Minnesota Wild (18-17-3) 39pts 5th in the Central
2.89 Goals For Per Game (18th in the NHL)
2.82 Goals Against Per Game (8th in the NHL)
23.2% Power Play (10th in the NHL)
83.9% Penalty Kill (3rd in the NHL)
Top 5 Scorers:
1. #64 Mikael Granlund ~ 11G 26A = 37pts
2. #11 Zach Parise ~ 17G 16A = 33pts
3. #20 Ryan Suter ~ 4G 23A = 27pts
4. #12 Eric Staal ~ 13G 12A = 25pts
5. #9 Mikko Koivu ~ 5G 18A = 23pts
Top 3 PIM’s:
1. #17 Marcus Foligno ~ 25 PIM’s
2. #29 Greg Pateryn ~ 23 PIM’s
3. #21 Eric Fehr ~ 22 PIM’s
Top Goaltenders:
1. #40 Devan Dubnyk (13-14-3) 2.62GAA .912%SP
2. #32 Alex Stalock (5-3-0) 2.60GAA .903%SP
Vs.
Toronto Maple Leafs (26-11-2) 54pts 2nd in the Atlantic
3.69 Goals For Per Game (2nd in the NHL)
2.79 Goals Against Per Game (7th in the NHL)
23.8% Power Play (8th in the NHL)
79.6% Penalty Kill (16th in the NHL)
Top 5 Scorers:
1. #16 Mitchell Marner ~ 13G 40A = 53pts
2. #91 John Tavares ~ 26G 18A = 44pts
3. #44 Morgan Reilly ~ 13G 31A = 44pts
4. #34 Auston Matthews ~ 19G 16A = 35pts
5. #24 Kasperi Kapanen ~ 14G 11A = 25pts
Top 3 PIM’s:
1. #43 Nazem Kadri ~ 31 PIM’s
2. #16 Mitchell Marner ~ 16 PIM’s
3. #18 Andreas Johnsson ~ 14 PIM’s
Top Goaltenders:
1. #40 Garrett Sparks (6-2-1) 3.00GAA .905%SP
2. #1 Kasimir Kaskisuo N/A
Lines:
Toronto Maple Leafs
Brown~Tavares~Marner
Johnsson~Matthews~Nylander
Marleau~Kadri~Kapanen
Lindholm~Gauthier~Moore
Reilly~Hainsey
Gardiner~Zaitsev
Dermott~Ozhiganov
Sparks
Kaskisuo
Minnesota Wild
Zucker~Staal~Granlund
Parise~Coyle~Kunin
Greenway~Koivu~Niederreiter
Foligno~Fehr~Hendricks
Suter~Spurgeon
Brodin~Pateryn
Bartkowski~Prosser
Dubnyk
Stalock
Okay dear readers, you read that start time correctly. It’s not a fluke. It’s not a warped sense of humor gone wrong. That’s the honest-to-god start time for a Thursday game. When I saw that, I started looking up Canadian holidays. When that yielded nothing, then I checked for Ontario provincial holidays. Absolutely nothing came up. Then my friends on Twitter started making up holidays, such as the 2019 Poutine Festival, although that would be more a Quebec thing. Another thought was a second Boxing Day. Sorry Canada, we like to have fun at your expense. I briefly perused the Maple Leafs website to see if there was anything there, I couldn’t find anything. Mind you, I didn’t dig too deep.
So it finally came down to a Tweet from Michael Russo of The Athletic. Turns out that the Toronto Maple Leafs are having a Kids Day, hence the early start time. It seems that season ticket holders can donate their tickets, and schools and children’s hospitals will bring kids to the game. And considering that we’re just getting out of the Christmas and New Years holidays where many of us had days off, it’s highly unlikely that bosses are going to be awarding much time off, especially for a 2pm EST hockey game. Normally I complain about the 9pm and 9:30pm CST start times for games played on the West Coast, but this just as absurd, but in the opposite way. Yes, I’ll be wide awake, but like those Leafs season ticket holders who are donating tickets, I’ll be busy at work.
