Good Hockey Then Bad Hockey

Don't look now, but the Wild have seemed to emerge from their funk and have played some pretty decent hockey as of late...unfortunately we have seen this act before. When the season began, it looked as if our Minnesota team was poised to defend its first ever Northwest Division Champion banner but then the roof caved in sometime around December.

After the first two months of the season, the Wild had a 14-7-1 record, which was pretty much on-pace of last years start. But then the team really took a dive and limped through December with a 4-9-1 record. That single month pretty much sealed the deal, no division championship this time. So now the team is just hoping to scrape enough points and stay afloat long enough to squeeze into a playoff spot. By the way, whoever said that the NHL's regular season is meaningless?

The problem with this team however, is its lack of consistency, or more specifically, scoring goals on a regular basis. There is no question that goaltending and defense has held them in the games this season. But sooner or later, the offense has to make it to every game.

The Wild had a stretch where they played two of the top teams in the league in the Sharks and Bruins...both Minnesota victory's. In between, the Wild played a tough one against the Wings, which ended in a SO loss, and then had a nice road win in Colorado. After that, the Wild's play turned a bit suspect as they were practically handed a game in Philadelphia (0 for 8 on the PP), but could or would not take it. Then the team let another get away because of a bad final period, and a Nash-less Columbus team came away with the win. Through this 6 game-stretch, Minnesota scored a grand total of 11 goals, or 1.83 a game, which is even below the teams 2.45 average (26th in the league).

Fast-forward to last night...a great performance by the Wild as they netted 6 goals and defeated the Coyotes. And in case you were wondering, the last time Minnesota scored 6 goals in a game was just over a year ago when the team defeated the Stars 6-2. The game yesterday was not perfect as they let Phoenix hang with them for a time after building a 3 goal lead twice, but such an outburst of goals is definitely something to build on confidence wise. The trick now will be to repeat this feat a couple of more times this season...