Good evening back in the wintry Twin Cities. I’m coming to you from the OC, where it rained today and there was downright panic on the streets because of it.

The Wild, after three days off (two practice days) are looking forward to getting back to playing Wednesday as it continues its five-game road trip with Game 3.

With the Wild 1-3 (0-3 on the road), coach Todd Richards is searching for ways to win. Against the Ducks, at even-strength, Kim Johnsson and Nick Schultz have been separated. Johnsson will skate with Shane Hnidy and Schultz with Marek Zidlicky.

The Wild has given up 11 even-strength goals, and Schultz has been on for eight and Johnsson six. Richards said he doesn’t necessarily think the combinations are the reasons for the goals against, “but sometimes you just have to switch it up to switch it up.”

Derek Boogaard, because he only plays three to five minutes a game anyway, might wind up playing after just two practices. At least in practice today, Boogaard was on the fourth line with Andy Hilbert and Nathan Smith and John Scott skated as a defenseman with extra defenseman Jaime Sifers.

So if George Parros is looking forward to a rematch with Scott after Scott hammered him in that fight last week, well, Parros might be staring at Boogaard instead. Not a great tradeoff. But other than boxing, Boogaard hasn’t been in a hockey fight since March.

Richards said he doesn’t expect Petr Sykora (groin) to play the rest of the road trip. He didn’t practice for a second day in a row today.

Statistically, the Wild should be better than 1-3. They’re near the top of the league in shots for, near the top of the league in fewest shots against.

But in the past three games, it does seem like the Wild goes through spells of giving up goals. In other words, L.A. scored two in two minutes something. Anaheim scored three in five minutes something. Last game, San Jose scored twice in 2:41 and three times in about seven minutes.

“We do have to find ways to win games because right now we’re finding ways to lose,” Richards said. “It seems to be coming in a flurry. It’s not one in the first, one in the second, one in the third. We have to recognize how important the shifts are after they score or we score a goal. The next shift is huge.”

Richards again reiterated that with no Cal Clutterbuck, Pierre-Marc Bouchard and Sykora, it’s essential Benoit Pouliot and James Sheppard step up. He liked Pouliot’s game in San Jose, but he said Sheppard is going through spells of not moving his feet on the ice, which leads to ineffectiveness all over the ice.

Really, there’s a lot of pressure on Sheppard now. I mean, he’s going to get ice time now. He’s going to get responsibility. If you can’t do it now, when are you going to, in other words. And remember, this is the guy assistant GM Tom Thompson guaranteed publicly this offseason would have a breakout year. He’s got no points in four games. 

I meant to mention this yesterday, but I had sort of a weird interview with Sheppard yesterday. With Clutterbuck, Bouchard and Sykora out, both Chuck Fletcher and Richards singled out Sheppard and Pouliot as two guys who must step up with the extra ice time and responsibilities. Pouliot said it is a must and he can’t mess it up.

I threw three or four questions at Sheppard about stepping up specifically, and he consciously made it a point to never use the first person during the back and forth. Here’s two examples of back-to-back questions and answers:

Russo: With all the injuries now, how much do you feel you’re going to need to step up now with the extra ice time you’re going to get?

Sheppard: “Everyone’s got a bigger job. We’d love to have everyone playing, but for the guys who get more minutes or get into the game more, they’re going to be more focused because they’ve got a bigger job and they’re going to be in the game, touching the puck more and getting more minutes. It works both ways. There’s negatives and positives to both things. but for the most part, the guys who are going to play are going to play more intense.”

Russo: Chuck and Todd mentioned you and Pouliot specifically, so do you feel you need to be the guy who steps up?

Sheppard: “Just like I said, the guys who do get these minutes are going to touch the puck more and get more ice time. Hopefully for those guys, they can use them well and not take them for granted and make sure they … I think what I’m trying to say is that it’s not really a big deal for quote-unquote these guys.”

You kinda needed to be there to actually understand what I’m saying, but Sheppard tried hard, and I mean hard, to make it a point to never personalize it. I don’t know what the motivation there was. Maybe he’s sensing the pressure, but I just didn’t see a very confident player there.

Anyways, that’s it for me. Talk to you after the skates Wednesday.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, October 13th, 2009 at 7:24 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.