Wild has dropped to 0-2 on this five-game homestand that sees Alex Ovechkin and Nicklas Backstrom come to town Monday (Wild might catch a break because I see Mike Green and Alexander Semin aren’t playing tonight in San Jose).

Back-to-back regulation losses since last November for the Wild, and it’s only the second time that’s ever happened to Niklas Backstrom.

The Wild just can’t score. It’s that simple really. I was just reading over some of my training camp advances and my 10 questions heading into training camp, and this is exactly what I predicted (and that was assuming Marian Gaborik would be healthy).

The Wild lost Brian Rolston, Pavol Demitra and Mark Parrish. The team was mostly banking on bigtime offense from Mikko Koivu, P-M Bouchard & Gang, plus James Sheppard and Benoit Pouliot to simply break out, Antti Miettinen to turn into a 25-goal scorer and Marek Zidlicky and Marc-Andre Bergeron to create offense from the back end.

But if you’re moving the puck up to forwards who can’t score, what does it matter? The Wild has scored a league-low 42 goals (2.3 a game), and remember six of those came in one game at Florida.

This isn’t just a slump. This has been a season-long problem that’s been masked by Backstrom and quality special teams. And it’s a problem that won’t be easily solved unless Gaborik returns or Doug Risebrough starts working the phones.

As Jacques Lemaire said after, now, the Wild can’t score on its power play (0 for 5 tonight) as well as 5-on-5.

Chris Mason was phenomenal tonight, making 31 saves to earn his first victory with St. Louis. But no offense to my pal Mason, either every goalie’s a superstar lately against the Wild or the Wild is helpless offensively.

The Wild has scored four goals in the last three games – vs. Dany Sabourin, Curtis Sanford and Mason. That’s not exactly Roberto Luongo, Marty Brodeur and Miikka Kiprusoff.

In the meantime, Gaborik is pretty invisible. He’s missed 16 straight games despite skating daily for the last few weeks before the team practices. Jacques Lemaire said he won’t worry about him until he sees him in practice.

“Right now, I can’t do nothing. I don’t know where he’s at.”

I hunted down Gaborik after the game. At first he didn’t want to comment, and then he said into my ear, “I’m not going to talk until I play. That’s what I’ve decided.”

I asked to see Tom Lynn after the game. He said Gaborik is “rehabbing and won’t practice until he’s 100 percent.”

I told him about the conspiracy theory on the message boards and blogs and my email inbox that alleges Gaborik’s either refusing to play or the Wild is holding him out as it tries to trade him.

Lynn said, “When there’s a theory of a crime, police often look for motive. I can’t think of a motive why the team wouldn’t want him to play or why he wouldn’t want to play. I really can’t.”

Stephane Veilleux’s goal tonight was the first even-strength goal for a Wild forward other than Mikko Koivu since Nov. 6 (361 minutes, 48 seconds).

Another bad sign? In the last four games, the Wild has given up a goal within two minutes of scoring. Tonight, Brad Boyes, who scored twice, tied the score at 1-1 within 46 seconds.

As for David Backes’ five-minute major for boarding Brent Burns, that’ll be reviewed by the NHL. Burns was definitely stung by the hit, but he returned to the bench with seven seconds left, so he looks OK.

On another note, Tomas Mojzis has been given his walking papers. He told me after the game he has a flight tomorrow to meet the Houston Aeros.

From Brian Stensaas, here’s quotes from the St. Louis Blues locker room:

Mason

These guys [Wild] work extremely hard and the last five minutes – they were really pushing the last half of the period there. The guys did a great job. We took a penalty at the end there and managed to kill it off with a couple of huge shot blocks. Time ran out, I was thankful for that.

Coming to a new team, it felt sometimes like I wasn’t going to get one here. The guys did a great job of letting me see the shots and cleared the rebounds when they were sitting there. It just feels good.

(1st period) Every time you come here, the first 10 minutes you have to – they come out extremely hard. We did a good job keeping it 0-0. That’s the kind of game – to beat the Wild, you’re not going to get many chances or many goals against these guys. They’ve got good goaltending and good structure. That’s the kind of game we were hoping for.

(Injuries have mounted but you’ve won 3 of 4 …) It’s great. It’s an opportunity for a lot of guys. Obviously you need your team to play a different way. We kind of understand we’re not going to be a run-and-gun kind of team. We have to play hard, simple hockey and the guys that we’ve called up have done an excellent job and have been huge contributors the last three games there.

Boyes

Anytime you win it’s always good. Came off a big one last night against Anaheim. It was good. We played solid. Mase made the saves when he had to. He was outstanding today.

(How much more important is production from you and guys like Keith with all the injuries?) It’s huge. After losing Andy especially, I definitely haven’t been producing like I should. We’ve had guys who have stepped up, which has been great. Tonight we got it done, and those are the things we need to keep doing every game.

(Won 3 of 4 with a new look crew) You can’t replace hard work. [But] guys have stepped up. Regier has played well with us. Crombeen can set the tone. Winchester has been great. You can go down the list. Cam Paddock has played well. The biggest thing that’s consistent with those guys is they’re working hard. And that brings energy to all of us.

(Really came back after that first period getting outshot pretty good) We fell behind  a little bit with those penalties. Our penalty kill stepped up big time for us; we were on our heels a little it. Mason played phenomenal.

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OK, same scratches as I told you this morning.

Niklas Backstrom vs. Chris Mason tonight.

I walked in with Mason, one of my favorite players I’ve ever covered. I was right about his fantasy football team. As usual, he said, he has the most points in his league. He’s got that running back from the Vikings. I forget his name.

This entry was posted on Saturday, November 22nd, 2008 at 7:02 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.