Niklas Backstrom is here to stay

Niklas Backstrom inked a big contract with the Wild this week. Backstrom signed a 4 year for $24 million contract, making his the 5th highest paid goaltender in the NHL and probably the highest paid Wild player on next year’s roster. This is the most the Wild has ever paid a goalie, but it makes sense that they secured a deal. It’s no secret that Backstrom has saved this Wild team more times than ever expected and that he is respected and liked in the Wild locker room.

March’s Minnesota Wild Captain Mikko Koivu said this to the press:

"I think probably the most important thing on a winning team is goaltending, and you get a guy like that for four years, obviously it's a good foundation.”


Let’s face it, Niklas Backstrom is the best player on the Wild team and the best player should be the highest paid. I need to buy a Backstrom jersey…it will be a good investment.

Wild Better Tighten Up the Laces

The Minnesota Wild Schedule looks brutal over the next month – in fact, the Star Tribune puts it like this:

“One of the toughest stretches of the Wild's season is here, and the players had better be ready. It starts with a three-game stretch against some of the best teams in the Western Conference -- Calgary, Detroit and Chicago. After that, the Wild plays nine of the next 11 on the road.”


The players better be ready? Uh, yeah. They better. I think we will be able to tell if this Wild team is going to make it to the NHL playoffs this year just based on the next few games. Any thoughts Wild Fans?

Let’s hope for a home ice win tonight against Calgary Flames to start this tough stretch of schedule off right.

Wild Win Big over Ducks

Good game last night. No, Great game last night. Wild goalie Niklas Backstrom shut-out the Anaheim Mighty (or not so mighty) Ducks 3-0 in front of another sold out crowd at the Xcel Energy Center. The win puts the Wild 7th in the Western Conference, but just two points out of 5th and within reach of the division leader Calgary Flames.

Niklas Backstrom said: "We're getting better every night, and that's the way it should be: The more games we play, the better we should be, but we can't be too satisfied. You look at the standings; they're probably going to be completely different tomorrow."


There are 30 games to the playoffs, but the Wild are just taking it one game at a time. Next up? Let’s hope for a repeat of last night’s performance when the Wild host the Nashville Predators on Friday night. There are still tickets available from hockey ticket brokers like Hockey Tickets Minnesota. Wild ticket prices have been pretty low after the Wild had a disappointing December, but as the team starts to build steam, you can bet those Minnesota Wild ticket prices will go up as well. Go Wild!

Wild Playoff Hopes

I read this in Charley Walters column today:

The Wild held a team meeting this week and were reminded that they don't have a lot of time to make a playoff push.

Duh. You never know if Walters is telling the truth or just making a joke that’s why he is a "columnist" and not a reporter, but I hope that the Wild team managers and coaches are reminding the Wild players EVERY DAY that they have squandered away too many wins to sit back now, they need to win every game if they hope to make the NHL playoffs this year.

Good thing the Wild came out strong Tuesday night over the Maple Leafs. I wish every game looked like that.

Brunette Plays Hurt, Plays for the Team

Marian Gaborik could take a lesson or two from Andrew Brunette. Bruno played in back to back games with a banged up leg – notching two assists in the Chicago Blackhawks game and another assist during the depressing LA Kings game. In fact, he played over 19 minutes in the Kings game and looked like one of the best players on the Xcel ice.

"It's my worst fear," Andrew Brunette said after the Wild's 5-2 loss to the Kings. "It's that people will think I'm selfish. I've never been selfish. I'm not that way. I won't ever be that way.”

Those are words you will NEVER hear come out of Marian Gaboriks mouth. Now, who do you think is the true hockey player? Which player would you rather have on your team? Gaborik has got to go.

Minnesota Wild Rival

I saw this poll online – do you agree with the results?

Which team do you consider to be the Wild's biggest rival?
Vancouver: 60 %
Colorado: 14 %
Calgary: 11%
Dallas: 8 %
Anaheim: 7%

I was surprised that Vancouver received such a high percentage of the votes – I would have thought that Calgary would have received more votes and why isn’t Detroit on the list?

Anyway, there is a big game against Anaheim tomorrow night; perhaps Wild fans will consider the Ducks a bigger rival if they bounce us off the boards too much. The Wild Ducks games are always hard hitting. I am ready!

