a way that makes me believe it's more than just an excuse, that there truly are growing pains of learning Todd Richards' system. He said he feels like each day they get a bit better, and if it's working well they will be a hard forechecking team. It's gotta click eventually.

Healing
Another factor Bruno touched on was injuries. Not so much that the injuries have resulted in the losses, but that they've contributed to the learning curve on the new system. A good portion of the team (including Bruno and Koivu) missed most of the preseason with injuries, and now you have Havlat and Sykora missing games. Havlat may play tonight and Sykora sounds close, and out of nowhere Cal Clutterbuck skated with the team today, so things are looking up.

On a downside to the injury thing, Pierre Marc Bouchard was placed on extended injury reserve or some goofy thing. He has concussion symptoms that won't go away. Some people have speculated that his career could be in question. That would be sad - PMB is a good kid.

Chuck Kobasew
Wild GM Chuck Fletcher made a deal with Boston for Chuck Kobasew, a tough winger. He might not be the key to making this team competitive, but he has scored 20+ goals the last two seasons, and the Wild need goal scorers. Fletch gave up a good prospect, but you gotta give up something to get something. Would Doug Reisbrough have made that trade?

The Official Face of the Franchise
Finally, the Wild have a permanent captain. They gave F Mikko Koivu the C for good, even though it has been unofficially his team for the last year or so. Mikko was the fan choice. Richards said he exibits all the characteristics of a good leader. During the presser announcing the move he spoke to the media in a way I haven't ever really heard him speak. You could hear the responsibility in his tone. He said the important thing was that "the older guys" supported him in that role and that he wouldn't change how he plays or how he acts in the clubhouse, but I envision him taking the role and running with it. Some people step up more when others give you more responsibility and I think Mikko, typically thought of as a quiet leader, will excell in this spot.

It's going to get better folks.

It’s been a long 2 weeks since the season started.

It’s going to seem even longer as the season wears on.

Tonight the Wild lose 3-2 to the Anaheim Ducks, and it wasn’t that close. Corey Perry had two goals for the Ducks less than 9 minutes into the game. It was 3-0 before Eric Belanger scored to give the Wild a little (a very little) life. In the third period, there wasn’t much to get a Wild fan excited. Andrew Brunette did score his 4th goal of the year, but it came too little too late with only 9 seconds to play.

Again the Wild looked incohesive throughout this game. They The first Duck goal was a direct result of a bad Wild line change and Wild D Shane Hnidy taking a feeble swipe at the puck before sending Perry on a semi-breakaway. Perry scored his 2nd goal at even strength as well, though it sure looked like a Ducks powerplay. And that was about all she wrote.

I counted 4 odd-man rushes given up by the Wild, and I was only paying loose attention. The Wild didn’t sustain any pressure, even on the power play. There isn’t much reason to watch right now. I missed part of the game for Blackhawks v. Oilers.

Oh, and to top all that off, Wild F Martin Havlat left the game in the 3rd period, with an “undisclosed injury.” Russo is hearing it’s a groin pull. Havlat is as injury prone as Marian Gaborik, so this could be more bad news for a hurting Wild team.

The Wild start the season 1-4. How long with this ugliness last? Is it the new coach factor? Is it a learning the system thing? Or just a bad team? Are we looking at a lottery pick in June?

Next: Wild @ Edmonton – Friday October 16th 8PM KSTC
I don’t foresee much change in time for our first NW divisional matchup of the season. These games in Canada are typically a tough watch. Something always goes wrong for the Wild. And I expect Sioux v. Gophers will be on our TV this weekend, so I’ll be in and out of this one.

Can’t wait until the Wild are must-see TV again.

So I've adopted a new word. Picked it up mostly from the Twitter, and I know I'm late to this party, but that's pretty standard for me. I've hesitated to use it but if I'm ever going to use it, it's going to be now.

In case you've been checked out on some exotic island the last few days, you know that Minnesota has been the center of the sports universe over the last 5 days or so. A couple months ago, it looked like a pretty sweet weekend. Gophers v. Badgers at TCF Bank Stadium Saturday, Twins final series at Metrodome the whole weekend culminating with a celebration after the final game Sunday, Vikings v. Packers on Monday Night Football at Metrodome, and the Wild home opener at Xcel Energy Center on Tuesday. 5 great days of Minnesota sporting events in the Twin Cities.

Then the stretch became huge.

