Minnesota Wild: Why I Hate the Avalanche
Feb 28, 2015; Denver, CO, USA; Minnesota Wild center
Kyle Brodziak(21) and Colorado Avalanche defenseman
Nate Guenin(5) fight in the third period at the Pepsi Center. The Wild defeated the Avalanche 3-1. Mandatory Credit: Ron Chenoy-USA TODAY Sports
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The Minnesota Wild defeated the Colorado Avalanche Saturday night 3-1 in Denver. The Wild have now won all four contests against the Avalanche and added a little padding between themselves and Colorado in the race for the Western Conference Wild Card spots. Instead of taking the loss like professionals, the Avalanche gooned it up in the waning minutes.
Nathan MacKinnon got checked by Sean Bergenheim on a play that looked like a high elbow live. However, replays showed he hit him in the chest and MacKinnon’s own stick hit him in the face, breaking his beak in the process:
Despite the play being clean, the Avalanche took exception. I think they were mad about the hit and the fact that the only way they have been able to score on the Wild this year was by having Cody McLeod push the puck and Devan Dubnyk into the net simultaneously Saturday night, resulting in their only goal. Zach Parise said as much after the game to the Star Tribune’s Michael Russo:
"“I’d probably be frustrated too if we played a team and hadn’t scored on them in four games except on a dump-in,” Zach Parise said, grinning, after the game."
According to ESPN, Dubnyk didn’t think much of the ruling on the controversial goal:
"“The ruling, I guess, was that McLeod had nothing to do with me going into the net, which is somewhat mind-boggling. It didn’t seem to matter in the end. For us to respond like that after a goal that probably shouldn’t have counted, that’s a sign of a great hockey team.”"
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Well said. The correct way to respond to adversity is to buckle down, score goals and find a way to win the game. The Wild did just that Saturday, with goals from Justin Fontaine, Erik Haula and Jason Pominville. On the other side of the coin is the way Colorado chose to respond to adversity. First, Tyson Barrie elbowed Nate Prosser in the head. Then, in the waning moments of the game, McLoed ran Mikael Granlund right off the faceoff, then engaged Charlie Coyle in a fight when Coyle confronted him for the bush league move. Finally, Gabriel Landeskog punched slapped Mikko Koivu while they were on their respective benches during the melee.
As it turns out, I wasn’t the only one unimpressed by the Avalanche’s act on Saturday. Here is what Mike Yeo had to say postgame:
"“That’s garbage is what it is. You could feel it was going that way all game long. They were obviously very emotional all game long. I thought in an emotional type game, we did a good job of keeping our focus. I really think that was the difference at the end.”"
So in review, the Wild had a hit that looked high but really wasn’t, the Avalanche had a bona fide cheap shot, yet they were the ones taking runs at skill players and hitting guys on the bench. What a bunch of losers.
Some more things I hate about the Avalanche:
- Their uniforms suck. The colors aren’t bad but the logos are stupid and the side piping on the white and maroon sweaters is hideous. Also, I don’t like the alternate Bigfoot logo on the shoulders. It’s creative, but it looks dumb and I don’t like feet.
- Patrick Roy. He is entertaining to watch but I never liked him as a player and it is no surprise that his team is gooning it up at the end of the game. We have seen that from his teams before.
- Fake tough guys. We saw a lot of last night but it was nothing new. Last year in the playoff series they took a lot of cheap shots against the Wild, and never seem to target our enforcers. Going after Granlund and fighting Coyle is incredibly soft and goes against the unwritten code of the game.
Hopefully the Wild can keep up their recent run of great play and the Avalanche continue to flounder. A Stanley Cup Playoff without Colorado is just fine in my book.