Too close for comfort...and a prediction

With regular season behind them, Wild, Blackhawks get set to face each other in Round One of 2013 NHL Playoffs

By Wild Road Tripper

That was close. Too close.

The Minnesota Wild, who almost backed all the way out of the Stanley Cup Playoffs, did manage to right the ship of state in time to save their season Saturday night at Pepsi Center, defeating the Colorado Avalanche 3-1 to qualify for the Stanley Cup Playoffs. As thousands of fans watched in angst at Nationwide Arena in Columbus, where the Blue Jackets thought that their 3-1 win, over the Nashville Predators, would just be enough to qualify for their second playoff run in the franchise's history, the Wild managed to just squeak in as the No. 8 seed in the NHL's Western Conference.

The Wild will begin their best-of-7 series with the Chicago Blackhawks on either Tuesday or Wednesday, depending on the whims of the NBC Sports Network, who controls what games are placed in what order by the League contractually. NBCSN -- which used to be known as Versus -- would like to keep the League's stars (Sidney Crosby, Alex Ovechkin, the Blackhawks, Detroit Red Wings) on their network as much as possible.

And, there is the question in the Eastern Conference of who will play whom, as there is one game to be played today -- the postponed Ottawa at Boston game, which was originally scheduled for April 15th, the date of the Boston Marathon bomb attacks. This game needs to be played, in order to determine playoff positioning for 3 of the 4 Eastern Conference series.

Until that game is played, none of the dates/times for any of the series will probably be announced, so it will be anywhere up to mid-late evening before the times might be known.

As the two teams prepare to enter the playoffs -- the pressure-filled, hyper-intense world of hockey beyond the end of the regular season -- the fact of the matter is clear: The Wild are the second-biggest underdog in the NHL playoffs. Only the New York Islanders -- who will end up facing the Pittsburgh Penguins, should Ottawa lose in OT or the shootout tonight in Boston -- would probably be a larger underdog.

Regardless of when the Wild-Blackhawks series starts, the best thing for the Wild to do is simplify your game. No more Clayton Stoner cross-ice passes to be intercepted by Marian Hossa. No Justin Falk missed checks leading to Patrick Kane odd-man rushes on goal. No more Tom Gilbert passes to the empty quarter of the offensive zone, only to be intercepted and shot down the ice, killing yet another chance. Don't expect Pierre-Marc Bouchard to Spin-o-Rama his way to a Stanley Cup. Or much from Zenon Konopka, Mike Rupp, or Torrey Mitchell, but for Mitchell, for the fact he has to play on the same line (Wild's 4th) with the other two.

Chicago's strength is that their four lines are better than yours, matched up line-for-line (1st vs. 1st, 2nd vs. 2nd, 3rd vs. 3rd, and 4th vs. 4th). Their defense is better than yours (especially the bottom three), and their goaltending has improved dramatically, as opposed to Wild workhorse Niklas Backstrom, who has played in 82% of the Wild's season.

The Wild will make this an interesting series, and may just sneak a win out of the United Center. Maybe. But then, under the pressure of the home crowd, with 20,000 people at Xcel Energy Center (they will try for this number of tickets sold, for each game in this series) screaming 'SHOOT' every time the power play stalls and become a pass-fest, the Wild will eventually wilt under the relentless attack of the Blackhawks. What the Hawks are, is what the Wild wants to achieve. They just aren't there...yet. But, they're getting there. At least the Wild are, finally, on their way.

PREDICTION: Hawks in 6.

Another game, another loss, another injured Wild player

Well, after Saturday night's latest Minnesota Wild loss, the number of Wild walking wounded now ruled out of the rest of this season-from-hell, is now up to five (Bouchard, Latendresse, Falk, Spurgeon, and now Matt Cullen, who had his right index finger broken, by a Christian Ehrhoff shot) and with five of the team's seven remaining games at home, the question has to be asked: Was the schedule as much a part of the team's problems this season as the concussions, groin problems and general poor play in December, January, February and March? Or was it the failure of the 'Director of Player Safety'?

The fact that the months of November, December and January were very much road-heavy months for the Wild, exasperated an already tenuous situation for the team's paper-thin lineup of talent. After the back-to-back nights of December 13 and 14, when Bouchard was re-concussed by Zack Bogosian of Winnipeg, and Chicago's Viktor Stahlberg rang the bell of Latendresse, respectively, Wild fans knew this team was going nowhere but down, from the lofty first-place heights they had been in, just a few days before.

