I asked on Twitter and I still don't know: How do people watch the Wild play 82 times a year? From their side, short of the last three minutes and the shootout, what takeaways do they have? I checked the schedule and through some quirk, the Blues play the Wild five times this season, so we get this three more times.
I may ask the boss if I can volunteer to work those nights. And I don't even have a job that I "go in" to work. Or do I have customers who are working at night. But still, I might ask anyway.
There's a FanPost over to the right asking the question about would you like it if your team played the 1-3-1 (or really, any kind of trap system). My initial thought was that winning is always fun, so yeah, you watch your team play a trap and you win and you convince yourself you like it.
That and you drink a lot more, I'm sure.
But the Wild, I will say, are a tough team to play against. Everyone hits and everyone interferes and everyone does everything they can to extract a price from the players on the other side. Tough bastards, those Wild. Boring as all hell, but nasty, tough bastards.
Saturday night and the drinkin' boots are on, if not laced, so let's bullet point this bitch, shall we?
- Jaroslav Halak turned in another excellent performance tonight. That late penalty kill situation with the goalie pulled was a bad situation and he had no chance (thanks for lending that to me, Bernie Federko) because of Jared Spungeon's perfect pass play, but beyond that, Halak was a confidence-inspiring goalie tonight. The Blues find themselves in a strangely enviable position now as both goalies are playing really well and obviously pushing one another to earn starts. With the offense the Blues have, giving up only two goals will be a win more nights than not.
- The Minnesota boys David Backes and T.J. Oshie got the goals for the Note tonight and having the two of them scoring a lot is huge. They both are playing smart, strong games these days. I know it's not just because of the appearance in Minnehaha, they're really ramping up their games.
- Our own Chris Gift wrote about this a couple issues ago, but I'm with him: The shootout has run its course. Time to get rid of it. It's a gimmick and it has always been a gimmick. At first it was entertaining, a strange but fun way to end a game. But now, a couple years later, it's just dumb. Of course, when the Blues get Andy McDonald and David Perron back in the lineup, they'll be better at winning them, but that's still not the point. It's a lame way to get that second point. Ties are very soccer, but a tie can feel like a win some nights and feel like a big loss on others. Time to put a bullet in the shootout - it has run its course.
- Patrik Berglund's seven points and minus-4 in 19 games IS MAKING ME THIRSTY!
- Kevin Shattenkirk and Alex Pietrangelo, yadda yadda yadda, still awesome at this game and it's still hard to believe they are both in just their second full seasons in the NHL. Status quo, move along.
- Ken Hitchcock's Blues are now 4-0-2 playing Cock Hockey. Could easily be 6-0-0, but shit (and the shootout) happens. Let's all hope that this isn't the temporary bump we've seen with both Davis Payne and Andy Murray when they took over. I like to think it'll be different this time because, as someone with the Blues who would know said to me, With Hitchcock, the players know that he's been there. He knows what works and why. They know they should believe him.
Do your thing in the comments, show everyone you know what up.