Minnesota Wild (1-1-2) 4pts 7th in the Central
3.75 Goals For Per Game (3rd in the NHL)
3.75 Goals Against Per Game (25th in the NHL)
28.6% Power Play (3rd in the NHL)
77.8% Penalty Kill (20th in the NHL)
Top 5 Scorers:
1. #10 Chris Stewart ~ 4G 2A = 6pts
2. #12 Eric Staal ~ 3G 1A = 4pts
3. #63 Tyler Ennis ~ 2G 2A = 4pts
4. #16 Jason Zucker ~ 2G 2A = 4pts
5. #9 Mikko Koivu ~ 2G 1A = 3pts
Top 3 PIM’s:
1. #47 Christoph Bertschy ~ 4 PIM’s
2. #26 Daniel Winnik ~ 4 PIM’s
3. #9 Mikko Koivu ~ 4 PIM’s
Top Goaltenders:
1. #40 Devan Dubnyk (1-1-0-1) 3.70GAA .894%SP
2. #32 Alex Stalock (0-0-0-1) 3.74GAA .905%SP
Vs.
Winnipeg Jets (3-3-0) 6pts 6th in the Central
3.00 Goals For Per Game (16th in the NHL)
3.83 Goals Against Per game (26th in the NHL)
10.0% Power Play (26th in the NHL)
77.8% Penalty Kill (29th in the NHL)
Top 5 Scorers:
1. #27 Nikolaj Ehlers ~ 5G 2A = 7pts
2. #55 Mark Scheifele ~ 3G 3A = 6pts
3. #26 Blake Wheeler ~ 0G 6A = 6pts
4. #29 Patrik Laine ~ 2G 2A = 4pts
5. #18 Bryan Little ~ 1G 3A = 4pts
Top 3 PIM’s:
1. #16 Shawn Matthias ~ 6 PIM’s
2. #8 Jacob Trouba ~ 6 PIM’s
3. #26 Blake Wheeler ~ 6 PIM’s
Top Goaltenders:
1. #35 Steve Mason (0-3-0) 5.98GAA .846%SP
2. #34 Connor Hellebuyck (3-0-0) 2.11GAA .937%SP
Lines:
Winnipeg Jets
Connor-Scheifele-Wheeler
Ehlers-Little-Laine
Tanev-Copp-Armia
Matthias-Petan-Dano
Morrissey-Trouba
Enstrom-Byfuglien
Kulikov-Myers
Mason
Hellebuyck
Minnesota Wild
Eriksson Ek-Staal-Stewart
Ennis-Koivu-Zucker
Winnik-Cullen-Foligno
Ferraro-Mitchell-Kunin
Suter-Spurgeon
Brodin-Dumba
Quincey-Olofsson
Dubnyk
Stalock
If you’ve ever been in a long relationship, you’ve probably had a conversation similar to this. “Hey, let’s go out, I’m too tired to cook.” So you hop into the car and about 30 seconds into the drive you get this infamous line, “Where do you want to eat? I am up for anything.” You make a suggestion and you immediately get, “nah, I’m not in that kind of mood” so you offer another suggestion and are met with “No, not that, I had that last week.” You try not to start a fight so you try to get them to help you out. “So, is there anyplace you’d like to eat?” They shrug their shoulders and say, “Nowhere in particular, just not those places you suggested.” You try to suppress being annoyed, so you announce where you are going and after 20-30 seconds they blurt out, “do we have to go there? I don’t mean to be picky, but we always go there.” You respond, “well, I thought you liked that place, what’s wrong with it?” They play coy, “oh nothing, its just that we go there…a lot.” After a minute of driving to nowhere, you turn around and head back home and they ask, “wait, where are you going?” You chirp back, “home, I think we’ll have spaghetti.” They smile and say, “Spaghetti sounds nice.”
The level of passive indecision is what makes conversations like that frustrating. I wonder if that’s how Minnesota Wild fans feel when hearing these updates about the health of Zach Parise. A few weeks prior to the start of the season fans were told that Parise would miss the first few games battling a back injury. As the time went on we got to hear reports about how he was feeling better and being so close to returning to the lineup. We would get closer to that date then we’d get told that he isn’t quite ready yet. Needless to say the fans are tiring of the will he, won’t he indecision.
