But Soft, What Light From Yonder Window Breaks?

It is December, and Coach Richards is the sun! With all - and I do mean all - due respect to Sweet Willy S, the Wild and its fans are surely star-crossed lovers this season.

The team, so horrid early in the season, has managed to pull off a rather stunning 6-2-2 run over their last 10 games (10-3-3 over their last 16.)

However, the yang to that yin is that the Wild has moved up in the Western Conference standings from 15th to....well, tied for 12th. And the Wild, with 29 points, is still closer to 15th (Anaheim, 26th) than it is 8th (Nashville, Dallas, 34 points.)

But, let that not take away from the improvements on the ice that are fueling this run.

The Wild is efforting much, much better and more consistently. You can even see the fruits of Richards' emphasis on forechecking, and with more than one forward. They're creating turnovers in the offensive zone - which, having spent so many seasons watching Lemaire hockey, I admit I had to rub my eyes and look it up in the hockey dictionary to be sure of what I was seeing.

They are really skating hard - in all three zones. This is not to say they weren't skating hard before, so maybe it's that they're still skating hard, but they're going with a purpose. It's almost reminiscent of Fred Shero's infamous line "Take the shortest route to the puck carrier and arrive in ill-humor." Well, apart from Richards' definition of ill-humor is more like "be prepared to pressure the poor bastard into giving up the puck" where Shero's was more like "be prepared to beat the snot out of the sonofabitch, or don't bother coming back to our bench."

They're battling better - and to greater success. This was a common refrain from Richards earlier in the season, and only recently have we begun to see what he was talking about. And it looks good.

They're shooting the puck. This is an unscientific analysis, but the Wild appears to be taking approximately 247% more shots than in previous seasons. Now, it might be a coincidence that they have more goals this year through 28 games (78) than they did last season (74) or in 07-08 (70), but it might also be a by-product of what seems to be more shots-taken.

So, while it's going to take an extended stretch of playing at a 0.625 winning percentage to make an assault on 8th place in the west, at least there are some signs of life, and the hockey is considerably more watch-able than it was in the early stages of the season.

NiNY

NHL Recap 12-6-09

Stars of the night
--Jimmy Howard, 28 saves in Detroit's 3-1 road win over the Rangers.
--Jason Spezza, one goal and one assist in Ottawa's 4-3 shootout win over Anaheim.

Off with his head
King Henrik Lundqvist would like another crack at Daniel Cleary's game-winning goal. With the score tied 1-1 late in regulation, Cleary threw a shot on goal that squeaked by Lundqvist but didn't go in until Lundqvist brought his skates together, knocking the puck over the goal line with 2:03 remaining.

A penalty shortly after on the Rangers effectively ruined any chance at a comeback, and Kris Draper scored a power play goal into an empty net. Pavel Datsyuk also scored for Detroit, while Brian Boyle scored for the Rangers. Marian Gaborik was held without a point for just the fourth time this season.

Don't blink; you might miss something
The Senators had three separate one-goal leads against the Ducks. Each time, they conceded the tying goal in less than a minute.

After Jarkko Ruutu gave Ottawa a 1-0 lead, Ryan Getzlaf countered 15 seconds later. Spezza's goal on the power play - just his third of the season and first on the road - was canceled out by Joffrey Lupul in 31 seconds. Finally, Corey Perry scored 50 seconds after Filip Kuba gave Ottawa a 3-2 lead.

Alexei Kovalev and Daniel Alfredsson scored in the shootout. Getzlaf converted his chance for Anaheim, but Perry and Lupul both missed the net on their attempts.

Non-3 Stars Selection of the night
Ottawa goalie Brian Elliot, who made 33 saves. Perry (one goal, one assist) was third, Kuba second and Lupul first.

Quote of the night
"It's desperation for us right now. We're at the 30-game mark. We have to put something together and go on a run here or we're going to be out of it pretty soon."
Perry. The Ducks have lost five straight games and are last in the West.

