Minnesota Wild (37-20-4) 78pts 3rd in the Central
3.66 Goals For Per Game (4th in the NHL)
3.15 Goals Against Per Game (20th in the NHL)
19.6% Power Play (20th in the NHL)
76.3% Penalty Kill (23rd in the NHL)
Top 5 Scorers:
1. #97 Kirill Kaprizov ~ 32G 44A = 76pts
2. #36 Mats Zuccarello ~ 19G 43A = 62pts
3. #22 Kevin Fiala ~ 20G 35A = 55pts
4. #38 Ryan Hartman ~ 26G 21A = 47pts
5. #17 Marcus Foligno ~ 19G 14A = 33pts
Top 3 PIM’s:
1. #17 Marcus Foligno ~ 100 PIMs
2. #44 Nic Deslauriers ~ 90 PIMs*
3. #21 Brandon Duhaime ~ 80 PIMs
Top Goaltenders:
1. #33 Cam Talbot (25-12-1) 2.84GAA .910SV% 2SO
2. #29 Marc-Andre Fleury (19-21-5) 2.95GAA .908SV% 4SO**
*- denotes stats include Deslauriers’ time with Anaheim
**-denotes stats include Fleury’s time with Chicago
Vs.
Vancouver Canucks (31-26-8) 70pts 5th in the Pacific
2.82 Goals For Per Game (22nd in the NHL)
2.83 Goals Against Per Game (12th in the NHL)
21.4% Power Play (14th in the NHL)
71.6% Penalty Kill (32nd in the NHL)
Top 5 Scorers:
1. #9 J.T. Miller ~ 26G 51A = 77pts
2. #43 Quinn Hughes ~ 5G 46A = 51pts
3. #40 Elias Pettersson ~ 18G 26A = 44pts
4. #53 Bo Horvat ~ 24G 18A = 42pts
5. #6 Brock Boeser ~ 19G 18A = 37pts
Top 3 PIM’s:
1. #57 Tyler Myers ~ 54 PIMs
2. #2 Luke Schenn ~ 40 PIMs
3. #9 J.T. Miller ~ 39 PIMs
Top Goaltenders:
1. #35 Thatcher Demko (27-19-4) 2.68GAA .916SV% 1SO
2. #41 Jaroslav Halak (3-6-2) 3.19GAA .894SV%
Lines:
Vancouver Canucks
Pearson~Miller~Garland
Pettersson~Horvat~Boeser
Lammiko~Richardson~Highmore
Podkolzin~N. Petan~Chiasson
Ekman-Larsson~Meyers
Q. Hughes~L. Schenn
Dermott~B. Hunt
Demko
Halak
Minnesota Wild
Kaprizov~Hartman~Zuccarello
Fiala~F. Gaudreau~Boldy
Greenway~Eriksson Ek~M. Foligno
Duhaime~Jost~Deslauriers
Middleton~Spurgeon
Brodin~Dumba
Merrill~Goligoski
Fleury
Talbot
I don’t know how many of you have seen the above image, but if you’re in the Upper Midwest, I would imagine you’re feeling this about now. March is the month of the year where you really don’t know what you’re going to get on a daily basis, while November is much the same way, but the Fall version. Just last week, we had a glorious day in the 60s, which was followed a few days later with snow. Where I am, it’s been nothing but rain, but considering the temperatures, it could easily switch to snow, or at the very least, sleet. I know places up in the northern Minnesota saw legit snowfall this week, so yes, Third Winter is upon us. At least, it’s not 2019, the year it felt like Winter would never end.
The Minnesota Wild and the NHL standings have felt a bit like the above image. That has especially been the case since the Winter Classic game that many of us would like to forget. The Wild have the ability to make a showing in the standings, and then everything will just stall out for a bunch of games. But just like I mentioned in a recent preview, it was a game against the Boston Bruins that turned things around again. Things were looking rather bleak as of late, but since the win against the Bruins last Wednesday, Minnesota has turned things around again. But then, the opponents since that win haven’t been the teams to fear, nor is it a very large sample size, so don’t plan the parade just yet.
To add to the many possibilities with this game, it is the first game back in Minnesota for the Wild’s former head coach Bruce Boudreau. I don’t know about you, but I never had a problem with Boudreau. In fact, I rather liked having him in charge, but he was severely hampered by the roster and its personalities. I’m pretty sure there were many times where he felt like he was the bench boss in name only. Unfortunately, Boudreau has been on a few teams where the players are the ones calling the shots. At least in the case of Washington, he was “controlled” by a legitimate star player in Alexander Ovechkin. Instead in Minnesota his decisions were controlled by Ryan Suter and Zach Parise, neither of whom have a Stanley Cup on their resumes. We finally have a team where owner Craig Leipold isn’t on speed dial.
I’m one of those fans who doesn’t get excited about the Trade Deadline. Well let me re-phrase that. I don’t get excited for the reasons that most people get excited. For me, it’s a bit more anxiety-inducing. While there were things that definitely needed to be addressed by General Manager Bill Guerin, I was worried he would make a move just to make a move. I don’t know about you, but it finally felt like we had a roster that worked well together, and accepted responsibility for their failures. However, in the early says since Monday’s deadline, it feels like decent decisions were made. Of course that feeling may be shaded by the fact that Nic Deslauriers scored his first goal in his debut with the Wild Monday night.
Of course the question that everyone has, will most likely gets its first shot at an answer tonight. I would be beyond surprised if new Wild goaltender Marc-Andre Fleury didn’t get the start tonight. It would be beyond foolish to acquire another starting goaltender, and to not play him. It is my hope that Fleury has a bit of a Renaissance in his own stats, now that he has a team in front of him that can score. I can only hope that their inability to prevent goals doesn’t put him in a slump that is hard to get out of. Hopefully his 4 shutouts this season will grow with Minnesota. My other hope with Fleury’s acquisition, is that it puts some positive pressure on Cam Talbot, as I think he’s one of those goaltenders that needs competition to succeed.
While I think many of us were excited to finally see another shutout on Monday night, I think there’s something else we need to celebrate. Okay, well maybe two things to celebrate, but they are connected. Not only did the Minnesota Wild only take three penalties total in the game against Vegas, but they didn’t allow one power play goal. Now while that should be the standard more nights than not, for the Minnesota Wild, that is a major accomplishment. I was chatting with a fellow Wild fan Twitter, and he was giving us major props for covering this team. However, I said it’s hard to do when things aren’t going right, and ranting about the beyond inept penalty kill wasn’t helping matters. But it was refreshing to not having to rant again today.
Tonight is the beginning of asking “did Guerin make the correct decisions.” The foundation was clearly there, but there were definitely some tweaks that needed to be made. I don’t know if Fleury was the answer, but I don’t think he’s going to hurt. And hopefully, him with Talbot will be like the 2002-03 season and playoff run where Manny Fernandez and Dwayne Roloson pushed each other towards success. And then you combine that with some size and grit in Deslauriers and Jake Middleton, they’ll create havoc in the creases on both ends of the ice (but for different reasons). But in the long run, all I ask for is a consistent effort. As long as we see that going forward, that’s a win in itself.
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