First on the Koivu part of the headline, and this isn’t shocking, but according to a bilingual friend of mine who lives in Montreal, assistant coach Mario Tremblay told CKAC today that the coaches met this morning and decided Mikko Koivu will get the captain’s ‘C’ again in the month of November.

That’s not confirmed, and probably won’t be until Saturday in Phoenix.

The Wild spent this night chasing, and honestly, it felt like it was even chasing after Marc-Andre Bergeron scored on a water-popping one-timer to tie the score at 1-1 in the first period from a ridiculous angle inside the right faceoff circle.

But the Wild couldn’t keep up with the Stars in its defensive zone. It was about exactly what happens every time Minnesota comes to this arena. Call it the Curse of Norm Green.

The Wild lost its ninth straight in this arena (0-7-2) to tie a franchise record for longest winless streak in an opposing arena.

Brenden Morrow scored the fastest goal in history against the Wild — 13 seconds in — off a bad bounce. Niklas Backstrom’s clear along the glass hit a charging Loui Eriksson and popped into the slot, where the playmaking Mike Ribeiro stood.

The Wild was awful in its own zone, giving pucks away and constantly getting out of position. Great lead quote in my game story from go-to quote Eric Belanger: “They’re one of the hardest teams to check down low. They’re always moving,” center Eric Belanger said of the Stars. “I don’t know if the corners are a little wider or what, but there’s something here that makes it tougher.”

Virginia, Minnesota’s Matt Niskanen scored the fourth goal tonight. Three of his eight career goals have come against his homestate Wild: “I think it’s more of a coincidence, but I get a little extra jump in my step when we play them. It feels a little better when we win, too.”

The Wild got nothing done at even-strength. Rookie Tobias Stephan was starting his second NHL game, and the Wild registered 21 shots on him and 11 after the first period. Enough said.

OK, that’s really all I’ve got to say on this late evening. I’ve got a 7:40 a.m. flight back to Minnesota on Delta/Northwest Airlines.

Talk to you after tomorrow’s Canadiens/Wild skates.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, October 29th, 2008 at 7:31 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.