IF the Wild makes the playoffs, I’m willing to bet the Wild lose Game 1 — especially if it starts on the road.

How about this stat? In its last 10 multi-game road trips (splitting the DET-CBJ, SJ-ANA-LA trip into two in December because the Wild returned to Minnesota), the Wild has dropped the first game in eight. And usually, they’re exactly like Thursday’s in which the Wild players are severely under attack early like they’re still in the midst of their pregame naps.

Tonight, the Wild rallied from a 2-zip deficit (Minnesota’s own Matt Cullen and Scott Walker) on goals by Pavol Demitra and Mikko Koivu, but a Keith Carney out of control, swinging slash on Patrick Eaves — Eaves isn’t a threat from the slot — killed momentum and eventually caused the go-ahead goal on Erik Cole’s second-period winner.

There were several storylines in this game, like the fact that apparently Lemaire’s either out of answers or given up because any question I asked he pointed to the locker room and said “good question for that second door on your right.”

(Fourteen games left, folks, and it’s the same broken record. When’s the last time that the Wild played a 60-minute, dominating game? It’s hard to even believe they’re in a playoff battle the way they continually show up for games with no zip. What’s that say? Lemaire is beyond frustrated, and it’s clear every time we ask that he knows this team’s got serious issues. Like, for example, speaking of broken records, how many times can a team say, “We had a lot of chances?” This team has little ability to score more than two or three goals — plain and simple. Sixty-eight games into the season, I’d say it is what it is at this point).

I bet that made all you fans feel better about things.

But the biggest storyline is that with the Wild fighting for its playoff lives — it dropped to second in the division and is barely clinging to a playoff spot — and given a chance to tie 3:17 into the third on a power play, Lemaire throws checkers Stephane Veilleux, Eric Belanger and Branko Radivojevic onto the ice.

Yes, the power play has been a joke, which has been well-documented on this very blog. But, is this the time to send a message to your top-line forwards? Twenty games into the season, maybe, but now?

Apparently it was, and the Wild wasted a minute and was a disheveled mess during the second minute. Oh, and Marian Gaborik — who yes was not good tonight and didn’t register a shot for the first time in 13-plus months — didn’t get a shift.

I asked Gaborik about this (and incidentally you should have seen the way Veilleux looked at me when I asked Gaborik if he had a problem with the checkers being on the ice and not him, but that’s my job):

Said Gaborik, “The power play wasn’t going well the last few games, but you’ve got a chance to tie the game in the third and this is a critical time in the season to win games. You want to be out there. You want to have your best players out there. But he’s the coach.”

Said Lemaire on Gaborik: “He’s got to play better.”

Gaborik was on five of the power plays, including another scoreless one after the “message.”

Aaron Voros was clearly jacked up to make an impression after being scratched in two straight. But now, there is a chance he could be scratched tomorrow in Atlanta — not by Lemaire, but the NHL — for hitting Eric Staal from behind for a major. I don’t think it was as dirty as everybody here did, but it was to a star (although Staal wasn’t hurt, and that makes a difference in the league’s mind often).

Voros had a lot of jump, but killed the game with a trip with a minute left to ruin any chance of the Wild pulling its goalie for an extra attacker. Jacques wasn’t pleased with the penalty portion of his game.

Mark Parrish got more ice time, but not as much as I predicted. He’s gone from seven minutes, to eight minutes, to the nine-minute range (9:48 tonight). Perhaps he tops 10 in Atlanta?

Oh, and Colorado and Vancouver won.

Talk to you from Hotlanta. 

This entry was posted on Thursday, March 6th, 2008 at 10:14 pm and is filed under Game coverage. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.