Minnesota Wild: Sizing Up the Central Division
As predicted the Minnesota Wild face another road long this season in what all experts can agree is the NHL’s toughest division. The Central Division right now as it stands boasts six of seven teams above .500, and four of those teams are above 20 pts already in the season to include the Wild. The Wild are an impressive 9-3-2 with 20 pts, but that’s only good for 3rd in the Division. Now that’s what I call competitive!
So with this small mid-week break in play I figure I’d take a minute to give you a quick size up of the Central and you can see for yourself just what the Wild are facing and how they can overcome each of these foes.
1) Dallas Stars (12-4-0): This was something we all saw coming. The Stars are a deep well coached team that was actually predicted to do this last year. Some injuries and inconsistent goaltender play forced them into a tough spot. This year has been different, Dallas’ one two combination of Jamie Benn and Tyler Seguin the Stars have scored 56 goals which is second in the league. Still the one weak area on this team might be that their defense despite and upgrade of Johnny Oduya has largely under preformed with 42 goals against which is 17th in the NHL. So to me this says to beat the Stars all the Wild or any other team needs to do is to keep them to as low a goal total as possible and then exploit their weak defense and goaltending.
2) St. Louis Blues (11-3-1): The Blues shook things up this offseason and traded T.J. Oshie to the Caps in a move that was largely regarded as a mistake. Coach Ken Hitchcock was retained for at least another year and to start the season the Blues have had many of their key players to include Paul Stastny on IR. Still this team is winning largely to great goaltending play from young goaltender Jake Allen who is leading the NHL in Shutouts with three. Also the Blues are playing a gritty style of grinding hockey whereby only three players who taken the ice this season are a minus in plus/minus rating. Still I’d largely say that this Blues team is still the same as the team that the Wild beat in the playoffs last year. To be successful against them this year it will simply take high tempo and high shot game to be successful just like the Wild did in the playoffs.
3) Minnesota Wild (9-3-2): The Wild are looking to forget their painful exit from the playoffs last year and live up to the potential that so many know their team possesses. So far this season it looks like they are on track to do that. Overall this Wild team has seen a consistent up and down the line-up contribution. You see veterans, young players, defensemen, forwards, and goalies all doing their part night in and night out. It’s really been a season of “Who’s going to be the hero tonight”.
4) Nashville Predators (9-3-2): Nashville is another team that carries about the same strong team from last year into this season. Furthermore, it’s the strengths from last season that can be pointed to as the strengths in this season. Their netminder Pekka Rinne hasn’t been great but he’s winning games, while the Preds play solid defense in front of him. I’d say the key to beating this team lies in breaking that defense and scoring early to get them behind. Right now they are at the league average in goals for, so that says to me their ability to make up a deficit is a bit in question.
5) Winnipeg Jets (8-6-2): The Jets are building on a solid season in which they unexpectedly made the playoffs as the eighth seed. They have continued to grow as a team and have shown great scoring touch up and down the line-up even after the loss of Evander Kane. Former Gopher Blake Wheeler leads a group of talented forwards who seem to be putting the puck in the net consistently. The weakness this team shows is on defense as evidence by their 46 goals allowed which currently ranks them 25th in the NHL. So the way the Wild can beat this unit is to simply play the shutdown defense they can play and pepper the goaltender with shots.
6) Chicago Blackhawks (8-6-1): The defending Stanley Cup Champions had a hard offseason. Due to salary cap limitations they were forced to take many of the supporting pieces of their team and sell them off. Many thought that they still had their core intact and they would still succeed, but they have certainly felt the pain of the void created by those players who left. Goaltender Cory Crawford is playing well just not shutdown well, Patrick Kane is currently the league co-leader in goals, but the defense has been off this year with an injury to Duncan Keith and the absence of Johnny Oduya. The Wild have a chance to shake off this Blackhawks team this year by doing what they did in their first meeting this year, play them hard for three solid periods. Stop Kane and Toews and they don’t have the same punch after them like that have had in the past.
Next: Defensemen are Driving the Team
7) Colorado Avalanche (5-9-1): It’s been a challenge for this team ever since they came out of nowhere to win the Central Division two seasons ago. Patrick Roy’s group of youngsters is working their hardest to get back to that form. Nate McKinnon is still considered a great young talent, but he just hasn’t seen the success he saw that season. Additionally it can be said that Semyon Varlamov might be in decline a bit, but I would argue his sub-par numbers might be due to the bad defensive showing by the rest of the team. For the Wild to beat the Avs they simply need to play their game and grab the lead fast, because this team doesn’t have the scoring punch to make it back.