(Brace Hemmelgarn-USA TODAY Sports)
It has been a frustrating playoff series for the Wild so far. They were behind 2-0 against the Avalanche in the Western Conference quarterfinals, and they have had a hard time matching up with the Avalanche’s skilled players.
So the Wild did what a desperate team does in Game 3, which is having their goons on the ice to maim Avalanche players. They did just that, and it was effective enough the Avalanche had a hard time getting to the Wild zone and score in Game 3. The strategy paid off to the point the Wild won the game to cut their deficit to 2-1.
It’s a shame the Wild’s goon tactics ruined everything about the game. The story of Game 3 was not about the game. It was not about Mikael Granlund scoring a diving goal that gave the Wild a 1-0 victory over the Avalanche in overtime. It was not about Semyon Varlamov playing well in the nets for the Avalanche by making 45 saves. It was not about the Wild outplaying the Avalanche.
It was about Wild goon Matt Cooke injuring Avalanche defenseman Tyson Barrie on a knee-on-knee hit. This wasn’t the only dirty play the Wild did last night. Nino Niederreiter slew-foot Andre Benoit and slashed Patrick Bordeleau after Barrie went down. There’s no question the Wild wanted to maim other Avs as the game went on.
The Wild should be ashamed of themselves. It’s not the right way to win a hockey game by gooning it up. This type of approach is good for one game, but it becomes counterproductive as the series goes on.
For Wild coach Mike Yeo, he has to be an amateur coach to use the goon approach just to win a game against a talented Avalanche team. He obviously went to the Marc Crawford School of hockey.
This isn’t hockey. It’s one thing to give a clean hit, but it’s another thing to play dirty. Careers can be ruined. Just ask Stephen Moore when Todd Bertuzzi ended his career by suckerpunching him in the back of his head and throwing him on the ice. There is no place for this.
It’s hard for anyone to take hockey seriously when there are players getting concussions or players being paralyzed because of dirty hits. That’s why hockey is not a mainstream sport. The Wild should be embarrassed to resort to goonery in an attempt to win the game.
There’s no defending what Cooke did. Even the Wild admitted it. Why would the Wild not have their goon answer questions on the hit last night? Why would the Wild not make their players available to the media today?
At least, Cooke will be suspended. He has an in-house hearing with the NHL’s Department of Player Safety, so that means he could be suspended for more than five games. Basically, he will miss the rest of the series.
That doesn’t do any justice. Cooke could come back to play if the Wild play in the next round while Barrie is out four-to-six weeks with an MCL injury. It’s hard to replace a player like Barrie, especially when the Avs don’t have depth defensively. It’s hard to replace a player who logs on a lot of minutes, not to mention being a playmaker. Losing players to injuries hurts a team at this time of the year.
It was ridiculous Cooke did not get a game misconduct for that hit last night.
It was surprising Avalanche coach Patrick Roy did not call out the goon to the media when one knows the Avs coach. He was clearly steaming when he mentioned Barrie is going to be out for awhile.
If anything, it shows Roy showed maturity as a leader by not ranting. He had this one right even if fans and media wanted him to go nuts. He gets it. He knows the only way to get back on the Wild is to win Game 4 on Thursday night. If the Avs can win that game, they can finish that dirty team on Saturday night.
No one can say the same thing about the overmatched Wild coach Mike Yeo. He was a coward by pretending to play stupid when he said he did not see the hit Cooke did on Barrie. It’s amusing he said that since that hit was in front of him. This is a coach that put Cooke on the ice for the intent on injuring Avs stars such as Nathan MacKinnon, Ryan O’Reilly, Paul Stastny and others. After all, the Wild enforcer has 12 hits in this series.
The Avalanche had to know something was up when the Wild were doling out hits often in Game 2. They shouldn’t anticipate things changing the rest of the series. The seventh-seeded team is not good enough where they can skate with the best, so they have to play like goons.
Give the Avalanche credit for not resorting to the Wild’s level of stupidity. They did not take stupid penalties. They did not goon it up. They played it smart by trying to score and play effective defense for three periods. They did it the right way, and that’s something they should be proud of.
In the end, it didn’t matter. The Wild’s strategy paid off, and they have a win to show for it.
It shows there is no such thing as karma or hockey gods when it comes to justice.
Contact or follow Leslie Monteiro at @LightRodWriter
Leslie Monteiro
Leslie is a contributor for Lightning Rod Sports. He covered high school sports in Bergen County out in North Jersey, and has written op-ed columns on sports such as Bleacher Report and NY Sports Digest.
