Minnesota Wild: Key statistics that need some team focus
If there’s one specific thing that needs improvement and needs it fast for the Minnesota Wild, it’s the shots against count.
Granted, a three-game winning streak including a big result against the Tampa Bay Lightning does a little to mask the need to fix a bigger issue, but the Minnesota Wild are still allowing far too many shots against.
Zach Parise, Jason Zucker and Ryan Suter are all proving valuable on the offensive side of the ice, putting the pain on the opposition, but they’re doing so at the expense of allowing that same opposition to attack Devan Dubnyk or Alex Stalock‘s net.
Now, in the case of Devan Dubnyk, you have a top-tier, if not near elite goaltender. He is able to face up to high shot counts and still come away with wins. That’s what makes him so good.
Fact is, only the Anaheim Ducks have allowed more shots against per game (on average) this season. I know you can say its early days and that shooting and scoring always regresses post-October, but it needs to be fixed.
The likes of Ryan Suter, Jared Spurgeon, Matt Dumba and Greg Pateryn can’t be facing the absolute brunt of the work either. People like Eric Staal, Mikko Koivu and Nino Niederreiter need to step up and play a big two-way game to limit the break-outs and zone entries.
The Minnesota Wild desperately need to sort it out because when that regression does come, if they’re allowing shots like they are now, they’ll be dropping one-goal games here, there and everywhere.
More to the point, Devan Dubnyk will be exhausted and that is never a good thing if we want the Minnesota Wild to make it to the play-offs and beyond the first round, come next Spring.
With 36.8 shots against per game, Dubnyk and Stalock are certainly earning their pay-cheques for the Minnesota Wild.
Chances are that one or two of them is going in, regardless the calibre of your goaltender. Anything above thirty-five shots is way too many in the NHL.
Despite sitting with the second worst shots against record, the Minnesota Wild are actually middle of the table when it comes to Scoring Chances Against, sitting 16th worst in the league.
This suggests that whilst they’re allowing shots to make it on net, they’re not necessarily allowing proper chances on net. Some of these shots could well be pucks that are dumped into their zone with a bit of pace on them or very low-risk shots looking purely for rebounds.
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Further to that, the High Danger Scoring Chances Against are actually the 12th lowest across the league which further highlights that whilst they’re conceding shots against, they’re not conceding high risk shots or even so much as chances as anywhere near the same rate.
Now this is likely down to a couple of things; namely that the defensive core is actually quite a strong defensive unit. Greg Pateryn is finding his feet, Ryan Suter looks fully mended and the likes of Jonas Brodin and Jared Spurgeon are quietly doing what they do so well.
Of course, behind them the leagues sixth best save percentage also helps.
The reality is that the Minnesota Wild were very slow out of the blocks and this may well have skewed these statistics to read a lot worse than the ‘eye test’ actually tells.
Now, don;t get me wrong, in the early going this Minnesota Wild team was no fun to watch. They were getting seriously beat up on when they hit the ice.
Following such a good week this past one, I don’t think we’ll see a repeat performance. I think we now have a Minnesota Wild team that is back on-track and looking far more like the team that we iced last season in terms of its compete rate.
Realistically, it can’t be fixed overnight for the Minnesota Wild. They need a few more weeks of limiting teams shot counts.
That is the clear way to bring the averages back to a respectable place.
In turn, it’ll help the team to maintain a healthy and well-rested Devan Dubnyk. Alex Stalock has proven he can step up when he needs to, so maybe if the shot count lowers, you can afford him a little more game-time too.
Ryan Suter being back to fitness makes a huge difference, but he isn’t a fast player and we’ve yet to see the team hold up very well against the faster teams of the league.
Look at how they were hemmed in against the Carolina Hurricanes; even the overtime win against Tampa saw them struggling somewhat in this sense.
Not all problems can be fixed with the current make-up of the team, so maybe that’s a non-issue.
As long as the scoring chances, shots and especially the high danger chances are limited, I guess it doesn’t matter how; whether that’s a block, a save or a poke check; they all serve the same purpose. That purpose being keeping the puck out of the net.
Provided that continues to happen for the Minnesota Wild, they’re going to continue to see improvement this year.
Can Nino Neiderreiter break out of his slump?. dark. Next
Whether the right players can shine and ensure it’s another trip to the playoffs is anyone’s guess this early on, but the signs aren’t as bad as they seemed just a mere week or so ago. There’s life in this Minnesota Wild team yet!
Statistics courtesy of NHL.com and Natural Stat Trick.