Anyone want to predict Minnesota’s record after this weekend?
Hmph. The 6-0-0 vaunted offense-style Minny Wild are in Anaheim (4-0-2) tonight and in San Jose (6-1-0) tomorrow night. Now I’m not going to go off and say that the Wild hasn’t been a good team this young season, but there’s a lot of Malkinesque hype going for this squad:
- Yeah, they’ve won their first six games, but only twice have they been able to win in regulation. 2 OT wins and 2 SO wins do well to inflate a team’s record.
- Anaheim and San Jose, on the other hand, each have only twice NOT been able to win in regulation.
- Yeah, they’ve got a PP clicking at 27.8%, but you should consider that a large part of this was that they went 5-for-8 against a “wait, the season has started?” Nashville squad, who started the season by killing 3 of their first 10 penalties.
- Anaheim (27.8%) and San Jose (26.9%) are right there with them, at any rate.
- Yeah, they’ve got a perfect road record, but that was only a 2-1 OT win in L.A.
- Anaheim and San Jose have a combined home record of 7-0-2, outscoring opponents 31-16.
- Yeah, they did take 6 of 8 games against the Ducks and Sharks last year (including 2 shootouts).
- Um, not much I can say against this, except that the Sharks and Ducks took both decisions after the Olympic break.
J.S. Giguere 2003 WCF: 4-0, 0.22 GAA, .992 S%, 122 saves on 123 shots, 3 shutouts.At any rate, some high-profile games coming today and tomorrow. Though all three squads have started with fairly easy schedules, the numbers look good: 3 teams, 2 games, 1 regulation loss.
6 comments:
Can't wait for the game tonight. Girl with a Puck & I had to get tickets, since it is not on TV.
Hopefully the Wild will go to 6-1-0 after tonight's game. The Ducks played very well in Wednesday's game against the Wings. Hopefully they can pull of another game like that.
When it comes to playing the better than average teams so far, the Ducks have really gotten the short end of the stick.
Since they get to play them fresh and gunning for them, whereas San Jose gets the "Sloppy seconds". I like both teams though, and it's always neat to watch teams go through the "gauntlet" of California.
Excluding the kings though. Last night they went scoreless on a SEVEN MINUTE POWERPLAY. Oh lordie.
On another note, wondering if anybody read this:
http://sports.espn.go.com/nhl/columns/story?columnist=buccigross_john&id=2627943
It's pretty much a play by play of the Ducks/Stars game last week. His comments on Andy Mac and Kariya are pretty interesting.
Gigure's line from that Minny series is just mind-boggling...
...since it is not on TV.
I believe (hope) that it is on Center Ice, from Minny's telecast. CI got a lot better last year about not blacking out games that weren't going to be televised locally. That's my plan, anyways.
His comments on Andy Mac and Kariya are pretty interesting.
I've been calling Andy Mac a Kariya clone since the lockout, and now I think little Shannon is a little Andy Mac clone, a la Michael Keaton in Multiplicity.
Gigure's line from that Minny series is just mind-boggling...
Indeed. Many are willing to write it off because it was 'defense-first' Minnesota, but watching the games they had excellent chances. Certainly the Wild had no trouble putting lots of pucks past the Avalanche and the Canucks that spring.
JSG was a man possessed in 2003. I still have nightmares.
I mentioned that Minny was undefeated a couple of days ago somewhere and that they were likely to lose soon. Seems like I was right. I called it! I know it doesn't work that way but I really do have some prophetic powers when I'm right.
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