Minnesota Wild: Must Learn To Play Possession Game

In their recent shoot-out loss to the Vegas Golden Knights, the Minnesota Wild had pretty dire possession statistics. This needs to be fixed.

Whilst we are early in the season, you can’t overlook the fact that the Minnesota Wild have had huge struggles with maintaining possession through their opening games.

You only need look at the fact Devan Dubnyk faced 38 shots to the 27 that Marc-Andre Fleury faced to realise they were out-played.

When you expand beyond that one statistic, you can see even more clearly that they weren’t really a real chance in the game; they came away from their home opener lucky to have a single point in the standings, as their Corsi score of 37.5% is a sign of an incredibly timid display.

Per Wikipedia, Corsi is used ‘to measure shot attempt differential while at even strength play. This includes shots on goal, missed shots on goal, and blocked shot attempts towards the opposition’s net minus the same shot attempts directed at your own team’s net.’

Hence you can see, as a statistic it gives a pretty clear idea of how a team is performing. The Minnesota Wild found themselves thoroughly out-worked on the night. The need for youth and speed is clear.

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Now, you could argue there was a little bit of luck to the Vegas Golden Knights evening up that game, given Max Pacioretty didn’t do so until the third period, but few would argue that the goal came against the run of play.

Looking up and down the line-up, the only offensive players putting up decent relative Corsi scores on the night were the fourth liners.

They see limited ice time and against the opposition fourth line, so it’s a bit of a misnomer.

When we look at those players; Eric Fehr, Marcus Foligno and Matt Hendricks – they’re seeing about 8 minutes of ice time each; hardly an indication of dominant play, just a sign that we have a decent enough fourth line.

Relative to the rest of the Minnesota Wild line-up, only Mikael Grandlund and Eric Staal were positive players last game.

Now obviously there’s far more to hockey than one small group of statistics derived from one game. There’s a reason that most clubs employ a combination of analytics and the age-old ‘eye test’, but the Minnesota Wild looked poor either way.

If they’re to improve, their ability to play a possession game will be key.