Minnesota Wild vs Chicago Blackhawks: Game 7

It's not tough to get excited when the fiercest rivalry the Wild have ever had comes to town. As we know, rivalries are born in the playoffs, and the Wild and Hawks are known for their bitter feuds battling for the Norris Division and Campbell Conference titles with the Hawks. Man, those were the days. Remember those?

No?

NBC does:

Apparently, NBC believes that the North Stars and Wild are the same franchise, with the same rivalries. Good lord, they even got Pierre to put his name on this. This is pure, invented BS, and everyone at NBC and around the hockey world knows it. Unless they are trying to gin up some kind of false rivalry so they can throw the Wild into the Winter Classic in 2015, this is just stupid.

No. Wait. It's just stupid.

On to the game.

I apologize to Brodin for comparing him to Ponder. That was cruel, and not at all an accurate description of Brodin's talent.

The Wild can win this game. It is not a certainty that the Hawks beat the Wild just by showing up. However, on the back side of a back to back, the Wild are bound to be tired, and the Hawks are going to be flying (see what I did there?). The Wild will need to get out of the first, find their game in the second, and avoid losing control in the third. If they can do that, the defense shows up again, and someone off the top line decides to play... the Wild have a shot at this one.

If all of those things do not happen? This could get ugly. Fast.