2008 NHL Playoffs! Round 1: Avalanche vs. Wild

[PierBridge]

BINGO WILD WIN!!!!!

[Scott M]

Pierre Marc Bouchard scores it. Nice finish!!!!!

[fishn4kids]

HOW SWEET IT IS!!!!!!!!!!

[Scott M]

"AND WE'LL SEE YOU TOMORROW NIGHT!"

[Quackaddict9]

atta boy PMB!!!!

[maros91]

Top shelf, where momma hides the cookies. Koivu and Fedoruk were dominant.

[Roofer]

 Originally Posted By: Biff Tannen

Top shelf, where momma hides the cookies. Koivu and Fedoruk were dominant.

LOL!

[PierBridge]

[mnwild]

These OT games are killing me, been getting about 4 hours of sleep each night but its been well worth staying up for the games. Hopefully they win game 4 and put it away game 5 in front of the home crowd.

[Scott K]

These 9 pm back to back games take a toll! Tomorrow moring is going to suck!

[RiverBassGuy]

It's all worth it to see MN hockey beatin up on teams in the playoffs!! Although I would appreciate it if they could score a goal or two in the fist 2 periods tomorrow!! The 3rd period suspense is killing me! I love seeing the look on old man sakic's face!!

[Scott K]

 Quote:

Although I would appreciate it if they could score a goal or two in the fist 2 periods tomorrow!!

Tonight 9 pm!

[walleyes12]

Congrats Butch on the sweet goal in OT!! Backstrom is playing his heart out! Hopefully the wild smell alittle blood tonight and get another win so we can end this at home!! I am really tired this morning so hopefully the wild can make it short and sweet tonight!

[jwhjr]

I stayed up and watched the whole game only to have my cable go out at about 12:03... I missed the winner by a couple of minutes, but I was happy to hear it on the way in to work.

[ole]

Yes another O.T. thriller last night. If they keep this up my nerves will be shot by round 2. Win tonight would really put them in the drivers seat. Avs have been a great match-up for the Wild. Couldn't ask for a better opening series!

[fishing tech]

Getting the 1st win in CO is huge for them. Tonight they can go out and pound the body a little more and they should really take over the game. I wouldn't be suprised to see the refs call the game a little differant tonight. It looked pretty 1 sided to me the first 2 periods. I am sure they will receive a call from Toronto today.

[Scott K]

Ya its bad enough when the refs dont call the penalties, but for Colorado to figure it out and start cheep shoting Backstrom, and some of our other players because they know they can get away with it is another thing! With the Wild playing from behind I knew we wouldnt get the green light to play extrememly physical. But with a game up on them, if we come out and score first, I would think there would be a few pay backs for them cheap shots!

[jwhjr]

I heard about this article in the Denver paper on KFAN this morning. This guy had a similar article back on 2003 when the Wild played the Avs...

Ugly Betty hockey in Colorado's future

By Mark Kiszla

The Denver Post

Article Last Updated: 04/15/2008 12:53:09 AM MDT

Let the mugging begin.

It's the only way the Minnesota Wild can win.

To advance in the NHL playoffs, the Avalanche must embrace the darkness. When playing this goon-it- up Wild bunch, hockey is a no-holds- barred battle of attrition, not skill.

The only good thing that can be said about Minnesota's 3-2 overtime victory against Colorado was the game lasted so deep into the night that it ended past the bedtime of most kids who could be frightened by the way the Wild mauls all the beauty from the sport.

In a long playoff series, this is the Wild motto: If you can't beat 'em, break 'em.

"You hope to wear down the opposition," Minnesota mauler Aaron Voros said Monday.

"By Games 4, 5 or 6, those bumps and bruises start to add up."

Minnesota, the land of 10,000 dead car batteries, has an inferiority about this hockey team. The Wild's style of play is as ugly and obnoxious as the uniforms, which look as if designed by a toddler who randomly pulled two crayons from the box of 64 and began scribbling.

