Minnesota Wild (35-12-6) 76pts 1st in the Central
3.34 Goals For Per Game (4th in the NHL)
2.32 Goals Against Per Game (2nd in the NHL)
20.3% Power Play (13th in the NHL)
82.1% Penalty Kill (12th in the NHL)
Top 5 Scorers:
1. #64 Mikael Granlund ~ 15G 33A = 48pts
2. #12 Eric Staal ~ 16G 27A = 43pts
3. #3 Charlie Coyle ~ 13G 29A = 42pts
4. #22 Nino Niederreiter ~ 17G 23A = 40pts
5. #16 Jason Zucker ~ 16G 22A = 38pts
Top 3 PIM’s:
1. #7 Chris Stewart ~ 58 PIM’s
2. #24 Mathew Dumba ~ 43 PIM’s
3. #3 Charlie Coyle ~ 30 PIM’s
Top Goaltenders:
1. #40 Devan Dubnyk (29-9-3) 1.99GAA .933%SP 5SO
2. #35 Darcy Kuemper (6-3-3) 3.22GAA .904%SP
Vs.
Tampa Bay Lightning (24-24-6) 54pts 6th in the Atlantic
2.70 Goals For Per Game (16th in the NHL)
2.87 Goals Against Per Game (22nd in the NHL)
21.4% Power Play (8th in the NHL)
80.2% Penalty Kill (21st in the NHL)
Top 5 Scorers:
1. #86 Nikita Kucherov ~ 21G 28A = 49pts
2. #77 Victor Hedman ~ 7G 35A = 42pts
3. #27 Jonathan Drouin ~ 16G 18A = 34pts
4. #9 Tyler Johnson ~ 16G 17A = 33pts
5. #51 Valterri Filppula ~ 7G 25A = 32pts
Top 3 PIM’s:
1. #13 Cedric Paquette ~ 64 PIM’s
2. #23 J.T. Brown ~ 57 PIM’s
3. #17 Alex Killorn ~ 54 PIM’s
Top Goaltenders:
1. #30 Ben Bishop (13-12-3) 2.69GAA .907%SP 1SO
2. #88 Andrei Vasilevskiy (11-12-3) .909%SP 2SO
Lines:
Tampa Bay Lightning
Palat~Namestnikov~Kucherov
Boyle~Filppula~Drouin
Killorn~Johnson~Point
Dumont~Paquette~Brown
Hedman~Dotchin
Coburn~Stralman
Garrison~Sustr
Bishop
Vasilevskiy
Minnesota Wild
Parise~Staal~Schroeder
Zucker~Koivu~Granlund
Niederreiter~Coyle~Pominville
Stewart~Haula~Graovac
Suter~Spurgeon
Scandella~Dumba
Olofsson~Folin
Dubnyk
Kuemper
After the Minnesota Wild’s 4-3 overtime loss to Chicago on Wednesday night you could almost tell the NHL and especially the NBC Sports broadcast crew breathed a sigh of relief. The Blackhawks beat the Wild so therefore, they’re really the favorites to win the Central Division because uh…uh Jonathan Toews and Patrick Kane duh!
In fact, NBC Sports‘ Ed Olczyk was practically giddy after Toews’ game winning deflection. Nevermind the fact the Wild were coming off an 11-day Canadian road swing and had played the night before in Winnipeg while Chicago had 4 days off and had been waiting and watching in St. Paul. Sure, NBC you can talk up Chicago all you want, but we’re not fooled to believe their propaganda that the Minnesota Wild are some smoke and mirrors team.
Of course its now up to the Minnesota Wild to prove me and thousands of fans across the State of Hockey right. That the Wild are actually a pretty damn good team right now and they can play (and win) against the best teams in the league. But the NHL nor NBC Sports is going to admit anything like that until the Wild actually do something tangible, and no that’s not sitting at the top of the Central Division standings for the last few weeks.
