so lets watch Stanley Cup Hockey! GO HAWKS!

While stand out players keep moving up from Huston, Marion Gaborik in what could quite possibly be his last game in a Wild Sweater play his best game that I have ever seen him play. Gaborik only really lost the puck one time that I remember, Brunette played his game that was great to see, and Meko Koivu was rocking the ice, Backstrom, and solid as a backstop! Do the Wild hold the ability to win the cup? No, but two or three core players could bring the cup to Minnesota where it rightly belongs.

As a fan and a season ticket holder I felt a little ripped off. Every year the Wild end the season by giving the Jersey off their back to the fans, this is done on the last home game, this year they did it on the second to last home game, now you may say so? However, as the season ticket owner I take the last game just for that reason, so I have a chance to win a jersey, so the second to last game this year was not my game and the last game just seamed like any other game in the season. By the way I have four other people in my group, so we split the tickets five ways, the person that had the second to last home game did not win a jersey either. She told us that it was rigged, because most of the winners were in the club level then the suite level then the main level then the upper level, why do they do that. I have been a season ticket holder from the start, many of the club tickets are owned by business, and they give tickets to who ever, most never go to games more than once or twice a year, to me that just does not seem fare.

At this point I hope not, I think the only reason he is playing right now is because he is looking for that BIG free agent contract and he will only get that if he shows he can  be the star they need him to be, score goals and play hard, Gaborik wants to play in the East.

So now what, the Wild WILL lose Gabby at the end of the season and if we make the playoffs we will be even more screwed because we will not get a good draft pick unless we trade a good player to move up.

Niklas (The Backstop) Backstrom

SAINT PAUL/MINNEAPOLIS, Minn. — Minnesota Wild President and General Manager Doug Risebrough today announced the National Hockey League (NHL) club has re-signed goaltender Niklas Backstrom to a four-year, $24 million contract that will run through the 2012-2013 NHL season.

“Nik is one of the most reliable players and people on our team, and that combination enables winning,” said Risebrough. “A snapshot of Nik’s three NHL seasons shows a staggering run of success, but to see that whole picture unfold daily, we have not been surprised. Instead, we are proud of what he has accomplished, and we are excited for what he will.”

Backstrom, 31 (2/13/78), is 28-18-4 with a 2.24 goals against average (GAA), a .925 SV Pct. and a team record six shutouts in 51 games this season and represented the Wild at the 2009 NHL All-Star Game. He is the only goalie to rank in the top five in GAA, wins, SV Pct. and shutouts this season. Backstrom ranks tied for second in the NHL in shutouts, fourth in SV Pct., tied for fourth in wins and GAA and has helped Minnesota rank second in the League in goals against this season at 144. He established franchise records with 33 wins and 1,498 saves last season and tied the record for games played (58). Among goalies playing 100 or more games since the beginning of the 2006-07 season, Backstrom ranks first in SV Pct. at .924, second in GAA at 2.19 and winning percentage at .660 and tied for fifth in shutouts with 15.

In 144 career starts, he has allowed three goals or less 127 times and two goals or less 86 times. In 66 starts following the NHL All-Star Game, Backstrom is 40-10-11 with a 2.04 GAA, a .926 SV Pct. and seven shutouts. He won the 2007 William M. Jennings Trophy with teammate Manny Fernandez as the tandem allowed a League-low 191 goals against. Backstrom also received the Bank of America Roger Crozier Saving Grace Award in 2007 as he recorded a league best .929 SV Pct. He is 84-39-18 with a franchise record-tying 15 shutouts in 150 career games with Minnesota.

The Wild originally signed the native of Helsinki, Finland as a free agent on June 1, 2006.

