The Wild scored two goals in this span and finally played with the fire and urgency it lacked all series. They lost that game 4-3 and lost the series 4-0. Having exited the playoffs three years in a row against Chicago, this was the worst series yet for the Wild, when it should have been the best. They lost in five games in 2013 and in six games last year.
Minnesota sports fans can't have nice things. There's some sort of law.
— Di (@DiMurphyMN) May 6, 2015
It was a terrible way to start
Looking back, this series was doomed from the first few minutes of Game 1, when the Wild came out extremely flat and gave up three goals right away. I didn't have a good feeling then, and I still didn't by the end of the series, when brooms were necessary. The Wild didn't lead at any point and had trouble scoring goals. That's a problem.
Chicago goalie Corey Crawford was good, but he could have been breakable. He was yanked in the first-round series against Nashville. I think the Wild made him look better than he played. Oh, and the Minnesota fans didn't help matters, chanting his name annoyingly (CRAW-FORD) two seconds into the games at Xcel Energy Center. (Don't get me started. If you follow my on Twitter, you know how I feel about this.) It was as dumb as the wave.
Defense and turnovers were crushing blows for the Wild. Against an elite team like Chicago, a mistake will go in the back of your own net. That proved costly for the Wild in this series. Veteran and minute-munching defenseman Ryan Suter had some uncharacteristic struggles as well.
Where were you guys?
As good as Chicago is as a hockey team, the Wild didn't put forth its best effort. Thomas Vanek was an absolute disaster, skating around like it's practice on day three of the season and making poor decisions with the puck. Jason Pominville missed a couple wide-open-net chances that made us all cringe, though we weren't surprised. Mikael Granlund was less than impressive, too. Mikko Koivu and Charlie Coyle failed to score.
Well Bob... #notmuchforskating https://t.co/L9AsA3xM6o
— Lazy Vanek (@LazyVanek) May 8, 2015
There was all this talk about the chances, missed opportunities and the number of shots for the Wild. After awhile, I honestly didn't care. The back-patting for chances needed to stop because the goals weren't there. That's what matters.
Time to point fingers, of course
Afterward, the questions start coming as fans, players, coaches and owners try to make sense of what happened. One thing that's been a black mark all year was the Wild's power play. It was OK during the playoffs (thanks, in part, to some empty-net goals) but was ranked 27th in the NHL for the regular season. That's not good.
The power play was awful from the beginning of the season when it went something like 0-for-27 to kick things off. I don't think it ever really recovered. The frustrating thing was that changes weren't evident. Time and time again, the Wild sent its "top unit" to the ice for the majority of the man advantage. The result was usually a passing clinic with little shooting, if they managed offensive zone time at all.
It was the second unit that, especially later in the season, seemed to have the edge, shooting and scoring ability. It's just too bad we didn't see these guys more often. Or as Suter put it during locker clean-out time: It's too bad they waited until the last game of the series to make changes on the power play.
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