I got burns hockey again. had to double up after yesterdays loss.
Paid and Confirmed
Ben Burns' Wednesday NHL WIPEOUT (8-3 L11, 20-9 L29!)
I'm playing on MINNESOTA. The Predators come in off an excellent November and with the better record. However, they lost their last game by a score of 5-0 and have now dropped two of their last three. Meanwhile, Minnesota comes in off back to back victories and with three wins in its last four games. Normally, I might expect that to cause to Predators to be the team which comes in with a greater "sense of urgency." However, I don't feel that will be the case this evening. Even with their recent victories, the Wild know that they still face an uphill battle, if they want to reach the playoffs. Indeed, they're currently in 15th place, out of 15 teams. That means that there's absolutely no "letting down" and that they need to give their best effort every single night. The Predators, on the other hand, are in sixth in the conference. Of course, they'll want to bounce back with a victory. However, they may not be quite as "desperate" as the Wild should be. Note that there's only eight points separating the teams though and there are many months still to come. Regardless of their respective positions in the standings, the Wild figure to have some extra motivation due to the fact that they are playing with 'revenge.' The Preds already beat them here earlier (4-3 on 10/28) and the Wild know that they have to play at Nashville in a few days. In other words, if they don't win tonight, they could easily be 0-3 in the series before the end of the week - something they can ill afford to have happen. Despite Nashville having the better overall record, the Wild have been better here at Minnesota than the Predators have been on the road. The Preds are 6-6 on the road, getting outscored by an average score of 3.1 to 2.5. Conversely, the Wild are 7-4 at home, outscoring teams by an average margin of 2.9 to 2.7. Even with the earlier loss, the Wild are still 9-3, with two ties, the last 14 times that they hosted the Predators. They're getting much healthier (expected to have forwards Antti Miettinen and Martin Havlat along with defenseman Marek Zidlicky back tonight) and look for them to find a way to pick up the important two points tonight. *7