Minnesota Wild (16-12-3) 35pts 5th in the Central
2.87 Goals For (11th)
2.68 Goals Against (17th)
13.9% Power Play (26th)
86.5% Penalty Kill (3rd)
Top 5 Scorers:
1. #11 Zach Parise ~ 13G 13A = 26pts
2. #29 Jason Pominville ~ 7G 16A = 23pts
3. #20 Ryan Suter ~ 1G 20A = 21pts
4. #26 Thomas Vanek ~ 5G 15A = 20pts
5. #22 Nino Niederreiter ~ 14G 3A = 17pts
Top 3 PIM’s:
1. #6 Marco Scandella ~ 38 PIM’s
2. #18 Ryan Carter ~ 26 PIM’s
3. #11 Zach Parise ~ 25 PIM’s
Top Goaltenders:
1. #35 Darcy Kuemper (11-9-0) 2.56GAA .903%SP 3SO
2. #32 Niklas Backstrom (5-3-3) 2.58GAA .901%SP
Vs.
Philadelphia Flyers (13-14-6) 32pts 5th in the Metropolitan
2.79 Goals For (13th)
2.85 Goals Against (23rd)
22.5% Power Play (6th)
75.7% Penalty Kill (27th)
Top 5 Scores:
1. #93 Jakub Voracek ~ 14G 30A = 44pts
2. #28 Claude Giroux ~ 10G 30A = 40pts
3. #17 Wayne Simmonds ~ 14G 9A = 23pts
4. #10 Brayden Schenn ~ 9G 13A = 22pts
5. #32 Mark Streit ~ 4G 17A = 21pts
Top 3 PIM’s:
1. #36 Zac Rinaldo ~ 37 PIM’s
2. #17 Wayne Simmonds ~ 25 PIM’s
3. #55 Nick Schultz ~ 22 PIM’s
Top Goaltenders:
1. #35 Steve Mason (6-10-5) 2.49GAA .921%SP 1SO
2. #29 Ray Emery (6-4-1) 3.13GAA .894%SP
3. #72 Rob Zepp (1-0-0) 3.00GAA .893%SP
Merry (almost) Christmas! If you’re like me, you will be traveling in one form or a combination after work today. What makes that even more of a challenge, is that it’s been rather mild weather-wise this month here in the Upper Midwest. It should come as no shock to any of us, that since many of us have to travel today, we’re now getting the dreaded wintery mix of snow, rain, and ice. At the very least, we will be warm and toasty at my mom’s house by the time the game starts, and here’s your heads up. Tonight’s game starts for some ridiculous reason, an hour early for a home game. Being that tomorrow is Christmas Eve, I figure it’s a good time to talk about gifts. In my family, we always opened gifts from family on Christmas Even instead of Christmas Day. Added to my family’s tradition of opening gifts, eating dinner together, and attending church, we also tune into TNT’s 24-hour broadcast of the (cult) classic holiday movie A Christmas Story. I don’t know what it is about that particular movie, but if I could physically do it, I would watch all 24 hours. I think there are elements that all of us can relate to, especially the receiving of gifts we simply do not like. So let’s take a look at the “gifts” the Wild have given this year, we wish we desperately could get rid of.
Let’s be honest here. The one thing that fans wish would go away, would be the embarrassment of the power play. Most of us just wish that hockey was a bit like in football. In that particular sport, you can decline the penalty. Over the past few seasons, it just seems as if that particular facet of the game just gets worse each season. But the truth of the matter my dear friends, with the exception of about five seasons, the Wild’s power play has been nothing to write home about. However what makes the current power play so frustrating, is that even during those five or so seasons of a decent to great power play, is that we had no where near the quality of players as we do now. With the collection of players we have, one would think that Minnesota’s power play would be firing on all cylinders. Yet we watch it pretty much game after game, fail on a regular basis. The more baffling issue is why the top power play unit is untouchable when they’re so unproductive. I wish as fans we could find the receipt for that particular “gift” and return it to the place of purchase to get something better.
Another “gift” that Wild fans would love to get rid of, is the team’s almost inability to shut teams down, especially in overtime. Yes, it’s great that the team is scoring 3-4 goals a game. It’s the kind of thing many “fans” whined about back in the day. Those kinds of fans would argue that scoring goals was exciting. My counter-argument was always who cares how many goals you score if you’re not winning the games. Strangely enough my warning is coming true now. Minnesota is able to score, but due to lack of team defense and consistent goaltending, we cannot shut down our opponents. Watching the Wild in the overtime has pretty much become a joke to watch. It’s as if they’re already thinking ahead to the shootout, forgetting that there’s a five minute period before the skills competition. And sometimes it’s as if they’ve forgotten that overtime is sudden death. They tend to get hemmed up in their own zone to their own detriment. There is absolutely no time to waste, dear Wild.
The last unwanted gift often creates the previous two. Minnesota’s play at both bluelines has gotten worse every games. Over the years, I’ve gotten used to (and pretty much accepted) that they’re a team that simply cannot carry the puck over the blueline into the offensive zone. The skaters refuse to skate with the puck into the zone. They will either dump it into the zone or perform some pathetic drop pass. When it’s the former, they go into the zone without possession. When it’s the latter, they either couch up the puck or go offsides. Neither is a recipe for success. So if that wasn’t bad enough, they’re now making things worse at their own blueline. Usually we see one of two things. The most prevalent being the inability to clear the puck out of the zone. This is usually accomplished through pure laziness. Soft passes and soft attempts tend to keep the puck in your own zone. Now that has been compounded by the fact instead of moving the puck forward, we continue to pass the puck backwards, which just let’s the opposition create more chances in our zone. For the love of all that is good in hockey, just get the puck out of the zone. If Minnesota would clean up their play at both bluelines, I firmly believe we would see a vast improvement in other elements of the game.
I would love to trade all of these unwanted “gifts” in for wins. Wins on a consistent basis. Wins that would work on closing the gap between the Wild and the Jets. Wins that would one again put Minnesota back in the contender conversation. Until they can figure out these problems, we’re going to have to deal with gifts like Ralphie received from Aunt Clara.
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