Hold your applause please

It's easy to get excited after a win over the defending Stanley Cup Champions...especially with the way things have been going lately. But I encourage you, even beg you, to hold your applause and enthusiasm. Remember this has been a Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde team all season. One test has been passed by our Minnesota Wild and that was a 5-2 victory over the Detroit Red Wings. Tonight, part II will be taken when Minnesota faces the Chicago Black Hawks and how the team emerges after a big win and little rest will be the answer.

The Wings did spot our Wild a two goal lead as Detroit goaltender Jimmy Howard, who was playing in his first game of the season, looked out of place, especially early in the game. But to be fair, Minnesota came out hot and ready to play, so a mixture of the two set the tone for the game. Once again the Wild were out-shot, but as I wrote earlier, this is not an unusual occurrence. The key last night was that the team capitalized on their opportunities and was able to come away with a much needed victory.

Reigning iron-man no more

Too bad for Andrew Brunette, but his 509 consecutive games played streak ended when he was a scratch for the game against the Red Wings. And Brian Stensaas, who is filling in for Michael Russo over at the StarTribune, wrote that it looked as if Brunette would not even be taking the trip to Chicago. And even as 509 straight played sounds unattainable, imagine adding an additional 5+ seasons to that number. The all-time NHL iron-man is Doug Jarvis, who played in 964 straight from 1975 to 1987. So with Brunette's streak over, our league's current iron-man is now the Florida Panthers Jay Bouwmeester, who has played 319 straight.

Welcome back Weller

Craig Weller was back in action last night and it was good to see him. He has been out for the past 13 games with a head injury caused by a fight he had in the Edmonton game back on January 15. My take...it's simply unbelievable to me that a guy gets beaten with a foreign object the way that he did, (and by beaten, I don't mean defeated, I mean beaten), and nothing is done by the league. I am referring to the Weller-Sheldon Souray fight during that Edmonton game, where Souray hit Weller repeatedly in the head with a wrist guard. Now word is that Souray was 'talked to' during the All-Star break, and to that I say big deal. And just recently, an enhanced video of the incident has emerged that clearly shows the vicious attack. My question is where is it written that there is a 'statute of limitations' on dolling out penalties? It's sad, but this league is more worried about 'National Inquirer' tabloid incidents rather than the safety of its players.

Nolan continues to impress

How about our 16-year veteran Owen Nolan? He has emerged as one of our go-to guys lately and has recorded 6 points in his last 3 games and 16 points in 14 games. And consider he is only 1 goal and 2 points away from passing his last season totals, with 25 games yet to be played. I did not think he would make this much of an impact on the score-sheet, but it just goes to show you the value seasoned veterans can have on a team that has been up and down all season and is currently fighting for the final playoff position in the Western Conference.