Wild v. Blues: Post game depression

While Wild fans are running around like the world is ending, the vibe out of the Wild locker room tonight was complete frustration. Between a lack of goal scoring and a lot of injures throughout the game tonight, a win wasn't in the cards for the Wild.

Wild couldn't buy a goal. After 2 periods, regardless of the puck spending most of its time in the Blues zone, the score was still 1-0 Blues. Halfway through the third, the Blues made it 2-0, and the Wild just couldn't find a way to get the puck in the net.

That's really the issue with this team. There weren't any glaring mistakes, and it's not like the team couldn't get in the offensive zone. Their shots were just blocked, snagged by Elliot or just off the net. There wasn't much else that could have been done.

And then there were the injuries.

Ryan Suter spent 6 minutes off the bench and in the locker room during the 2^nd period, and you could actually hear the sigh of relief from fans when he stepped back on the ice.

However, it was short lived, as Suter missed the entire 3^rd period. After the game, head coach Mike Yeo said "We're confident he'll be fine" when asked about Suter, but didn't provide an injury update.

Parise took a couple of vicious hits, including an uncalled high stick. Not that anyone was surprised that it wasn't called.

5 Questions

1. Mikko Koivu has 21 pts in 27 games against the Blues in his career. Can he get a few more points against them tonight? No points for the Kaptian tonight, and his second game in a row where he didn't meet with media after the game

2. The Wild are 22-15-9 overall against the Blues, and 14-5-4 at the X. Can they add one more to the Win column tonight? Not in the cards for tonight

3. Ryan Suter has been getting national attention as a possible Norris candidate. Can he show the Wild fans that there is light at the end of the tunnel? Unfortunately, the only tunnel Suter was showing fans tonight was the one to locker room after being injured

4. Backstrom typically hasn't fared well against the Blues (6-7-1). How does he look like tonight? Backstrom played a pretty good game, but falls to 6-8-1 against the Blues

5. The loss against the Hawks left the locker room sounding defeated and depressed. Win or lose tonight, are there any fireworks coming out of it tonight? There's a lot of frustration. Whether this sparks something has yet to be seen.