Backstrom does it again

ST. PAUL, Minn. – Playing the second of three straight games at Xcel Energy Center leading into Hockey Day, Minnesota guaranteed itself a winning homestand with a 5-1 win over the visiting Edmonton Oilers. The teams entered Thursday’s Northwest Division matchup with identical 21-18-3 records, and, in the first meeting between the teams this season, a chance to make a statement of sorts.
Pierre-Marc Bouchard scored a goal and added two assists, while Niklas Backstrom made 20 saves to remain perfect (10-0) against the Oilers as the Wild earned a 22nd win on the season.

“We were waiting for this,” said Head Coach Jacques Lemaire.

After so often playing with a 1-0 deficit, Minnesota opened the scoring for the second time in as many games, and, as with Tuesday night vs. Phoenix, did not wait terribly long to do so. While Tuesday’s surprise came in the form of the how — 46 seconds into the game — Thursday’s surprise may have come in the form of the who. Krys Kolanos scored for the first time during this calendar year to give the home team its lead.

Right wing Antti Miettinen started the scoring play along the left wing, then walked past Lubomir Visnovsky with a nifty one-handed move, pulling the puck to the outside of the defenseman and cutting around to pick it up on the inside. The righthanded shot whipped a puck across the zone on his forehand to Kolanos, who redirected it through Dwayne Roloson’s pads for a 1-0 lead at 6:25.

Minnesota had opened a 6-3 lead in shots to that point, but the Oilers took the next three on Backstrom, including one to tie the game. Backstrom made a save on a Denis Grebeshkov shot, only to have the rebound bounce near Dustin Penner, who was able to pull the puck back to a place where Liam Reddox could push it in to make it 1-1 at 11:44.

The Oilers earned back-to-back power plays with Wild penalties at 13:15 and 16:12, momentum that carried Edmonton nearly to the end of the period and to a 11-7 shots advantage with under two minutes to play.

“You could tell, in the first period, they were getting shots and our defensemen were ahead of their forwards,” Lemaire said. “They missed a few goals there.”

Cal Clutterbuck would restore the lead at 18:55 on the Wild’s eighth shot. James Sheppard picked up a drop pass from Pierre-Marc Bouchard as the trio broke into the offensive zone, and Sheppard sent a pass across the top of the zone, where Clutterbuck’s quick wrister beat Roloson high to the glove side.

“The way he’s playing, you know, he deserves a goal a game,” said Lemaire of Clutterbuck. “Shep made that pass, and then [Clutterbuck] was in great position, and [he] just send a rocket there, top shelf.”

The second period progressed without scoring, and only a combined 11 shots, as Edmonton seemed to dampen some of its own momentum with minor penalties at 4:40, 10:05 and 19:11.

“When you’re on the power play, and you’re leading, you’re in a great position,” Lemaire said, noting that’s how the Wild began the final frame.

In a third period that saw the Oilers called for 13 minutes in penalties, Minnesota closed out the win in record-setting fashion. Having scored three third-period goals Tuesday against Phoenix, the Wild’s three-goal third Thursday, according to Elias Sports Bureau, marked the first time the franchise had ever recorded the feat in back-to-back games.

Bouchard made the most of an Edmonton miscue to extend the Wild lead. Sheldon Souray mishandled a pass back to him in the Oilers, with the puck ricocheting off his skate and into the high slot. Bouchard grabbed it and stepped into his team-high fifth shot to beat Roloson for a 3-1 lead at 8:21 of the third.

The creative winger has been focusing on the idea of shooting more often.

“Repeat that to myself before every game, or even sometimes before every shift,” he said of the idea of taking his shots. “Lately, I’ve been trying to shoot more, and tonight I was able to get one.”

Brent Burns earned the next one, converting the Wild’s fourth even-strength goal (with the teams playing four-on-four) of the game, thanks in large part to yet another individual effort from Mikko Koivu. Koivu, who baited a Coyotes defenseman on Tuesday, moved slowly into the zone, before hitting the gas just enough to split Erik Cole and Denis Grebeshkov, leaving Roloson to face a developing two-on-zero. With Burns moving in quickly, Koivu hit him on the far post for a 4-1 lead at 15:19.

