Aside from "can they win tonight?" the most pressing question going into tonight is "will there be any retribution for Kim Johnsson?" Will there be any payback for Brad May's hit? My guess (and it's only a guess) is that there will be no retribution from the Wild. This is Lemaire's team and in the past he hasn't let them engage in activities like this. He has constantly tried to discourage Derek Boogaard from taking unnecessary penalties and tonight won't be any different. His (and the team's focus) is on the game at hand and not on taking the craziness to the next level. Having said that, I also think things could spiral out of control with any sort of marginal hit.
Which brings me back to my original question: can they win tonight? I think they can, but they need to score on the PP. It's a must; they can't win a 2-1 game. If the Wild win it's going to have to be a 4-3 or 5-4 contest and the Slovak boys need to connect.
4 comments:
I think Boogaard's first shift, Ducks will send out Parros and they'll go. After that, who knows. That may settle things and the teams will try to focus more on the game or it might just set the tone for the rest of the game. Personally, I expect the latter. I think it's going to be very difficult to keep the emotions in check in this one.
Well, I only got to see the end of this one (pretty much from Gabby's goal to the end), but it was a tough-sledding game for the Wild for sure. It seems that Pahlsson did it again, as only one of Gabby's goals in the series came with the Swedish shadow on the ice.
Wild are a good squad, I'm pretty surprised at the relative one-sidedness of this series. I think it ultimately comes down to scoring that first goal: one of MIN's real strengths in my mind is the ability to grab a lead and frustrate any team trying to re-tie.
Somehow, though, the Ducks were able to avoid that scenario (a lot of credit to the PK). MIN led about 3 minutes of G1 and most of the third period of G4.
If they somehow could get a goal through early in any of the other games, maybe this would have been a longer series.
Any way, thanks for putting up with my nonsense.
It's all good and even though we lost, I'm happy the won one at home to give people a good memory of what it felt like. A taste. A taste of what's to come next year.
I know with free-agency teams can change so much from year to year, but I see the best core of these guys still here for the next year or two.
Goalies? One has to go, but it's a nice problem to have. I wouldn't be able to find an argument in keeping Backstrom and making him a permanent starter.
Maybe we need one or two more guys that can hit and forecheck a little more effectively a little bigger play perhaps.
Wow. No fights, nor even any fight from the Wild. Hard to get any consolation from this one. They had two minutes of 5-3, about half of it with Neidermayer, O'Donnell and Bouchemen in the box and they get three weak shots from the point on net? The Wild have some work to do before next year.
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