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Wild in Pittsburgh to Face Crosby and Pens |
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So what to make of the Wild as the trade deadline approaches and the team struggling to score, while losing ground in the standings rapidly.
Oh and to make matters worse tonight they get to face the Penguins who will be welcoming back Sidney Crosby, into the lineup after missing the previous 28 games.
The Wild are not the same old slow team that started the season, and they are not the four line balanced offensive team that actually led the NHL in scoring over a month period in late Novembee and early December.
They are somewhere in between those two iterations of the team leaving a lot more question Mark's for first year GM, Bill Guerin.
He has a lot of money and term tied up with four veteran players, Zach Parise, Ryan Suter, Jared Spurgeon, and Mats Zuccarello. Mikko Koivu is in the final year of his contract and Eric Staal has one year left on a cap friendly deal. Can any of the aforementioned veterans be moved? Would they be willing to waive no movement clauses where applicable?
Guerin has his hands full as he works to make this roster his own and get them back into playoff contention and on to where ownership expects them to be.
We have seen the Wild compete well at times this season and I am sure that we will see more of that as the season moves forward. However there is no consistency in that compete level and the results are a bubble playoff team at best that ultimately will fall short.
Expect the Penguins to be fired up to have their captain and best player back in the lineup tonight. For the Wild the hope is that the rest of the Pens experience a letdown that sometimes occurs when a top talent returns after a lengthy absence.
Pittsburgh took the first meeting in St. Paul way back in October thoroughly beating the Wild in all aspects of the game. The opponent does not matter to the Wild any longer all that matters is getting points in the standings and turning things around quickly.
It's always Hockey Day in the State of Hockey!