Haven't posted in a long time but I wanted to say something about this game....
I thought the team played pretty good. Nothing like the two previous games, but I think the opponent is partly to blame for that. The Wild has shown they can dominate against an inferior defensive corps, Colorado. In Anaheim they were up against a much bigger and faster defensive corps, not to mention better defensive forwards. They weren't able to enter the offensive zone with speed like they could against Colorado which caused a lot more dumping and chasing. Dumping and chasing can work, but the Ducks defense was pretty good at retrievals last night.
Our passing was not nearly as crisp either. I'm not sure if it was the bad California ice or if the guys were just off a little. Like another poster above mentioned "lots of passes to the skates."
Obviously Dumba and Ballard had rough games. I think Dumba could be a very good player in this league but I would like to see him playing big minutes and situations in Iowa until he looks comfortable. Hopefully Folin and the Processor look decent as a third pair Sunday so we can ride them out for a while. They play a safer game. Our third d-pairing was a big difference in the outcome of the game.
Was the game a little chippy last night? Sure. Did all calls go our way? No. There are going to be games like that in the future too.
I think the Wild do a great job by not playing into the goonery most of the time, because we are not good at it. Seems like when we do fight back we always get the extra penalty and the momentum shifts the other way.
I thought the Kessler hit on Granlund was pretty dumb. At least it was somewhat clean and didn't hit his melon too bad. But I would like to see some of our big guys, Coyle, Nino, Koivu, 4th liners, playing more physical by finishing checks on the opponents smaller skill guys. (doesnt seem like the ducks, kings, or blues have any of those players though now that I am typing this). Other teams seem to really focus on our younger smaller players a lot.
Sorry for the long post. Since I only post once a year I figured I better get my money's worth. Most of what I said has already been said by other posters, but I wanted to get it out there again.
Beat the Kings!