Wild Rout Florida in 5-1 Home Victory

This is the time of year when you get Holiday cards from friends and family as they wish you a ‘Happy Holidays.’  Do you think the Florida Panthers had sent Gerard Gallant a Holiday card this year after firing him in rather unceremonious fashion?  Did it say something like, “Wish you were here, if only your analytics were up to our standards.”  I know that was mean, but Gallant was a casualty of the analytics movement who apparently felt the Panthers’ style of play wasn’t creating the metrics they felt their club was capable of.

General Manager Tom Rowe took over duties behind the Panthers bench and so far the team is playing a little better but was Gallant really the problem?  I don’t think so.  But team owner Vinny Viola and his pair of analytics, non-hockey assistant general managers would disagree.  In the movie Moneyball it was the Minnesota Twins that ruined the Oakland Athletics analytics Cinderella story, will the Minnesota Wild spoil this analytics decision?

1st Period Thoughts:  The 1st period had plenty of feistiness between the two non-Conference foes and it got started early.  Ryan Suter would give Vincent Trocheck a shove to the back and Florida’s 2nd leading scorer went awkwardly into the boards.  The Panthers’ training staff would attend to Trocheck and as he got up Suter offered him a little apology and based on the look on his face he wasn’t buying it at all.  It was this hit that seemed to draw the attention of the officials and for the next few minutes both clubs would get tagged with a series of penalties.  Trocheck would get into it with Charlie Coyle behind the play and both players would push and shove one another until Coyle got one last shot and he ended up being the only one tossed for roughing.  The crowd and Coyle wasn’t too happy but there wasn’t much that could be done.  On the power play the Wild did a decent job of keeping Florida to the perimeter and were aggressive on the Florida puck carriers and this drew a turnover that turned into a 2-on-1 for Eric Staal and Zach Parise.  Staal would thread a nice backhand pass to Parise who was hooked to the ice by Jaromir Jagr before he could pull the trigger.  No penalty shot for the Wild alternate captain and we’d have a bit of 4-on-4 hockey.  Minnesota would then get tagged with another penalty as a turnover in the neutral zone compelled Jonas Brodin to hook Nick Bjugstad before the former Gopher could race in on a breakaway on Devan Dubnyk.  This created a rare 4-on-3 power play.  The Panthers’ puck movement with the man advantage was very slow and not all that creative and all they managed was a few perimeter shots that Dubnyk was able to track and stop with ease.  Minnesota would get the big kill and as the penalties expired tempers would flare again.  This time it was an odd-man chance for the 4th line that had Kurtis Gabriel charging after the puck and as he was hooked and tripped up by Dylan McIlrath he’d slide on his knees into Roberto Luongo.  McIlrath would move to defend his goalie and Gabriel started throwing punches right away.  It was a pretty spirited fight, even though it was obvious Gabriel was hesitant to throw punches with his right hand.  He waited for his chance before connecting with a left hand and after well over a minute of struggle the fight would end with McIrath falling on the young Wild fighter.  Yet after the fight, it was the Panthers going on the power play as Gabriel was given an extra two minutes for goaltender interference while Bruce Boudreau was irate on the Wild bench.  Minnesota’s penalty kill was again rock solid in shutting down the Panthers’ attack.  Minnesota would take the lead as Zach Parise would fly down the left side of the ice and then fire a wrist shot that beat Luongo glove side making it 1-0 Wild.  The Wild seemed compelled to try to set up Parise and damn whatever other chances we could possibly create.  I understand the want to get Parise scoring, but the Wild were passing up obvious chances to try to thread passes to Parise when its still a 1-0 game which to me is foolish.  Minnesota would take its 1-goal lead into the intermission, with the Panthers outshooting the Wild 13-5.

2nd Period Thoughts:  The 2nd period the Wild would really start to take control even if they were not registering a lot of shots on goal.  Minnesota would add to its lead as Charlie Coyle would swing a shot on goal that was stopped by Luongo and the puck would be left near the top of the blue paint where it was deposited by an alert Erik Haula to make it 2-0.  The officiating seemed more than a little inconsistent as they were ignoring obvious calls against the Panthers as they tripped up Wild players repeatedly in the offensive zone.  The Panthers would appear to cut the Wild lead in half as Kyle Rau fired a shot that sort of went end over end that went off Dubnyk’s leg pad and in.  The Wild would challenge the play saying that it was offsides and Minnesota nailed it as Derek MacKenzie was at least 3-feet into the Wild zone by the time the puck crossed the blue line and thus it was ruled a ‘no-goal.’  That made Boudreau 4-for-6 on his challenges this season.  Minnesota would then add to its lead a few minutes later as Jason Pominville made a pretty pass to Eric Staal who turned on the jets to get behind the Panthers defense and he would be stopped on his backhand bid, but he’d bat home the rebound out of mid-air and into the back of the net to extend the Wild advantage to 3-0.  When you consider the successful challenge and Staal’s goal shortly thereafter it was huge 2-goal swing.  A broken pane of glass caused a bit of a delay as a puck shattered part of the portal that is open near the dasher glass that is used by photographers.  The cameraman suffered a facial laceration but seemed to be ok as the Xcel medical staff attended to him.  In the latter half of the period the Wild did a good job of locking things down defensively and between their play and Dubnyk absorbing pucks Minnesota was keeping Florida to ‘one and done’ type of chances.  Minnesota had to feel good about holding a 3-goal lead despite being outshot 23-13 to this point.

