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.

I’ve been meaning to put up a random post for about 5 days now. Long layoff for the Wild gives me a chance to muse about things I normally wouldn’t write about. But alas, Wild play tomorrow, so here is said post.

Wild v. Lightning
I had no game recap for Saturday’s game v. Tampa Bay. We went to a  nice Oktoberfest party and I didn’t get to see any of the Wild’s 1st game v. Barry Melrose and Wes Walz. Apparently I didn’t miss much. The final was 1-0 Wild in a shootout, with Antti Miettinen scoring the SO winner.

Special Feature Coming Soon
I have family in the Dallas area, and my cousin Matt is a big Stars fan. We’re going to work on a new feature for this blog for the 4 Wild/Stars games this season. The Wild are in Dallas next Wed Oct 29th and Matt is planning to go to the game, so look for my recap as well as a recap guest post from him. We’ll try a couple other things throughout the season as well for the games v. the team that I believe should be our biggest rival. If they would just realign the divisions…

Gabby
Alot has been written in the mainstream media over the last few days about Marian Gaborik. Mostly the steam is that he is on the trading block because it does not seem that the team will be able to sign him. There are basically 2 sides to the Wild faithful on this issue…1 that says good riddance because he is an overpriced injury-prone prima donna…the 2nd that says we need Gabby in a Wild sweater to be successful.

I, like most under the Libra zodiac sign, tend to waffle. I see both sides to the argument and on any given day I might think if Gabby is gone we won’t score enough goals and we’ll miss the playoffs for the next 3 years. The next day I’ll be hatin’ on Gaborik and looking forward to the day the soap opera is over. But regardless of how I feel, Wild fans better get used to the idea of a Wild team without it’s superstar for the 1st time since it’s inception.

NHL.com
If you haven’t yet, head over to NHL.com and check it out. I have been very impressed with its redesign. The feature stories are interesting. In-game stats are elaborate on NHL Gamecenter. They do a great job of highlighting the game and its players. You can watch the highlights of every goal over the last 3 years, and the NHL Network Online application collects the best features from each team’s website. NHL.com is one thing I think the league is doing right in the marketing department.

KFAN’s Jeff Dubay
I’m not going to get into any speculation or anything here, but I did want to send out positive vibes to Jeff Dubay of KFAN’s PA and Dubay show. I have listened to PA and Dubay for probably around 7 or 8 years and I was disappointed to hear about the recent charges against Puff. I’m not going to pretend that I know what he is going through, but I do hope he pulls through OK and we can get back to hearing him on the FAN talkin’ hockey, Twins, and everything else Minnesota sports.

Tampa Bay Rays
Am I the only one rooting against the Rays in the World Series? The Twins should be the only under-achieving team winning in a bad stadium. FYI, they’re down 1-0 to the Phillies as of right…about…now.

Next on the Docket – Wild v. Sabres – Thurs Oct 23rd
Sabres are 5-0-1, Wild are 4-0. Something’s got to give…unless it goes to overtime. Should be a pretty fast-paced game. I’ll go with the Wild, 4-3.

Wild @ Panthers – 10-16-08 – View from My Kitchen (Then My Recliner)
Quite an impressive victory for the Wizzy tonite, a 6-2 shellacking of the Florida Panthers. I watched tonite’s game while I made dinner, then on the DVR after dinner. So I didn’t get a gauge for the flow in the 1st 2 periods, but I did see the goals. And again some of them were downright pretty. Who is this offensive juggernaut that we figured was going to struggle to score goals?

Wild Goals
1st period goal from Andrew Brunette, 2nd period goals from Kim Johnsson, Antti Miettinen, and Benoit Pouliot, and 3rd period goals from Mikko Koivu and a another from Miettinen. The only bunk goal was Johnsson’s goal…his soft shot from the blueline bounced off a couple skates on its way past Panther G Thomas Vokoun. The Wild powerplay goals were pretty tick-tack passing plays, and Koivu was unconscious tonite, finishing off a nite full of beauty passes with a wicked wrister through a screen for the final goal.

