#16...In The Igloo (National TV!)..."I wouldn't be here today if the Old School didn't pave the Way"

First off, as a Wild fan you have to appreciate the stereotypical rhetoric that comes out of the announcers when it comes to describing the Wild, who clearly aren't darlings of the National Media. In fact, Monday's game against Washington will probably wrap up the extent of national exposure Minnesota will get, unless they make the playoffs (somehow...) "Defense First","Play as a Team", "Attention To Detail"...blah blah blah. Hey folks, this ain't the plucky 2003 underdog squad; we ain't as synchronized as what your printed out Wikipedia page concerning the Minnesota Wild tells you.
Then again, when you kill off 94-95% (it was 93.3 coming into the game) of your penalty kills, I guess a reputation can die hard...and I guess it adds to it when you hold the Mighty Pittsburgh Penguins to a single goal, a team who had won 6 straight, and feature so much talent that it is downright scary. So when Minnesota capitalizes on the flukiest goal ever (how is that for a stat padder- Mikko Koivu doesn't even touch the puck and he gets the goal. Props to Andrew Brunette, who went to the scorer's table and had them change the goal to Koivu, after he was initially given the tally) and bends-but-doesn't break, it brings Wild Nation back to a day when that's all the Wild could do to win. Score, and just hang on. It also helps when you got some guys who can do the shootout with some dangle.

Old School, indeed. What else can you do really?

Mike Russo was saying that James Sheppard's Dad and Sister were in attendance, and much to their pleasure, I thought Shep Diesel was pretty good; I am still amazed at just how strong the kid is down low along the boards. He was also very good defensively.
Speaking of being good defensively, so were the Penguins; I am venturing to guess that the five guys in front of Dany Sabourin (or Sabu to the folks at Pensblog, which I highly recommend a visit to) blocked more shots than he did. They also did a wonderful job of highlighting Minnesota's proficiency at perimeter passing, which is, in case you haven't caught it before, is a very generous way of saying that The Wild got absolutely nothing cooking in the slot, aside from a glorious opportunity from Eric Belanger; alas, he was robbed by the post, which also made a sprawling save on Owen Nolan (who thought a man his age could still dangle? He must be on Cialis or something) on the rebound.
Overall, it was an excellent defensive display from both teams and even inanimate objects.

Can we stop the Brent Burns-at-forward experiment already?