Minnesota Wild (28-10-5) 61pts 1st in the Central
3.26 Goals For Per Game (4th in the NHL)
2.19 Goals Against Per Game (2nd in the NHL)
20.5% Power Play (13th in the NHL)
84.2% Penalty Kill (6th in the NHL)
Top 5 Scorers:
1. #12 Eric Staal ~ 15G 24A = 39pts
2. #64 Mikael Granlund ~ 10G 26A = 36pts
3. #3 Charlie Coyle ~ 13G 22A = 35pts
4. #9 Mikko Koivu ~ 13G 19A = 32pts
5. #16 Jason Zucker ~ 12G 17A = 29pts
Top 3 PIM’s:
1. #7 Chris Stewart ~ 51 PIM’s
2. #24 Mathew Dumba ~ 39 PIM’s
3. #3 Charlie Coyle ~ 22 PIM’s
Top Goaltenders:
1. #40 Devan Dubnyk (23-8-3) 1.85GAA .937%SP 5SO
2. #35 Darcy Kuemper (5-2-2) 3.30GAA .901%SP
Vs.
Arizona Coyotes (13-25-6) 32pts 7th in the Pacific
2.05 Goals For Per Game (30th in the NHL)
3.23 Goals Against Per Game (29th in the NHL)
15.0% Power Play (24th in the NHL)
77.7% Penalty Kill (26th in the NHL)
Top 5 Scorers:
1. #17 Radim Vrbata ~ 10G 19A = 29pts
2. #23 Oliver Ekman-Larsson ~ 9G 15A = 24pts
3. #8 Tobias Rieder ~ 8G 8A = 16pts
4. #16 Max Domi ~ 5G 11A = 16pts
5. #11 Martin Hanzal ~ 9G 6A = 15pts
Top 3 PIM’s:
1. #25 Ryan White ~ 60 PIM’s
2. #2 Luke Schenn ~ 41 PIM’s
3. #11 Martin Hanzal ~ 39 PIM’s
Top Goaltenders:
1. #41 Mike Smith (8-13-5) 2.99GAA .914%SP
2. #35 Louis Domingue (5-11-1) 3.17GAA .899%SP
Lines:
Arizona Coyotes
Reider~Hanzal~Duclair
McGinn~Holland~Vrbata
Perlini~Dvorak~Doan
Crouse~Dauphin~Jooris
Ekman-Larsson~Lu. Schenn
Goligoski~Stone
Chychrun~Murphy
Smith
Domingue
Minnesota Wild
Parise~Staal~Coyle
Zucker~Koivu~Granlund
Niederreiter~Haula~Pominville
Stewart~Graovac~Schroeder
Suter~Spurgeon
Scandella~Dumba
Prosser~Folin
Dubnyk
Kuemper
Well, were you disgusted by Tuesday’s performance? I was. There’s nothing more frustrating than watching this team, a team we know can be very successful, get a good lead on their opposition and then lose that lead. Now on some nights, like the one in Dallas, we were riding high after that first period. On a night when this team can score four goals in one period, good things usually happen. However, I can’t say I can completely approve of how this team plays when it goes up by multiple goals in the first period. They’ll look great in those first 20 minutes, but it’s almost as if they’re hoping we’ll forget their habits. Or better yet, they’re hoping their opponents forget about their habits. If there’s one bad habit this team has that every team in the league should be well aware of by now it’s this. They might get up on you, but they’ll take the rest of the game off (or at least relax) in the second period. It’s during the second where we see teams take their stand, and make life difficult for the Wild and their fans. And then if you’ve gotten a few of those goals back, Minnesota may struggle to get back in the game. And it doesn’t matter if you’re a top team or a cellar dweller, you can beat them when they’re flat footed.
Now, we get to try and get back on track. I shouldn’t have to say that it’s time to get back on track. Tuesday night’s game was your classic trap game. Sure, you can easily enter the neutral zone trap joke or insult here. As Wild fans, we’ve heard them all. In this case, I’m actually talking about a trap. It’s almost like New Jersey learned a few lessons from Saturday’s game in Dallas. In fact, I’m pretty sure someone in the organization watched a bit of that game and took some detailed notes. Sure, Minnesota beat Dallas, but there were still plenty of lessons to be learned. Heck, you almost have to wonder if New Jersey intentionally let Minnesota get that lead so that they would almost go to sleep. The Devils have not had a great season. However, there was a lot about Tuesday’s game that reminded me of the game played in New Jersey near the beginning of the season. Even that game should have been won by Minnesota. At least that one went to overtime. Overtime was not kind to Minnesota last season. If there’s one thing we learned since that early season overtime, is that this team can play and win in overtime. However, Minnesota needs to get to the overtime first. That didn’t happen on Tuesday.
So here we go, another game against another underachieving team. That right there could be a big trap for the Wild. As we head into the second half of the regular season, and the top half of the league is jockeying for playoff positions and the borderline teams are fighting to steal a spot from the bottom playoff teams, this is where it becomes that much more dangerous to play teams like Arizona. While you’re not going to make the playoffs, a win can make like difficult for the teams that are. And speaking of difficulties, things just got that much more difficult for Minnesota. Lately, the blueline has felt pretty good. Well except for some of the mental mistakes by Marco Scandella and Matt Dumba. Thankfully, their mistakes aren’t usually too catastrophic. And on top of that, Ryan Suter is looking like the defensemen we’re paying him to be. Yes, his minutes are still high, but they definitely feel better managed and he’s not being asked to carry the team. However, the defensive core was just served a setback in Tuesday’s game. The setback is in the four week range, and it involves missing Jonas Brodin thanks to a broken finger. This now means that Nate Prosser will be playing, to the chagrin of many. Personally, I don’t think it’s the end of the world. He’s a solid defenseman and he knows the system. He’s not flashy and he’s not going to score you big points. But needless to say, this is not the time when you want to be dressing your seventh defensman at a crucial point in the season. We shall see how this turns out.
There’s still time for a slump to return. As long as Minnesota can bounce back, win four or five in a row, the occasional one or two losses in a row are okay. But that’s the thing, they need to be occasional. I know I am afraid that occasional can become repetitive. You know, like getting a good lead on the opposition and then blowing it.
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