Game 51 Post Mortem

Well, it’s official. 

Niklas Backstrom is pissed off, and he all but said so to the Star-Tribune following last night’s shootout loss to Detroit. 

“You look at the goals, we’re giving too much to the other team,” Backstrom said. “It seems we’re in the same spot we were at the beginning of the year, that we haven’t improved on a lot of things. We are 50 games deep. That’s frustrating. It seems every night the same things cost us the game.” 

So wait. 

You’re telling me that the team hasn’t yet realized that defense is a problem? 

Is there anyone that didn’t see that last month? 

But the big news to come from last night’s game is the injury to Josh Harding.  No word has been released yet on how serious the injury is, or how long the young netminder will be out, but any injury is bad news for the Wild at this point – especially with Niklas Backstrom’s confession that his confidence is wavering. 

On the upside, though, Backstrom was solid last night.  He gave up two goals on 18 shots and made some big saves in the breakaway competition at the end of the game.  While it wasn’t quite enough to get the win, he did show signs of righting the ship. 

What’s most troubling about last night’s loss, however, is that the Wild got off to another horrific start.  In ten games this month, the Wild have mustered just six first period goals – a troubling statistic, to be sure. 

In fact, in the four games since their two goal “outburst” in the first period against Vancouver, Minnesota hasn’t scored a first period goal. 

What is encouraging, however, is that Minnesota scratched an important point out of a game that, by all rights, shouldn’t have gone to a shootout.  They dug deep and came back from two goals down – again. 

On top of that, Brent Burns returned to the ice to play a little over 13 minutes of ice time – a return that Head Coach Todd Richards graded as “decent.” 

He played 13 minutes, 36 seconds, and coach Todd Richards called his return “decent.” Burns, who missed in the fifth round of the shootout, was on for two goals against and will receive some video work, Richards said. 

Essentially, what the Wild can take away from last night’s contest is this: 

It wasn’t a failure, but it certainly wasn’t a success either. 

Wild Nation’s Three Stars 

1)      Drew Miller – The unheralded of the Miller brothers (you know, the other being the one who’s won a few games this season for Buffalo) had a phenomenal game.  One goal on one shot, plus the shootout winner.

2)      Shane Hnidy – The Wild d-man had his first two-point game of his career, assisting on both tying Wild goals.  All that in just ten minutes of ice time.

3)      Todd Bertuzzi – Big Bert continued his resurgence with the Wings, scoring his 14^th of the year in the first and notching just over 23 minutes in ice time against the team and fans that hate him so.