Marquee matchup
Monday, Dec. 7 (9 games)
New Jersey (19-7-1) at Buffalo (16-8-2), 7 p.m. ET, Versus.

NHL Recap 12-5-09

(OK, so it's a little late. Sue me.)

Stars of the night
--Erik Cole, hat trick in Carolina's 5-3 win over Vancouver.
--Marc Savard, hat trick in Boston's 7-2 rout of Toronto. For one night at least, Savard > Kessel.
--Henrik Lundqvist, 36 saves in New York's 2-1 win over Buffalo.
--Peter Budaj, 29 saves as Colorado edged Columbus, 3-2.
--Mike Smith made 30 saves for Tampa Bay to blank the Islanders, 4-0.
--Andrew Brunette, a goal and assist in Minnesota's 5-3 win over Nashville. Good balanced scoring again from the Wild.
--Miikka Kiprusoff, 35 saves as Calgary edged San Jose, 2-1. One of those saves was a nifty kick save as Kiprusoff brought his foot back towards his body.
--Ilya Bryzgalov, 26 saves as Phoenix hung on to defeat Ottawa, 3-2.

Working late
--The Oilers overcame a 2-0 first period deficit, getting the tying goal from Ladislav Smid - his first in 152 games - with 3:07 remaining and then defeated Dallas in the shootout, 3-2.
--St. Louis overcame giving up the tying goal with 34 seconds left and rebounded to defeat the Kings, 5-4 in a shootout. Paul Kariya scored twice in regulation.
--New Jersey saw a 3-1 lead slip away but still got the two points after knocking off Detroit in a shootout, 4-3.
--Tomas Vokoun, in his first game since Keith Ballard played "Whack-A-Goalie" on his head, nearly shut out Florida, but allowed Ilya Kovalchuk's goal with 1:04 left, and the Thrashers went on a 2-1 shootout victory.
--Antti Niemi was stellar in stopping 32 shots and Kris Versteeg's goal in overtime gave Chicago a 2-1 win over Pittsburgh after Jordan Staal tied the game with 1:32 remaining. Very entertaining game and a tantalizing preview if indeed it ends up being the Stanley Cup Final, and the Penguins didn't have Sidney Crosby. Pretty chippy too considering the teams don't see each other very often.

Welcome aboard, Peter
In Peter Laviolette's first game as the new Flyers coach, Philadelphia put forth a stellar effort, giving up a goal to Tomas Fleischmann 57 seconds in, saw Daniel Carcillo lose his mind (it was inevitable) and give Washington a nine-minute power play en route to an 8-2 thrashing by the Capitals.

Fleischmann scored twice but Washington's stars were Nicklas Backstrom with a goal and four assists and Mike Green, with two goals and two assists.

Alex who? Even Alexander Semin was "limited" to two assists.

Non-3 Stars Selection of the night
Johan Hedberg, 30 saves for Atlanta. Third star was Kovalchuk, second was Florida's Stephen Weiss (goal) and No. 1 was Rich Peverley (shootout winner.)

Quote of the night
"I think we were trying to ensure Bryzy got first star because we kept giving them good chances. We did enough good things to win, but let's not kid ourselves. Bryzy was really good."
Phoenix coach Dave Tippett, talking about Bryzgalov, who was the No. 1 Star

Marquee matchup
Sunday, Dec. 6 (2 games)
Detroit (13-10-5) at the Rangers (14-13-1), 7 p.m. ET.

NHL Recap 12-4-09

The "Oh cra-, wooo!" game of the night
Clinging to a 2-1 lead, New Jersey gave up a game-tying goal to Tampa Bay's Steve Downie on the power play with three minutes remaining.

As overtime loomed, Devils defenseman Andy Greene's shot from the point deflected off teammate Jamie Langenbrunner and past Lightning goalie Antero Niittymaki to give the Devils a 3-2 lead with less than 40 seconds remaining, and New Jersey hung on for the one-goal victory.