Frustrated fans suggested on Twitter the team place him on Long-Term Injury Reserve and the Athletic’s Michael Russo stating exhaustively that wouldn’t matter. Maybe on some level he’s right, Parise being out on LTIR or otherwise means the same thing. He’s not there to help the team and give the team benefit for its $7.5 million a season investment. Either way, Parise’s injury and those to Charlie Coyle, Mikael Granlund, Nino Niederreiter and Marcus Foligno have the Wild scrambling just fill out a lineup. Foligno is expected to return to the Wild lineup, but I doubt we’ll see him dropping the gloves for a little while.
That of course means opportunities for Luke Kunin, Landon Ferraro, Christoph Bertschy and Zack Mitchell. Consider these players like restaurants your significant other is considering but you’re not too sure of. Does a place that serves American-Turkish cuisine sound appetizing to you? Yet if you’re really hungry you’ll go in, check out the menu and try to find something that works. Sure, I will take the Alanazik, that sounds good and you take your first bite. That’s kind of like the Minnesota Wild during Saturday’s game against Columbus. The new faces performed reasonably well, with Ferraro tallying a goal in the 5-4 overtime loss.
Yet it wasn’t all good as the Wild blew a 4-2 lead to squander a chance at a 2nd point in overtime on Artemi Parnarin‘s game winner. The sore point wasn’t as much the new guys as it was their veteran core where Ryan Suter and Devan Dubnyk provided the mistakes that allowed Columbus to steal a victory. For all the ‘woe is me’ stuff about the other injuries, the truth is the team needs players to step up and rise to the challenge.
A few players who are not at fault in the Wild’s recent struggles; forwards Chris Stewart, Jason Zucker and Eric Staal. They have been playing assertively and keeping Minnesota competitive so far. Even Tyler Ennis has started to chip in offensively, but the team needs a higher quality effort from its defense and its goaltender.
Meanwhile, the Jets’ are hoping to carve out a playoff spot. The Jets’ believe they have the perfect blend of veterans, young skill and future stars to take that next step towards being a contender. The main stumbling block to this end has been inconsistent play defensively and between the pipes. Steve Mason was brought in to be the ace until Connor Hellebuyck was ready but so far he’s been below average and where it counts the most he’s 0-3. I’d expect Hellebuyck to get the start. Winnipeg must get better play from their defense corps which is lead by human wrecking ball Dustin Byfuglien. Tyler Myers, Tobias Enstrom, Jacob Trouba and Josh Morrissey must improve in their own end.
Up front, the Jets have enviable depth. Led by vets Mark Schiefele, Blake Wheeler and Bryan Little the Jets are one of the more potent teams offensively in the NHL. Patrik Laine is arguably one of the most gifted snipers to enter the league since Alexander Ovechkin. Nikolaj Ehlers and Kyle Connor combine speed and terrific scoring ability and are really coming into their own. Minnesota would be wise to limit the amount of open looks Laine and Schiefele get and force the Jets to find their offense elsewhere.
The Jets are coming off a 5-2 loss to Columbus on Tuesday night. The Blue Jackets took full advantage of defensive lapses by the Jets and appeared to out work Winnipeg in most of the small puck battles throughout the game. I have little doubt Paul Maurice will have his troops motivated when they drop the puck tonight.
So what are the keys to the Wild winning another tough road game?
- Shut down Ehlers-Little-Laine line – This is the Jets’ most explosive line with Laine as the main trigger man, but Ehlers has been off to a fast start. If Minnesota must neutralize this line if it wants to have a chance.
- Keep it simple – There are still a lot of new faces in the Wild line up, and even though they’ve had time to practice and develop more chemistry they must keep it simple and help funnel pucks on goal and stick to simple plays. The Wild were rewarded when they drove to the net against Columbus, and they will be again especially if Mason gets the start.
- Kill the crowd – The Wild will want to keep the Bell MTS Place crowd quiet for as long as they can as the team feeds off their enthusiasm. Making the Jets’ pay for their lack of discipline on the power play is a really great way to keep the home crowd quiet.
What are your thoughts about tonight’s game? Share your answers with us at @MNSOTA24 or @CreaseAndAssist or in the comment section below!
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