3rd Period Thoughts:  The physical play would continue in the 3rd as Chris Stewart dropped the gloves with McIlrath after Stewart took offense to what he felt was a bit of an elbow by the Florida defenseman.  The two would circle a bit before he’d get tangled up and the two pugilists would start throwing punches.  Stewart would try to remove his helmet and as McIlrath tried to do so, Stewart landed a punch that caught him right in the visor that gave the former Moose Jaw Warrior a cut before Stewart tackled him.  A win for Stewart.  The Panthers were not going to just roll over and they nearly cut the Wild lead to two as Jonathan Marchessault‘s long range shot hit the post and out.  Minnesota would then add to its lead as Mikael Granlund made a nice move to carry the puck into the Panthers zone and then Jason Zucker sort of spun and dished a puck over to a wide open Mikko Koivu for an easy finish.  4-0 Wild.  Just minutes after that, the Wild would add another as a turnover in the neutral zone resulted in a chance for Zucker to turn on the jets and slid a shot through Luongo, 5-hole to make it 5-0 Wild.  Luongo was enraged as he smashed his stick on the boards as he left the ice and Tom Rowe was forced to put James Reimer into the game.  The Wild were not all that aggressive after the goalie change, and after a few minutes the Panthers would spoil the shutout bid as McIlrath would step into a slap shot that would redirect off the skate of MacKenzie and by Dubnyk.  It added only a slight amount of bitterness to what was a pretty sweet 5-1 victory.

Devan Dubnyk was solid, making 29 saves in the victory.  He probably deserved a shutout tonight, but the truth is the Wild kept the Panthers from creating much in the way of chances from in close.  Defensively, the Wild did an excellent job of forcing the Panthers to the perimeter.  Ryan Suter, Jonas Brodin, Marco Scandella and Jared Spurgeon were superb.  The defense did a great job of moving the puck quickly and efficiently to make Florida’s trap a non-factor.  Minnesota was perfect on the penalty kill and that really kept Florida at bey.

Offensively the Wild got contributions from all over.  Yet I’d like to step on my soap box for a bit.  I am glad Parise got a goal, not because I expect him to go on some kind of scoring tear, but rather so the club can stop wasting lots of time trying to set him up as they had done the last few games.  The Wild need to focus on winning and scoring in general and not worry about who is getting the goals.  Take the chances that our opponents are giving us instead of trying to force pucks to one player, quality of chances be damned.  It was great to see Zucker using his speed to score tonight which is something I think the Wild need in order to keep opponents honest.

The win is Minnesota’s 5th straight and it also puts them into 2nd place in the Central Division with a loss by the St. Louis Blues.  Before the Wild celebrate too much, the Blues loss came at the hands of their next opponent the Nashville Predators.  The Predators are a fast, up-tempo team and very different from the Panthers.  Minnesota cannot rest on its laurels and can really make a statement by earning another 2 points on the road.

Wild Notes:

~ The Wild roster tonight was as follows: Mikko Koivu, Mikael Granlund, Zach Parise, Eric Staal, Charlie Coyle, Jason Zucker, Erik Haula, Nino Niederreiter, Jason Pominville, Tyler Graovac, Chris Stewart, Kurtis Gabriel, Ryan Suter, Jared Spurgeon, Jonas Brodin, Mathew Brodin, Marco Scandella and Christian Folin.  Darcy Kuemper backed up Devan Dubnyk.  Nate Prosser and Teemu Pulkkinen were the healthy scratches.

~ The 3 Stars of the Game: 1st Star Jason Pominville, 2nd Star Devan Dubnyk, 3rd Star Eric Staal

~ Tonight’s attendance was 18,754 at the Xcel Energy Center.

Iowa Wild Report:

Record: 11-13-1-1  24pts  6th in the Central

16.7% Power Play (20th in the AHL)

81.3% Penalty Kill (17th in the AHL)

Top 5 Scorers:

1. #10 Jordan Schroeder ~ 5G 12A = 17pts

2. #21 Teemu Pulkkinen ~ 8G 7A = 15th

3. #17 Alex Tuch ~ 6G 8A = 14pts

4. #12 Pat Cannone ~ 4G 10A = 14pts

5. #13 Gustav Olofsson ~ 3G 9A = 12pts

Top 3 PIM’s:

1. #3 Nick Seeler ~ 52 PIM’s

2. #27 Mike Weber ~ 50 PIM’s

3. #6 Hunter Warner ~ 24 PIM’s

Top Goaltenders:

1. #32 Alex Stalock (7-7-1)  2.81GAA  .907%SP  2SO

2. #34 Steve Michalek (4-6-1)  3.09GAA  .914%SP

Recent Score:  Iowa 4, San Antonio 0

It was Star Wars night in Des Moines and the force was strong with the Wild as they had one of their more dominant efforts of the 2016-17 season.  Iowa would take a 1-0 lead as Jeff Hoggan redirected a blast from the point by Zach Palmquist.  In the 2nd period, the Rampage tried to answer back but Alex Stalock was rock solid.  Iowa would add to its lead with less than a minute left in the 2nd as Alex Tuch kicked a shot in.  The replay was inconclusive even though it looked like Tuch swung his leg to direct it into the net so the goal stood.  Iowa would add two more goals in the 3rd on tallies from Sam Anas and Jordan Schroeder.  Stalock had 23 saves in the victory.

Wild Prospect Report:

D – Braydyn Chizen (Kelowna, WHL) ~ the big defenseman makes his way onto the scoresheet perhaps once every six games or so, and on Sunday he chipped in assist in the Rockets’ 6-5 loss to Lethbridge.  Chizen has a goal, 5 points, 31 PIM’s and is a +6 in 29 games.

C/LW – Joel Eriksson Ek (Farjestad, SHL) ~ the lanky forward has had to adjust back to the European game since his time with the Minnesota Wild earlier this fall.  The Karlstad, Sweden-native is playing on Farjestad’s 2nd line and he had an assist in their 3-2 win over Brynas.  Eriksson Ek has 2 goals, 3 points, 6 PIM’s and is a +2 in 8 games.