The goal was New Jersey's third of the period, after Brian Rolston and Niclas Bergfors each tallied on the power play in the opening 5:14 as a result of Tampa Bay taking three early penalties.

The "Happy Rout-Day!" of the night
Want to talk about good ways to celebrate a birthday? Ask the Montreal Canadiens. On the 100th anniversary of the franchise's inception, le Club de Hockey smashed Original Six rival Boston, 5-1.

Mike Cammalleri netted a hat trick and Carey Price stopped 37 shots. Montreal jumped out to a 5-0 lead and it was only Vladimir Sobotka's goal early in the third period that ruined Price's shutout.

The "Wait, where's that offense?!" of the night
Since embarrassing the Sharks, 7-2, Chicago has scored just five goals in four games since then following a 4-1 home loss to Nashville.

Dan Ellis was spectacular for the Predators, making 34 saves as the Blackhawks out-shot their opponent, 35-23. Goals by Jordin Tootoo and Joel Ward 35 seconds apart in the final two minutes ended any hope of a Chicago comeback.

Dan Hamhuis and Martin Erat gave Nashville a 2-1 lead after Jonathan Toews opened the game's scoring.

Non-3 Stars Selection of the night
Anaheim's Bobby Ryan for his two goals against Minnesota. Hard to argue with the selections (Andrew Brunette third with three assists; Mikko Koivu No. 2 and Antti Miettinen No. 1) but I had to pick someone. Would've been Joffrey Lupul except for his penalty at the end.

Quote of the night
"They were stupid penalties. Sometimes when pressure is on, people do stupid things. We've got to straighten out this penalty killing quick."
Lightning coach Rick Tocchet, talking about his team's struggles early in the third period

Marquee matchup
Saturday, Dec. 5 (14 games)
Chicago (17-7-3) at Pittsburgh (20-9-0), 7:30 p.m. ET. Potential Stanley Cup Final preview, and Marian Hossa's first game in Pittsburgh since he played in Game 6 with Detroit. Pittsburghers will let him hear it, though I'd be just fine if silence greeted the one-time brief Penguin.

Game #27: Wild 5, Ducks 4 (SO): Disaster averted

By KiPA

Good news #1: Minnesota allowed just 22 shots in a solid defensive effort against Anaheim. Bad news: The Ducks still scored four times. Good news #2: It didn't matter anyway.

Two goals in the final five minutes got the Wild back even at 4-4, they survived a power play against in overtime and then Guillaume Latendresse once again proved his worth, scoring the deciding goal in the shootout to give Minnesota a 5-4 victory.

Wild offense: Antti Miettinen must have received some excellent treatment while he was out with the swine flu. The man known as "Mittens" - which is either a really good or really bad gangster nickname - scored twice, giving him three goals in two games since his return and five goals in his last five games overall. He also had an assist and was in the prime location to track down the rebound of Marek Zidlicky's shot that banged off the end-boards to slam the puck into an open net to tie the game at four.

Wild defense: Hard to nitpick any of Anaheim's goals, really, except for possibly the fourth. Two excellent shots by Joffrey Lupul, then a nice set-up and better shot by Bobby Ryan on his first one. Sometimes you just have to give the opposition credit.

Ducks offense: Lupul had an excellent game in his first after suffering an injury, scoring a pair of goals. He's been a disappointment in his return to Anaheim. Another early-season disappointment, Bobby Ryan, also scored twice and appears to be over his early struggles. They both needed to step up in the absence of Teemu Selanne to a broken hand. Of course, Lupul also gets a little of a "goat" status after his late penalty.

Ducks defense: A solid road-performance was ruined by a three-goal third period against. No one was around Miettinen on his first goal, and letting a 4-2 lead go by the wayside late won't make coach Randy Carlysle happy.

Leader: Miettinen. He tied the score twice in the third period.

Lagger: Saku Koivu. He ranks among the most "blah" of free-agent signings and did nothing Friday. He also failed to get a shot off in Anaheim's last shootout round that sealed the win for Minnesota.

