Wild vs. Detroit - 3/3/2011 - Official GDT

Wild vs. Detroit Post-game and much more!

Gallant effort comes up short as Detroit captures Central Division crown with 4-2 win over the Wild

Written by Derek Felska | 02 April 2011

One of my favorite shows in the fall as teenager was NFL Primetime on early Sunday evenings on ESPN. It basically was your weekly in-depth highlight show where they used spot shadows to give you a good feel for the games in case you didn't have a chance to watch it. In the days before things like NFL Sunday Ticket and access to streaming video online this was about as good as it could be. I have to admit, I always loved listening to Chris Berman and while I know for some his style of highlights can be annoying I always thought they were kind of cool and had energy and all of his Bermanisms for example Eric "Sleeping with" Bienemy and Mike "your in good hands with" Alstott made his style unique. Yet I guess why I liked him was that he seemed to be more like a fan than sports reporter and you could tell he enjoyed his job. Berman would always remind fans that what can seem like a one-sided match up on paper doesn't always turn out that way when he'd say "but that's why they play the games." This is especially true the last few weeks of the season where teams who are basically out of contention for the playoffs embrace the role of spoiler.

If the Wild chose to stay up a little later and watch Hockey Night In Canada it could've seen one of those spoiler type performances as the 30th place Edmonton Oilers handed the President's Trophy winning Vancouver Canucks 4-1 with a lineup that was more akin to what you can find in Oklahoma City playing in the American Hockey League than an NHL team. Edmonton hustled, and outworked the Canucks from start to finish and earned the rout. Minnesota needs to channel the same type of effort if it wants to beat the mighty Detroit Red Wings. With injuries to Marek Zidlicky and Nick Schultz giving opportunities to farmhands Justin Falk and Maxim Noreau as well up front where bumps and bruises have combined to take out Martin Havlat and John Madden giving Colton Gillies and Carson McMillan a taste of the NHL this season. This needs to be seen as audition, showing the organization you deserve to be back or given a better shot for next season so hopefully they dedicate themselves to outwork the Red Wings. Detroit is coming off a come-from-behind overtime victory over division rival Nashville so Minnesota will have its work cut out for themselves. (click on the link for the rest of the article)

I really liked how this depleted lineup battled against a high quality opponent. There is a Houston Aeros report and a Wild prospect report that features Dylen McKinlay, Mikko Lehtonen and Mikael Granlund and it includes videos! Enjoy!