Minnesota Wild vs Nashville Predators: Game Re-Cap

For Nashville perspective, please visit On the Forecheck

A win is a win, right? Right. A five to two win should impress the hell out of anyone, but it just seemed... lacking. Maybe it is a turkey hangover, being sick, or carry over from the past two games, but they just did not look overly impressive. They dominated a weaker team, which they should do, but it just didn't do much.

Havlat had his 30th multi-point game (thanks Russo), and his 18th three point game (thanks Stanzel). Both of Havlat's goals were what can only be described as "hard working" (Sorry Tom) type goals. Both came with a Predator draped on his back, and both were on full out drives to the net. Very impressive night from one of the players that has to have impressive nights for the Wild to succeed.

There weren't many negatives in this one, at least from the Minnesota side of the puck. They still gave up more than 30 shots while barely clearing the 20 shot mark themselves. They were out played in the second, yet again, but not as bad as in past games.

Again, being outshot by the Predators is one thing. You can even have some real success against a team that is down in the dumps like the Preds, even if they take 34 shots on goal. It still does nothing to prove that you can play a full game, and it does nothing for the future to continue to give up 30+ shots a game. Hate to bring it up after such a large margin victory, but the shot totals need to come down, or they will go right back in the loss column.

Hockey Wilderness Three Stars

1. Wild Fans (New world record in support of Movember)
2. Martin Havlat (2G, 1A)
3. Jose Theodore (32 saves)

Five Questions

UPDATE: 1209 mustachioed men, crushing the former record of 151. Way to go, Minnesota!