Minnesota Wild Get Mad, Then Get Even
Dec 9, 2014; Saint Paul, MN, USA; Minnesota Wild forward
Thomas Vanek(26) celebrates his goal with teammates during the third period against the New York Islanders at Xcel Energy Center. The Wild defeated the Islanders 5-4. Mandatory Credit: Brace Hemmelgarn-USA TODAY Sports
Motivation is a strange thing. Ideally, people would always be self-motivated, ready to tackle whatever challenges may come their way. The reality of course is much different. Human nature dictates that most of us need a trigger of some sort, be it a reward for a job well done, fear of retribution for leaving business unfinished, or any other number of motivations. The Minnesota Wild are clearly no different. The bad news is last night’s motivation was dangerous and frightening, but the silver lining is the team woke up and got a win.
When Matt Martin smashed Keith Ballard into the boards, concussing him and causing him to convulse on the ice, where no penalty was called no less, the Wild trailed 3-0. I am having a difficult time coming up with a worse way to find motivation. The only good that came of it was that the Wild finally snapped out of their malaise and started playing winning hockey.
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Outside of the goals, my favorite play was Mikael Granlund taking a shot at Kyle Okposo. As most of you probably know, Okposo is a pretty big dude, whereas Granlund certainly is not. The best part was Okposo getting the only penalty of the exchange for slashing Granlund. Jason Pominville scored on the ensuing power play, and the Wild were off and running. The Islanders scored once more to make it 4-1, but unanswered goals by Mikko Koivu, Erik Haula, Thomas Vanek and Nino Niederreiter were enough to steal one for Minnesota.
Last night’s game definitely continued some season-long trends that need to be changed. This team is way too talented to keep falling behind by three goals at home. The other continuous issue is the goaltending. Last season was the exception to this rule: In the NHL, if you have two main goalies, you really have none. The 2003 and 2014 playoff runs made by this franchise with rotating goalies is not a sustainable model for success. I keep hoping either Darcy Kuemper or Niklas Backstrom will take this reins and really play well, but it simply has not happened yet.
This season has been full of drama so far for the Wild, and no game better epitomized the year so far than last night’s. We won though; let’s enjoy it.