WILD WEDNESDAY - Wild must return to their winning ways at home
Records and Debut - The Old and the New
Marc-Andre Fleury is on the hunt this week to become the second highest winning goalie in NHL history. Fleury, along with his fellow Québécois, amazingly make up the trifecta of winningest NHL goalies of all time. Patrick Roy and Fleury are currently tied in second place with 551 wins but are still far behind the 691 wins posted by the one-and-only Martin Brodeur- a record that may never be broken.
At the total other end of the spectrum, 21-year-old Jesper Wallstedt is expected to make his NHL debut tonight in Dallas, meaning Fleury’s record-breaking game will have to wait until the weekend in front of the home fans. One might think Wallstedt debuting against Dallas on the road is throwing him to the wolves, but he has experience playing in Dallas the last two preseasons and was outstanding against primarily Dallas’ A-squad.
So tonight, the top NHL goalie prospect is looking for his first NHL win to close within 550 wins of his future Hall of Famer teammate... No pressure Jesper.
The EK Bet
Someone lost a bet... That is Joel Eriksson Ek looking not so pleased having to wear team USA’s jersey on Monday after Sweden lost to the Americans in the World Junior Championship over the weekend. I am sure this was just part of a larger bet between the scarce Wild Swedes- Ek, Johansson, Brodin and Gustavsson- and the abundant Wild Americans- Faber, Hartman, Boldy, Duhaime, Foligno, Maroon, Goligoski, Merrill, Mermis and Bogosian. I have a feeling the Swedish group maybe wishes the Wild would have kept Victor Rask to soften the blow...
Although if Sweden won, we would have maybe been deprived of seeing Faber rep Grace Zumwinkle’s jersey of the PWHL prior to the game, so thank you team USA for doing us all a ‘Faber.’
Déjà Vu
Every year it seems the Wild fall out of the playoff race and the fans call for them to tank for a lottery pick, but they always bounce back. They have done it once already this year until Winnipeg happened, so there is no reason that once they are back healthy, they will make another run.
Kaprizov, Brodin and Gustavsson are all skating on their own and getting closer to returning to the lineup. Spurgeon’s timetable is more in doubt, but let’s keep our fingers crossed because the powerplay desperately needs it after going 0-6 and giving up two shorty’s on Monday night. That tallies four shorthanded goals for the Stars against the Wild in the two matchups they have had this year.
There is still lots of hockey to be played this season and with the Wild only being one game under .500, there is no need to panic yet.
Home Sweet Home
After tonight’s game in Dallas, the Wild are home for six of their next nine games left in January. In my opinion, they need to secure at least 12 points in these upcoming matchups to stay relevant.
The Wild won the first seven games at home under coach Hynes and now have lost the last four. Bottom line is- the Wild must return to their winning ways at home.
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