Wild are kicking ass...it's that simple!

The Minnesota Wild have been on a tear since the start of the 2007-2008 season.

A 3-1 win in St. Louis against the Blues last night pushed Minnesota's record to an outstanding and a little surpising 6-0-1, to lead the Western Conference.

Centres Pierre-Marc Bouchard, Eric Belanger and winger Brian Rolston are all tied for their team's lead in points with 7 heading into Sunday night's matchup against the Colorado Avalanche.

What's surprising about the absolutely Wild run?

Their team has only 17 goals scored in 7 games...the lowest among all division leaders in the NHL...but that isn't unexpected, as Jacques Lemaire's squad tends to focus more on the defensive side of things rather than potting goals in the other end despite having a guy like Marion Gaborik on their front (who is not doing so hot to start the year).

Lemaire and the fans can thank veteran 'tender Nicklas Backstrom for their league low 9 goals against to start the year; the 29-year old Finn has posted phenomenal numbers in his first season as the undisputed number one after the Wild parted ways with Manny Fernandez this summer with 4 of the team's 6 wins, a 1.38 average and a 0.945 SPCT% that are amongst the top 3 in each respective category.

And to add insult to injury for opposing teams, the Wild lead the league in home shutouts with 2 (both from Backstrom) to go along with 3 straight home wins and are the only team in the NHL that have yet to lose a game in regulation on home ice.
They tied the Detroit Red Wings for home victories in 2006-2007 with an astonishing 29.

The new guy in Minny, centre Eric Belanger, says the team has the city's fans to thank for their recent success at home:

"You have the Canadian cities that are pretty loud, but after that, this is top-five in the league for sure."

Belanger has clicked well with linemates Pierre-Marc Bouchard and Brian Rolston, all are tied for the team lead in points.

But one can wonder how much longer the Wild can hold back Josh Harding from taking over as the number one goalie for the team after several succesful seasons in Houston and Minnesota.
Things are looking bright for Minnesota in goal, especially with Backstrom holding the fort with his bulletproof numbers and Josh Harding pressing for playing time with a convincing 37-save shutout effort against the defending Stanley Cup Champs Ducks in his season debut one week ago.

Petr Kalus, highly-touted scoring prospect acquired from the Bruins in the Manny Fernandez deal, did not make the club out of training camp and has been melting away with the team's minor-league club Aeros in the AHL.
Kalus has yet to show why the Bruins and then Wild were so hot about his scoring potential, after potting 4 goals in only 9 games with Boston last season.

But don't forget Minnesota's fast start to the previous campaign did not last, and one can only hope that it will for the sake of hockey and its great fans in Midwestern Minnesota.

No matter which way you look at it, the Wild seem poised for great things...now only if Marion Gaborik would wake up and do what we think he could do best for a team that is goal-hungry in a city waiting for the rise from mediocrity too long.

-BBeR

A city in mourning...Thrashers 6, Canadiens 2

CANADIENS 2, THRASHERS 6

I had posted an article saying how huge this game was for the Canadiens and how badly they needed to win this one.

Guess Guy Carbonneau didn't take out the Sharpie pen like I said and didn't scrawl out the standings on his board for each player to see where their so-called "team" has sunk.

In the first five minutes of the game, I had some hope, the forecheck was aggressive, we were causing turnovers like crazy from a somewhat inconsistent Thrashers defence.
Chris Higgins fired the puck 4 times on Kari Lehtonen in the first period alone.

Sound good so far? I hope this is the image you keep of the game...the first 5 minutes, and forget the rest.

The "rest" consists of Andrei Markov paying for teammates' lousy backchecking by taking a kind of chronic hooking penalty.
With Markov in the box, the Thrashers took control of the game from there.

Newly acquired Alexei Zhtinik, who's been a nice fit for Bob Hartley, faked a slap shot from the right point and threw the puck to teammate Ilja Kovalchuk, playing the high left point who blasted it towards rookie Jaroslav Halak.

Halak was in position to make a left pad save, however he misread the shot as it was coming towards the blocker side. By consequence, the puck hit off the inside of his left pad, bounced off the right, and trickled into the net to give Ilja Kovalchuk his 36th goal of the season, and the Thrashers a one goal lead.
This goal completely demoralized the Canadiens, as they continued for the next couple minutes playing boring, shoddy defensive and a limited offensive style.

Then it was enough.
Things went from bad to worse as the Canadiens just couldn't clear the puck out of their zone, giving the Thrashers glorious chances on which Halak was superb.
Then as you guessed it, exactly two minutes after the first goal, they would pay for this...the unreliable delinquent, Sergei Samsonov didn't help his cause by picking the puck up, skating through centre ice just before he hit the Canadiens blue line giving the puck to Eric Belanger who fired a pass to the front of the goal where Jonathan Sim was all alone! With no one there to stop him, Sim simply tapped the puck through the legs of the exasperated Jaroslav Halak.

2-0 Thrashers and I had enough.

I turned off the television screen and decided to go play hockey myself, during the outdoor game, one of my buddies picked his cell and called to ask the score.

"Please" I was asking myself, "Please God, let them score a goal, " since God is the only thing that can save Montreal now.

My friend shut his phone off and looked me in the eye, I could see it coming.

"It's 6-0 Thrashers", he said.

Those words were like a dagger to the throat, I started yelling like a mad man.
What else could I do? There was no hope for a comeback, not even a small chance.

What did I care? I forgot about the game and played the wonderful game of hockey which was not so wonderful for 23 individuals now dropping even lower in the standings.

And to make my night even more miserable, the Rangers beat the Islanders 2-1 to move up ahead of us in the Standings.

My dad called me and told me Sergei Samsonov was benched the entire 3rd period.
He finished the night at -3 with 1 shot on goal. What a waste of $3.5 million out of George Gillett's pocket.

And to add insult to injury, Francis Bouillon decided to drop 'em against Keith Tkachuk...

God...please, save this team, obviously nobody on this Earth can.