Minnesota Wild (5-2-1) 11pts 1st in the Central
3.50 Goals For Per Game (4th in the NHL)
2.38 Goals Against Per Game (7th in the NHL)
10.7% Power Play (28th in the NHL)
95.7% Penalty Kill (1st in the NHL)
Top 5 Scorers:
1. #20 Ryan Suter ~ 3G 6A = 9pts
2. #12 Eric Staal ~ 3G 3A = 6pts
3. #3 Charlie Coyle ~ 3G 3A = 6pts
4. #16 Jason Zucker ~ 2G 4A = 6pts
5. #11 Zach Parise ~ 2G 4A = 6pts
Top 3 PIM’s:
1. #7 Chris Stewart ~ 19 PIM’s
2. #3 Charlie Coyle ~ 18 PIM’s
3. #27 Zac Dalpe ~ 9 PIM’s
Top Goaltenders:
1. #40 Devan Dubnyk (4-1-1) 1.67GAA .944%SP 2SO
2. #35 Darcy Kuemper (1-1-0) 4.00GAA .871%SP
Vs.
Dallas Stars (3-3-1) 7pts 5th in the Central
2.57 Goals For Per Game (21st in the NHL)
3.14 Goals Against Per Game (19th in the NHL)
16.1% Power Play (20th in the NHL)
76.1% Penalty Kill (21st in the NHL)
Top 5 Scorers:
1. #91 Tyler Seguin ~ 4G 3A = 7pts
2. #17 Devin Shore ~ 1G 5A = 6pts
3. #14 Jamie Benn ~ 2G 2A = 4pts
4. #18 Patrick Eaves ~ 1G 3A = 4pts
5. #25 Brett Ritchie ~ 2G 1A = 3pts
Top 3 PIM’s:
1. #21 Antoine Roussel ~ 22 PIM’s
2. #14 Jamie Benn ~ 11 PIM’s
3. #10 Patrick Sharp ~ 8 PIM’s
Top Goaltenders:
1. #31 Antti Niemi (2-1-0) 3.86GAA .893%SP
2. #32 Kari Lehtonen (1-2-1) 2.26GAA .924%SP
Well, if you wanted to really know what this Minnesota Wild team is made of, you’re about to get your wish. When we all looked at the schedule when it was released, we had to have thought that it was a nice road trip to get early in the season. While the start of the road trip didn’t have quite the start any of us wanted, it certainly turned itself around. Not only did the Wild get the two wins to close it out, but it got two shut-out wins in a row. The Wild aren’t exactly known for shut-outs, well at least on the winning side of them, it was certainly nice to see. Hopefully we’ll see more of them. Especially when you’re getting scoring by committee. That scoring by committee is that much better when it looks like they’ve finally (at least I hope so) given up on forcing the set up for certain players.
But tonight is most likely not going to be a repeat of the past two games. Tonight is going to be the first real challenge for the Wild. In recent seasons, the Dallas Stars have been a stumbling block. Part of me is glad that at least the first meeting with the Stars is at home. It’s hard enough to play them on any night, but it’s that much harder if you have to play them at American Airline Arena. I’ll take Xcel Energy Center, thank you very much. Yet even playing at home isn’t going to be much of a boost. Minnesota will be without Marco Scandella. That one hurts, as they’ve been without Jared Spurgeon for the past few games. Sure, Spurgeon is slated to be back, but who knows how he’ll fare in his first game back from injury. The inclusion of Erik Haula is still up in the air at this point. So whether it’s Zach Dalpe or Joel Eriksson Ek on the wing is also up in the air. With the way Eriksson Ek has been playing, you almost don’t even need to ask the question. Now those are the kinds of questions I can handle. What I can’t handle is the thought of Nate Prosser at forward.
If there’s anything I know, the Wild will need to get its absolute best from Devan Dubnyk. Yes, he’s gotten wins this season. However I would say there have been moments where I question his focus and/or athleticism. I would like to see the return of the Dubnyk we got when we first acquired him. If we could get that Dubnyk every night, then the Wild could really make a legitimate push. The Wild have traditionally been a team where you can’t count on a bunch of goals on a nightly basis. When you can’t always count on scoring you have to count on your goaltender. Now considering my apprehension regarding Dubnyk, you can imagine my panic when I see the Tweets telling us it will be Darcy Kuemper in goal. In “big” games like tonight, as long as Dubnyk isn’t sick or injured, we can pretty much predict his presence in net. Of course with a new coach in Bruce Boudreau we haven’t really been able to track his tendencies for goaltenders.
Part of me is glad that we’ll be missing tonight’s game due to a previous engagement. I’m sure we’ll be checking the score on my phone from time to time, but it won’t be like the average night at home watching the game. Also with that in mind, there will be a delay in the post-game as we’re going to have to watch it on the DVR later.
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