Minnesota Wild: Losses cause dip in Power Rankings perceptions
The Minnesota Wild came crashing back to Earth the past week as they continued a poor streak that saw three losses in four games to the Capitals, Sabres and then divisional rivals, the Blackhawks.
These all fell roughly within the same week that many pundits use for their Power Rankings. As a result, we’ll be ignoring the recent improvements against the Senators and the combative win over the Jets. Those results will be sure to boost what the analysts think of the Minnesota Wild next week!
For the most part, the line-up has remained the same; the Minnesota Wild have been relatively lucky when it comes to injuries, especially when it comes to losing star players. In past seasons, this has not been the case with Zach Parise and Ryan Suter among the names to miss decent chunks of game-time.
As a result, it’s fair to say that any scorelines are real in the sense that the Minnesota Wild aren’t being affected by having to ice less than full-strength line-ups.
Mike Harrington of Buffalo News is the first person we look to; unsurprisingly he rates his hometown Sabres in third; their win over the Wild just one of many recently.
However, despite the somewhat patchy form of late, he isn’t willing to knock Minnesota too far down his rankings. Placing the Wild fifth is only a one place drop despite two losses. He also notes that Matt Dumba has been an elite player for the side, as the first defenseman to score 10 goals in 22 games in ten years!
Heading to Ottawa and another local publication; Michael Traikos of the Ottawa Sun isn’t quite able to show the same hometown bias, as the Senators aren’t on any sort of streak.
Back-to-back losses are the sole reason he isn’t moving the Minnesota Wild from eighth spot in his rankings.
It’s actually surprising not to see a slight drop, rather than maintaining a stable spot on the back of losses, especially as one was against a lowly divisional rival in the Chicago Blackhawks.
Leaving the locals, what do some of the bigger guys think of the Minnesota Wild?
Cody Benjamin of CBS Sports doesn’t seem to think the team is doing too badly, leaving the Minnesota Wild in his top five ranked teams.
He thinks that, we as fans, should be thankful for Bruce Boudreau and his ability to get the best possible results from the team in the regular season.
Dropping us down from third is very fair given the two losses the team suffered; frankly, I’m surprised it wasn’t a bigger fall.
Sportsnet have three Canadian teams ranked above Minnesota, which actually doesn’t reek of bias, it’s probably quite fair. Realistically, the Toronto Maple Leafs have been better than us, the Winnipeg Jets and Calgary Flames, not so much, but of late, yes.
Anyhow, they have the Minnesota Wild sitting in seventh spot and in giving their quarter-season report card find it surprising that an ageing core has managed to be as effective as it has been.
Over at Yahoo, Ryan Lambert serves up one of the biggest Power Rankings drops for the Wild; moving us down from fourth, the week before, to ninth this week.
He comments that he stated the team was ‘for real’, before then seeing them fall on three of four occasions. This is one of those eating your words moments, so it’s unsurprising that the pundit wanted to rank us lower!
Also, yet another column questioning any play-off chances.
Sitting high in fourth spot on the Sports Illustrated rankings, they don’t seem to mind being proven wrong and have high praise for the recent form of Mikael Granlund.
Two more writers placing the Minnesota Wild in their top ten
Dan Rosen of the NHL.com drops the Minnesota Wild down a place in this week’s Super 16, from sixth to seventh.
He points to the team’s biggest hit being the rate of scoring coming on the power-play of late and of how it’s been relatively consistent all season long, so there shouldn’t be shrinking returns.
The biggest miss is the lack of even-strength goal scoring, especially in recent losses.
It’s all well and good to put the puck away on the power-play, but you need to be able to pull it off five-on-five in case the referees decide to put their whistles away for a night!
ESPN writer, Greg Wyshynski had a very Thanksgiving-themed Power Rankings this week; not looking at what the Minnesota Wild should be thankful for, but rather comparing teams to the food that makes up a Thanksgiving feast!
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Divisional rivals, the Nashville Predators are named as the perfectly crafted stuffing; King of the Thanksgiving dinner plate.
Meanwhile, the Toronto Maple Leafs with their up-and-coming squad are the feast, but catered by a Michelin-starred restaurant.
The Minnesota Wild, sitting in sixth place for the second consecutive week in Greg’s rankings, are named as green bean casserole.
It really does sum the team up well to any outsider; there isn’t anything particularly fancy but equally there’s nothing at all wrong with the team.
It’s tasty, it hits the spot; the Wild play well, they win games – he has the perfect parallel.
Unfortunately, he can’t help but take a jab at the lack of people going back for a second round; a jab at the team’s lack of play-off success.
Next. Eric Martinsson seemingly set to depart for Sweden. dark
All in all, it was a week to forget and the Power Rankings reflect that. There weren’t substantial changes in the Minnesota Wild’s placement and as long as the losses aren’t the sign of a bigger rot setting in, the team will climb back up next week.