I understand why they called the penalty on Brown, but they were wrong. It was shoulder-on-shoulder. There should be no suspension, but if there is one, it wouldn’t surprise me.
Nice puck-work between Loktionov and Kopitar on the PP that led to Loktionov missing a relatively open net. Lots of missed open nets tonight (Smyth, Williams — maybe that was a post, I forget). That’s okay. Tons of chances = good.
Loktionov was tenacious along the boards. Won several puck battles in-tight. Didn’t someone tell me he never did that?
Richardson had a lot of proverbial “jump”. Several borderline fancy moves, none of which were as important as keeping his feet moving, which is really working for him right now. Now, he did tell Terry Murray that he was capable of top-six play. I am almost ready to believe.
Harrold is playing like a wily veteran. Drewiske looks confident (made a couple of nice rushes, too). I guess Terry Murray isn’t so dumb after all. [note to proxies of Terry Murray: I think Terry Murray is smart; here I mock the message-board critics of his “indefensible” decisions that turn out to make sense.]
I forgot how dominant Matt Greene can be. He’s like a redwood.
I think there was a moment there where the ref had no idea what to call the penalty. He turned on his little mic, said “23” and then kind of froze. “23…er…we’ve…um…got a head shot…one of them new-fangled…whatchamacallits…is there a signal?”
I really like the Wild’s third jerseys.
Zidlicky saved a goal on the Smyth open net, blocked a pass through the slot that would have led to a certain goal by…Kopitar? I forget, but he deprived us of a highlight reel goal there. And I thought for sure when he came up in the shoot-out he was going to win it for them.
Westgarth made a nice defensive play in the third, stick in the lane, deflects pass.
Smyth really built up a head of steam at the end of OT. That bouncy puck almost went in.
The person interviewing Lombardi reminded me to thank the hockey gods for Heidi Androl.
In the highlights below, check out Terry Murray’s priceless reaction to the second goal (1:25 on the video clock).
