Wild players admit a gut feeling when playoff time is approaching
Winters can be long and harsh in hockey country – whether that means Minnesota or Alberta or Ontario, or wherever members of the Minnesota Wild come from. So when clocks get set ahead an hour, that extra evening daylight arrives and the snow starts to melt, there is a definite change in the psyche of a hockey player.
The puddles and the post-supper shadows send an unmistakable message to the body, that the crunch time in advance of the playoffs is upon us.
“When the weather changes, the winter is long and the winter’s hockey season, then that spring thaw means the games are definitely a little more meaningful,” Wild forward Devin Shore said following the team’s morning skate on Tuesday. “You definitely get flashbacks of that growing up, with the climate I’m used to.”
Even with the team in a mini-slump, having lost five of the previous seven heading into the Colorado showdown, other players admitted the extra daylight and the excitement of playing games where there is an air of higher stakes puts an extra spring in the step when you head to the rink.
“Everyone’s in a better mood too,” Wild defenseman Declan Chisholm said. “You’re getting outside, and then it’s playoff time. A lot of these games matter a lot, so we’re all hungry, and we all want to dial in for these last 18 games.”
No room for Jiricek yet
When Wild general manager Bill Guerin acquired sizable defenseman David Jiricek from Columbus in December, they sent him down to Iowa immediately, saying that they wanted him playing every night, not sitting and waiting for an opportunity on the Minnesota blue line.
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