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.

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. 

Islanders @ Wild - 2-9-08 - A View from Section 216 & Wild @ Blues - 2-10-08 - A View from My House
Couple games to recap here. I was in attendance in section 216 for Saturday's game on Hockey Day Minnesota. For me, since I am not a Gopher fan, it was pretty much the culmination of Hockey Day. I watched the early morning high-school game on Baudette Bay and parts of the other HS game at Xcel that followed. Really enjoyed watching the kids freeze on Baudette Bay. Man, did that look cold. But all the kids they talked to were like, yeah, it's cold, but I don't notice it. They were just very excited to play in the outdoor game and to be a part of the event. Nice work.

So the Wild game on Saturday was the perverbial bounce-back game after two well-played games against the top two teams in the conference, but lossess non-the-less. The Islanders are a bad team, so you'd think it would be a nice easy win. Well, not so much.

After gaining the lead but giving up tying goals in the first 30 seconds of the 2nd and 3rd periods, I still thought we would come out with a W. But New York took the lead with about 4 minutes left. Since the Wild aren't a great come-from-behind team, I didn't like our chances and I became pretty crabby. Missed opportunity. Thankfully, Mr. Streaky Brian Rolston nicely corralled a big rebound off a PMB shot and slammed the puck past DiPietro for the tie, and Burnsie followed up a Gaborik rush up-ice to get the second point. HUGE! Biggest things I take from this game were that Backstrom improved his control of the rebound and the Wild were resilient enough to not let two points slip away.

Then comes the Blues game. Not the best game the Wild have ever played, and this one goes to OT again...then it went to the shootout. I was surprised Gabby was the first shooter since he was unable to beat Manny Legace on a breakaway in the OT. He shot this time and missed...then Legace stopped Rolston. St. Louis scored on their 2nd shot, but Pavol Demitra scored to keep us alive. Josh Harding made some great stops in the shootout, and Burnsie again got the game-winner with a pretty goal. He rushed the net with alot of speed, put on the breaks, and drug the puck for a shot to an open net. St. Louis couldn't score on their try, and the extra point goes to the Wild. HUGE AGAIN!

Fight to Hang the First Banner
With the 4 points over the last 2 nites the Wild again have a 3-point lead in the Northwest Division. Suddenly the closest team is Colorado, who is doing it without the injured Joe Sakic and Ryan Smyth. All 4 of the top teams in the NW now have the same number of games remaining, so it'll be whoever can finish with the best record.

Next on the Docket - Wild @ Oilers - Tues 2-12-08
Look for the Wild to shake the sloppy play from the last two games and get a convincing win over Edmonton. Wild 4 Oilers 1