Minnesota Wild (3-2-0) 6pts 4th in the Central
2.40 Goals For (21st)
.8 Goals Against (1st)
0% Power Play (29th)
93.3% Penalty Kill (2nd)
Top 5 Scorers:
1. #11 Zach Parise ~ 2G 3A = 5pts
2. #46 Jared Spurgeon ~ 1G 3A = 4pts
3. #29 Jason Pominville ~ 2G 1A = 3pts
4. #3 Charlie Coyle ~ 2G 1A = 3pts
5. #20 Ryan Suter ~ 1G 2A = 3pts
Top 3 PIM’s:
1. #11 Zach Parise ~ 17 PIM’s
2. #3 Charlie Coyle ~ 10 PIM’s
3. #18 Ryan Carter ~ 8 PIM’s
Top Goaltenders:
1. #35 Darcy Kuemper (3-1-0) .50GAA .980%SP 3SO
2. #32 Niklas Backstrom (0-1-0) 2.03GAA .875%SP
Vs.
Tampa Bay Lightning (5-2-1) 11pts 2nd in the Atlantic
3.12 Goals For (1oth)
1.88 Goals Against (6th)
26.7% Power Play (6th)
85.7% Penalty Kill (8th)
Top 5 Scorers:
1. #91 Steven Stamkos ~ 6G 2A = 8pts
2. #9 Tyler Johnson ~ 1G 6A = 7pts
3. #18 Ondrej Palat ~ 3G 3A = 6pts
4. #51 Valterri Filppula ~ 1G 5A = 6pts
5. #24 Ryan Callahan ~ 3G 2A = 5pts
Top 3 PIM’s:
1. #14 Brett Connolly ~ 12 PIM’s
2. #7 Radko Gudas ~ 11 PIM’s
3. #25 Matthew Carle ~ 8 PIM’s
Top Goaltenders:
1. #30 Ben Bishop (4-1-1) 1.97GAA .929%SP
2. #20 Evgeni Nabokov (1-1-0) 1.48GAA .936%SP
Welcome to another episode of the Wild Powerless Play Watch.
Your Minnesota Wild are one of two teams in the league still without a power play goal. The scary part is who that one other team is. It’s never good to be in the same company with the Buffalo Sabres, the worst team in the league. The Sabres are an abysmal 1-7. They’ve had 27 opportunities in their eight games. The Wild are tied with Ottawa with the fewest games played (5 games each). It shouldn’t come as a shock that the two teams with the fewest games played also have had fewer man-advantage opportunities. Minnesota has the fewest power play opportunities in the league with nineteen. Ottawa has had three more chances, but here’s the big difference. The Senators have three power play goals. One cannot argue that Minnesota hasn’t had their chance to score.
If you ask any fan who watches the Wild closely, they will probably tell you why the power play has been so unsuccessful. If we can see it, it makes you wonder why the coaching staff and the players themselves haven’t seen it either. I can’t tell you how disappointing it is to continually see Mikko Koivu on the top power play unit. When I see him out there, I know it’s pointless to expect that not only are they not going to score, but he’s not going to take a shot on goal. Yes, you need to set up the power play, but in the case of Koivu it’s as if he refuses to shoot. He looks to pass all the time. My patience is getting shorter and shorter with “El Kapitan.” And it’s not just the power play where Koivu is extremely underwhelming. It’s annoying to watch him at full strength as well. Always looking to pass.
Since we’re talking about people not living up to expectations, we need to talk about our big off-season acquisition as well. I for one was not in the “we have to bring Thomas Vanek to Minnesota” camp. There are two issues I have with Vanek’s coming to Minnesota. We know him best as a member of the National Championship winning University of Minnesota Golden Gophers. That’s all well and good, but there are two issues with this. First off, success at the college level does not always equate to success at the NHL level. Remember AJ Thelen? Now in Vanek’s case, he’s been very successful. And the other issue, is that we last saw him on a regular basis more than ten years ago. He’s gotten older, and hockey can take a toll on the body. His most successful years in the NHL were in Buffalo. Plus, I don’t know if he’s a player that’s built for the Western Conference game. One of my favorite fans has a phrase that best describes acquisitions such as Vanek’s. He calls them a “he’s one of us” moves. There is definitely a faction of fans that desperately want Minnesota-born or Minnesota-groomed players on the Minnesota Wild. It doesn’t matter if they’re any good or if their best years are behind them, they just want that connection on the team. Well getting Vanek was one of those moves. For several years, we’ve heard about how he spends his off-seasons in Minnesota and that he would like to finish his career that really started at the University of Minnesota. It’s one of those feel-good stories that rarely pay off. Although in his defense, he does have more points than Mikko Koivu.
Sadly my friends, I don’t see the power play changing tonight. Between Tampa Bay’s successful penalty kill and Minnesota’s inability to shoot and score on the power play, it might be futile to even have a hope of ending the drought. Trust me, I would love to be wrong. I hate being the “Negative Nelly” but until I see a concerted effort to really change the power play and that effort netting power play goals, I guess I have to be the bearer of bad news. Minnesota does have a chance of winning tonight, but it like the other wins, it’s going to have to depend on all elements of the game not called the power play. We know that the Lightning can and do score. If Minnesota can weather the onslaught coming from Tampa Bay’s skaters and still manage to find the scoresheet on their own, they just might come out victorious.
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