First of all, for those mocking my last blog, please see Randy Carlyle's (coach of the Ducks) quote: "As the series goes on, you have to continually evaluate how well your team plays, how well your individuals play, how well your system worked. And then you're asked to make adjustments." Thanks to those savy hockey fans in Minnesota, Anaheim and elsewhere for stepping up and having my back. What was that anyways, a Thrashers fan? Cute baby blue jerseys guys!

So, to get the ball rolling today, mere hours until game 2, what adjustments to the Ducks have to make to their game? Sure they won, but they didn't look like a Stanley Cup favorite. They too need to make adjustments, but what are they and who do they need to come from?

As for the Wild, the morning newspapers were very interesting. The theme from the press seems to be forecheck, forecheck, forecheck. More often than not, they have a knack for the obvious. Besides forechecking and establishing the Wild's offensive game, here are what I believe to be the other keys to the game tonight:

(1) Man up, take a hit or three and crash the net: Come playoff time, it's all about "grit". Something the Wild lacks on all 4 lines, unlike Anaheim. The papers pointed out that our 4th line was consistently our best line last game (Veilleux - Smith - Radivojevic). They kept the puck in the offensive zone and stepped up with the physical play. Lemaire pointed out that Anaheim seemed to be only wanting to dish out the hits, but not take them. He said they were shying away from contact and not going and getting the puck. Even Boogaard expressed frustration over that. As such, forget about hitting, take one for the team and go get the puck. "Getting knocked around and getting hit cannot slow us down. As soon as we show we're slowing down, they'll come 10 times harder." - Wes Walz

(2) Puck possession: The club and the press stood up for Johnsson after crashing the wrong net and goaltender on Friday night. I know we didn't get him because of his scoring stats necessarily, but it would be nice to take the enemy by surprise and have him unload a couple tonight. Besides scoring, the club seemed to emphasize his puck handling and passing abilities and his knack for hitting one of our guys on the fly. So, from the defensive end and into the neutral zone, I want to see that tonight from the $4 Million man and his compatriots on the blue line. And what happened to our puck possession game in the offensive zone? During the season, we made other teams look like they were killing penalties when they had 5 + the goalie on the ice. Granted, we may have to dump and chase, but get in there, dig it out and pass it around the horn. That's been our game all season. Let's see more of it.

(3) Speed (s)kills: We definitely have to keep moving the feet tonight. Let's see some anticipation from the guy without the puck going to an open spot on the ice and let's take their game to them. Seems to me that they took one out of our play book with the lob pass to Selanne. How much you wanna bet that in practice, Selanne was playing the part of Gaborik and that while learning how to defend against that lethal part of our attack, they learned a new scheme. We need to come out flying (not necessarily hitting) and keep up that intensity throughout the game. It's not enough to just keep them off of the board and to keep it close. We need our speed and skill guys to take it to them while our physical guys are gritting it out in the corners and in front of the net. How about every line with 2 speed/skill guys and one grit guy (Demitra-Gaborik-Walz)(Koivu-Bouchard-Parrish)(Rolston-White-Hall) (Vielleux-Moore/Smith-Boogaard)?

(4) Execute, execute, execute: In the end, this game, like all others, is about executing the fundamentals. The team that does that best, usually wins. So kill the peanlties, score on the power plays and do the little things which, when strung together much like in golf, makes for a good outing. Skate, Shoot, Score!!!!

Team of 18,000+, what's your take? Any other ideas? Am I out to lunch? Let's hear it. We're loud and we're proud. GO WILD!!!!!!!

P.S. Rangers blogger, I know you New Yorkers think that you are the center of the universe, but 3 blogs in one game? How about just updating the one?

Join the Discussion: » Comments » Post New Comment

» Post-Season and Player/Position Thoughts (Koivu Must Go?)

» We've Been Here Before Haven't We?

» Everything Going According to Script. Only Question, Which Script?

» Wild Proves They Can Play With The Best. Now It's Time to Beat the Best.

» Enough About the Refs. We Ain't Dead Yet. Remember 2003!