Stud: Mikko Koivu. Saku's brother, on the other hand, was outstanding. A pair of goals, one assist, a whopping nine shots on goal and another seven that missed.

Dud: Shouldn't we call this the "Martin Havlat of the night" until he does, well, anything productive?

Turning point: Lupul's high-sticking penalty. It gave a chance for Minnesota to tie it with an extra-attacker without needing to pull Niklas Backstrom.

Key play: A faceoff win. Specifically, Koivu's win in the circle that preceded his second goal by a handful of seconds. That got the Wild back to within one with plenty of time.

Time to hand the floor over to the peanut gallery:

Chicken Little: Do we really have to keep Marek Zidlicky employed? I know his shot helped lead to the tying goal, but that was an accident, and he took a dumb penalty in overtime, and he passed on a glorious scoring chance later, and...

We had to institute a "character limit" on Chicken, who kept ranting about the uselessness of Zidlicky for another 15 minutes.

Pollyanna: Hot damn, a comeback from down two goals in the final five minutes. This ain't your Jacques Lemaire's Wild. It's not Dan Bylsma's Penguins yet, but when we get some additional talent, look out, NHL!

Bottom line: Whether it was pretty or ugly, it was critical for Minnesota to get four points from its brief two-game homestand before it goes on a five-game road trip against some tough teams, and several division opponents, that should answer the question of whether the Wild have turned the corner.

Next: Saturday, Dec. 5, at Nashville, 7 p.m. CT, on Fox Sports North and XM 239. The Wild beat the Nashville in overtime on Wednesday.

NHL Recap 12-3-09

Stars of the night
--Derek Roy, one goal and one assist in Buffalo's 6-2 rout of Montreal.
--Bob Luongo, 38 saves as Vancouver blanked Philadelphia, 3-0.
--Alexander Semin, two goals and two assists in Washington's 6-2 walloping of Florida.
--Matt Moulson, hat trick, Islanders beat Atlanta, 4-1.
--Jason Blake and Phil Kessel, two goals each as Toronto blitzed Columbus, 6-3.
--Patrick O'Sullivan, two goals as Edmonton downs Detroit, 4-1.
--Sidney Crosby, two goals and an assist as Pittsburgh manages to beat Colorado, 4-1. Fairly ugly game from the Penguins, but they still out-shot the Avs, 33-16. They had more empty net goals (two) in the third period than Colorado registered shots (one).
--Ilya Bryzgalov, 28 saves as Phoenix edged Calgary, 2-1.
--Justin Williams, two goals and one assist as Los Angeles doubled up Ottawa, 6-3.

Quick strikes
Goals 71 seconds apart by James Neal and Steve Ott turned a 1-0 deficit into a 2-1 Dallas lead, and the Stars went on to defeat the Ducks, 3-1, after Brenden Morrow added an empty net goal.

Corey Perry's 19-game points streak came to an end, and adding injury to insult for Anaheim, winger Teemu Selanne broke his hand. No time frame on the injury was available.

That shouldn't have happened
With San Jose leading 2-1 late in its game with St. Louis, Blues forward Brad Boyes took a hooking penalty with 1:51 to play. Well, no problem for the Blues, who scored a shorthanded goal by Carlo Colaiacovo with Ty Conklin pulled for an extra attacker with seven seconds remaining.

St. Louis went on to earn the victory, 3-2 in a shootout. Conklin made 32 saves and T.J. Oshie's goal in the tiebreaker earned the extra point.

Non-3 Stars Selection of the night
Bryzgalov. Third went to Miikka Kiprusoff (29 saves), second was Petr Prucha (first Phoenix goal) and No. 1 was Taylor Pyatt with the game-winner.

Quote of the night
"I get scared when he wanders off near the other team's net, but he did a great job."
Luongo, talking about Willie Mitchell, whose goal Thursday was the only one Vancouver needed. It was Mitchell's first goal in 22 games and third of the season.

