Minnesota Wild (18-15-4) 40pts 6th in the Central
2.76 Goals For (15th)
2.84 Goals Against (22nd)
15.1% Power Play (25th)
84.2% Penalty Kill (8th)
Top 5 Scorers:
1. #11 Zach Parise ~ 14G 16A = 30pts
2. #29 Jason Pominville ~ 8G 20A = 29pts
3. #26 Thomas Vanek ~ 7G 17A = 24pts
4. #20 Ryan Suter ~ 1G 21A = 22pts
5. #9 Mikko Koivu ~ 6G 14A = 20pts
Top 3 PIM’s:
1. #4 Stu Bickel ~ 46 PIM’s
2. #6 Marco Scandella ~ 42 PIM’s
3. #18 Ryan Carter ~ 41 PIM’s
Top Goaltenders:
1. #35 Darcy Kuemper (13-12-0) 2.63GAA .904%SP 3SO
2. #32 Niklas Backstrom (5-3-3) 2.71GAA .896%SP
Vs.
San Jose Sharks (21-13-5) 47pts 3rd in the Pacific
2.68 Goals For (18th)
2.52 Goals Against (11th)
21.4% Power Play (7th)
80.9% Penalty Kill (15th)
Top 5 Scorers:
1. #8 Joe Pavelski ~ 20G 15A = 35pts
2. #39 Logan Couture ~ 14G 19A = 33pts
3. #19 Joe Thornton ~ 9G 24A = 33pts
4. #88 Brent Burns ~ 11G 20A = 31pts
5. #12 Patrick Marleau ~ 7G 21A = 28pts
Top 3 PIM’s:
1. #10 Andrew Dejardins ~ 41 PIM’s
2. #61 Brent Burns ~ 36 PIM’s
3. #61 Justin Braun ~ 34 PIM’s
Top Goaltenders:
1. #31 Antti Niemi (16-9-4) 2.51GAA .914%SP 3SO
2. #32 Alex Stalock (4-4-1) 2.27GAA .918%SP 1SO
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Let’s face it, when you follow a sport closely, you can’t but help look at the numbers. Some numbers are far more exciting than other. The casual fan is going to follow nothing much more than they see in the highlights. Those stats would be things like goals scored and wins-losses. Those are exciting stats and easy to understand. The casual fan rarely looks much further. Those are simple stats and like I said, they’re pretty much black and white. For the rest of us, we tend to get more in to the nitpicky stats. It’s those stats that often paint the bigger picture. And let’s face it, it’s those deeper stats that right now are painting a rather bleak picture for the Minnesota Wild.
Today’s stat du jour is going to be the “boring” stat otherwise known as goals against per game. It’s not sexy, it doesn’t sell tickets, and it’s not the one that brings in the casual fans. They want to see wins and goals. But for those of us who appreciate the deeper parts of the game, we know that a poor goals against per game stat often means those precious wins are harder to come by. Right now, the Minnesota Wild are allowing 2.84 goals per game. Now to the unaware, that is not a good number. In fact, that is a horrible number, especially when you compare it to the Wild’s past. We’re now going to hop aboard the Way-Back Machine, heading to the the 2002-03 season. In that much remembered season, the Wild only allowed 2.17 goals per game. That is a fantastic average. That average made them the fourth best in the league when it came to that stat. Currently Minnesota is 22nd when it comes to that very same stat. If you can’t see the problem, then I just may suggest you get some help.
The major difference between then and now is that the Wild are scoring more goals. That does help sell tickets. However, when you’re allowing more goals than scoring, it makes it far harder to win those games. A win is a win is a win. It doesn’t matter if it’s a sexy win with lots of goals or an ugly win with a tight, defensive game. The wins count either way. The thing about the 2002-03 season, is that the Wild and then head coach Jacques Lemaire were continually accused of “killing the game” with their tight, defensive game. Of course those complaints often came after teams lost to Minnesota. We heard all of the whining about the neutral zone trap and how it was the worst thing to happen to the game and than it should be banned. Well guess what, every team is using the very strategy to some degree. And some teams are doing it better than others. Minnesota however is not employing it very well. To play a good defensive game, it requires all of its players to subscribe to the plan. Players cannot be lazy, and cannot take a shift off. However that’s exactly what we’re seeing these days. I can handle the Wild’s poor power play better than I can handle the poor goals against per game. Of course we’re also not getting the same level of goaltending from Darcy Kuemper and Niklas Backstrom as we did from Manny Fernandez and Dwayne Roloson. However, that’s a different story for a different day.
I’ve always said that I would take a boring 1-0 defensive win over a high-scoring 6-5 loss. Goals are great, but only if they’re yours. If you can’t stop your opponent from scoring either due to poor goaltending or lazy play, you’re going to have a hard time winning. Until the Wild can figure out how to stop their opponents, it’s going to be harder and harder to find wins. If you can’t find the wins, you won’t find the much-wanted spot in the playoffs.
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