Brett Favre signed with the Vikings and the matchup with the Packers at Metrodomebecame huge. The Twins were two games back of the Tigers in the Central division entering play on Friday. We all know what happened there - the Twins swept Kansas City, tied the Tigers, and forced a playoff game at Metrodome. That game was scheduled for Tuesday, and the Wild opener suddenly became the forgotten.

And then the stretch became EPIC.

Favre, Jared Allen, and the Vikings dominated the Packers on Monday and 60,000 Vikings fans left Metrodome elated. On Tuesday, Twins v. Tigers was a nail-biting, stomach-churning affair for both sides. The Twins battled back from 3-0, took a 4-3 lead, got down 5-4, went to extra innings, eeked out of numerous jams, and somehow, someway, walked off as Central Division Champions in the 12th inning. 54,000 Twins fans at Metrodome went banana sandwich. Metrodome is not yet ready to give this team to Target Field.

All that was left was the Wild, just hanging out over in St. Paul, in front of the team of 18,000 (barely), opening their home season with a new coach and new identity. Time to switch gears.

Don't Forget About Us!
I flipped the Wild game on after I'd had my fill of watching Twins players jumping (I mean dancing), spraying champagne, and otherwise adding to their hangover that will make it tough to play well against the Yankees tomorrow. It was the start of the 2nd period, where it was 0-0, and what I saw did not look good at all. The Wild looked out of sorts again, similar to the season opener v. the Blue Jackets. The lack of flow turned quickly into a 3-0 Duck lead. The Duck goals included one from Saku Koivu, which had to drive a bit of a dagger into Mikko and the Wild.

Then EPIC intervened. The 3rd period was a complete reversal of the 2nd. Suddenly the Wild were attacking, sustaining pressure, and getting the puck on Duck G JS Giguere. Mikko Koivu broke through with a powerplay goal from Martin Havlat and Andrew Brunette 6 minutes in. Petr Sykora fired a pretty snap shot past Giguere 6 minutes later, from Havlat and Eric Belanger to make it 3-2. With just over 2 minutes left in regulation, Belanger tied the game, beating Giguere 5-hole from the left circle on the PP, assisted by Havlat again and Brent Burns. And in the overtime, Andrew Brunette cleaned up a loose puck for the game winner - once again on the PP, assisted by Belanger and Kim Johnsson.

The Wild completed the most EPIC 5-day stretch in MN sports history with an equally EPIC comeback. One that we likely would never have seen under the old regime. Andrew Brunette said after the game that they wouldn't let the Twins out do them tonight, and the Team of 18,000 went home as elated as everyone else did over the EPIC stretch of MN sports.

Next
Twins v. Yankees from Yankee Stadium on Wednesday 5 PM TBS...Oh yeah...this is a Wild blog.

The Wild travel to the LA Kings (Thursday 9:30 PM FSNorth HD). The Kings are 1-1 after beating the Sharks tonight and Kings are scoring a few goals in this early season, so the Wild defense will be challenged to continue fine-tuning their offensive system while keeping the Kings scoring chances down. I still think it will take some time, Kings 4 Wild 2.

Man, what a day. Just finished watching the Wild’s season opener because I had other things on my mind today. Like my last baseball game at Metrodome, the Twins trying to run down the Tigers, becoming a temporary White Sox fan, and…well I guess that’s it.

I watched tonight’s 2009-2010 Wild opener on the DVR, and while it was a bit non-descript, one thing is clear: This is a new brand of hockey.

New Style
This a different kind of hockey from the Jacques Lemaire style that we saw for the first 8 years of the Wild’s existence. It just had a different feel. Actually, JL would probably have keeled over if his Wild played this sloppy. But sloppy is as sloppy does…we will likely see alot of this type of play throughout the season as new coach Todd Richards instills his brand of hockey. There weren’t a ton of great scoring chances in either direction, but it just felt so much looser than a typical Wild hockey game. It’s clear we’re in a new era of Wild hockey.

Andrew Brunette scored the lone goal for the Wild, and it was a pretty goal, set up by Mikko Koivu and Martin Havlat, as he deked Mason and slid it in short side conjuring memories of his goal that ended Patrick Roy’s career in the 2003 playoffs.

Other than that, the Wild didn’t sustain much pressure tonight. They were outshot 39-33, and it didn’t feel like they had that many shots.

That’s about all I’ve got for tonight; I’ve got Twins on the brain. I still believe the franchise is better for this change. It will pay off eventually.