Marquee matchup
Friday, Dec. 4 (4 games)
Tampa Bay (10-8-8) at New Jersey (17-7-1), 7 p.m. ET, mainly to see Steven Stamkos against Zach Parise.

NHL Recap 12-2-09

Stars of the night
--Tim Thomas, 39 saves, Patrice Bergeron one goal and two assists in Boston's 4-1 win over Tampa Bay.
--Alexander Edler, one goal and two assists as Vancouver and Bob Luongo (27 saves) win the "Team Canada goalie matchup" over Martin Brodeur's Devils, 5-2.
--Stephen Weiss, hat trick and the lone shootout goal as Florida overcomes Colorado, 6-5.

Don't let him around goalies
First it was Tomas Vokoun. Now it's Craig Anderson.

Florida defenseman Keith Ballard drove the net late in overtime, lost his balance and careened into Anderson, knocking the netminder out of the game for the final minute and the shootout. Anderson's head hit the post after the collision.

The Avalanche forced overtime by scoring twice in the final minute with Anderson pulled, getting goals from Matt Duchene - his second of the night - and T.J. Galiardi at 19:44 to knot the score at 5-5.

Non-3 Stars Selections of the night
Only four games but plenty of choices.
3. Steven Reinprecht (Florida; three assists)
2. Paul Stastny (Colorado; one goal, three assists)
1. Thomas

Quote of the night
"We turned pucks over like we were handing out Christmas presents."
Nashville coach Barry Trotz

Marquee matchup
Thursday, Dec. 3 (11 games)
Colorado (15-8-6) at Pittsburgh (19-9-0), 7:30 p.m. ET.

Game #26: Wild 5, Predators 4 (OT)

By KiPA

It's early, but Cliff Chuck Fletcher may want to add Bob Gainey to his Christmas card list.

Newest acquisition Guillaume Latendresse scored a pretty goal, his second in as many games with Minnesota, and helped set up another recent pick-up, Andrew Ebbett, with his second goal as a Wild for the overtime winner, and Minnesota earned an entertaining 5-4 win over Nashville.

Early on, it looked like whoever had the puck last would win, after an up-and-down first period featuring plenty of chances on both sides. The pace didn't keep up the entire game, but the game ended with as big a bang as it started.

Wild offense: Very balanced. Despite the five goals, no member of the Wild attained more than two points on the scoresheet and five different players netted the goals.

Wild defense: Would've liked a few goals back. But Jamie Sifers (five hits, three blocked shots) had a solid game. Marek Zidlicky? Not so much.

Predators offense: Starting to figure out how to score goals with the top line of Steve Sullivan-Jason Arnott-J.P. Dumont. The trio combined for nine points and three goals, two by Arnott. They were also a collective plus-8.

Predators defense: Awful. Too many breakdowns on just about every Minnesota goal.

Leader: Going to go with Latendresse, whose early return is shaping up nicely. He appears to be making the most of his "second chance."

Lagger: Nashville defenseman Shea Weber. With all the offense, I failed to notice him much at all.

Stud: We'll make it Mikko Koivu, whose power play goal with 6:58 remaining tied the score at 4-4. He also had an assist and won 12 of 19 faceoffs. Honorable mention to Cal Clutterbuck, one of whose seven hits helped set up his goal in the first period.

Dud: Have to go with Predators goalie Pekka Rinne. Even though he was helpless on a handful of goals, he also looked pretty bad on some others.

Turning point: Koivu's power play goal.

Key play: Ebbett's winner.

The Assembled Multitude come out of hibernation for this one:

Chicken Little: Can we try not to give up four goals to a team that just got shut out at home? And whose offense is basically as bad as ours?

Pollyanna: I assume the Wild have petitioned the NHL to play all their games at home, right? We kick ass at the X. And hey, five goals against a strong defensive team! Balanced scoring... there's a lot to like from this one.