This hard truth makes the Wild faithful grumpier than they are after waking up to yet another subzero morning. But why deny what makes the team so successful?

It figures. On a play that could have ended on an icing call, a weird, lucky bounce instead allowed the winning goal to be scored by Minnesota's Pierre-Marc Bouchard almost 12 minutes deep into the extra period. The Wild likes overtime, because it gives these grunts more time to knock the spirit from you with every cheap shot.

When Avs forward Peter Forsberg turns his back, even for a second, he will get jumped and roughed up, in true back-alley fashion, by some Minnesota mugger.

Or did you miss the assault on Forsberg during the second period by Wild defenseman Sean Hill, who owns the dubious distinction of being the first NHL player suspended from the league for steroids?

If Colorado goalie Jose Theodore makes too many brilliant saves, the Wild response is not to create traffic in front of the net, but cause a train wreck.

And maybe that explains why Voros felt it necessary to tackle Theodore in the most crass act of Game 3.

That the Avalanche put 46 shots on goal ultimately made no difference, because the Wild put more hard hits on Colorado.

Minnesota coach Jacques Lemaire, mean enough to chew the glass surrounding the rink, has an unabashed fondness for tough guys. The more the scarier.

You've got to hate watching the Wild play, but love the way Lemaire refuses to give an inch of open ice. The never-surrender attitude of his team must be born in the cold recesses of Lemaire's heart.

The dark hockey arts are practiced by every member of the Wild. Even a player as remarkably talented as Minnesota center Mikko Koivu is not adverse to hacking and tripping when Colorado's Ryan Smyth is carrying the puck on goal.

Every videotape of a Minnesota game is film noir, packed with the moral ambiguity of doing whatever it takes and never apologizing.

Anywhere the Wild goes, flowers wilt, the sky turns gray and beauty dies.

After three games, can there be any doubt?

This series is doomed to be a bloody mess.

"I think we're playing pretty physical," Avalanche defenseman Adam Foote said.

And a serious question is how long Forsberg, whose banged-up body has been an injury waiting to happen for years, can hold up to the relentless battering he receives on every shift.

"I don't try to look at the number before I make a hit," Voros said. "Sometimes, it looks that way because Forsberg has possession of the puck so much."

When scores are certain to be scarce and the mugging is beyond the control of any referee, what's the lone goal for the Avs now?

Be the last men standing, and live to play something that resembles beautiful hockey another day.

Mark Kiszla: 303-954-1053 or [email protected]

[Scott K]

Wow! A true Av's fan huh!

[walleyes12]

what a joke!

[Team Otter]

Perhaps this same guy could give Sidney Crosby a call this morning and ask him how his bumps and bruises feel. Or, he could always try and get a hold of Alex Ovechkin and see what he thinks of the relationship between physical play and the game of hockey.

What a dork.

[jwhjr]

Here's his 03 article, it sure sounds familiar

The Denver Post

April 13, 2003 Sunday 1ST EDITION

Ugly truth is Wild no match for Avs

BYLINE: Mark Kiszla

SECTION: SPORTS; Pg. C-01

LENGTH: 734 words

After watching the hideous Minnesota Wild for two games, you don't know whether to spit or take a shower.

Minnesota, whose red-and-green uniforms must have been inspired by those gauche folks who leave up their Christmas lights all year, ranks No. 1 in the NHL in only one department. This has to be the worst dressed team in hockey.

And the Wild plays even uglier than it looks. This motley crew does not try to win so much as it hopes to frustrate the opposition into losing. Minnesota is as good an argument as any for contracting the playoffs.

After two playoff games, the Avs can barely hide their Wild contempt for this nuisance. And can anybody really blame them?

Colorado defenseman Adam Foote was asked how much difference in talent exists between a higher-seeded team such as the Avs and these gritty little muckers who wipe their snotty noses on Wild sweaters. He replied: 'I could get myself in a lot of trouble if I told you the truth. So I'll just be politically correct. I could get in a lot of trouble if I said what I really wanted to say.'

