Game Forty-six: Wild 2, Kings 5

When looking for a word to describe this season for the Minnesota Wild, it just might be schizophrenic. From a strong October and November to a December that they're still trying to crawl away from. Taking their game against the top teams in the league and playing well, while getting throttled by teams that they should beat handily. Seemingly incapable of figuring out how to play against many of the teams in their own conference, while being beasts against the teams in the East. A strong win against a Chicago team that should have outclassed them, featuring some amazing defense, followed immediately by a game where it looked like the Wild were asleep on their skates.

The opponent on the scoreboard last night was the Los Angeles Kings, but the real opponent was the Minnesota Wild itself. After knotting the score at 1, thanks to an Owen Nolan power play, the Wild floundered until it was too late to do anything. Finding their legs in the third period, they finally started skating and putting shots on net, but, by that point, the damage had already been done, and the Wild were staring down another loss on their home ice.

Game pluses:
- Owen Nolan. Nolan has provided the Wild with someone willing to pick up the rebounds from the front of the net, as he did again last night, tying the game early.
- Derek Boogaard. His fight late in the game perked the Wild up, but it was too late. He also had some offensive chances, and almost found a way to puck the puck into the net.
- Marek Zidlicky. Zidlicky was able to bring the Wild to within one, setting a new team record for power play goals by a defenseman.

Game minuses:
- Brent Burns. Burns has been off his game for a while now, and it was glaringly obvious against the Kings, as he turned the puck over a number of times, had bad positioning, and took needless penalties.
- Marek Zidlicky. Yes, we gave him a plus for the goal, and he had other strong elements, but he also took some very needless penalties and couldn't seem to pass the puck clear. His delay of game that set up the go-ahead goal for Los Angeles was a foolish play.
- Colton Gillies. At the start of the season, the Wild kept Gillies with the team to develop him. Maybe the time has come for him to develop in Houston, as Gillies hasn't yet shown more than flashes of an understanding of how to play the game on an NHL level.

Next up: The Wild, except for Niklas Backstrom, take a week off for the All-Star game (Mikko Koivu should really be joining him, and Cal Clutterbuck should probably have had a shot at the YoungStars game) before returning to the ice next Tuesday against the 17-22-7 Toronto Maple Leafs.