from Rick Morrissey of the Chicago Sun-Times,

The Minnesota Wild brought their ‘‘A’’ game to the United Center on Friday and still lost 5-2 to the Blackhawks.

Thanks for coming, Wild men. Don’t forget to pick up your lovely parting gifts.

I say that for purely selfish reasons. The Wild want to muck it up, to slow the game down, to bring the Hawks down to their level and to make onlookers want to take up solitaire for excitement’s sake.

In the name of hockey aesthetics, this must be stopped.

If the Wild win the series, boring wins. Graduation speeches win. Mime performances win. Do you understand the gravity of the situation?

The only team that can stop the Hawks from winning three more games in this series is theirs. The challenge will be avoiding the very real hazard of playing their opponent’s game.

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