12/9 GDT Wild VS Avs

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WILD (13-13-3) at AVALANCHE (17-9-6)

Last 10 -- Minnesota 6-2-2; Colorado 4-3-3

Season series -- The Wild have been a thorn in the side of the Avalanche all season. This is the fourth of six meetings between the Northwest Division rivals, and Minnesota has captured the first three - a pair of 3-2 victories via the shootout, and a 5-3 win that opened a home-and-home at the end of November. Chuck Kobasew recorded a hat trick for the Wild in that game. Niklas Backstrom has beaten the Avalanche twice and Josh Harding once.

Big story -- The Wild have started to make some noise in the Northeast - although they still occupy the cellar, they begin Wednesday just one point behind Edmonton. The Avalanche, meanwhile, have moved back into the division lead they had relinquished to Calgary, and are coming off a successful 3-1-1 road trip.

Team Scope:

Wild -- It took one of the League's hottest goaltenders to halt Minnesota's season-best five-game winning streak, as Ilya Bryzgalov stopped all 28 shots by the Wild and the Phoenix Coyotes got two goals in 44 seconds in the second period in Monday's 2-0 decision at Jobing.com Arena. Coming into the game, the Wild had been getting balanced scoring from up and down the lineup for the first time this season.

"We weren't our sharpest. I don't think we were at our worst either," forward Antti Miettinen told the Minneapolis Star-Tribune. "But we made it tough on ourselves with some turnovers and not playing the puck deep."

Avalanche -- A neck injury suffered in overtime against Florida sent workhorse goalie Craig Anderson to the sidelines in favor of backup Peter Budaj, and the fifth-year veteran has responded. He stopped 29 of 31 shots in a 3-2 win in Columbus on Saturday and followed up with his eighth career shutout, turning aside all 35 shots by St. Louis in a 4-0 victory Monday to close the road trip.

"I think our team is on a roll now," Budaj told the Denver Post. "They got some shots early and I was able to see the puck and make the saves, and when you do that, the confidence level is going to rise up."

Who's hot -- Avalanche forward Chris Stewart disappointed early in the season and was briefly sent down to the AHL, but he's figured it out since returning. His two goals Monday gave Stewart five in his last nine games. He has 13 points during that span.

"It definitely was an eye-opener going down to the American League, even if it was only for two days," Stewart told the Denver Post. "It opened my eyes and showed me what I had to do. It was unfortunate that guys got injured, but I'm trying to make the most of my opportunities and show what I can do, and I'm trying to do that every night.

"I'm just trying to stick to that power forward mold and go to the net and making hits when I can, stand in front and use my big body."

Injury report -- Minnesota forwards Cal Clutterbuck and Derek Boogaard were out Monday with flu-like symptoms. Concussions have put forwards Pierre-Marc Bouchard and Petr Sykora and defenseman Brent Burns on injured reserve.

Anderson is on the verge of returning for Colorado, though there's no reason to rush him with the way Budaj is playing. Defensemen Kyle Cumiskey (foot) and Ruslan Salei (back) and forward David Jones (torn left ACL) are all on injured reserve.

Stat pack: Before getting shut down by the Coyotes, the Wild had eight power-play goals over their previous seven games, going 6-0-1 in that stretch.

Puck drop: Look out for rookie center Matt Duchene, who scored a goal for Colorado the last time it played Minnesota and followed up that effort with consecutive multi-goal games. He made it 6 goals in six games by scoring against St. Louis and finds himself among the leaders in rookie scoring with 19 points.

I think Wild bounce back on this one and pull out a win in OT 3-2.

Gonna be a tough game as Colorado has confidence in shutting out the Blues on Monday.

oh yeah, this is on Versus tonight, if ya got DirecTV, take your ass to the bar or find a stream.

Google MyP2P they usually have good streams.
http://www.hockeywebcasts.com/ (has a Canada only stream, but might be able to get away with using a proxy site).

I too think Wild will bounce back, 1 goal game in OT/SO, they need to win this with Flames Nucks back to back on fri/sat

oh and Ebbett is out with a concussion, Nathan Smith will take his spot.

I think it's time to call out the helmet manufacturers. Trying to make helmets that are too lightweight or something. What's with all the concussions. either that or players are realizing this is an easy way to get paid and not do shit. Hell, when the doc asks you what day it is you just have to answer "frog". Boom, instant concussion.

for those without vs. here is a decent stream I usually use. It has the commentary even most times. http://atdhe.net/

woooo 1-0

mittens hittin the beautiful rebound.

F John Scott

Good old 1-0 victory...Backs with his first SO of the year.

a W is a W.

sucks i couldn't see anything beyond the 2nd period. however, as listening to it, didn't miss a high profile scoring game

http://mvn.com/thestateofhockeynews/2009/12/10/wild-stay-perfect-against-colorado-in-1-0-road-win-over-the-avalanche



The State of Hockey News

Wild stay perfect against Colorado in 1-0 road win over the Avalanche

by Derek Felska on December 10, 2009

Snow days, for school-aged kids is almost like a miniature one or two-day vacation. If the weather report starts talking about lots of snow, school kids get exciting as they hope to hear news school has been canceled. As a school teacher, I must admit sometimes I even look forward to a snow day as well. Today was just that as the area where I live just received around 12"-14" of snow. Not being at school allowed me to watch the NHL network throughout the afternoon, including the NHL Power Play with Scott Laughlin and former NHL'er Mike Johnson as the hosts. About 15 minutes into the show, Scott Laughlin mentioned the league's 2-game suspension of Ed Jovanovski for the high hit he gave the Wild's Andrew Ebbett on Monday night. Laughlin then chimed in and stated that he thought it was bogus that Jovanovski got 2 games for the clearly malicious hit saying that NHL rules czar Colin Campbell went too far and that the play didn't even warrant a penalty. My guess is Laughlin didn't look at it to hard because to say the play didn't deserve a penalty, where he clearly got his elbows up to hit Ebbett in the head was deserving of perhaps a major penalty for intent to injure. Mike Johnson said he saw the hit and thought it warranted suspension because he got his arms up and he reached out to make contact with his elbow to Ebbett's head. A few moments later, Laughlin again whined about Jovanovski's suspension saying the league is trying to take hitting out of the game. That is a ridiculous assertion on Laughlin's part because it would've been a penalty in the 1970's as it should be right now. Jovanovski is hardly a saint and certainly deserved 2 games for that hit and the officials who did that game should feel ashamed of themselves for calling nothing at all on the play. Maybe someone ought to replicate that hit Jovanovski gave to Ebbett on Laughlin and we'll see if he thought it was a legit hit then. End of rant...

Minnesota travels to Colorado; another area hit pretty hard by snow storms as they take on the Northwest Division-leading Avalanche who continue to play well after a very strong start. The Wild are coming off a disappointing loss to the Phoenix Coyotes where they didn't have their best game and really failed to capitalize on some of its opportunities after going 0-for-6 on the power play. Colorado is coming off a solid 4-0 win over St. Louis and are one of the best offensive teams in the NHL. The Avalanche are young and fast but are now out with their #1 goaltender in Craig Anderson who is injured. Perhaps this is the opening the Wild can exploit tonight. Will the Wild heat back up in Colorado or will it find it just as frozen as most of the Midwest is right now? (click on the link for the rest of the article)

Quisp wrote:

I think it's time to call out the helmet manufacturers. Trying to make helmets that are too lightweight or something. What's with all the concussions. either that or players are realizing this is an easy way to get paid and not do shit. Hell, when the doc asks you what day it is you just have to answer "frog". Boom, instant concussion.

Ebbet got a forearm to the face... nothing a helmet could do against that...