Wild's Jason Pominville: Strikes twice against Canucks

Pominville scored the game's first two goals on a season-high-tying six shots and went plus-3 in Tuesday's 5-4 loss to Vancouver.

Analysis:

The declining winger had just two lonely helpers in his prior nine games, but he was opportunistic in this one, smacking a rebound home for his first goal and then giving the Wild a 2-0 lead (which they failed to hold) by blasting a slap shot through Ryan Miller. A 30-goal scorer as recently as 2013-14, the veteran has not aged well, as he saw his production fall sharply last year, and it hasn't ticked back up this season. However, Pominville -- who turns 34 on Wednesday -- got his birthday celebration started early in this one. He's a third-liner at this point in his career, so value him accordingly.