Wild vs Coyotes Preview
After a tough loss on Thursday night in San Jose, the Wild travel head south to play the Coyotes.
This game marks an opportunity for the Wild to gain some momentum before they head in to the United Center on Tuesday to faceoff against the Blackhawks. The Coyotes are spiraling downward right now as they have lost 9 of their last 11 games and have been outscored 19 goals to 5 in their last 4.
The Coyotes have only posted a strong power-play percentage at 20.8 percent, the other three major categories (goals per game, goals against per game, and penalty kill percentage) are all ranked 25th in the league or worse. The Coyotes main goaltender, Mike Smith has been struggling this season going 5-14-2 in 22 starts with a 3.35 GAA and a .889 save percentage. Back-up goaltender Devan Dubnyk has played better posting a 5-2-1 record with a 2.74 GAA and a .918 save percentage.
The Wild can’t seem to put a strong winning streak together and are currently watching other teams in the Central Division do just that. The Chicago Blackhawks have won 8 games in a row, the Nashville Predators have won 7 of their last 9, and the St. Louis Blues have won 3 in a row but are scoring much more efficiently as of late.
The Wild know what’s in front of them and they now how important games like this are. I like the chemistry forming between the Parise–Granlund–Vanek line, in a couple more games I think this line will be unstoppable. At the same time, I thought the newly formed Pominville–Koivu–Zucker line looked really strong as well. I would like to see Charlie Coyle up in that line and Jason Zucker on the third to see if that sparks the third line as well. We will see if Coach Yeo makes that adjustment in tonight’s game.
December 11, 2014; San Jose, CA, USA; Minnesota Wild defenseman Christian Folin (5) shoots the puck against the San Jose Sharks during the third period at SAP Center at San Jose. The Sharks defeated the Wild 2-1. Mandatory Credit: Kyle Terada-USA TODAY Sports
After seeing an improved power-play in their two games prior to the one in San Jose, the power-play was a dud in the Shark Tank. I will credit the Sharks here though, I thought they played us very well, they were ready to defend everything we do well and they threw it back at us. Our passes were off, there seemed to be confusion across all aspects of the game, and we didn’t look to have everything in order until late in the game, a recurring theme that will also have to change sometime soon.
As Michael Russo, of the Star Tribune,wrote earlier today, a heated Mike Yeo was fiery during practice saying, ““We’re tired of being on the cusp, we’re tired of being close and we need to demand better than what we’ve been bringing. We’re better than what we’ve been showing consistently. We can look at last game (a 2-1 loss at San Jose) and we can say we were close and we could have won the game, but we can’t accept saying that.”
Here are my three bold predictions for tonight’s game.
1. The game will be over in the first period. I think this will be a statement game for the Minnesota Wild. Score early, dominate all aspects of the game, and allow the fans to exit the arena early. I think we score at least 5 goals tonight in a rout. I don’t think much more needs to be said here.
2. Thomas Vanek will continue to get hot. Even though Vanek didn’t record any points on Thursday night’s game, I thought he played really well and he put himself in many scoring opportunities in front of the net. I think he will continue to play well with Parise and Granlund and I look forward to him scoring a goal or two again tonight. I think he is definitely finding his game.
3. The Wild hold the ‘Yotes to one goal or less. To dominate all phases of the game, the goaltenders have to dominate on their end as well. Darcy Kuemper played well enough to get the start again tonight and I think he will build off his performance in Thursday night’s game and get some consistency back in his game. This will be an important game for Kuemper. I don’t think he will be greatly challenged, but he will need to create a statement for himself to get the confidence back that we know he has.