Seven wonders

In a Wild world, conference semifinal is tough to call

Prior to Thursday night’s Western Conference semifinal Game 7 in Vancouver, SI.com spoke to Sports Illustrated senior writer Michael Farber, who says that while talent should win, he thought the same thing before Minnesota ended the Avalanche’s season.

SI.com: How have the Wild pulled themselves back into the series?

Farber: The Wild are back in this series because of shoddy goaltending by Dan Cloutier and because they've been patient. It helps that some penalties taken by the Canucks will exclude them from Mensa membership. It is also a case of the predominance of speed over size. Minnesota has used its speed more effectively than Vancouver has used its size.

SI.com: For the second consecutive round we’re seeing teams play a seventh game the night after a Game 6. Is there an absurdity to this, and does home-ice really help the Canucks in Vancouver?

Farber: The absurdity is that the venues are two time zones away, for one thing. These teams have to travel a couple of time zones and then play what is supposedly a showcase game, and this type of game is never easy under better circumstances. And suppose Minnesota wins; they’ll end up playing three games in four nights, and they’ll have one more flight halfway across the country to get ready for another team.

The NHL has tinkered with the players’ body clocks, which are set to play every other day in the playoffs. But now everything is TV sensitive, as well it should be for this league. In a perfect world, they’d play every other night, alternating conferences, but that’s been tampered with in recent years.

Either way, I’m not sure either team is hurt more than the other by the travel. I’d certainly take my chances on home ice, even though the Canucks have lost on home ice twice and needed a late goal to tie Game 1 before winning in overtime. Still, given a choice, one would obviously take a Game 7 at home. In the case of the Canucks, it’s probably their most significant advantage at this point since they’ve been waxed in consecutive games.

SI.com: Markus Naslund said at the end of the season that his team "choked" on the division title. Are they on the verge of another such collapse?

Farber: Naslund can use that word, I wouldn’t. It’s a team that hasn’t played with a lot of conviction, which is my “c” word here. Naslund and Todd Bertuzzi have been disappointments. Bertuzzi has been a physical presence, but it hasn’t translated to goals. Naslund almost stopped scoring, which is always going to happen at times in a long playoff season, so the larger problem is that he’s proven incapable defensively against Marian Gaborik’s line, and Jacques Lemaire has won that matchup. Naslund has been a defensive liability for the Canucks.

The other factor is that Ed Jovanovski now seems to be rambling all over the ice. He’s been very good at times, but the second period of the blowout game was maybe the worst that any good defenseman has had in the history of hockey. It was egregiously bad. He scored the goal, but he has to simplify his game a bit.

SI.com: Obviously, the Wild will play their game, but the Canucks seem to be playing such uneven hockey. Which Canucks team do you expect to see in Game 7?

Farber: Brian Burke called the Wild a cult, and they’re drinking the water Lemaire has provided. They were outshot in Game 6’s first period and they were on their heels, but they were patient, they countered and they took advantage.

But I’ve been consistently wrong about this series. There were two chances for the Wild to lay down and for Vancouver to kick them, but it didn’t happen. In Game 2, after a heart-wrenching loss, Minnesota could have taken the matched set of luggage and the Rice-A-Roni as a parting gift and left the scene. Well, they came back to win Game 2. In Game 5, Minnesota loses twice at home, is down 3-1, on ice ripe for being run over, and the Wild dust Vancouver. Twice they’ve had a chance to lay down, and could have done so with a reasonable amount of honor, and they haven’t.

My suspicion is that talent will win out and that Vancouver will pull it together, but I was convinced Colorado would do the same. The Canucks have to play a better game, of course, and we’ll see how Dwayne Roloson plays in the biggest game of his checkered career.

Sports Illustrated senior writer Michael Farber covers the NHL for the magazine and is a regular contributor to SI.com.

 

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