Minnesota Wild vs the Anaheim Ducks: Post game heartbreak

The period went from bad to worse when the Ducks scored a powerplay goal. The team looked lifeless, and there were very few positives to take away. Next to no puck possession, and spent the vast majority of time in their own zone.

The second started as bad as the first, with the Ducks scoring right away. Somehow, instead of getting themselves together during intermission, the team managed to fall apart even more. Maybe they forget to get their coffee.

The 4^th line got things buzzing though. They utterly schooled the Ducks team in their own zone with a crazy amount of pressure that ended up forcing the Ducks to use their time out. Eventually, that energy found its way to the other lines.

To keep that in perspective, the Wild had 11 total powerplay goals at home last season. Total. Let the fact that the team is over a quarter of the way to that total in just 2 games sink in for a minute.

Heatley started looking pretty bad, and got worse as the game went on. For someone on a contract year, and who came into camp looking as fantastic as he did, it's not looking very good for him. He took a hard slapshot at the net during the 3^rd, which ended up with a ring you could hear across the ocean, and Heatley on his back.

Zach Parise got the party started in the 3^rd with a goal at the top of the period. From that point on, it was all Wild, all the time. The puck possession was great, and the Wild really controlled the pace of the game for most of the period.

The first "What is hybrid icing" form the refs happened in the 3rd period as well tonight. Parise had clearly beat the Ducks defender to the hash marks, but the ref blew the whistle and ruled it icing. Would have been an excellent chance for Parise to get his hat trick.

While the result was similar, the feel of this game was completely different, and that point was reflected by the players and Coach Yeo in post-game interviews. It's hard to be excited when the team loses games like this, but at the same time the Wild are clearly doing the right things. Eventually they are going to get the results that everyone is looking for.