Wild score SIX goals and Win

The Xcel Energy Center crowd had plenty to cheer about last night. The Minnesota Wild finally got on a scoring streak! The Wild beat the Phoenix Coyotes at the “X” last night 6-3. The big difference between this win and many others was that the six goals came from six different players:

Marc-Andre Bergeron
James Sheppard
Owen Nolan
Andrew Brunette
Mikko Koivu
Cal Clutterbuck

That is a rare occurrence, but just proves that this team is capable of scoring a lot of goals every game because they have so many players that know how to score. This MN Wild Freak was starting to lose interest in the Wild and I think a lot of fans are cooling off toward the up and down Wild team, but the first Wild goal came just 46 seconds after the puck dropped – how’s that for winning back the fans? Minnesota fans want exciting hockey and we got it! Go Wild!

Backstrom Saves…Again

The four game road trip is starting out well. 2-0. The Wild had a great win over that Avs on Sunday 2-zip and then Niklas Backstrom had another great night between the pipes in Boston last night as the Wild shut out the Boston Bruins 1-0. It’s nice to see some scoring by other guys than just the norm – In Colorado it was Owen Nolan and in Boston it was Marek Zidlicky. It’s even nicer to have good old reliable Niklas Backstrom in the net to save our pucks.

I read online that this was the sixth straight win against an Eastern Conference team. Any chances we could get re-aligned in the East? Just kidding (or am I?). Next up are the Flyers tomorrow night. Let’s go Wild.

A Wild Record We Aren’t Proud Of

After losing to the Mighty Ducks on Sunday in Anaheim, the Minnesota Wild set a franchise record for most consecutive regular season losses: 5.

Let’s hope the Wild can stop the skid down the slippery slope tonight at home against the Calgary Flames. Marian Gaborik should be back on the ice, but I wouldn’t count on him to be the silver bullet –we will need a total team effort to score goals and keep up the defense.

Gaborik has missed the past 27 games thanks to his groin problems. He missed 5 games last year and 34 the year before that. Fan support for this “star” is definitely waning and if he doesn’t come out and play big tonight, it might as well be over for him. I am guessing you might hear some boo’s in the Xcel Energy Center UNLESS Gabby can score a goal (or two) then all will be forgotten in the state of hockey – because we just to win, perhaps at all costs.

Here’s a “Wild” idea, Score Goals = Win Games

What will it take for the Minnesota Wild to win? Oh yeah, goals…and more than one. Saturday night Harding stopped 42 shots on net, but received zero offensive help and the Wild faltered 0-1. I hate those kind of games. The Wild look lethargic and they need to look hungry.

The Wild start a three game road trip on the west coast tomorrow night and I hope they play with more intensity on offense. I heard that Gaborik made the trip. If he’s hoping to collect any sort of paycheck in the next couple of years he better put up some goals real soon.

Loyal Reader of MN Wild Freak

A loyal reader and now contributor to MN Wild Freak emailed me last night with some insightful thoughts. He wrote:

Did you see the Wild-Canucks game tonight?

How does Boogaard get a 10 minute misconduct for being attacked by three players?

How does Mitchell get away with an obvious trip on Boogaard?

If the league is singling out Boogaard as an example of the kind of thuggery they won't tolerate, why did they let cheap-shot artist Brad May play in the Stanley Cup finals...and if that pricks name in inscribed on the cup, it's a travesty.

Lemaire should file a formal protest with the league. This is the kind of crap that makes the NHL look like a rinky dink league.

If I'd have been there, they probably would have had to kick me out of the arena for throwing garbage onto the ice, because that's exactly what the officiating was - garbage.

I've already lost interest in the NFL....the NHL isn't too far behind...

Thanks
Marv

Thanks for the email Marv. I couldn't agree with you more on all of your points. All I know is that I hate the Canucks and that I am going to make sure that I grab a couple of Wild Tickets for the game on 3/31 to see Derek Boogaard lay down the law with Willie Mitchell.

Happy Wild Fans

Finally a game Wild fans can be happy about. It’s no secret we don’t like to lose around here and you would have thought Monday’s defensive nightmare and loss to the Avs was the end of the world, but all is forgotten now that the Wild blanked the St Louis Blues last night at the X.

The Wild power play looked great and it’s no wonder the boys are ranked second in the NHL. We plowed right through the St Louis Blues last night. I hope to see more play like that come Friday night when the Wild face off against the Vancouver Canucks again at the Xcel. It will be a good game no doubt. I am sure that Vancouver will want to prove that they belong in first place in the Northwest Division, let’s hope the Wild want to prove it, too.