About the Wild - 10-31-09
A preview of the Wild.
When and where: 7:30 p.m., Mellon Arena.
TV: FSN Pittsburgh, FSN Northwest.
Record: 4-9-0, eight points. The Wild is in last place in the Western Conference and Northwest Division.
Leading Scorer: Mikko Koivu, 13 points (3 goals, 9 assists).
Last Game: 3-2 home win against the Rangers, last night. Former Penguins forward Petr Sykora led Minnesota with a goal and an assist. Fire Ray Shero.
Last Game against the Penguins: 2-1 road shootout win, Nov. 18, 2008. Matt Cooke scored the Penguins' only goal.
Wild Player We Would Bet Money On Scoring: Owen Nolan. He has 36 points (15 goals, 21 assists) in 33 career games against the Penguins.
Ex-Penguins on the Wild: Cliff Fletcher, general manager; Mike Ramsey, assistant coach; Todd Richards, head coach (He was formerly the head coach at Wilkes-Barre/Scranton); Petr Sykora (above, with teammate Kyle Brodziak), RW.
Ex-Wild on the Penguins: Pascal Dupuis, RW; Martin Skoula, D.
Useless Wild Trivia Vaguely Related to the Penguins: Pascal Dupuis led the WIld with a plus-17 in 2003-04.
Best Wild YouTube Video We Could Find: Andrew Brunette scoring the final goal allowed in Patrick Roy's career in Game 7 of the 2003 Western Conference quarterfinals:
Notes:
-Marc-Andre Fleury (9-1-0, 2.07 GAA .921 SV%) and Nicklas Backstrom (4-7-0, 2.63 GAA .910 SV%) are your expected starters in net.
-For the Penguins, forward Evgeni Malkin (shoulder) is out. Forward Tyler Kennedy (undisclosed) is day to day. Defenseman Sergei Gonchar (wrist) and forward Maxime Talbot (shoulder) are on injured reserve.
-For the Wild. Goaltender Josh Harding ("lower body") is day to day. Forward Pierre-Marc Bouchard (head) and defenseman Kim Johnsson ("upper body) are on injured reserve.
-"We still need to play games, still need to win." - Ruslan Fedotenko on his team's injuries.
-Sykora responded big-time last night after being a healthy scratch in the previous game.
-Yahoo! will provide a broadcast feed of tonight's game for folks in the United States outside of the Pittsburgh and Minneapolis/St. Paul markets.
(Kudos to EN commentor truby2000 for the heads up once again.)
-Assuming the teams don't meet in the Stanley Cup Final, this will be the Wild will be making its final appearance at Mellon Arena. All-time, the Wild has a very successful 4-1-0 record at Mellon Arena.
-Our live blog begins at approximately 6:30 p.m. Please tune in.
(Empty Netter Assists are on the way. A lack of sleep is kind of holding things up. Sorry.)
(Photo: Ann Heisenfelt/Associated Press)