Minnesota Wild (7-11-1) 5th in Northwest Division

2.32 Goals per Game (25th in NHL)

3.00 Goals Against per Game (23rd in NHL)

19.5% Power Play (17th in NHL)

84.5% Penalty Kill (5th in NHL)

Top 5 Scorers:

1. #9 Mikko Koivu ~ 5G 12A = 17pts

2. #15 Andrew Brunette ~ 7G 6A = 13pts

3. #25 Eric Belanger ~ 4G 8A = 12pts

4. #3 Marek Zidlicky ~ 2G 9A = 11pts

5. #8 Brent Burns ~ 2G 7A = 9pts

Top 3 Penalty Minutes:

1. #3 Marek Zidlicky ~ 21PIM’s

2. #36 John Scott ~ 20PIM’s

3. #34 Shane Hnidy ~ 20PIM’s

Goaltenders:

1. #32 Niklas Backstrom ~ (7-8-1) 2.60GAA .910SV%

2. #37 Josh Harding ~ (0-3-0) 3.92GAA .849SV%

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Carolina Hurricanes (2-12-4) 8pts 5th in Southeast Division

2.00 Goals per Game (30th in NHL)

3.67 Goals Against per Game (29th in NHL)

12.7% Power Play (29th in NHL)

78.4% Penalty Kill (23rd in NHL)

Top 5 Scorers:

1. #13 Ray Whitney ~ 5G 5A = 10pts

2. #36 Jussi Jokinen ~ 3G 7A = 10pts

3. #15 Tuomo Ruutu ~ 5G 4A = 9pts

4. #8 Matt Cullen ~ 3G 4A = 7pts

5. #17 Rod Brind’Amour ~ 2G 5A = 7pts

Top 3 Penalty Minutes:

1. #12 Eric Staal ~ 34PIM’s

2. #6 Tim Gleason ~ 27PIM’s

3. #44 Jay Harrison ~ 27PIM’s

Goaltenders:

1. #30 Cam Ward ~ (2-9-3) 2.97GAA .899SV%

2. #34 Manny Legace ~ (0-1-0) 3.87GAA .855SV%

3. #49 Michael Leighton ~ (0-2-0) 5.11GAA .813SV%

Of all the games on this road trip, this is the one I’m least excited about. Both the Wild and the ‘Canes are in last place in their respective divisions and in their respective conferences. I’m having even a harder time feeling any sort of interest in this game after the disappointing loss in Tampa Bay. Now while the Wild are the “best” of the worst teams, a sense of apprehension should set in. It is those games that one should win that often end in disappointment.

Because I’m finding little of interest in this matchup, I figure we should take a look around the league for things of interest. Now, you must realize that I am writing this on Saturday night since I am working on gameday and it’s an early game. I’m sitting here flipping between the University of Minnesota-Bemidji State hockey game and various NHL games, especially tonight’s early Hockey Night in Canada game between Toronto and Calgary. Before they even dropped the puck in Toronto tonight, the Leafs had yet another tribute. You know things are going poorly for an Original Six team when they have to have a “feel good” moment before every home game. Tonight’s theme at Air Canada Centre, is 80’s Night. In their video tribute, they featured Wendel Clark, Russ Courtnall, and Gary Leeman. The crazy part of the video clips from the 80’s is that the Leafs were still terrible back then. Back to the issue of the over abundance of tributes at Air Canada Centre. That plethora of tributes has even raised the ire of one, Don Cherry. You know things are going poorly for the Toronto Maple Leafs when Grapes isn’t in their corner.

I suppose I should talk about the game in question. Well you tend to get interesting info during the intermission reports when you watch Hockey Night in Canada. Tonight’s gem comes from Mike Milbury and relates to the Wild playing in Carolina. While the Wild don’t have much of a record to brag about, according to Milbury, the Hurricanes have lost thirteen straight games. Knowing that bit of info makes me want to say to Wild fans everywhere, don’t get too excited. We have seen the Wild lose “should win” games many times in the past. Also, my hesitant nature comes from having just visited the official message boards of the Toronto Maple Leafs. Some of their fans had a game prediction thread in which they were to guess the final score and the scorers. The funny part of it, is that they were basing the outcome mostly on the fact that the Wild were the worst team in the Western Conference. I guess they neglected to take a look at their standing in the Eastern Conference. Trust me, being in fourteenth place is not much to brag about, especially since going into that game the Wild had more points and more wins. However fans of the other twenty-nine teams in the NHL fully realize the delusional nature of Maple Leafs fans.

Who knew that the possible fury of Maple Leafs fans would be more interesting than talking about a Wild-Hurricanes game? Of course, poking that particular beast has been a sport of many hockey fans ever since 1967. Just remember dear readers, that no matter how depressing the Wild’s season has been, you can always find fans who are wallowing in self-pity more than we are. I’m sure if we lived in Toronto, we’d be looking for a cliff from which to hurl ourselves. And in Carolina, they are probably just finding better ways to spend their time and money. Which begs the question, why would you schedule a game for 1:30pm on a Sunday. Clearly the management in Raleigh doesn’t realize that people might want to go home after attending church or would rather stay home and watch countless NFL games of teams that can and will win. And with the NFL’s Carolina Panthers playing their division rival the Atlanta Falcons at 1:00pm, I predict that RBC Center will be rather cavernous.

Now, I can add ticked off Hurricanes fans to my list of ticked off Maple Leaf fans. Good times.