A few more Oilers penalties later, including Sam Gagne’s four-minute high stick on Eric Belanger, and the Wild was looking at a five-on-three advantage in the waning minutes, during which Belanger closed the scoring at 19:14.

Game puck goes to …

Bouchard. He was plus-3 with five shots in 24 shifts.

“He was good, Butch,” Lemaire said. “He was really good tonight. Probably his best game all year.”

Quote Sheet

“I know what we’re doing to get some more chances. The thing is, we’re beating people. There was a time when we couldn’t beat one player one-on-one. We couldn’t beat a guy one-on-one. And now we do it at times, and it opens up [the ice]. And then we get our chances and we get our goals. This will give you confidence for the other shifts.” — Lemaire

“We’ve been practicing getting open and hitting open guys. I think maybe before I might have just taken a shot on net or kept going down, but I saw a stick and I saw Clutter being open, so I just passed to him.” — Sheppard

“I’m not really going out of my way to do what I’m doing. I’m not changing who I am or the way I usually play games. I think it just comes naturally to me. Hopefully, I can keep it going.” — Clutterbuck

“It’s frustrating when a team beats you regularly, and you’re down, 2-1, and then they get another goal, you feel like, ‘Not again.’ You could see that the guys were undisciplined after that. But, up to that point, [the] game could have gone either way.” — Lemaire on the Oilers

James MacDonald | Wild.com
Minnesota Wild

Philly Drops Wild

PHILADELPHIA (AP) -Two weeks on the road left the Flyers primed for a raucous return home.

Did they ever deliver against Minnesota. Philadelphia killed off every power-play attempt, ended Niklas Backstrom’s bid for three straight shutouts and, oh yeah, took sole possession of first place in the Atlantic Division.

Mike Knuble, Scott Hartnell and Scottie Upshall scored goals and the Flyers returned home from two weeks on the road to beat the Wild 3-1 on Thursday night.

“We wanted to climb into playoff position and try and climb up in our division and we have done that,” coach John Stevens said.

Hartnell’s tying goal in the second period ended Backstrom’s sh

ot at three straight shutouts. Backstrom, selected to the Western Conference All-Star team this week, stretched his shutout streak to 149 minutes, 9 seconds before Hartnell flipped a loose puck past him early in the second.

Knuble put the Flyers ahead early in the third period on Philadelphia’s first power-play opportunity, and Upshall added his sixth goal to help the Flyers win their seventh straight home game.

With the victory, the Flyers took sole possession of the Atlant

a Division lead, two points ahead of the New York Rangers.

“It’s tough when you get back because you can get complacent after a long road trip when you get back home,” Flyers center Mike Richards said. “But we could find our energy from the crowd and had a couple different players step up.”

The Flyers hadn’t played at home since Dec. 23 and went 2-2-2 on a six game, 12-day trip. They returned to a familiar setting – another packed, orange-clad crowd, chants of “Let’s go Fly-ers!” and more home dominance. The Flyers are 11-0-2 in their last 13 games at the Wachovia Center and play there two more times before heading back on the road.

They might have former All-Star Danny Briere back in the lineup before they pack their bags again. Briere has played in only nine games this season because of groin injuries, but is close to a return.

Martin Biron had 27 saves for the Flyers.

“I think we took our time to get going, but we stuck to the game plan and st

arted skating and it made a big difference,” Biron said.

Backstrom was coming off shutouts against Colorado and Boston and entered with a shutout streak of 121:59. He kept the Flyers scoreless in the first and needed only a scoreless minute in the second period to beat his previous personal best time of 142:57.

Hartnell, though, caught him with his 16th goal of the season 7:10 into the period to make it 1-1 and end the scoreless stretch at 149:09. He finished with 20 saves.