So in other news, we can talk about the upcoming All-Star Game. It’s been announced that the Wild’s representative for the most meaningless of games will be Devan Dubnyk. I know I’ve been rough on the Wild goaltender this season, but that’s the nature of this season. His numbers have been okay. Now, a goaltender can be okay when his skaters in front of him protect him at all costs and on top of that, put on a scoring clinic on the other end of the ice. However, that has not been the case this season. This has been the season, where Dubnyk pretty much has to play a perfect game on most nights. And we’re not getting perfection. Yes, he has his moments where he totally shuts down a skater. The problem though, is that it feels like he has given up way too many soft goals, especially at the worst possible time. But then every goal lately seems to come at the worst possible time. That’s just been the nature of the Wild’s game in recent weeks. It will be interesting to see how Dubnyk looks in the All-Star Game when he’s facing and being supported by the league’s best players. But then the All-Start Game is never kind to goaltenders.
So since most of us will be following the game via Twitter or notifications from the NHL on our phones, what should we know? First things first. The Toronto Maple Leafs will again be without goaltender Frederick Andersen with a groin injury. As of now, he’s being listed as day-to-day, but as Wild fans we know from our days with Marian Gaborik, what starts out as a day-to-day groin injury can easily turn into a months-long or season ending injury that lands a player on injured reserve. Now that we know that Andersen is out, looking at what’s left for goaltending isn’t pretty. Most likely, Minnesota will be facing backup Garret Sparks but that may be in doubt after he took a shot to the mask in practice yesterday. This prompted Toronto to also call up Michael Hutchinson from the Marlies. Hutchinson would be my guess to get the start considering how much NHL experience has, let alone against the Wild in his time with Winnipeg.
Now while I would wish that Dubnyk and Alex Stalock’s stats and results were better, I’d take their numbers over Sparks’. I’d like to say his 3.00GAA would be a good thing for Minnesota, we can barely manage scoring a single goal these days. And then there’s the backup to Sparks (and or Hutchinson). The chances that Kasimir Kaskisuo will see the ice during the game are very slim. He has no NHL time this season, and his numbers for the Toronto Marlies of the American Hockey League aren’t exactly something to write home about. However, I have the bad feeling that this will be another game where we manage to make a backup goaltender look like a Vezina candidate. Adding to Toronto’s injuries are Zach Hyman (IR, ankle), and Tyler Ennis (IR, ankle).
If the Wild want any chance of getting back on track when it comes to winning, it’s pretty simple. Let’s start with the beyond obvious. The line of Jason Zucker, Eric Staal, and Mikael Grunlund needs to figure their crap out, and figure it out soon. Staal is looking slower than slow right now. Sure, he’s not the fastest player out there, but compared to what he did last season, he looks “off.” This of course begs the question, is he playing injured. Staal being the team player that he is, I could easily see him putting the team before any aches and pains that he might be suffering. Also, with the injury to defenseman Matt Dumba, he probably feels like he doesn’t want to add to the team’s woes. However, if the aches and pains (and possible injury) are hampering your ability to play your best, please say so. I’d rather bring up a guy from Iowa with some speed and drive to make a name for himself with the big club. Now, there’s Zucker. It feels like he has hands of cement. His speed is there, but he can’t finish because his hands can’t finish what he speed started. We know he has the talent, but something is simply getting in the way. And then there’s Granlund. His shots are down. He’s simply not taking the shot when he has it. And of course his shots are also down because of linemates being down as well. If that line could turn things around, I could see that raising the spirits of the rest of the team. Raise the spirits of the team, and I bet scoring from all quarters would improve as well.
When I discovered the reason for today’s early start time, one of the Twitter responses I saw was something to the effect, if you’re going to the game, make sure you bring your ear plugs. Not from the loud in-arena music or goal celebrations. No, you may want to protect your eardrums from squealing children. And if you spent any time over the holidays with excitable children, it will continue into a hockey game. I’m just glad that I won’t be at the game, and when I do watch it later thanks to the DVR, if I need to, I can turn the volume down or mute altogether. But then I often do that with the Wild broadcast anyway.
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