Minnesota Wild vs Philadelphia Flyers Preview
At a time where the Minnesota Wild are in dire need of a winning streak, they will faceoff against a Philadelphia Flyers team tonight whom the Wild beat over a month ago.
Another come back, but too little too late as the Wild fell to the Nashville Predators on Saturday night. As heartbreaking as that loss was, I like to take the positives out of it. The Wild converted on the power play, Charlie Coyle has gotten even close to breaking open a scoring surge, and Thomas Vanek appears to have found his game playing alongside Zach Parise.
One thing that has stymied the Wild lately, though, is the goaltending. Darcy Kuemper was again pulled after the first period allowing 3 goals, 2 of those goals falling into the category of soft goals. As Michael Russo, of the Star Tribune, reports, Niklas Backstrom will likely be getting the nod tonight as Wild coach Mike Yeo would like Kuemper to “Shut the brain off for a couple days over the holidays and not think about hockey.” Yeo said the same thing to Erik Haula as he will also be a healthy scratch tonight along with Justin Fontaine and Nate Prosser.
In an interview Michael Russo had with Mike Yeo this morning, Russo asked why Stu Bickel will play tonight, Yeo responded, “I will say this: It’s been pretty comfortable for other teams to come into our building and if you’ve played the game, then you understand that’s part of the game. When there’s a thought or presence of you might get hit or it might be a tough, physical game, it’s a little bit more difficult to execute, you’re not quite as quick to go back and retrieve a puck, you’re not quite as willing to go to the hard areas.”
Watch Mike Yeo’s interview here:
Another surprise is that Mikael Granlund will return to the lineup tonight playing alongside Thomas Vanek and Zach Parise despite Charlie Coyle playing very well against Nashville. Should Granlund appear sluggish, I wouldn’t be surprised if Yeo moves Coyle up to the top line at some point during the game.
The message and the mindset the Minnesota Wild need to have tonight is to play hard, and play smart. As we have seen during this difficult stretch, costly mistakes and unnecessary penalties have cost the Wild points. The Wild are doing some things right, and some things wrong. Getting a home win tonight against a pesky Flyers team can go a long way as the Wild will not play until Saturday against the Winnipeg Jets after today. As Yeo hinted during the interview, he wants teams to be scared to play at the “X,” what better night to turn things around than tonight.
Here are my three bold predictions for tonight’s game:
1. Jared Spurgeon will score his 4th goal of the season. Jared Spurgeon, who has a very underrated slap-shot, has been quiet lately as he has been held without a goal since the Wild’s victory against the Buffalo Sabres on November 13th. I think he breaks out of his slump tonight and I think he rings a nice shot off the pipe and past Flyers’ goaltender Ray Emery. As you all know, I don’t like predicting a goal by a defensemen, but Marco Scandella proved me right a few nights ago, I think Spurgeon does it tonight.
2. Zach Parise stays hot. I am going to ask the same question I asked before last game’s preview, is there a guy playing harder than Parise right now? Parise is playing out of his mind and no one wants a win more than he does. Number 1 star honors ahead for Zach Parise as he continues to find the back of the net tonight. At least two points for Parise tonight, one of those points being one goal.
3. Cap-Finn Koivu. The more I hear the name play here, the more I like it. I saw an interesting stat earlier today. Mikko Koivu is one of six Wild players to have played in every game so far this season. Koivu has missed a lot of games in the season prior with injury, it’s nice to see him in the lineup every game. I have watched Koivu closely in these last few games, he does so many good things but passes up so many shots. I would like to see him take some more shots and perhaps get some deflections or bounces in front of Emery. I like Koivu to score tonight as well.
Final score, Wild 4, Flyers 2
I hope you all have a safe and happy holidays, Let’s Go Wild!