But Foote, you and I all know the ugly truth. Minnesota does not belong on the same ice as the Avalanche.

After losing the postseason opener, Colorado beat the Wild 3-2 on Saturday afternoon. Order was restored, and 18,007 fans at the Pepsi Center went home happy. It is again safe for Avalanche coach Tony Granato to exhale.

As it turns out, maybe Minnesota goalie Dwayne Roloson is not to be confused with Ken Dryden. Whenever defensemen Willie Mitchell or Filip Kuba tried to rattle Colorado center Peter Forsberg with tactics that would make a pro rasslin' thug blush, the Wild was reduced to the same old cheap tricks that have not worked for years.

The Wild is a hockey team that tries to goad you into doing something stupid. Minnesota lives for the dumb turnover, the odd-man rush, the penalty of frustration and the soft goal.

'I think the main thing about this series is for us not to get frustrated,' Foote said.

Dumb, inexplicable things occur every day in the NHL playoffs. Stuff happens. How else to explain how the defending champion Red Wings have gotten themselves down 2-0 against Anaheim in the opening round? It must be particularly depressing to be a resident of Hockeytown today. Sure, Detroit started its quest for the Cup from a similar hole a year ago. But that's not the recommended route to take.

'It's tough when you lose your first game of the playoffs. So it was real important to win this one. We didn't want to go to Minnesota down 2-0. We got the split. After losing the first game, we couldn't do any better,' Forsberg said.

The hockey postseason is so long and so filled with bruises that it's humanly impossible for any team to be at its best from start to finish. So the key to winning an NHL championship is to somehow avoid eliminating yourself with your own inevitable mistakes, and to find a way to win when you're not at your best. That theory was reinforced Saturday, when the decisive goal was scored by Avalanche journeyman Brian Willsie, who will get no closer to the Hall of Fame than dressing alongside Joe Sakic and Rob Blake in the Colorado room.

The Avalanche stunk in Game 1. Colorado was mediocre at best in Game 2. Minnesota's best hope is to pray the Avs never find their 'A' game.

The Wild is taking their unsightly uniforms and low-rent players back to Minnesota, where somebody actually likes them. Much will be made of how many decibels the natives in the Twin Cities can generate for their mangy underdogs. Big deal.

'The noisier the better,' Sakic said. 'We don't want a quiet building.'

After surviving a self-proclaimed shaky start, in which Colorado's Patrick Roy gave up a goal by Wes Walz on the first shot that Minnesota managed, the Avalanche is relieved but not satisfied with evening this best-of-seven series at a victory apiece.

'If we're satisfied with that, I don't think we're headed in the right direction,' Roy said.

From Tampa Bay to Vancouver, there are nervous puckheads worrying if the postseason of the local team will end in a premature elimination.

But the Avalanche losing a playoff series to Minnesota? C'mon.

[Scott M]

I went to their HSOforum and Avs fans are jumping all over the guy.

Here's a good take that pretty much sums it up:

"What game where you watching? If you were watching the Wild and Avalanche game last night you would have noticed that the game was physical on both ends, as hockey should be. The Avalanche had their fair share of brutal hits and chops, as the intentional slash on Wild goalie Niklas Backstrom behind the net during the second period proves. You also would have noticed how one sided the calls were, as the Wild were getting hooked and roughed up just like the Avalanche were. It's hockey. Love it or hate it, it is a game of tough hits and crazy bounces. If the Wild can win a game where they successfully kill off seven penalties and score a shorthanded goal, then they deserve all the credit. Speaking of cheap shots...who insults another team's uniform? Really?"

-KJ

[Scott K]

How about the cheapshot on Gabby for the last game of the season against the Av's, I guess that wasnt a cheap shot!

[jwhjr]

Yeah, where's the article about that?