Game Fifty-Five: Wild 3, Senators 5

There's just not much that can be said about Saturday's Minnesota Wild performance. About the only thing that does stand out is that, if December was when the Wild critically injured their playoff aspirations, Saturday is the game that they put them on life support. After outplaying the Senators for twenty minutes, the Wild suffered an historic collapse, and now find themselves on the outside, looking in, with a large chunk of road games looming. Given that the team has floundered even at home, it doesn't look good.

Game pluses:
- Owen Nolan. The grizzled vet scored two goals, and looked like he might be able to make the hat trick happen, even while much of the rest of the Wild floundered.
- Mikko Koivu. He didn't score a goal, but he also didn't pack it in, and continued trying to make chances to change the Wild's luck.
- First period. Plain and simple, the Wild were the better team for the first twenty minutes, and it didn't look like Ottawa knew what it was doing. That first intermission changed everything.

Game minuses:
- Power play. Sure, the first power play resulted in a goal. But the next two resulted in the Wild giving up shorthanded scores. Those two goals really deflated the Wild.
- Niklas Backstrom. The All-Star goaltender was not sharp in net. No wonder he got chased after the second period.
- Defensemen. Especially on the power play, the Wild defense was porous, and making misguided plays.

Next up: The Wild have off until Thursday, when they face the Northwest leading Calgary Flames. Will they have a turnaround, or is the team starting a spiral to the bottom?