Minnesota Wild: Staal Needs to Pull Out of Second Half Stall

Eric Staal was having a great season climbing back into the top of the NHL elite. But now the second half of the season has brought a slowdown that Staal will need to work through to keep the Wild’s rise to the top and his own resurgence going strong into the playoffs.

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The first half of the season was something special for Eric Staal. The veteran center had silenced a lot of critics by showing he had a lot more scoring production left in the tank then most were giving him credit for. The big kid from Thunder Bay had shown he’s still an elite NHL talent by posting a solid 39 points (14 goals and 25 assists) in the season’s first 41 games with an excellent +15 in plus/minus.

Now starting the second half of the season we have seen for lack of a better term a bit of a stall in Staal’s point production. Starting on January 15th, which marked the beginning of the Wild’s second half of their 82 game season, Staal has only been able to muster 5 points (2 goals and 3 assists) in 15 games and is -8 in plus/minus to boot. That’s a huge difference and one that has Wild fans scratching their heads a bit.

Jan 21, 2017; Saint Paul, MN, USA; Minnesota Wild forward Eric Staal (12) during a game between the Anaheim Ducks and Minnesota Wild at Xcel Energy Center. The Wild defeated the Ducks 5-3. Mandatory Credit: Brace Hemmelgarn-USA TODAY Sports /

In the first half of the season Staal was the first line’s rock playing virtually all his minutes as the center for the Wild’s top line. That might have worn the 32 year-old veteran out just a bit. Back on February 4th Michael Russo of the Star Tribune asked Bruce Boudreau about Staal’s slow down to which the Wild Head Coach was not concerned blaming it largely on the “normal doldrums” players experience in a season.

On the surface many would blame his line mates as Charlie Coyle and Zach Parise had slow-downs while they were playing with Staal. Now both of them have heated up a bit, but they are now down mainly on the third-line together which Staal is not reaping the benefits from. And the fact that rookie Alex Tuch is learning on the job while on Staal’s line probably doesn’t help in the scoring department either.

Dec 27, 2016; Nashville, TN, USA; Minnesota Wild center Eric Staal (12) skates with the puck in the overtime period against the Nashville Predators at Bridgestone Arena. Minnesota won 3-2 in overtime. Mandatory Credit: Christopher Hanewinckel-USA TODAY Sports /

But he has been playing with Nino Niederreiter quite a bit, and Nino has been able to put points on the board lately to the tune of 5 points (3 goals and 2 assists) in his last 5 games. Sure 2 of those goals were on the power play, but at even strength playing with Staal Niederreiter is flourishing while Staal is declining a bit.

To blame the players around him is really the smallest of a two point issue. The bigger issue is Staal himself, and he’ll be the first to admit that his slowdown is on his shoulders to fix. As he told Russo at the beginning of the month “I think I can get back to being a little more assertive, getting hungry, getting to the net, attacking a little more and using my speed and my legs. A lot of my game is with my legs and using my speed and power. I need to get to the net a little more and things will take care of themselves.”