Lack of firepower dooms Wild as they fall 3-1 to Blues

As a quote from the Oscar-award winning film the Dirty Dozen goes as Donald Sutherland's character Vernon Pinkley impersonates a general who is assessing his troops looks over to Robert Ryan (playing the role of Colonel Everett Breed) and says, "your soldiers are very pretty Colonel, but can they fight?" Pinkley's fellow soldiers could hardly hold in their laughter at the silly comment, and the line was one of the more notable ones in this 1967 classic. Yet, I wonder if new Wild Head Coach Todd Richards said the same thing as he first watched his team practice on Saturday. Except that Colonel would be new Wild General Manager Chuck Fletcher. Tonight, Richards as well as Fletcher got to see their new team in action against the St. Louis Blues. While the Wild certainly did not have their "A-Team" in this game, as it featured mostly a collection of youngsters Marco Scandella, Matthew Hackett and Colton Gillies along with a bunch of AHL journeyman in Duncan Milroy, Danny Irmen, Jon DiSalvatore, Nathan Smith, and Jaime Fraser just to name a few. The Blues more or less played with the "A-list" players including Paul Kariya, Brad Boyes, Andy McDonald, David Backes, David Perron, Erik Johnson and Christian Bergland. The result was rather predictable with the Wild being greatly outgunned and losing 3-1. With the lone Wild goal coming late in the 3rd period on a nice shot by Benoit Pouliot who needs to make a good impression or he could be exiled back to the AHL never to be seen again. There is not a whole heckuva lot you can infer from a performance like this in terms of what it means for the team's chances during the regular season since there really were so few players that will likely be on the Wild's roster most nights in this game. This game was all about the youngsters and fringe players that will either get some contributing time with the Wild or be expected to carry the load in Houston as they keep themselves ready to be called up at a moment's notice. By all accounts the youngsters played to the best of their ability, they were just hopelessly under talented to be able to eek out a victory. With just 3 practices under their belt it would be entirely unreasonable for this group or even the "A-team" to just be able to execute the two-man forecheck at a very high level but some players were giving glimpses they're ready to play that style; especially Petr Kalus who used his speed and his body to his fullest advantage as he started to get under the skin of the Blues players who tried to answer back with hits of their own. The Blues would light the lamp early in the 1st period, when the Wild were unable to clear the zone and an errant Shane Hnidy pass ended up on the stick of Paul Kariya who made no mistake when he rifled a shot by Anton Khudobin to lift St. Louis to a 1-0 lead. Just 29 seconds later the Blues would add to their lead when Chris Porter would move down the slot and fire a shot that beat the athletic Khudobin glove side to put St. Louis up 2-0. Making their job more difficult were 4 Wild penalties throughout the period but to Minnesota's credit as well as Greg Zanon's ability to block shots they kept St. Louis from adding to its lead. Minnesota would try to answer back in the 2nd period, but even on the power play they struggled to find time and space against the very tight checking Blues squad. On the man-advantage the Wild struggled to hold the zone as they were rather limited by their defensive pairs which forced stay-at-home defenseman to be placed in the unfamiliar role of power play quarterback. The Wild would still trail 2-0 going into the 3rd as they put youngster Matthew Hackett between the pipes for the final stanza. The Blues would score early as NHL veteran, Derek Armstrong found some open space after a bad pass in the defensive zone turned into a scoring chance and the 36-year old blasted a shot by Hackett to lift St. Louis to a 3-0 lead. The Wild tried to battle back, but even on the power play the Blues just seemed able to not only thwart the man advantage but also throw it back in Minnesota's face as they went on the attack. Benoit Pouliot helped preserve a little pride with a late-game goal but it was hardly an awe-inspiring game. Hopefully the Wild ice the A-team in what looks to be improving Columbus Blue Jackets' squad. One player they may wish to keep their eyes on is youngster Maksim Mayorov who had 2 goals against the Pittsburgh Penguins tonight. Heck, just last year the Wild made one young Russian Blue Jacket his biggest NHL memory in his limited first cup of coffee in the league when Nikita Filatov riddled Minnesota for his 1st NHL hat-trick. No one is expecting the Wild to look fancy with lots of pretty passes, but Minnesota fans are going to look for the team to be more assertive offensively and on the forecheck. Otherwise the talk about a 'new' look Wild is nothing more than just talk. Hopefully pre-season game #2 gives us more of an idea of this.