Mike Smith showing signs of competence, Eberle scoring, too many darn injuries and more…

 

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Some big happenings with Minnesota's win over Vancouver last night. That was a four-point game for the Wild costing the Canucks two points, while gaining two themselves. According to SportsClubStats that win pushed the Wild 6.8% closer to a playoff spot, while the Canucks' playoff odds dropped by a similar amount.

 

You'd think that this would have helped the playoff odds for teams also in the hunt like Dallas or Colorado but their odds actually went down simply because the Wild put up points and stand between them and a playoff spot in the standings. That's why it's so hard to jump multiple teams even if the point disparity is low.

 

Really the only outcome that would have helped Dallas or Colorado is for Minnesota and Vancouver bludgeoning one another to death. And in a bit of good news, that sort of, kind of, happened last night.

 

Nick Bonino left in a walking boot after blocking a Ryan Suter shot. He left the game early skating just 7:42. I suppose it was only a matter of time being one of the league's premier shot-blocking forwards caught up to Bonino. Still stings me as a fantasy owner. No word on his status at the time of writing.

 

This could mean a small boost for Linden Vey who jumped onto the second line with Radim Vrbata and Shawn Matthias once Bonino went down. Nowhere near the boost Vey got early in the season skating with the Sedins on the top power play unit though.

 

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For Minnesota, last night saw them lose Jason Zucker and Ryan Carter early. Apparently they were run a bit ragged by skating down two forwards for much of the contest, which could come back to bite them going back-to-back against Winnipeg tonight. Take note gamblers/Jet goalie owners. Actually, gamblers would have sufficed there.

 

It would be kind of hilarious if the Wild went into Winnipeg exhausted after last night and tossed Darcy Kuemper to the wolves as he makes his return to the Wild lineup. Kuemper got called up over the weekend. No surprise there as time was running out on his conditioning stint.

 

Anyways, word is that the decision on whether or not Devan Dubnyk or Kuemper would start tonight would be based on how hard Dubnyk was worked last night. Dubnyk had his worst game (statistically) as a member of the Wild so it would make some sense to start Kuemper, the poor guy.

 

Of course, this is a really important game for the Wild as well with another "four points" on the line. Dubnyk has hardly a blemish on him in green. You wouldn't blame the coach if he chose to ride the hot hand.

 

Back to Zucker and Carter, Mike Yeo said after the game not to expect either one back in the lineup in the near future so here come the call-ups!

 

The Zucker injury is the big one here because he had been soaking up minutes in the Minnesota top-six for the past while but not being all that productive with them having scoring just three points (all goals) in the past 13 games. He was typically skating with Jason Pominville and Mikko Koivu.

 

Those two were joined by Nino Niederreiter last night following the Zucker injury and that group went off. It may have just been the result of Ryan Miller's off-night or the Canucks' poor penalty killing but Koivu notched three assists (two on the power play). Pominville added a power-play goal and Niederreiter scored one of his own. Could be a nice boost for all involved if it clicks.

 

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I should mention that the Canucks scratched Adam Clendening last night. Certainly not making the hefty impact I suspected he might.

 

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Well, well. The Kings get three goals from their second line (DEPTH SCORING!) and win their second straight on the road. They laid a real whooping on the Blue Jackets too outshooting them 44-26 in a game that the score was close for its entirety.

 

Jeff Carter got a couple of points, ending a four-game drought for him. It's been fits and starts for Carter the past month though so no guarantees he gets rolling now but working in his favour is that Tyler Toffoli has scored goals in two straight. Get Carter a linemate on a roll and we've got a real line.

 

Still not sure they've got enough juice to claw back into the playoffs though. This team is really hurting on defense with Alec Martinez now out with a concussion. He got rocked by Cedric Paquette over the weekend and did not travel to Columbus opting to head home instead. This was the last game of the Kings' road trip though so perhaps Martinez returns sooner than later.

 

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You be the judge, goal or no goal:

 

 

When I first saw that it looked like it clearly crossed the line. Now I can't tell. That was the difference between a Blackhawk win and heading to the shootout where they eventually lost. Millimeters! That's crazy.

 

That one point probably won't matter come season's end but if it does and a one-point disparity is what gives us a Blues-Blackhawks first round rematch, I won't begrudge that getting ruled no goal. Probably some salty Antti Raanta owners out there though.

 

Marian Hossa scored both goals for Chicago giving him four in the last two. He's got the hot stick!

 

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That controversial call above saved Mike Smith's bacon though, let me tell you. What a ludicrously bad bounce/rebound control. I'll tell you what though, Smith now has four straight games with strong numbers here in February. He's bordering on competence at this point, which is somewhat terrifying.

 

When I look at Coyote box scores I start to get the feeling that Tobias Reider is another Cam Atkinson. Reider fired off another seven SOG last night to bring him to 122 on the season. He's tossing out damn near three shots per game, impressive for anyone, let alone a rookie. Only eight goals though so it's more about shot volume for Reider right now.

 

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I'm definitely growing concerned with Jaromir Jagr's dwindling minutes. He did have a four-game scoring streak going but that ended last night in a game in which he saw exactly zero power play time. This has been a growing trend. The past eight games Jagr's power play time is down to an average of 1:22, just 41.3% of the available minutes. He's down about a minute per game and 10% of the team's minutes from usual.

 

Jagr has skated just 16:08 in the past eight games as well. That's down two minutes from his typical 18. There are rumours that Jagr could get dealt but you wonder if he isn't too run down at this point to make a difference. If he can't get prime minutes on this Devils team, how's he going to do it on a contender? Could it work the other way with Jagr skating fewer minutes in a smaller role but with better teammates thus making him more productive? All I know is I'm not buying Jagr at any price in any format.