Minnesota Wild vs. Pittsburgh Penguins: Game Recap

For the enemy perspective, please visit Pensburgh

Well, that was...something.

The game started out pretty good, it was back and forth action, despite the Pens outshooting the Wild 12-5 on the frame, but the Wild immediately showed the glaring weakness of the lineup that was on the ice: Woeful lack of firepower. The Wild had a total of NINE powerplay opportunities, Succubus Powerplays by Hoover to be exact. Despite 9 powerplay opportunities, the Wild mustered a total of 17 shots all game. 

It was Kids Day for youth hockey players at the Consol Energy Center. They were treated to an ugly smorgasbord of penalties and borderline dirty hits from both sides. One hopes the kids won't see this as an example to follow when they hit the ice.

Long story short, it was an atrocious game, complete lack of drive from most of the Wild players, but no need to panic, it's just the preseason. Mike Yeo is going to have to do something about the penalties however, because they murdered the Wild. Major cuts to the roster coming up, the rest of the preseason will mostly be played by regulars and those with an actual shot at making the roster. Should give us a better idea of what the Wild have in store for us fans this season. 

Now, I'm off to do something less painful than that game was... like stapling my lips to a spinning ceiling fan or something.

Hockey Wilderness 3 stars:

1. Evgeni Malkin (G, 2A, superpowers)

3. Marco Scandella (While he technically caused 3 Pens goals, he stood up for Cullen, which is a plus in my book. Not his fault some dumb rule makes being a good teammate a 19 minute penalty.)

Fun facts:

Despite losing 4-1, no Wild player was a minus tonight. In fact,  5 of them were +1.

Wild were 3 PIM away from having half as many shots as PIM. Yuck.

Malkin now leads all players in the preseason with 6 points.

Backstrom's shutout streak ended after 70:34 of TOI.

5 questions: