Tale of the Tape: Marco Scandella's Game vs Anaheim

Following Saturday night's defeat to the Ducks, Mike Yeo said "I'm not here to call anybody out. I want to focus on the positives from this game." Some positives include: The power play and Mikael Granlund's continued outstanding play.

But you have to think that yesterday when he went over the tape of the game, the negative above all others was Marco Scandella.


Not only did Scandella have the worst game of his career, it was one of the worst individual performances you will ever see. Very rarely do you see one player directly responsible for all four opposition goals. Marco joined that exclusive club Saturday night.

Here's a look at all four goals.

FIRST GOAL: Scandella loses an edge while trying to get the puck out of the corner then goes on to stand out front of the net while the puck gets tipped in by Saku Koivu. The losing an edge in the corner was accidental, but still lead to the goal.

SECOND GOAL: Scandella parks himself right next to Niklas Backstrom, and then stands around while a battle ensues in front of the net. Nick Bonino, who has literally been behind Scandella since he stood next to Backstrom, stays in behind Scandella and was able to bang the puck into an empty net because Scandella does not pick him up, let alone see him.

THIRD GOAL: Again, Scandella stands out front of Niklas Backstrom, then gets turned around while watching Matthieu Perrault go behind the net. Meanwhile, Jakob Silfverberg (obligatory "acquired for Bobby Ryan" fact goes here), gets behind Scandella (who is still turned to behind the net) and gets a pass from Perrault and nets an easy goal.

FOURTH GOAL: Scandella AND linemate Jared Spurgeon make a terrible read that leads to a breakaway for Perrault and results in the game winning goal. Spurgeon allows Perrault to fly by him and Scandella does not see him breaking towards the net and goes to play the puck, while it was on Francois Beauchemin's stick. Beauchemin makes an easy pass to the breaking Perrault who gets a breakaway and we all know the rest.

Its really tough to go after one individual player during a loss, but there is no running from this one. This loss is on the shoulders of Marco Scandella.

Now the question for Mike Yeo and Chuck Fletcher is whether to A) bench him for a game and send him a message, B) send him to Iowa and tell him he needs to get it together or C) just keep playing him and pretend nothing ever happened.

With Clayton Stoner and Nate Prosser as healthy scratches Saturday, its very possible that we just see option A get used. But option C happening wouldn't be a surprise in the slightest either.

The point here is simple: This is not the performance you need from a second line defenseman. Heck, this is not the performance you want from a defenseman on your AHL roster. Matt Dumba only played 10 and a half minutes, and I still would have rather seen him play late in the third and overtime over Scandella.

If Scandella wants to be on the roster in a week, having games that are better than this (which is not that difficult considering how bad this performance was) is a step in the right direction. Otherwise, he will be enjoying another stint in the AHL, and we will have to watch Clayton Stoner step in and take his place.

And the Wild fan base just LOVES watching Clayton Stoner play...


Follow Giles on Twitter @gilesferrell