Minnesota Wild (15-11-1) 31pts 5th in the Central
2.82 Goals For (13th)
2.44 Goals Against (8th)
11.2% Power Play (29th)
88.1% Penalty Kill (3rd)
Top 5 Scorers:
1. #11 Zach Parise ~ 10G 12A = 22pts
2. #29 Jason Pominville ~ 6G 12A = 18pts
3. #26 Thomas Vanek ~ 3G 13A = 16pts
4. #20 Ryan Suter ~ 1G 15A = 16pts
5. #22 Nino Niederreiter ~ 12G 3A = 15pts
Top 3 PIM’s:
1. #6 Marco Scandella ~ 38 PIM’s
2. #18 Ryan Carter ~ 24 PIM’s
3. #21 Kyle Brodziak ~ 24 PIM’s
Top Goaltenders:
1. #35 Darcy Kuemper (11-9-0) 2.45GAA .906%SP 3SO
2. #32 Niklas Backstrom (4-2-1) 2.20GAA .905%SP
Vs.
Arizona Coyotes (10-16-3) 23pts 6th in the Pacific
2.24 Goals For (26th)
3.24 Goals Against (27th)
20.8% Power Play (10th)
76.8% Penalty Kill (25th)
Top 5 Scorers:
1. #3 Keith Yandle ~ 3G 17A = 20pts
2. #50 Antoine Vermette ~ 7G 12A = 19pts
3. #89 Mikkel Boedker ~ 9G 9A = 18pts
4. #19 Shane Doan ~ 7G 9A = 16pts
5. #11 Martin Hanzal ~ 5G 8A = 13pts
Top 3 PIM’s:
1. #44 B.J. Crombeen ~ 43 PIM’s
2. #10 Martin Erat ~ 24 PIM’s
3. #24 Kyle Chipchura ~ 23 PIM’s
Top Goaltenders:
1. #41 Mike Smith (5-14-2) 3.35GAA .889%SP
2. #40 Devan Dubnyk (5-2-1) 2.74GAA .918%SP 1SO
Okay everyone, I’m going to try something a little bit different. I’m going to try being positive about the Wild’s chances tonight, but I need to clear something up before I do that. Both Derek and I tend to be accused of being negative about this team. In fact after the last game, someone tweeted him asking him why he was so negative about Minnesota and called him a “Wild hater.” Let’s clear something up people. If you run a blog that is specifically about the Minnesota Wild and spend as much time as we do watching hockey (including staying up until after midnight on Thursday night) we are the last people anyone should accuse of hating this team. You don’t dedicate as much time and energy as we do, giving up as much of our free time as we do, to simply hate on this team. We refuse to simply don the Wild rose-tinted glasses that some do. We’re going to call things as they are, and if that means we tend to rant a bit more and call the team out for their mistakes and lack of effort, we’re going to do it. If you want to read a rosier view of the team, I suggest you stick to Michael Russo of the Minneapolis Star Tribune. And even though Russo tends to take a more positive view of the team (as he needs to do as he’s the one with full access to the team), even Russo will on occasion call the team out. If you don’t like us calling out the team, I highly suggest you start your own blog and write as much as we do. Then you will find out just how honest you end up being.
Now, it’s time to be all sunshine and rainbows. This might be hard to do and it’s against my nature, but I’ll see what I can do. Of course knowing my luck, it’s going to come off as sarcastic. I’m sitting here trying to think of what I possibly can even write that is both positive and more importantly, honest. It’s hard to do. Let’s start with this. I know this team can score. We’ve seen it throughout the season so far. In order to see it more often, we need to see them take shots, and shots that have a low percentage of going in the net. Those low percentage shots are often unexpected and even better, then create rebounds that have a better chance of getting behind the goalie. The continual passing (especially on the power play) pretty much telegraphs to your opponent what shot you’re looking for. The early season scoring push came from taking numerous shots on goal, including the goofy shots. And let’s face it, ugly goals count just as much as the highlight reel goals. I know they can do it, they just need to show it to me and every other fan out there.
The other aspect that I know can be there (but hasn’t always lately), is Minnesota’s goaltending. We’ve seen glimmers this season of Darcy Kuemper being a quality goaltender. No goaltender is perfect and they’re allowed to have the occasional “bad” night. We’ve seen those bad nights from Kuemper. I know he has it in him. What Kuemper needs is a team in front of him that will score and defend with consistency in order to take some pressure off of their goaltender. What will also help Kuemper is a solid mentor in Niklas Backstrom. What is great to see this season is a Backstrom that appears to be content and/or accepting as his role of backup goaltender. On nights when he has had to come in after Kuemper has been pulled or he gets the start, he has looked possibly more solid than he has in years past. I think part of that has something to do with his success this season is that the pressure isn’t on him as it has been in those other seasons. Backstrom is probably at the “advanced” age of 36 ready to pass the reins on to someone younger. But just like we need to see consistency in scoring from the Wild’s skaters (which they have the ability to do), we need to see the consistency in goaltending. Kuemper and Backstrom are quite capable, we just need to see it.
There you go people. That’s as happy and positive I can get. Instead of really being positive or negative, let’s just call it constructive criticism. Perhaps this slightly more optimistic outlook by yours truly, will work as some sort of good luck charm for the Wild tonight. I think at this point, fans will take any sort of positive outcome of any sort.
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