What a game! The Minnesota Wild spent the first two periods demonstrating they can play with -- and outplay -- any team in the NHL when they have their A-game going. They then spent the third period in defensive shell mode, allowing the Detroit Red Wings to demonstrate what their A-game is capable of. The Wild buzzed the net and put on sustained offensive pressure time and again during the first 40 minutes, earning several richly deserved standing Os from the sellout crowd. The good guys also put on a fine display of physical play, frustrating the Wings into taking some uncharacteristic penalties. Alas, the third period was all Red Wings, as Jacques Lemaire, either by action or by inaction, allowed the Wild to spend the last 20 minutes doing little else aside from trying to keep the best team in hockey off the scoreboard. Needless to say, once the Wild abandoned the style of play that got them the lead, the Wings pulled themselves off the ropes and gratefully collected a win that had the Wild's name on it all night. And now, for the new Warpy Quark Awards, which like their namesakes come in several different flavors..
The Top Quark Warpy of the night goes to Nick Schultz. If we had three blueliners like him and three like Brent Burns, this team would be scary. Schultzie played his usual game: no spectacular plays made by #55, but definitely no good plays made by any opponent in his neighborhood. This guy just doesn't enough credit, although Lemaire does at least have enough smarts to put the captain's "C" on the right player. Schultz and Burnsie -- who gets the Up Quark award -- continue to be the only defensemen to regularly play the man and exact a physical toll on the opposition. Keith Carney has his Schultz-like moments, and Kurtis Foster has some Burns-like moments, while the other four blueliners do little other than take up a roster spot.
The Down Quark award goes to Kim Johnsson. Once again, #5 spent most of the game showing off his lack of checking ability, and put on yet another aggravating display of lousy positioning by assuming a statuesque, Skoula-like pose in the faceoff circle while the Wings potted the tying goal. And once again, Johnsson did the impossible by making Martin Skoula look good in comparison. Therefore, the only logical candidate for the Bottom Quarky is Jacques Lemaire. If he spent the second intermission talking the Wild into the third period defensive shell, he made one of the dumbest calls in NHL history: if he didn't call for the shell, he certainly did nothing in the third period to get the boys moving. In either case, the Wings comeback boils down to bad coaching by the Wild, who almost pulled of the near-impossible feat of shutting out the Wings for an entire third period, until Lemaire made yet another dildaphonic coaching move by putting his two worst defensemen on the ice for crunch time. When will this guy ever figure out that #5 and #41 have no business being on the ice at the same time, let alone having both of them out there when the game is on the line?
The Charmed Quark award goes to Domink Hasek, who made enough stellar saves to keep the game from getting out of hand in the early going, thereby giving the Wings a chance to make their comeback. The most crucial save he made was the metallurgy save he got on a shot that had him beaten cleanly, and would've given the Wild a two goal lead at a crucial point in the game. The Strange Quark has got to go to the Channel 45 homer commentators, who spent the game "highlighting the physical play of Martin Skoula". To his credit, Skoula did play a decent game last night, and even threw a couple of good checks (which oughta make for a year's supply of highlights at the rate #41 throws 'em around:)
Bottom line: the Wild took it to the Red Wings big time for two periods, playing arguably their finest hockey of the season. It's a crying shame that Lemaire wasted this brilliant effort and cost the team a valuable point in the standings. On the plus side, if the Wild's play tomorrow night gets anywhere near the level to which they played last night, the Dallas Stars are in a whole heap of trouble. Go Wild!!!
quando omni flunkus moritati
