The Minnesota Wild made it to the All-Star break on pace for the team’s best regular season in their 16 NHL campaigns since entering the league. Still the inner skeptic of most of the State of Hockey keeps fans from believing completely in this team, but look at the numbers and you might just believe even more in this team.
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Minnesota sports fans have always approached their teams’ successes with a healthy dose of skepticism. There’s just been too many heartbreaks and too many unrealized potential for any of us to go all in on any one of our teams no matter how good they might be. I could run down the list of disappointing moments and seasons, but I’d rather not keep you here all day.
The Wild are in the midst of their best season since their inaugural season in 2000-01. They not only are leading their division at the All-Star break, they lead their conference as well. And while everyone is excited and there is a huge buzz surrounding the Wild, there still seems to be that healthy dose of skepticism.
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The past collapses of the Wild have become things of legend that are burned into the collective memories of the State of Hockey. So strong are those memories that even when the Wild are in a position like they are now, many are quick to not go all in on this team for fear of another disappointment.
The fact is though perhaps this is the Wild team to finally go all in on. Why not? If they’ve made it through over half the season (48 games) and are 32-11-5 with a Conference high +51 goal differential, what’s indicating their impending collapse?
In the past the Wild have been talented with much the same lineup they have now, but there has always been underline issues that have indicated maybe you shouldn’t believe in them quite yet. Whether it was goal differential, player production, or ability to string consistent winning/point streaks the Wild teams of the past usually looked to be a team that was destined to finish where they have as a Wild Card and out in the first or second round of the playoffs.
This season is different though and the team numbers show a Wild team that looks to be able to keep this performance up for quite a while and make a deep run into the playoffs.
The Wild are, as mentioned before, posting an outstanding goal differential of +51, which is +41 points higher than their nearest Western Conference competitors in that category the Chicago Blackhawks. That means that when looking at ability to outscore a team, the Wild are doing it much better than any team in their conference and they are playing a much more complete game than any other team in the West.
Player production is very balanced right now. None of the Wild players are in the top ten in NHL scoring, but they don’t need to be because collectively the Wild roster has scored 427 points which makes their roster the 4th best scoring roster in the NHL. Even more impressive is that the Wild have seven players (Granlund, Staal, Coyle, Niederreiter, Koivu, Zucker, and Suter) all over the 30-point mark, which is the most in the NHL. When most of the roster is a proven threat to score, it’s hard to defend and matchup for an opponent which is a strength the Wild have not had in the past.
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Finally, the Wild this season have avoided the losing streaks that have hurt them badly in the past. They’ve been so consistent this season the Wild’s longest losing streak of the season only lasted three games, they’re longest pointless streak was only two games long, and in the 25 games since the beginning of December the Wild have only been pointless in 3 of those games. The Wild of 2016-17 are a team that doesn’t stay down for long and keeps adding points to the standings on an extremely consistent basis.
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Rolling all that up and looking at the team’s performance and their stats, it’s really okay to go all in on this Wild team this season. They are a strong, balanced scoring, and resilient team that doesn’t lose in streaks. Take that into account in a playoff series and you see a team that will be tough to beat, because they don’t really lose more than one game at a time. So, when the inner Minnesota skeptic in you pops up just listen to reason because the facts give you little to be skeptical about.