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Minnesota Wild: Know Your Rivals – St. Louis Blues

By Luke Ryan

ST. PAUL, MN - FEBRUARY 27: Joel Eriksson Ek #14 of the Minnesota Wild and Brayden Schenn #10 of the St. Louis Blues battle for the puck during the game at the Xcel Energy Center on February 27, 2018 in St. Paul, Minnesota. (Photo by Bruce Kluckhohn/NHLI via Getty Images)
ST. PAUL, MN - FEBRUARY 27: Joel Eriksson Ek #14 of the Minnesota Wild and Brayden Schenn #10 of the St. Louis Blues battle for the puck during the game at the Xcel Energy Center on February 27, 2018 in St. Paul, Minnesota. (Photo by Bruce Kluckhohn/NHLI via Getty Images) /
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The Minnesota Wild as always faces a steep challenge to emerge from the Central Division. What about their rivals?

We’re looking at each of the teams in the Central Division in the hopes of gauging how much more or less of a threat they now are to the Minnesota Wild.

The St. Louis Blues are next on the check-list; they are looking massively improved on previous years with much stronger center depth.

They could well be all set to challenge with the big guns in the Central Division.

When Do We Face Them:

@ St. Louis (Saturday, November 3 @ 7PM)
@ St. Louis (Sunday, November 11 @ 2PM)
vs St. Louis (Sunday, February 17 @ 2PM)
vs St. Louis (Sunday, February 24 @ 6PM)

How We Match Up With Them

Adding Tyler Bozak, David Perron and Patrick Maroon on its own would signal that the team means business. The scarier part for Minnesota Wild fans is they also acquired Ryan O’Reilly at center.

Only Antoine Vermette, who we suggest would’ve been a good PTO option, is better in the face-off circle over the past few years.

The team already had high-level talent in Vladimir Tarasenko and Brayden Schenn, but now has some really impressive depth to go with it. My feeling is that the Minnesota Wild can match up to their first two lines easily enough.

It’s when we get to a third line of Robby Fabbri, Bozak and Jordan Kyrou that it becomes a bit more intriguing.

If the Minnesota Wild do decide to roll with a trio of Jordan Greenway, Charlie Coyle and Joel Eriksson Ek; they’ll need to be top of their game to face up to the offensive threats of the Blues’ group.

Catching Jake Allen on a bad day can certainly be a hope for the Minnesota Wild; he’s no longer backed-up by the ever reliable Carter Hutton.

Their replacement in the backup role, Chad Johnson had a decidedly poor year last time around. He will probably benefit from being a backup, as opposed to a miscast starter.

I’m actually thinking that St. Louis could prove to be the Wild’s bogey team in the division this year. There’s something about their center depth that makes me a little bit fearful.

Let’s home I’m wrong and we can near-on sweep the series. Last year, we went four out of five against them; maybe we can turn that into a 100% record in 2018-19.

Related Story. Know Your Rivals - Dallas Stars. light

I firmly believe that the Blues will be challenging, if not near the top of the division, at least as a strong bet for the wild card spot.

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