Hockey News
Manny Fernandez became the bonafide No. 1 goaltender in Minnesota on March 8, 2006, the day Dwayne Roloson was traded to the Oilers. Fernandez has played well ever since, but lately has shown some signs of wear and tear.
Niklas Backstrom, signed this summer as a free agent, has been there to pick up the slack. After Fernandez played in the first 15 games of the season, he has only gotten into four of the past eight contests. Backstrom this season has gone a respectable 4-2-1 with a sparkling 1.92 goals against average. While Fernandez is starting to show that he is more like a 55-game goaltender than the 65- to 70-game man that the Wild perhaps wanted him to be, Backstrom is beginning to more exemplify a 25-game backup netminder than a spare part. Between the two of them, the Wild are well on their way to a playoff spot.
Other Wild notes: youngster Benoit Pouliot was reassigned to the AHL after a three game stint. He did not tally a point, playing just under seven minutes per game.
The injury to Nashville's Jason Arnott opened up a spot yet again for the recall of Alexander Radulov last week, and at the torrid pace that the youngster is producing, the Predators may not want to send him back when Arnott becomes healthy.
Despite averaging less than nine minutes of ice time per game, the blue-chip prospect has still managed to post four goals in his nine games in the NHL--and that's with virtually no power-play time. Radulov has averaged under 30 seconds of ice time per game with the man advantage. His play with so little ice time leads many to speculate how well he would do with more of it. If he is given more ice time, then at whose expense? Essentially, the answer may lie in a trade. Nashville may be forced to move a winger in order to keep Radulov in the NHL the rest of the way and give him the minutes he deserves.
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