The Minnesota Wild are officially five games into their season and it has been an up and down road. They won their first game against the St. Louis Blues on the road in a dominant 5-0 win, but their next game was the home opener and they fell 7-4 to the Columbus Blue Jackets. Their next three games continued the rollercoaster as they defeated the Los Angeles Kings in a shootout at home, and from there they moved on.
The first two games of their five-game road trip ended in losses as they fell to both the Dallas Stars and, most recently, the Washington Capitals. The Wild have had their fair share of good and bad games, but they need to get back to winning ways soon. In this article, we’ll take a look at five notes through the first five games of their season, starting with their power play.
Wild’s power play stands alone
It’s safe to say that everyone in the NHL is aware of the Wild’s power play by now, even after these back-to-back losses. With a power play percentage of 43.5 percent, they lead the league and have a five percent lead over second place. They have scored nine goals in the league, with a man advantage, and that is one of the reasons they have managed to stay in games.
While scoring on the power play is great, it can’t be the only way a team can score, but that has almost been the case for the Wild. They have had a lot of success on the power play, but at even strength they struggle to put the puck in the net. Out of the five matches they have played, they have only scored five even-strength goals and one five-a-side goal. The leaders in five-on-five goals are the Carolina Hurricanes and the Chicago Blackhawks, who have scored 15 goals at even strength.
The Wild must find a way to keep their power play success going, but also increase their equally strong goals. They have been given opportunities; they just had a hard time getting them in there. Their shots go over the net or are blocked; however, it’s still very early in the season and they have time to figure this out.
Wild’s matchups are still a problem
This is an issue that happens every season, it seems, for the Wild, and it continues to cost them. They have lost countless scoring opportunities due to lost faceoffs, and the opposite is true when giving up scoring opportunities to the opponent due to lost faceoffs. Even the power play success can’t be attributed to faceoff wins, as they’ve only won 50 percent of their faceoffs on the man advantage.
However, that percentage is higher than their overall faceoff percentage, so they are figuring out how to be more successful at winning faceoffs based on the man advantage. On the other hand, their penalty kill matchups need quite a bit of help, as they’ve only won 43.3 percent of them, but luckily their penalty kill isn’t doing too bad. They’ve only allowed five goals while shorthanded, but again, things are going in a direction they don’t want to go.
Again, while it’s early in the season and they have time, they have a shorter window to get their matchups moving in the right direction. If they don’t, teams will find out and more goals against will follow, so they need to start winning faceoffs sooner rather than later.
Wild’s top line shines
With Mats Zuccarello dropped out due to injurysome were unsure how things would play out since Kirill Kaprizov would not have his main partner. However, he fits well with Matt Boldy and Marco Rossi, which is no surprise. The line has a lot of chemistry, and outside of Ryan Hartman and Marcus Johansson, their line is the only one that has contributed at even strength. They are also the reason the power play has been so strong.
They have achieved more with the man advantage than with equal strength, but that is not for a lack of trying. They had chances, but didn’t follow through in, especially for Boldy and Kaprizov, who each have 20 or more shots on goal. Rossi hasn’t fired that many shots, but he’s also the only one of the group with a goal at even strength.
It can be frustrating when the goals aren’t coming, but this top line is one that keeps trying. They are the most competitive players on the team and they keep forcing chances until something clicks. Hopefully they can achieve the goals quickly and help their team secure some wins.
Wild’s goaltending is chaotic
The Wild’s losses cannot rest solely on the shoulders of their goalkeepers, or at least on Filip Gustavsson, as he has suffered all the losses so far, with Jesper Wallstedt playing just one game. Neither goalkeeper put in a bad performance, but each scored goals that they could easily have scored wants to go back. Gustavsson had a great first game with a shutout, but after that it started to get more difficult.
Again, these losses are not solely on his shoulders, but he has had his fair share of struggles against the Capitals. He was also sidelined a few times by his defense, which forgot to cover the weak side. Gustavsson is a strong goalkeeper who can make the big saves, but he also needs defensive help.
Wallstedt has only played one game so far, but he will likely be in net against the Philadelphia Flyers on Saturday night, October 18, in the second half of another back-to-back. In the one game he played, he had a strong performance until the Kings scored three straight goals in the third to tie the game. However, when it came to overtime and a shootout, he stood taller than anyone expected and showed he could handle the pressure. It will be interesting to see how he does as the season goes on.
Game needs young guns
The final note of the Wild’s first five games is the performance of their young players. Liam Öhgren, Danila Yurov, Hunter Haight and David Jiříček have all played matches this season and have unfortunately been relatively quiet. This is expected of Haight and Yurov as they are still very new to the NHL, but Öhgren and Jiříček could make their presence more known.
No one expects them to score or make game-changing plays every night, but a little more aggression and confidence would be great. The fourth line in particular needs a little more assertiveness outside of Vinnie Hinostroza. Yurov has improved with every match he plays, but Öhgren needs a little more time to fully adapt.
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Haight only had a pretty good showing for a few games, but he was sent down to the Iowa Wild in the American Hockey League (AHL) to get some more playing time instead of watching from the press box. The same goes for Jiříček, who struggled a bit in the NHL, so he needs something time in the AHL to get things going.
The Wild may have some major issues in their game, but it’s so early in the season that they have time to fix them. However, every point counts, even those early in the season, so they need to figure it out quickly so they don’t lose too much ground to their opponents, otherwise they may struggle to make up for it later. Hopefully they can still come out of this current road trip with some wins.
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