This was in yesterday's newspaper. Jim Souhan has this goody...
Jim Souhan, Star Tribune --- By now you should be stuffed to the gills with facts and quotes. So let's take a shot at a wild Wild prediction:If you read beat writer Michael Russo, and most Wild fans do on a regular basis you would have seen this.
I see Josh Harding playing today. And if not today, then someday soon.
Mike Yeo has not said Harding will play. He probably doesn't want to put any more thoughts in Ilya Bryzgalov's overflowing cranium. But it is always instructive to judge people not by what they say but by what they do.
Here's what they did: Shipping Harding's equipment to him in Chicago and had him practice after not doing either of those things in Colorado.
In other words, Harding is capable of playing. If Bryzgalov is lousy again today, I don't know why the Wild wouldn't give Harding a shot today or in Game 3.
On Harding skating, Yeo said, “Just more than anything else, let's just get him on the ice. This is an extreme longshot to think he would have a chance to play in this series. Get him on the ice and get him back to being part of the group and helping out a little bit with practice. Obviously this time of year, the goalie playing a lot of games isn't going to see a lot of time in practice. It's nice to have three goalies.And this one from Russo as well.
“For me I'm not even considering it right now. If there's an absolute emergency or there's a desperate situation we find ourselves in we'll be prepared for that. We're not getting him on the ice to get ready to play a game, let's put it that way.”
One adjustment Yeo won’t make is in goal. Darcy Kuemper is injured, so Ilya Bryzgalov, 1-5 in his past six starts dating to the regular season, must remain the man between the pipes.I haven't been a fan of Bryz the last six games that he played in. It's like he's reverted back to the Philly Bryz that couldn't stop a beach ball. While a couple of the goals against have been his fault, many of the Blackhawks goals have been a result of good hockey players making great plays. Also, defensive support from his teammates has been poor as well. This includes the forward position, too. A lot of defensive break down have been a result of forwards not getting the puck deep and turning the puck over in their own end. That will bury a hockey players every time. The Wild as a team, need to be better on pucks, in all three zones.
Just for the record, Chad Graff from the Pioneer Press is very good as well.
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