premature articulations:
One strange and funky result deserves another. 48 hours after the Minnesota Wild outplayed the Colorado Avalanche in every measurable category only to end up with a loss, the good guys even up the series in a game that was much more tightly Kihntested. If either team had an edge in play Friday night, it was the Avs, but for once the gods of hockey smiled on the Wild and gave them a long overdue break. Speaking of breaking stuff, it's time for the Warpy Quark awards.
dangling subatomic participles:
Top Quark(s): It's hard to single out a play or player in this game for the top award, so we'll give a collective Top Quark to the Wild defensive corps. The blueliners have done a much better than expected job of stepping up their play in the absence of Kurtis Foster and Nick Schultz. On second thought, let's give the Top Quark to the Wild D, minus Sean Hill...
Up Quark(s): Lots of Up Quarks to go around today. Martin Skoula gets a huge call for another fine performance: for the second game in a row, he dang near grabbed solo possession of the Top Quark. The mano a mano play in the third that ended with Skoula crunching his man into the boards was a thing of beauty. His tattooing czech on another guy seconds later wasn't too shabby, either: the fans were plenty vocal in expressing their delight and approval. Brent Burns gets an Up Quark for a fine, goal-saving poke check, and Petteri Nummelin gets one for continuing to create moves inside the faceoff dots in the offensive zone -- a commodity sorely lacking in the Wild offense lately. Even (gasp) Kim Johnsson gets props for a well played game.
Down Quark(s): The biggest downer I can think of is Sean Hill's bumbling misplay of Peter Forsberg on the first Avs goal. It's easy to see why Jacques Lemaire lacks confidence in #6, even when the rest of the D is gasping for air: plays like the "should I take the man, should I play the puck, or should I just fall on my ass like a clown?" fiasco won't exactly convince J-L to increase his ice time any time soon. Niklas Backstrom shot Skoula a quick, nasty glare for screening him at the worst possible time on that shot, but we'll give #41 a mulligan there because it's pretty hard to make anything decent happen when your defensive partner hangs you out to dry.
Bottom Quark(s): No doubt about it: the refs have to get the Bottom Quark just on the basis of that incredibly godawful call against Kim Johnsson late in the game. Replays clearly show Ryan Smyth diving for the loose puck, with his body almost parallel to the ice before Johnsson even attempts to lift Smyth's stick (Johnsson's aversion to any contact more intimate than stick checking has been well documented in earlier entries and posts..) Bottom line is, that would've been a bad penalty to call at any point in the game, but was absolutely inexcusable with 1:09 left in regulation. Luckily, the gods of hockey smiled on Keith Carney in overtime, otherwise the X would have turned into a complete zebra lynch mob.
Strange and Charmed Quark(s): Strange Quark goes to Jacques Lemaire: can somebody tell me what Keith Carney did to justify all the time he's spent in the doghouse this year? Granted, Carney has made his share of misplays -- including a few real dandies -- but other defenders playing a lot worse this season (*cough* Johnsson and Skoula) still keep getting all the ice time they can handle and then some. Maybe the secret to piling up the Charmed Quarks and ice time in J-L's system is to keep playing worse.
post-dramatic syndrones:
And in Kihnclusion: With two rounds in the books, the judges have this battle scored dead even on their cards. Hopefully, the Wild will have enough time to get acclimated to the altitude before game time. I never noticed the difference when driving on road trips to Denver, but flying out there is a whole different story. It would be a bummer for the Wild to be on the slow side tonight because of the altitude factor, then have to try and muster up enough energy for the second half of the back-to-back tomorrow. If the good guys can leave Denver with a split, we'll be in mighty good shape. If the Wild win both games there, the Foothills golf course by Wheat Ridge (just off Wadsworth, if memory serves:) should be ready to accommodate the Avs and their fans all summer long. GO WILD!!!
...and now, a word from our spawn's hairs...
If my wife to be or not be is watching, "what happens in Vegas stays in Vegas" was your idea, so no, I can't explain how those bras and panties got into my suitcase. For the rest of you, thanx for tuning in, keep your stick on the ice, and remember: the Procrastinators Anonymous meeting has been postponed until sometime after the tax deadline.
