Minnesota Wild: Start the season with a strong October

Mikael Granlund tied for the team lead for the Minnesota Wild with 12 points through the month of October, more importantly he finished the month on a 9 game point streak.

The Minnesota offense started October quite slowly, with only 1 goal in each of it’s first 2 games of the season. It came alive after that, scoring at least 2 goals per game in every game since. A large part of this success is the play of veteran forward Mikael Granlund.

Granlund had 6 goals and 6 assists in October, to tie with Zach Parise (4G, 8A) for the lead among forwards . His 6 goals led the team in that category, and his 23% shooting percentage is better than NHL superstars Connor McDavid, Sidney Crosby, Filip Forsberg, and Nathan MacKinnon (among others).

This shooting pace may be hard to maintain over the course of the season, but the key here is that Granlund is not shooting any more often than is usual for him. He is taking the shots that are given to him, and the team is doing a better job setting him up.

Granlund’s NHL bests are 26 goals and 46 assists, in different seasons. At his current point per game pace, he would nearly double his best goal scoring season. Obviously shooting 23% is quite high, and we should temper expectations, but if William Karlsson can do it for one full season then it’s not out of the realm of possibility for a player of Granlund’s skill.

Eric Staal got off to a quiet start to the season, leaving some to believe he was finally regressing after an excellent 2017-18. He has picked up his game since then, though, and finished October with 10 points in 12 games on pace for another 60+ point season.

Zach Parise was the early season star of the offense, scoring points when the offensive well looked dry in the first few games. He has since quieted slightly, but still looks to be in the best shape of his Minnesota Wild career.

Charlie Coyle, Mikko Koivu, and Jason Zucker have each provided timely offence through the first month of the season, and even Nino Niederreiter has provided 5 assists despite struggling to find his first goal of the season.

Most surprising is the play of the Minnesota Wild’s 4th line, as Eric Fehr and Marcus Foligno have each provided important goals early this year. They are still searching for a permanent fixture to fill that last spot on their line, but regardless of line mate those 2 have been consistently solid players to start the season.

It was a slow start, but things have come around to end the month strong. Like the team who starts the game down 1-0 in the first period before mounting the third period comeback to steal a win, the Wild started October behind the proverbial eight ball, but have come back at the end of the month to finish strong.

With the offense firing as it is, and players like Niederreiter and Eriksson Ek still looking to break scoring slumps, it’s a promising start to a must-win season. More of this throughout the year, and we could be looking at high expectations late in the year.