The fact that without two of their top 6 forwards in the lineup, the offense was going to stall. But no one knew it was going to stall this bad. Then there was the shoulder injury to Mikko (Kaptain) Koivu, the groin troubles of both goaltenders (Niklas Backstrom and Josh Harding), and you had a recipe for trouble. And, you already had tapped the Houston Aeros affiliate for all the talent that they could afford to send.

But nothing prepared Wild fans for the next two months following the All-Star Game, when the Wild were turned into the NHL's version of Alfred, the butler from 'Batman', -- 'At your service, sirs'.

Disasterous loss after disasterous loss. Beating the Wild was almost becoming comical. From the Nashville disaster on January 31, when the Wild blew a 4-1 lead at home in under 13 minutes, through the embarrassing 3-1 home loss to a Columbus team in 'fire sale' mode on February 11, through a embarrassing 7-1 loss to Colorado on March 6 (thank God, that game at least was in Denver), and onto another come-from-ahead loss to lowly Carolina on St. Patrick's Day. That Saturday, as the party raged on outside the 'X', the funeral was being held inside the arena.

And now, in two successive nights, two more add to the list of Wild walking wounded. Don't forget that on Thursday night, Calgary's Alex Tanguay gets away with an elbow shot to Jared Spurgeon, effectively ending the season for the defenseman some call 'the Minnow', for his small size. Surely, Wild fans thought, the NHL would look at this for some supplemental discipline. Right?

Uh, No.

Seems that the Wild don't matter to NHL disciplinarian Brendan Shanahan. 'Sheriff Shanny', as he has been known, turns a blind eye to discipline when it comes to matters involving the Minnesota Wild. They aren't even worth his attention, even when the rules are clearly broken and players are getting concussed needlessly. Shanahan's official title is 'Director of Player Safety'. But, excuse me, if we fans point out that his title means for ALL players, not just those of teams going to this season's playoffs. Shanhan is as hypocritical as his predecessor, Colin Campbell, ever was or could have been. Player safety should be pretty straightforward; either the player involved was concussed, or he was not. If he was, and it was the direct result of an elbow (Tanguay's), then supplemental discipline should be assessed. Simple.

But Wild fans are already accustomed to the NHL not doing anything about incidents involving the Wild. Nothing was done about Bogosian when he ran Bouchard; nothing was done about the beatings in the crease both goalies were taking; nothing will be done about the Tanguay elbow.

Player safety? Contradiction in terms, if you ask me.

Wild Death Spiral Watch: Wild blow two-goal lead; Jackets win 4-2

Who declared it 'Rick Nash Night' at Nationwide?

The Minnesota Wild's salute to the 'Bataan Death March' went thru Mid-Ohio Friday night, as the Wild managed to stave off victory, as two goals scored 27 seconds apart in the latter half of the third period, propelled the Columbus Blue Jackets to a 4-2 victory over the moribund Wild Friday night, in front of 16,419 at Nationwide Arena.

Rick Nash scored the game winner, and an empty net goal at the end of the game to lead the Jackets, who end the season series 2-2 against the Wild, each team winning its' games at home. Nash's empty netter was his 30th of the season.

Mikko Koivu did accomplish his 20th goal of the season in the first period to open the scoring for Minnesota, who have now lost 4 of their last 6 games away from St. Paul.

It was also the NHL debuts for two Wild rookies: forward Casey Wellman, who added an assist to Minnesota's second goal as he split the Jackets' defense, stole the puck and then passed to Chuck Kobasew for the tally. But after then, the Wild stopped working. Stopped skating, Stopped everything.

And then, there was defenseman Justin Falk, who left the game after a concussion shot to the head delivered by Columbus' Andrew Murray at 4:27 of the second period, for which absolutely no penalty was called by either referee, Brad Watson or Stephane Auger. The referees also missed R. J. Umberger's goaltender interference with Josh Harding on Columbus' second goal, as Umberger backed into the blue crease area (as confirmed by TV replay,) as Kris Russell took the shot while the Wild were being called for a James Sheppard penalty.

The future does, indeed, look bleak for the local sextet, as the most points after tonight they could earn is 96. 95 points are what most experts figure will be the playoff 'magic number', so does the march to the 'Tragic Number' begin Sunday afternoon? We will see what happens in the Next Game: vs. Calgary, Sunday March 21, 2:00 PM Central (1:00 PM Mountain) Time, Xcel Energy Center. (Wild TV: FSNorth (in HD); Flames' TV: Rogers SportsNet-West; XM Radio, Ch. 206)

-- WRT

P.S.: Would the party who commented in last night's blog about going to Philadelphia please re-comment your e-mail address? I lost it this evening. Sorry. -- WRT