Coming to St. Paul is another team whom many felt was going to have a contender-like season in the Tampa Bay Lightning. Young and fast with a well-respected coach who took them all the way to the Stanley Cup Finals in his first season behind the Lightning’s bench, Tampa Bay seemed to have just about everything going for them. Yet they sit near the bottom of one of the softer divisions in the league, what happened?
While the lazy answer is to mention the torn meniscus injury to superstar Steven Stamkos, but that didn’t hinder this club when it made its Stanley Cup run a few years ago. It certainly hurts (no pun intended) not having him in the lineup, but the real culprit has been their sub-par goaltending.
When the Lightning made it to the Stanley Cup Finals two years ago it was a number of breakthrough seasons from its young core plus phenomenal goaltending from Ben Bishop. The kids are doing just ‘ok’ this time around and Bishop as well as Andrei Vasilevskiy have been pretty leaky. Their sub-par play has also revealed some issues within their defense-corps which sports monster size but has struggled at times against speedier squads.
Offensively the Lightning still have some punch, but it seems to be feast or famine. Nikita Kucherov has had a decent year, but beyond that the contributions are far more intermittent. Tyler Johnson isn’t lighting it up the way he did two years ago and beyond Jonathan Drouin there isn’t much in the way of secondary scoring and that has been another issue for Jon Cooper‘s squad. Other potential secondary scorers Ondrej Palat and Alex Killorn are both day-to-day going into tonight’s game.
On the backend, Victor Hedman has had a reasonable year but not a great one. The Lightning blueline sports some huge guys with Hedman (6’6″), Braydon Coburn (6’5″) and Ondrej Sustr (6’8″) but they’ve had trouble with smaller faster teams and this is certainly an area where the Wild will want to attack.
Minnesota is trying to get Charlie Coyle going offensively and even though his 3-assist night to Winnipeg is promising, he is really fighting it when he has to shoot the puck. Coyle can be dominant at times, but he’s at his best when he’s being a bit greedy with the puck and taking his own chances to score.
As a team the Wild would benefit from simplifying their game and working to create chances near the crease. Two of their goals against Chicago came on chances near the blue paint and Minnesota should look to do the same no matter who the Lightning puts between the pipes.
Minnesota sent Alex Tuch back to Iowa as he still needs more seasoning, so obviously we’ll see some more tweaks to the Wild lineup this evening. So far Wild Head Coach Bruce Boudreau has demonstrated himself to be an adept personnel manager, where uncovered a variety of different combinations to create offense and keep Minnesota’s attack strong.
So what do the Minnesota Wild have to do to beat Tampa Bay?
- Ignore the record – Minnesota cannot get overconfident against Tampa Bay because they happen to be near the bottom of the Atlantic Division. The Wild must focus on earning 2 points and not worry about anything else. There is a lot of noise out there right now and its time to focus on what really matters. As Lou Holtz used to say, W.I.N. (What’s Important Now) the game against Chicago is behind them, they must move on.
- Stay out of the box – If the Lightning have an ace to play it is their power play (8th best in the NHL). Minnesota would be well-served to limit the amount of power play opportunities the Lightning receive.
- Keep it simple – Minnesota is at its best playing a simple, fast game where they create chances through transition. The Wild at times try to slow it down and attempt tic-tac-toe plays. If they want to be fancy, get 2-3 goal lead and then get pretty but in the meantime keep it simple, bury your chances and take care of business.
- Shut down Kucherov – Kucherov is the Lightning’s workhorse, and Minnesota has shown a good penchant for taking away our opponents weapons. If Minnesota can shut him down the chances of earning a win go up considerably.
This is the first game of Minnesota’s homestand where its had a chance to rest and catch its breath. This homestand can really allow the Wild to make another big surge in the Central Division standings. Minnesota cannot afford to feel too comfortable and must play with the urgency and focus of a club that is fighting its way into the post-season instead of trying to coast.
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