“When you lose you can’t be happy. You don’t care about the shutouts,” Backstrom said. “When you go out there you want to win the game and we lost today and that’s the only thing that matters.”

The Wild had supported Backstrom with a solid power play, scoring at least one goal with a line advantage in four straight games. The power play miserably failed in this one, as the Wild went 0-for-4 in the second period against Biron and failed to convert on all eight opportunities.

“You can’t have (eight) power play and don’t barely get a couple of chances to score,” Wild coach Jacques Lemaire said. “You can’t win games, it’s impossible.”

Backstrom fell flat on his back trying to stave off a Flyers’ push in the third, but Knuble poked his jabbed his stick in behind him and knocked his 15th goal for a 2-1 lead. The goal came only 7 seconds into the Flye

rs’ first power-play opportunity of the game.

“Once again, special teams won us a hockey game,” Richards said.

Upshall sealed the win with his sixth goal of the season.

Stephane Veilleux gave the Wild a 1-0 lead in the first period on a one-timer. Minnesota fell to 10-2-1 against the East this season and 6-1 since Oct. 30.

Notes: Flyers C Jeff Carter was added to the Eastern Conference All-Star team. … This is the only game of the season between the two teams. … Each of Veilleux’s six goals have either tied the game or given the Wild the lead. … The Wild hadn’t played at Philadelphia since Dec. 10, 2005. … Knuble scored his 200th point with the Flyers.

Associated Press

All Star - All Backstrom

SAINT PAUL/MINNEAPOLIS, Minn. – Niklas Backstrom will represent the Minnesota Wild at the 2009 National Hockey League (NHL) All-Star Game, Sunday, Jan. 25 at Montreal’s Bell Centre the league announced today.

Backstrom, 30 (2/13/78), is 19-12-2 with a 2.14 goals against average (GAA), a .929 SV Pct. and five shutouts in 33 games this season. He ranks tied for first in the NHL in shutouts, fourth in wins, fifth in GAA and sixth in SV Pct. Backstrom established franchise records with 33 wins and 1,498 saves last season and tied the record for games played (58). Among goalies playing 100 or more games since the beginning of the 2006-07 season, he ranks first in the NHL in SV Pct. at .925, first in GAA at 2.16, tied for second in win % at .669 and fifth in shutouts with 14. Backstrom won the 2007 William M. Jennings Trophy with teammate Manny Fernandez as the tandem allowed a League-low 191 goals against. Backstrom also received the Bank of America Roger Crozier Saving Grace Award in 2007 as he recorded a league best .929 SV Pct. Minnesota signed the Helsinki, Finland-native as a free agent on June 1, 2006. He is 75-33-16 with a 2.16 GAA, a .925 SV Pct. and 14 shutouts in 132 career games with Minnesota.

Four Minnesota Wild players have represented the team in past NHL All-Star Games. Marian Gaborik became the first Wild player to participate in the contest in 2003. In 2004, Filip Kuba and Dwayne Roloson represented Minnesota at the NHL All-Star Game held at Saint Paul’s Xcel Energy Center. Brian Rolston appeared in the 2007 NHL All-Star Game and Gaborik made his second career NHL All-Star Game appearance in 2008.

The 2009 NHL All-Star Weekend in Montreal will celebrate the Montreal Canadiens’ Centennial season with live national broadcasts of the Honda/NHL SuperSkills® event on Saturday, Jan. 24 at 6:00 p.m., and the NHL All-Star Game on Sunday, Jan. 25 at 5:00 p.m. on VERSUS in the United States.

Wild Win

BOSTON (AP) -The Minnesota Wild showed why they’re the NHL’s top defensive team by completely shutting down the league’s best offensive club.

Niklas Backstrom stopped 28 shots for his second straight shutout and fifth of the season to lead Wild to a 1-0 win over Boston, handing the Bruins their first shutout of the season on Tuesday night.

