Minnesota Wild Holiday Games Series Go Well...

The Minnesota Wild played 3 home games last week at the Xcel Energy Center. Lots of hometown fans, in St. Paul for the Holidays, came out for Holiday Game Series... The Minnesota Wild Roster did not disappoint.

Although the MN Wild lost their first game last week (a Monday Dec 21 match up against the Colorado Avalanche), they played well and hung on for a final score of 4-3 Avalanche. The rivalry Wild-Avalanche Game was highly anticipated and despite skating well and handling the puck, the Wild just couldn't quite pull off a win

Two days later on Wednesday the Minnesota Wild roster skated against the Oilers, trampling them 3-1 with an easy win... Holiday Hockey Fans enjoyed watching Koivu and Cal Clutterbuck both skate great games

Finally on the Minnesota Wild Holiday Hockey Line-Up was a game against the St. Louis Blues on Saturday Dec 23rd. The Blues came out onto the ice confident and gave the MN Wild a run for their money, but in the end the Wild pulled off a 4-3 win, giving Minnesota Wild fans a very happy holiday!

Wild Players Analysis

I want to add a list of Minnesota Wild players that I think did well and a list of players that did not play to potential when I saw them last Tuesday night and no, I wasn’t too drunk off the green beer (which I couldn’t find at the Xcel anyway!) to read the jersey numbers to be sure I got my ‘facts’ straight:


Players that ROCKED:

Stephane Veilleux (always hustling! Got credit for the second period goal although I am certain he didn’t touch it – it was all Skoula – hard to believe, I know)


Andrew Brunette (tons of shots on goal, great passing and setting up plays)

Mikko Koivu (more than once I saw him talking to the guys before a face-off setting up plays and just rallying the players, great leadership and his sweet backhand in the shootout rocked)


Players that SUCKED:

James Sheppard (he was sloooooow and majorly out of position on several plays, I still can’t believe Jacques let him out on the ice so many times, Jimmy may need a hockey 101 brush-up)

Kurtis Foster (wasn’t as solid as I remembered him to be, I hope he gets better with each game)

Pierre Marc-Bouchard (although he did have couple of shots on goal, they weren’t very good ones and his passes were pathetic, plus he let a puck slip right by him during crunch time, this is the NHL, that can’t be tolerated)

BIG WILD GAME ON SUNDAY! Wild vs. Oilers. It must be a hot ticket too because local broker like Ticket King St Paul hardly has any Minnesota Wild tickets for sale!

Wild Avalanche Game Intense

I went to the Minnesota Wild Colorado Avalanche game on St Patricks Day – the Wild won in a shoot-out – whew! The overall intensity of the game was high. In the first period, the Wild were crashing the net like crazy, but just couldn’t get anything to go in. The overall play was pretty physical, but the refs didn’t let the punches fly and there were hardly any penalties. Just a lot of clean checking. Derek Boogaard almost got a goal, but he is so damn slow that the goalie had time to put his pad down in front of it in the corner of the crease. I could tell Boogie was disappointed (I was sitting right behind the goal).

The Wild looked slower in the second period, but came back in the third and tied the game up 2-2 with less than two minutes on the game clock. The crowd went crazy and no one went home early. I was nervous when the Wild couldn’t put anything together in overtime and had to go to a shootout. Colorado Avs players are known for their precision shooting. I screamed out, “Show us why you make the big bucks Backstrom.” He did (for the most part) and our Wild shooters proved to be more precise after all.

Still just barely out of the playoffs . . . come on hockey gods, be kind!

Wild Scored and Won, Let’s do it Again.

Obviously the Minnesota Wild took my advice during the Wild Avalanche game in Denver last week. The Wild scored 3 goals and guess what? they won! Then they traveled to Vancouver to take on the Canucks and didn’t score at all and guess what? They lost. Wild Goalie Niklas Backstrom is doing his part, I would even venture so far as to saying the defense is doing their part, but I don’t think the Wild offense is aggressive enough and I blame a lot of it on the coaching. Come on Jacques, stop the dump and run plays and carry the puck all the way to the goal – it’s more intimidating, it’s more aggressive, it scores goals.

The Minnesota Wild are at home tonight vs the Phoenix Coyotes. Ticket King St Paul has Wild Tickets starting out at $49 each. That’s not bad. I will need to plan my funds carefully, though, because the Minnesota Wild play 10 of their next 12 game at the Xcel Energy Center and I want to make it out to as many as I can.


Go Wild!

Wild will need some luck to win Avalanche series

On my most recent MN Wild Freak poll, most of the Wild fans predicted the Wild would face off against the Colorado Avalanche (61%), but do you suppose the Wild fans would have predicted an overtime loss in the first game of the first round of the NHL Playoffs? The Minnesota Wild played well, but lady luck was not our side. Let’s hope Friday is a better night at the Xcel Energy Center.

Wild beat Colorado, look ahead to Vancouver

The Minnesota Wild beat the Colorado Avalanche at the Xcel Energy Center on Sunday night 4-1. The win should give Minnesota some much needed momentum to get ready for the Vancouver Canucks on Wednesday at the X. The Wild and the Canucks have some bad blood running between them and the game is going to be huge for Wild hockey fans.

Be sure to read my SB Nation Minnesota Wild hockey site http://www.inthestateofhockey.com/ for all of your Minnesota Wild news and game reviews. Go Wild!

BIG WIN FOR MINNESOTA WILD!

I was very impressed with the showing by the Minnesota Wild on Friday versus the Colorado Avalanche. It is awfully early in the season to call a game a "must win" but that game sure felt like one. The Avalanche are hot on the heels of the Wild for a playoff spot and they have had the Wilds number this year. That all changed on Friday. The Minnesota Wild outplayed the Avalanche at the Pepsi Center and came away with two big points which moved them further ahead of the Avalanche and even closer to first place in their division. Every time I think that his team has no heart, they rise to the occasion with a big win and Friday was no exception. GO WILD!!!