Well not only was that game just brutal to watch, but someone spoiled the outcome for me before I had a chance to watch it on DVR. So I actually put myself through that garbage. At least until the third.
Best I could describe it is neither team made many mistakes on defense to give up a lot of big time scoring chances. Lots of crappy shots from the perimeter, some pressure but then the goalies came up big, and nothing happening on the PP. Flames had good position and again forced the dump ins, Wild did the same thing, I don't know what to tell you.
Top two lines looked pretty good and generated a lot of chances that should have gone in. Granlund again looked much better than a few games ago, but I worry that he might focus too much on defense and not enough on offense at center. As usual, Parise and Coyle were better than Seto and Heatley who were better than Cullen and Clutter who were kind of bad tonight. Fourth line was okay with their job but Butch was making some stupid passes out there.
Something needs to happen with that PP. I like Suter's puck movement but he NEVER pulls the trigger on the one timer. I know Yeo pulled Butch for Gilbert but the whole "Suter to Koivu to Suter to Koivu to Butch to Suter to Koivu to Suter to Butch to Koivu then try a pass through everyone for a tap-in and it gets cleared" is really, really old. Nobody is moving their feet AT ALL. I complained about this last year too. If you're not moving your feet, you're not pulling defenders out of lanes. And if you're just working the puck between 2-3 people, you're not using numbers to your advantage.
Otherwise, Backs had a very good game again, just supreme levels of skill in the shootout...dirty two points is better than none.