Jots

• The Wild scored 3 goals on the powerplay.
• Mikko Koivu had 4 assists to go with his 1 goal for a 5 point nite.
• Antti Miettinen now has 5 goals in 3 games. 
• Wild G Niklas Backstrom played his 3rd solid game of the season, making 24 saves en route to the win.
• Oh yeah, Gabby is hurt.

Next on the Docket – Wild @ Lightning – Sat 10-18-08
The Wild are off to another fast start. They went 5-0 before losing last season, and the year before they went 6-0. But they have to lose eventually right? We get to see Barry Melrose and former Wild F Wes Walz behind the bench for the Bolts, and Melrose is the kind of guy that is smart enough to tap into Wes for some insider secrets. The Bolts are winless so far, so I’ve got to read all that karma into a win for the Lightning, 4-1.

Wild @ Thrashers - 10-14-08 - View from My Recliner
Wild win 4-2 tonite, in front of about 13 people at Phillips Arena in Atlanta. All told the Wizzy played a pretty good game. Another slow start, but they got it going thanks to a bevy of power play opportunities.

Antti Miettinen
It’s early, and the sun shines on the blah blah sometimes, but Antti Miettinen sure seems to have some offensive promise. From what I remember he would show flashes in Dallas, but never was consistent. Well, he had both the game-winning and insurance goals for the Wild tonite. His 1st goal was on a semi-breakaway where he held off Thrasher D Mathieu Schneider and roofed a backhander over Thrasher G Kari Lehtonen. His 2nd goal came on a pretty give and go 3 on 2 with Wild F Andrew Brunette. He also had an assist on Bruno’s PP goal in the 1st period for a 3 point nite. Hopefully his new start in Minny is the key to realizing his potential.

Marian Gaborik Sighting
Gabby played a very strong game tonite. He had a handful of good scoring chances, and he scored a fabulous goal in the 3rd that gave the Wild the lead at 2-1. Brunette, Mikko Koivu, and Gaborik were pressuring as a Wild powerplay expired. Koivu got the puck to the front of the net where Schneider got control of the puck for Atlanta. Gabby lifted Schneider’s stick from behind and in one slick motion fired the puck past Lehtonen. And suddenly, I found myself really wanting Gabby to sign with the Wild.

Jots

• Andrew Brunette got his 1st goal of his 2nd tour of duty with the Wild on the PP in the 1st period.
• I am really falling in love with Marc-Andre Bergeron’s shot from the point. There are so many ways to score goals when you have defensemen that can shoot the puck…deflections, screens, rebounds, not to mention they can just go in, as happened in Saturday’s opener.
• James Sheppard is really starting to look like a hockey player. He is so much more noticeable on the ice, and he seems so much more confident this season.
• Possible injury issues already. F Pierre-Marc Bouchard is having back issues and has been flown back to the Twin Cities to rest. The Wild will for sure be without him for the final two games of the road trip. F Owen Nolan left in the 1st with some sort of lower body injury, prompting the Wild to call up Cal Clutterbuck from Houston. If these are lingering injuries, it could mean trouble for the Wild.

Next on the Docket – Wild @ Panthers – Thurs 10-16-08
The Wild should never lose to the Florida Panthers. Wild 3 Panthers 1

Bruins @ Wild - 10-11-08 - View from My Recliner with Baby in Tow
Bugger it’s so good to have hockey back! It’s amazing how the shortest offseason of all the pro sports seems to take the longest. The Wild got off to a beauty start to the 2008-2009 season tonite at Xcel Energy Center with a win over the Boston Bruins, 4-3.

Standard Wild Hockey
Tonite’s game had a feel of standard Wild hockey. Slow start and trailing early. Turn it on late in the 1st and through the 2nd period, and hang on in the 3rd to pull out the win.

