Minnesota Wild (8-7-0) 16pts 5th in the Central
2.87 Goals For (9th)
2.33 Goals Against (9th)
8.3% Power Play (29th)
87% Penalty Kill (6th)
Top 5 Scorers:
1. #22 Nino Niederreiter ~ 7G 2A = 9pts
2. #29 Jason Pominville ~ 4G 5A = 9pts
3. #20 Ryan Suter ~ 1G 8A = 9pts
4. #26 Thomas Vanek ~ 1G 8A = 9pts
5. #3 Charlie Coyle ~ 2G 6A = 8pts
Top 3 PIM’s:
1. #3 Charlie Coyle ~ 16 PIM’s
2. #18 Ryan Carter ~ 14 PIM’s
3. #21 Kyle Brodziak ~ 11 PIM’s
Top Goaltenders:
1. #35 Darcy Kuemper (6-5-0) 2.16GAA .908%SP 3SO
2. #32 Niklas Backstrom (2-2-0) 2.33GAA .897%SP
Vs.
Dallas Stars (6-6-4) 16pts 6th in the Central
2.81 Goals For (12th)
3.25 Goals Against (27th)
16.7% Power Play (20th)
79.7% Penalty Kill (17th)
Top 5 Scorers:
1. #91 Tyler Seguin ~ 12G 10A = 22pts
2. #90 Jason Spezza ~ 3G 12A = 15pts
3. #14 Jamie Benn ~ 5G 8A = 13pts
4. #6 Trevor Daley ~ 5G 5A = 10pts
5. #21 Antoine Roussel ~ 4G 5A = 9pts
Top 3 PIM’s:
1. #21 Antoine Roussel ~ 43 PIM’s
2. #14 Jamie Benn ~ 26 PIM’s
3. #4 Brenden Dillon ~ 21 PIM’s
Top Goaltenders:
1. #32 Kari Lehtonen (6-3-4) 2.72GAA .912%SP 1SO
2. #29 Anders Lindback (0-3-0) 4.41GAA .852%SP
The Lone Star state has never been all that kind to Minnesota. From the relocation of the North Stars in 1993 to the Minnesota Wild’s abysmal record playing in Dallas, its been mostly misery and a feeling of loss. Minnesota is 4-16-6 in games played in Dallas. Psychologically, that wears on a player to the point where they almost feel they can’t win in Dallas. Yet its something this team must do. As this article by Pioneer Press’s Chad Graff pointed out its not just Dallas where the Wild struggle this season, its anywhere on the road as the team is 2-6 away from the Xcel Energy Center compared to 6-1 in front of the home crowd. No one is going to feel sorry for the Wild and ease up on them when they come to town so they’re going to have to figure it out themselves.
The team made some more roster moves on Friday, sending rookie defenseman Christian Folin down to Iowa and calling up Justin Falk. The Wild will still be without Zach Parise, who is still struggling with concussion symptoms but his return is expected to be soon. So the team will be without its leading scorer and after Thursday night where the team really juggled its lines in search of chemistry I’d expect to see much of the same this Saturday afternoon. The Golden Gopher line of Erik Haula, Jordan Schroeder and Thomas Vanek was just ok. While the line of Mikael Granlund, Charlie Coyle and Nino Niederrreiter was most effective despite the fact that Granlund was mostly a passenger on that unit. He is an immensely skilled player and if any Wild player could stand to raise his game its him. Wild head coach Mike Yeo called out Granlund earlier this week saying his decisions have made him far less effective as he’s slowed his game down making him easier to defend. Granlund acknowledged he is struggling with his confidence
Surprisingly the Wild have been getting some of their best play from the 4th line of Ryan Carter, Kyle Brodziak and Justin Fontaine. The 4th line in particular has been a significant source of strength for the Wild and Ryan Carter has demonstrated terrific versatility and has been a great fit for Minnesota thus far.
The Stars are a top heavy team led by the NHL’s 2nd leading scorer in Tyler Seguin, Jason Spezza, and Jamie Benn. They have the skill, strength and speed to light up opponents and which will make it challenging for the Wild to match up against. They’re also getting decent goaltending numbers from Kari Lehtonen. Sure, they’re probably not as good as Dallas would hope for, they’re still nothing to sneeze at. Besides, Minnesota sometimes has the uncanny ability to make even horrible goaltenders look like the second coming of Dominik Hasek, Patrick Roy, or Martin Brodeur. Sure, we finally managed to make Jhonas Enroth look pretty bad, but at least we didn’t chase him from the crease like Buffalo did to Darcy Kuemper. This is going to be one of those games, where Minnesota is going to have to take whatever scoring chances come their way, even the low-percentage shots. Oh, and Dallas has two of the biggest pests in the league, Ryan Garbutt and Antoine Roussel. The Wild are going to have to work hard at not letting those two get under their skin, because when that happens, you find you’re sitting in the penalty box far more than you should.
Truly, I think what has me even more concerned is a 1:00 start time. It’s the first “early” game of the season. When you combine that with playing the Stars in Dallas, it could easily be a recipe for disaster. I have a feeling that Minnesota won’t come out with the win, but my hope is that Dallas doesn’t make us look like we made Buffalo look on Thursday. That might be a rather tall order.
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