“We had only a few minutes that guys were not good on defense,” Wild coach Jacques Lemaire said. “You have to when you have a team that moves the puck like they do. You gotta have a good stick and your defenseman’s gotta be good.”

Marek Zidlicky scored a second-period power-play goal, lifting Minnesota to its second win against the Eastern Conference-leading Bruins this season.

The victory was the sixth straight against an Eastern Conference team for the Wild and raised their mark to 10-1-1 against teams from the East this season.

It was Boston’s second straight loss, coming after its longest winning streak in nearly 36 years was stopped at 10 games on Saturday.

“I don’t want to say a slump. We’ve lost two games,” Bruins coach Claude Julien said. “We’ve kind of lost that confidence.”

Boston, which entered with a league-leading 143 goals, looked frustrated at times.

“They try to clog you up and try to force you into mistakes,” Boston defenseman Matt Lashoff said. “Then you think you have plays and you don’t.”

It was the first time Boston has lost two straight games in regulation at home. The Bruins dropped a 4-2 decision to Buffalo on Saturday, snapping their 14-game home winning streak.

“Tonight they played really well and it seemed like we couldn’t get anything going,” said Boston right wing Michael Ryder, who missed a few excellent scoring bids. “We had a few chances and couldn’t get one past him.”

The Bruins are 0-5 at home against the Wild.

“It was a really big challenge for us. It’s probably one of the best teams out there, especially playing in their rink,” Backstrom said. “I think our whole team rose to the challenge.”

Backstrom stopped 33 shots in a 2-0 win over Colorado on Sunday.

Skating on its third power play in the opening 6 1/2 minutes of the second, Minnesota grabbed a 1-0 lead when Zidlicky beat goaltender Manny Fernandez with a slap shot inside the right post from the point.

That’s all they needed.

“We play a defensive system, but we play more defensive when we score one goal,” Zidlicky said. “We try to be more tight and safe.”

Fernandez, who played six seasons with Minnesota before being traded to Boston on July 1, 2007, made 23 saves for Boston in his first home loss of the season.

The Bruins had several scoring chances late in the second. The best coming when Ryder hit a skate in front with Backstrom out of position. He also caromed a shot off the outside of the left post with 14 seconds left.

Chances were few in a tight-checking, scoreless opening period. Boston had the best chance when Backstrom made a blocker stop on Ryder’s shot from the right circle. The Bruins had six shots in the first 20 minutes and Minnesota five.

The crowd was loud at the start, likely trying to get the Bruins going early after their first home loss since late October on Saturday, but the Wild’s defensive style quickly helped dampen the noise by limiting up-tempo play.

Notes: Boston D Shane Hnidy was hit in the forehead blocking Cal Clutterbuck’s shot early in the second. He dropped to the ice, got up quickly and headed straight to the locker room. He returned in the third period after getting an undisclosed number of stitches. … Boston D Aaron Ward did not play after leaving Saturday’s game with what Julien said was a “charley horse.” … The Wild played the second of a four-game road trip. … Minnesota RW Marian Gaborik has started rehabilitation from Monday’s surgery on his left hip.

Gaborik

ST. PAUL, Minn. — Marian Gaborik has begun rehabilitation from surgery on his left hip.

The Minnesota Wild reported late Monday the operation to repair a torn labrum and damaged cartilage went “as expected.” The star right wing started rehab immediately after the procedure in Colorado, done by the same specialist who performed a similar operation on his right hip last summer.

Groin pain persisted for Gaborik this season, and he played in only six games before being diagnosed with a deficiency in his hip. The team wanted him to try to play through it, but he elected surgery.

Gaborik is estimated to need 10 to 14 weeks to return. He can begin skating in six weeks, near his 27th birthday. He is in the final year of his contract.

I am not sure what is going to happen in the next year but the Wild need to find some one to replace Gaborik as soon as possable and get a team that is really a Play-Off Contender. Lets get the Wild back on track and help them move forward to a real run for the CUP!

AJ