Minnesota Wild @ Phoenix Coyotes: Game Recap

Tonight the Wild came out ridiculously slow, falling behind 2-0 halfway through the first period. The Wild looked less than anemic, if that's even possible. They were slow with the puck, beaten to every loose puck, took bad line changes, didn't cover defensively, wouldn't take the body, took lazy penalties and had little transition success.

Things didn't look much better in the second period either. Sure, Guillaume Latendresse popped in a nice goal to make it 2-1, but they couldn't capitalize on the brief change in momentum. After two periods, Phoenix was outshooting the Wild 21-12.

With this loss, the Wild now lead the NHL with 16 road losses. Needless to say, this needs to change if they are going to stand a chance to get into the playoff hunt.

Please take a look at the Phoenix version of events over at Five For Howling

Which Wild team will show up, the one who looked great in the 4-game homestand, or the one who laid an egg at St. Louis? For the first 45 minutes? The St. Louis one, for the next 10? The Vancouver one. For the final five? October.
Will someone look for payback against Ed Jovanovski? Well, Antti Miettinen took Jovo out at the end boards on a race to break up an icing call, but unfortunately he wasn't successful in concussing him.
With the Arizona Cardinals losing, will anyone actually show up tonight? No. Announced attendance was 12,631 but I would be shocked to learn there were over 10k in the building.
Phoenix was fantastic at home early, then slumped lately. Will the Wild be able to take advantage of this? There was a brief chance, but it went away.
Any chance Richards decides to #freepetr soon? With Andrew Brunette's franchise record -5 tonight, and the fact that he has looked his age for weeks, I think now is the time to put Sykora on the first or second line, where he and Richards agree he needs to be, and sit Bruno for a game or two.