After copping a 5-2 drubbing by Washington on Thursday, Minnesota's franchise record 13 game point streak on home ice came to a screeching halt.
"We had a lot of chances. We did a lot of good things. We didn’t score on our opportunities, and they scored on theirs.”
Wow, thanks Bruce. Very insightful...
What that really meant was a shake-up is coming and as a result, Minnesota ran with 4 new lines at practice today:
Nino Niederreiter - Mikko Koivu - Mikael Granlund
Jason Zucker - Eric Staal - Chris Stewart
Zach Parise - Joel Eriksson Ek - Charlie Coyle
Marcus Foligno - Daniel Winnik - Tyler Ennis
You can see Chris Stewart is in for Matt Cullen. The official line was * Cullen is having a maintenance day*, but with his role in Minnesota expanding, we're all hoping that doesn't mean preparing his stuff for a move back to Pittsburgh.
The 5 game home stand now comes to an end in the matinee against Anaheim on Sunday.
Anaheim won 3-2 against the Chicago Blackhawks while the Wild were getting tuned over by Washington, meaning that they're just the 1 point behind the Wild in the Wildcard standings.
Minnesota are winning a lot more than they're losing, but they just continue to be swamped by other teams from the West. So frustrating for the fans and a true pressure cooker environment for the players.
They really need to pick up their game and can't afford to turn over the puck as cheaply as they did for Washington.
"Obviously, turnovers are not what you want. I think it was our No. 1 key of the game: putting pucks behind their D without turning it over because they have a great transition game. That was what was on the board. We’ve got to keep trying and pushing them and pushing them and harping at them about turnovers. And hopefully before it’s too late, it’ll sink in."
Boudreau also mentioned that he might give big Dubnyk a rest which would mean Stalock drafts in for another rare game at home. This has been Dubnyk's 4th start of a 5 game home stand, so coming off a loss, it does make sense.
Let's play hockey!
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