Where The Wild Things Are

Tommie Lee
Apr 30, 2015
3 min read

We should be happy about Minnesota, rather than St. Louis.

We’re cheering for the top seed in the Division now, so we have home ice advantage to look forward to in this series. The Wild struggled for much of the year and nearly missed the post-season. The Wild had to make a dramatic move at Goalie to pull things out and have a genuine chance at making the playoffs.

And besides: We’ve faced the Wild twice in recent post-seasons, and the Blackhawks took them to school with a firm but loving hand in both instances, en route to the next round.

Business as usual, right?

No.

This isn’t the same Wild team. They’ve gotten better each year. They’ve gotten smarter each year.

For starters, yes, Minnesota was lower seed in their series. But so was Chicago. Home ice advantage? The United Center hasn’t always meant rainbows and lollipops for the boys in red this season, with a number of losses to teams that look a lot like Minnesota. The Blackhawks also struggled to find balance this year on both ends, and had to make some dramatic moves to shore up the walls when one of our superstars went shoulder-first into the boards before the trade deadline. Perhaps Chicago’s trip to the playoffs was never really in question like the Wild’s chances back in January. That doesn’t mean there weren’t moments where the fan base had to wonder what happened to the dominant team they were used to seeing.

Minnesota is a team that pulled off one of the most unexpected Goalie maneuvers the league has seen in a while. Devan Dubnyk won 27 of his 38 games in the crease for the Wild after he was picked up in January. His Goals Against and Save Percentage numbers are impressive. He was minding the net for two wins against Chicago, blocking all but one shot on goal in those matchups. In that last game against St. Louis, it looked like he had some kind of Star Trek Anti-Puck Shield up at 100%. He blocked 30 of 31 and made it look effortless.

BUT…he isn’t infallible. The Blues managed to rattle him a bit and find ways to score here and there. They didn’t score often, and ultimately they failed to figure him out. Chicago has to put more of the flash back in their scoring chances, and figure out how to crash the net in a way that starts to intimidate Dubnyk early and often. It won’t be easy. One thing Chicago could do to throw him off would be to wake up on the Power Play. That would shock any opposing goalie, since Chicago’s Power Play often looks as formidable as wet mice in a sack of rice. The Penalty Kill seems to be humming along now in usual post-season form, but the PP is usually weaker than warm 3-2 beer.

It also bears repeating that Defense needs to step it up. These ice cold, give-up-three-goals-fast periods can’t continue. Minnesota is playing very tight, very precise hockey right now and they will bury a team that gives them an open gate like that…no matter who’s in goal.

Speaking of that. It’s going to be Crawford. It needs to be Crawford. You need to raise your right hand and say along with me “I will not start calling for the head of Corey Crawford after the first or second goal he gives up.” We need his experience and his poise, and he showed us in Game 6 against the Preds that he still has plenty of both. If he gets skates of clay again, we need to be thankful that we have a Scott Darling sitting on the bench, rather than an Antti Raanta. Craw-Daddy had a storybook year in goal this year, and then he screwed up in the first round of the playoffs. Get over it. He was damned impressive in Game 6, and the standing O the Madhouse crowd gave at the transition was for both of them. And both of them deserved it.

The core is delivering right now. Toews, Kane, Hossa, Keith, Seabs, and Sharpie tallied 36 of the team’s 53 points in Round 1. And they had 12 of the 18 goals. They’re sort of good. Chicago has depth but the stars shine brightest. Hopefully that can continue.

The Blackhawks look pretty good, but they have to get it together in the weak areas. And they have to do it now. These are not the plucky little Wild of yore. These are some very bad people worthy of respect, and they are downright scary. They’ve been a huge wheel rolling over great teams since they got Dubnyk. They should be taken seriously.

Go Hawks!