"A flute without holes, is not a flute. A donut without a hole, is a Danish. "
NY • United States • 34 Years Old • Male
Speed Trumps Speed?
Posted 11:38 AM ET | Comments 1
The Minnesota Wild is a fast team. This is a good thing especially because they're neither a big team, nor a very physical team. It is also a good thing because they reside in the Western Conference which is rife with big, physical teams that can also skate.
This has worked for the Wild if for no other reason than it has had to work.
Worked, that is, until we ran headlong into the mighty (little "m" ) Ducks last night.
The Ducks are fast. No doubt about it. But they were flying past the Wild with apparent impugnity all night. Could they really be that much faster than a fast team?
Possibly.
But more likely is that Randy Carlyle and co. devised a scheme for breaking the vaunted (hated?) Jacques Lemaire trap that worked well enough in game 1 to create the perception that the Ducks are an F-16 while the Wild are that crappy prop plane from Major League. ("I wonder if there are any pilots?" -Willie "Mays" Hays)
Michael Russo, of the Minneapolis Star-Tribune, thinks it can be chalked up to playing the puck to the outside off the breakout, creating room in the middle as the trap shifts over to the puck carrier. He certainly makes a point.
http://www.startribune.com/blogs/wildblog/
But clearly for the Wild to get back into this series they are going to have to find a way to bottle up the Ducks' speed - regardless of whether or not it's greater than their own.
This has worked for the Wild if for no other reason than it has had to work.
Worked, that is, until we ran headlong into the mighty (little "m" ) Ducks last night.
The Ducks are fast. No doubt about it. But they were flying past the Wild with apparent impugnity all night. Could they really be that much faster than a fast team?
Possibly.
But more likely is that Randy Carlyle and co. devised a scheme for breaking the vaunted (hated?) Jacques Lemaire trap that worked well enough in game 1 to create the perception that the Ducks are an F-16 while the Wild are that crappy prop plane from Major League. ("I wonder if there are any pilots?" -Willie "Mays" Hays)
Michael Russo, of the Minneapolis Star-Tribune, thinks it can be chalked up to playing the puck to the outside off the breakout, creating room in the middle as the trap shifts over to the puck carrier. He certainly makes a point.
http://www.startribune.com/blogs/wildblog/
But clearly for the Wild to get back into this series they are going to have to find a way to bottle up the Ducks' speed - regardless of whether or not it's greater than their own.
I think the Wild have a couple speedy guys who don't use their speed near often enough. Sometimes it seems Gaborik has Randy Moss Disease....he'll play hard when HE wants to. I think the Ducks have far more speed than we do in a straight up comparison and that's why I'd hate to see us try to run and gun with them. I still believe JL has enough tricks up his sleeve that he'll right the ship in Game 2 tomorrow.