Minnesota Wild (2-1-0) 4pts 4th in the Central
3.00 Goals For (15th)
.67 Goals Against (1st)
0% Power Play (28th)
100% Penalty Kill (3rd)
Top 5 Scorers:
1. #11 Zach Parise ~ 2G 2A = 4pts
2. #20 Ryan Suter ~ 1G 2A = 3pts
3. #16 Jason Zucker ~ 2G 0A = 2pts
4. #46 Jared Spurgeon ~ 1G 1A = 2pts
5. #29 Jason Pominville ~ 1G 1A = 2pts
Top 3 PIM’s:
1. #11 Zach Parise ~ 17 PIM’s
2. #3 Charlie Coyle ~ 8 PIM’s
3. #18 Ryan Carter ~ 8 PIM’s
Top Goaltenders: 1. #35 Darcy Kuemper (2-1-0) .67GAA .972%SP 2SO
Vs.
Los Angeles Kings (3-1-1) 7pts 3rd in the Pacific
2.40 Goals For (21st)
1.80 Goals Against (7th)
5.6% Power Play (25th)
82.4% Penalty Kill (16th)
Top 5 Scorers:
1. #70 Tanner Pearson ~ 4G 2A = 6pts
2. #77 Jeff Carter ~ 3G 2A = 5pts
3. #73 Tyler Toffoli ~ 2G 3A = 5pts
4. #11 Anze Kopitar ~ 1G 1A = 2pts
5. #8 Drew Doughty ~ 0G 2A = 2pts
Top 3 PIM’s:
1. #13 Kyle Clifford ~ 12 PIM’s
2. #28 Jarrett Stoll ~ 10 PIM’s
3. #44 Robyn Regehr ~ 7 PIM’s
Top Goaltenders:
1. #32 Jonathan Quick (2-1-1) 2.09GAA .944%SP 1SO
2. #34 Martin Jones (1-0-0) .75GAA .970%SP
If you thought the Wild were mis-matched based on size with the Ducks, just be prepared for a repeat with the Kings. Los Angeles has only one player under six feet tall. Yes one, and that one player is Mike Richards. If you don’t believe me, pull up their roster. Now, let’s compare that with Minnesota’s roster. We have (I hope you’re sitting down) eight players that are under six feet tall. Even scarier, is that two of those who are vertically challenged are on our blue line (Keith Ballard and Jared Spurgeon). But I’ll get to the woes of the blue line later. Considering our lack of size with our competitors pretty much league wide, Minnesota is going to have to figure out how to compete on a physical level, because you know that eventually teams are going to figure this out.
One thing that the Minnesota Wild, and other teams in the league, are going to have trouble with when playing the Kings this season, is that for the most part they’re the Kings of last season. There were virtually no changes made to the Kings’ roster from when they hoisted Lord Stanley’s Cup at the end of last season to when the puck dropped earlier this month. The players know each other well and they have success behind them. Chemistry and wins are a powerful combination. The Wild on the other hand, still have players like Thomas Vanek trying to find his place on the team and find his scoring touch. Vanek probably had his best game in a Wild uniform on Friday night. He was just inches from scoring several times. I will applaud Chuck Fletcher for bringing in talented players, but it can take time for players to find their place.
However, the Wild may find a win today, as it’s being reported that Marian Gaborik, Jake Muzzin and Trevor Lewis will not be playing today. What’s interesting about the possible loss of Muzzin, as that he gets to my point about the Kings’ blue line that I mentioned earlier. On all of their pairings, they have a big, mean player matched with a skill player. Muzzin is the big, mean defenseman that is usually on the top pairing with Drew Doughty. In his place will most likely be Brayden McNabb, who happens to be the player that made Denver Post writer, Adrian Dater lose his cool on Twitter. The funny part of the McNabb incident, the hit that upset Dater was something that happened back in junior hockey. So you can thank McNabb for sparing the hockey world the insane rantings of Dater for the past two weeks. However, I doubt the Minnesota Wild will feel very thankful having to face the Kings’ blue line.
In order for the Wild to come out victorious today is that they’re going to need to use their speed, pepper Jonathan Quick’s net, and be prepared for physical hockey. Yes, that might be a tall order to fill, but Minnesota can do it. They just have to be prepared and willing. This game might be the one that tells us how they’ll fare in the long run this season, especially when the games are piled up. So here we go.
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