Bottom line: There were a lot of positives and not too many negatives. Nashville's turned things around and has become a solid team, especially defensively, and the Wild just put up five on it. Some things defensively need to be tightened up but the offensive outburst - from all sources - was impressive.

Next: Friday, Dec. 4, home against Anaheim (7 p.m. CT) on Fox Sports North and XM 206.

Live blog: Wild vs. Predators 12-2-09

NHL Recap 12-1-09; Live blog Wednesday

OK, first, I'll be having a live blog discussion during the Wild-Predators game Wednesday. It'll probably get underway sometime around 7:30 p.m. ET (6:30 CT.)

Second, we'll change things up a bit tonight.

Concern
I tried coming up with a catchy but tasteful headline for this item, but it's no laughing or teasing matter. After making eight saves in the first period against Montreal, Toronto goalie Jonas Gustavsson was removed from the game by coach Ron Wilson after Gustavsson experienced an increased heart rate.

Gustavsson was taken to a hospital. According to Damien Cox of the Toronto Star, Gustavsson was released after his heart rate slowed down on its own and planned to fly home with the team.

This is the second incident in less than three months concerning the health of Gustavsson's heart. He underwent a procedure known as a heart ablation to fix an increased heart rate after collapsing during the first day of training camp.

Wilson said it best: "I'm not going to be responsible for someone keeling over during a game. The game's not that important."

Toronto won the game, 3-0. Joey MacDonald entered in relief of Gustavsson and stopped 18 shots. Phil Kessel had two assists.

Trouble brewing?
One of the unhappier people following Chicago's 4-3 shootout win over Columbus was Blue Jackets netminder Steve Mason. The shootout lasted 11 rounds, and several times after making a save, Mason lifted his arms up in an apparent attempt to spur his teammates into scoring.

Only three goals total were scored in the shootout - Marian Hossa in round 2, Jakub Voracek in round 3 to force sudden-death, and the winner from Brent Seabrook in the "bottom half" to end the game. After conceding the Seabrook tally, Mason proceeded to slam his goalie stick on the ice and then into the boards along the Columbus bench.

Whether it was frustration at himself for giving up the goal and losing in a shootout again - Mason is 0-5 in the tiebreak format - or upset that his teammates couldn't score isn't known, but obviously Mason is not enjoying his sophomore season.

"You're just hoping your guys score. Then you just try to do your job in order to make the next save," said Mason. "After that, you're just hoping that the next one goes in, but obviously give (Cristobal) Huet some credit. He made that one last stop that he needed."

The people you'd expect to produce for the Blackhawks did - Jonathan Toews, Patrick Sharp and Kris Versteeg all scored and Hossa had two assists. Huet stopped 20 shots in addition to nine in the shootout (Antoine Vermette hit the post on his attempt.)

Hello, old friend
Dany Heatley played his first game against his former team, as did Ottawa's Milan Michalek and Jonathan Cheechoo. Michalek scored twice, but Heatley's Sharks earned a 5-2 win. Heatley had two assists and Patrick Marleau had two goals. Thomas Greiss made 25 saves in relief of Evgeni Nabokov.

Close counts only in horseshoes, hand grenades and hockey overtime games
Jack Johnson's blast from the point was deflected in by Brad Richardson to give Los Angeles a 4-3 advantage with just 2:20 left and hung on for the win after Anaheim rallied from a two-goal deficit to tie the score at 3-3.

Justin Williams scored his first goal for the Kings since Nov. 11, breaking an eight-game scoreless streak, but Anze Kopitar was held off the scoresheet for the fourth consecutive game and fifth time in the last six.

Ducks winger Corey Perry had a goal and assist to extend his points streak to 20 games.

Non-3 Stars Selection of the night
MacDonald. Third star was Toronto's Matt Stajan (one goal), second was Leafs defenseman Tomas Kaberle (one assist) and Kessel was No. 1.

Marquee matchup
Wednesday, Dec. 2 (4 games)
Vancouver (14-12-0) at New Jersey (17-6-1), 7 p.m. ET.