In my head, I keep hearing Johnny Drama screaming, "VICTORY!!!" in the HBO show, Entourage.
It's been awhile since the Wild left an arena victorious – 26 days to be exact, but here in Vancouver this evening, the Wild beat the Canucks 5-2 for its first win since Jan. 21 to snap an eight-game losing streak.
Years ago, when the Wild was in this bigtime funk with Brian Rolston on the team, Rolston told me after the Wild snapped the losing streak that he told the players during the last TV timeout not to throw their sticks and gloves on the ice like they won the Cup.
It was a great line – one that I stole for lede of my gamer, which you can read on startribune.com/wild. Tonight, the Wild acted like it had been there before after the win.
Still, lots of joy in the locker room after.
As always, please go check out startribune.com/wild for the gamer, a John Torchetti article and the notebook on lots of odds and end, including the Mike Reilly-Christian Folin pair.
Solid game. Five different goal scorers, strong efforts throughout, pace, energy, execution and get ready for this especially when the Wild's ahead in games, Torchetti rolling four lines. The ice times are up front were pretty even, especially with the second, third and fourth lines.
Zach Parise, who played the first line, played 15:54. Mikael Granlund, who played the second line, 15:55. Thomas Vanek, on the second line, and Jason Pominville, on the third, played less than 13 minutes. Fourth-liners got in that range, too. Jason Zucker played 14:32.