F Eric Belanger scored 2 goals, which last year would have really made me excited. But seeing him disappear in the 2nd half last year dampers my enthusiasm. Just think if he could score 30 goals…

Newcomers F Antti Miettenin and D Marc-Andre Bergeron scored for the Wild. Miettenin scored on a quick tip play and Bergeron scored on the PP with a razor slapper that bounced through Bruins G Manny Fernandez’s pads. Shades of Brian Rolston.

Great Atmosphere
The crowd seemed to be pretty amped up tonite. Of course I was not there, but it came across very well on FS North. The game was broadcast in HD and I was very impressed with FSN’s telecast. They have a new set of graphics and they did alot of flyover crowd shots. The flyovers did alot more to convey the atmosphere than the typical crowd shots we are used to. Good on ya FSN.

Not So Good on Ya FSN
I was very disappointed in FSN’s coverage of the raising of the Northwest Division Championship banner. As someone who made reference to the NW championship in most of my posts towards the end of last season, I was really excited to see the ceremony. Since I couldn’t be there, I expected FSN to cover something as historic as the 1st banner raised to the Xcel Energy Center rafters. Instead, all I got to see was 10 seconds of the banner as they came back from commercial. After an hour-long pregame of Darby Hendrickson and Kevin Gorg, I was blown away that we couldn’t see more of the banner going up. FSN got everything else right, but they screwed this important nuance up big time.

New Family & the Wild
Tonite was Adriana’s 1st Wild game experience (of MANY). She was pretty good throughout, content in looking at the TV in my lap. The funniest part of the nite was when I was changing her diaper and play-by-play guy Dan Terharr said something about Wild D Martin Skoula. I said, “What, Skoula” in an excited voice, and Adriana started giggling. She’s 3 months old, and she’s already laughing at Skoula. 

Jots

• FSN did a quick interview with former Gophers Blake Wheeler and Phil Kessel. Man, does Kessel sure seem like a dink.
• Wild F Colton Gillies is much bigger than I realized.
• Wild F Marian Gaborik didn’t figure much into the game. He had a couple nice moves, but they did not materialize into any real chances.
• Boston and former Wild G Manny Fernandez could have changed up his mask a little. It’s the same one he had in Minny, but yellow instead of green.
• Wild F Owen Nolan may be old, but I like his spark. I hope it lasts the whole season.
• If you caught NHL Network’s simulcast of Hockey Night in Canada, or if you saw CBC’s actual coverage, you saw that they named a winner of the contest for the new theme song for HNiC, in front of a live audience. I thought it was actually pretty cool. Some random guy, wins the contest for composing the theme song. They cut to the new video intro, with his song accompanying. Had to be an awesome feeling for him. And the video intro is actually pretty cool, with computer animations of some of the most memorable moments in hockey history. They even simulated a faceoff between Sidney Crosby and Wayne Gretzky. Very cool.

Next on the Docket – Wild @ Thrashers – Tues 10-14-08
It is difficult to make predictions on individual games this early in the season. So, I will go with the home team here. Thrashers should win; Thrashers 4 Wild 2.

Earlier today the Wild made what sounds like will be their last free agent signing for the foreseeable future in RW Antti Miettinen from Dallas. I don't know much about him except that I have always liked hearing his name when I watched Stars games on TV. So, I asked one of my sources in Dallas...Matt in TX. He had this to say:

"Antti doesn't do much for me, like if you put him on a good line he will have moments of brilliance but overall I don't think he's that good. "

Certainly not exactly what I wanted to hear, but in line with what Russo had to say. Typical Reisbrough signing. At least I get to hear his name more.

For the record, I'm glad Markus Naslund chose the Rangers and not the Wild. It would be hard to root for him in a Wild sweater.

Let's see if Reisbrough can get the job done with Gabby. See the previous post for my prediction on that one.