Minnesota Wild: Missed Opportunities in the NHL Playoffs

The Minnesota Wild lost their first round playoff series to the Blues in five games largely because of a lack of finish.

The series will look like one in which St. Louis dominated en route to a five game series victory. However this very easily could have gone the Wild’s way. Goalie Jake Allen played himself one heck of a series, But you can’t help but get the feeling the Minnesota Wild missed out on plenty of opportunities to win games.

Minnesota Wild

While there were Wild players such as Charlie Coyle and Zach Parise who played well, too many top contributors were snake bitten. For specific examples, look no further than Parise’s stick preventing a goal or Staal’s wraparound left on the post.

Minnesota out shot the Blues 182-134 on the series. They took more shots in four of the five games. It did not matter because many of those shots stood little chance of going in and Allen was on his game.

For the series, Allen had a .956% save percentage. In game 1, there was little traffic in front of the net. The goalie had clear vision of the puck and was able to get in a groove. He did not give up many rebounds thanks to an effective strategy of catching the puck on the blocker side.

However, as previously stated, many top scorers could not put the puck in the net for the Wild. Of skaters who scored 10 goals during the regular season: Granlund, Niederreiter, Haula, Staal, Spurgeon, Pominville, Stewart, and Dumba did not score.

Next: Minnesota Wild: Game 4 Recap and Observations

For a team who’s success relied on a deep offensive attack, too many players simply could not put the puck in the net to win the series.