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!

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…