The 7 Best Minnesota Wild Stats Of The Week

Jan 10, 2015; Saint Paul, MN, USA; Minnesota Wild forward Charlie Coyle (3) celebrates his goal with forward Nino Niederreiter (22) during the first period against the Nashville Predators at Xcel Energy Center. Mandatory Credit: Brace Hemmelgarn-USA TODAY Sports

2. 56.2%

56.2% is the Corsi For% of Charlie Coyle and Nino Niederreiter when they’re on the ice together this season. Charlie Coyle has a 47% CF% without Niederreiter and Niederreiter has a 49.2% CF% without Coyle. That’s a pretty strong argument for keeping these guys on the ice together. And this isn’t an abbreation created by a small sample size. They’ve been on the ice together for 417:22 of 5-on-5 play. Coyle has 416:04 of 5-on-5 without Niederreiter and Niederreiter has 338:36 without Coyle at 5-on-5.

2.5 53%

More WOWY numbers, kids. 53% is the Corsi For% of Justin Fontaine, Erik Haula, and Kyle Brodziak. This trio does have a bit of a sample size issue at play. There has only been 42:45 of 5-on-5 ice time with all three on the ice, but there isn’t anyone watching the Wild who hasn’t noticed how strong this trio has been recently.

Two of these three players are showing better possession numbers when they’re together than apart. Part of that for Haula could be that he’s just playing better recently and that’s when this group has been a line, but it’s a line worth keeping together to see if they can maintain the strong possession numbers and it seems like Mike Yeo has noticed, as it’s been one of the few lines that’s been kept in tact recently. (Until Tuesday night, when it appears that Fontaine will be moving to third line and Sean Bergenheim will get dropped down to fourth.)

Apart from each other, Haula is posting a 49.6% CF%, Brodziak is at 45.5%, and Fontaine is at 53.5%.

stats via Puckalytics