Well, Tuesday wasn’t quite the opening to this six-game homestand that we hoped to see for the Minnesota Wild, who fell 1-0 in a dud of a contest against the Canucks. There just isn’t a better word to describe that game, other than “dud.” It was boring, it was defensive, and even despite facing a team that had been on the road for more than a week, Minnesota didn’t seem to have any jump on Vancouver and couldn’t find the back of the net behind a typically leaky Anders Nilsson.
BUT—and there’s always a “but” when you stick with the eternally optimistic JDP (I’m a Minnesotan after all)—the Wild did show a strong defensive structure to its game for the first time this season.