An Aside
Wow…as I finish up this post, the Calgary Flames just beat the Edmonton Oilers on a misplay by Nikolai Khabibulin with 40 seconds to go. Bad bad way to lose a season opener in your home arena.

Next
Home opener Tuesday v. the Anaheim Ducks. Too early to throw out predictions really, but the Ducks lost their opener to San Jose 4-1. This game may be even more difficult to pay attention to…if the Twins and Tigers end in tie after tomorrow’s 162nd game, they will play game 163 at Metrodome on Tuesday.

How bout instead, Twins win, Tigers lose on Sunday…

Tonight on my long drive home from work I listened to the Wild PONDcast (yeah, “PONDcast” is cheezy…but I dig it) and it was Todd Richards’ addressing the media after this morning’s skate. One of the things he spoke about was faceoffs…and it was compelling. If you like, you can listen here.

The Wild have never been a good faceoff team. There have been many games where I’ve summed it up with, “It’d be nice if we could win a faceoff…” Winning faceoffs can be so key. In the offensive zone, it gives you an opportunity to score. In the defensive zone, it keeps the other team from getting high-quality scoring chances and sets up an opportunity to get the puck out of the zone and go on the offensive. A winning team wins more of draws than they lose.

Let’s look at some historical stats for the Wild skaters who took the most faceoffs last season:

Mikko Koivu: 1625 faceoffs taken - 857 faceoffs won - 52.7%
Eric Belanger: 1205 faceoffs taken – 626 faceoffs won – 52.0%
James Sheppard: 870 faceoffs taken – 361 faceoffs won – 41.5%

Compare that with the top centers for the Western Conference champ Red Wings last season:

Henrik Zetterberg: 1189 faceoffs taken – 644 faceoffs won – 53.3%
Pavel Datsyuk: 1135 faceoffs taken – 636 faceoffs won – 56.0%
Kris Draper: 1000 faceoffs taken – 603 faceoffs won – 60.3% <—that’s right, 60 percent!
Valtteri Fippula: 784 faceoffs taken – 409 faceoffs won – 52.1%

The Wings top centers averaged  55.8%. Wild top centers averaged 49.8%. Do the math…that’s a difference of 6%. The Wings scored 289 goals last season, the Wild scored 214. I admit some of that can be attributed to goal-scoring talent, but winning faceoffs gives a grinding team a chance to set up the cycle and run offensive plays. The Wild will need to get better at faceoffs in order to compete for a playoff spot.

Back to Todd Richards in the PONDcast today, he mentioned that while in San Jose he worked with Mike Ricci, who was a career faceoff stud. He got them thinking about faceoffs as the first battle of the game or the first battle of the shift. It’s one of the first philisophical elements of Coach Richards that I’ve taken a liking to, and I hope it helps this season.

Look for faceoff stats and their correlation to goals scored to be a theme here on Wild View from Section 216 throughout the season.

The Strib’s Wild beat writer Mike Russo wrote an article about the Wild captaincy today. So this post may feel like I’m piggybacking…but the planning for this post started a couple weeks ago. One of the first things that popped into my scattered brain when Todd Richards was named coach was the captaincy. Finally, it seemed we may abolish Jacques Lemaire’s rotating captaincy. So, I set out to take the pulse of the Wild fans in my life. Here are the questions I asked and the results:

Should the Wild go with 1 captain all season?
The answer to this question was a unanimous “Yes.” The rotating captaincy has run it’s course.

Who Should Start the Season as Captain?
Almost unanimously, Mikko Koivu is the fan’s choice captain the Wild in this year of transition. Nick Schultz got one vote. Pavol Demitra also received a vote, but that was after a few beers and it was later determined that this voter meant Mikko Koivu.

Outcry for Koivu to be named permanent captain started last season, so this is no surprise. Wild fans have handed the “face of the franchise” tag over to Koivu. Women want him. Men want to be him. He’s on the brink of superstardom in Minny.

Who should be the Alternates?
There was a little more variety on the alternates. A very little. By the numbers, it’s Brent Burns and Nick Schultz with Andrew Brunette on standby for injury purposes.

The Official Word
Here are the Wild 2009-2010 captains based on the fan vote:

C: Mikko Koivu
 

A: Brent Burns

A: Nick Schultz

Do you agree with this captaincy group? How would you change it up? Do you think Todd Richards will go this route? Post your thoughts in the comments!