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Minnesota Wild: Right on pace for play-offs post-Thanksgiving

By Luke Ryan

ST. PAUL, MN - APRIL 15: Minnesota Wild Left Wing Zach Parise (11) celebrates his 1st period goal during game 3 of a round one Stanley Cup Playoff matchup between the Minnesota Wild and Winnipeg Jets on April 15, 2018 at Xcel Energy Center in St. Paul, MN. The Wild defeated the Jets 6-2. (Photo by Nick Wosika/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)
ST. PAUL, MN - APRIL 15: Minnesota Wild Left Wing Zach Parise (11) celebrates his 1st period goal during game 3 of a round one Stanley Cup Playoff matchup between the Minnesota Wild and Winnipeg Jets on April 15, 2018 at Xcel Energy Center in St. Paul, MN. The Wild defeated the Jets 6-2. (Photo by Nick Wosika/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images) /
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Thanksgiving in the United States has often been used as a marker for NHL teams. If you’re in the hunt for the play-offs, you want to ensure that by Thanksgiving weekend, you’re up there. Thankfully, this isn’t a concern for the Minnesota Wild.

Whilst logic like this is often flawed, for the most part, you can look at the previous season’s standings, check where each team was on the holiday weekend and draw a direct line between being in contention then and at the end of the year. If key guys like Mikael Granlund keep pace for the Minnesota Wild, it certainly will be the case this year.

The key in the logic is to have a strong start to the year and be able to maintain it. The Vegas Golden Knights were the best example last year; so many people didn’t expect them to maintain a start fuelled by a ground-swell of emotion. At Thanksgiving, they were firmly in play-off contention, yet people still expected them to fade.

They, as we all know, did quite the opposite and ended up the losing Stanley Cup finalists.

Looking at last season’s standings in the Western Conference, it actually spoke to how challenging the Central Division was:

  1. St. Louis Blues
  2. Winnipeg Jets
  3. Nashville Predators
  4. Vegas Golden Knights
  5. Los Angeles Kings
  6. Calgary Flames
  7. Vancouver Canucks (wild card)
  8. Colorado Avalanche (wild card)

The Minnesota Wild are nowhere to be seen in terms of a play-off spot at Thanksgiving, yet by season’s end managed to be there.

By the end of the year, those final standings looked like this:

  1. Nashville Predators
  2. Winnipeg Jets
  3. Vegas Golden Knights
  4. Minnesota Wild
  5. Anaheim Ducks
  6. San Jose Sharks
  7. Los Angeles Kings (wild card)
  8. Colorado Avalanche (wild card)

Five of the eight teams in contention on the holiday weekend ended up making the play-offs. Applying the same logic at this point in time sees the Minnesota Wild facing off with the Colorado Avalanche in the first round.

That, at this point, seems a more winnable match-up than another with the Winnipeg Jets!

Either way, it’s going to take another half-season (and a bit) of consistent performances to ensure home ice, something which may prove vital to finally bringing some Minnesota Wild play-off success to the long-suffering fan base.

It speaks to the strength of the Central Division that there are four teams comfortably in the play-off bubble just after Thanksgiving, with a fifth, the Chicago Blackhawks breathing down the necks of those ahead of them.

Hopefully, the Wild can keep doing as they’re doing; maybe improve the penalty-killing a little and keep the shots away from their goalies a bit better, but otherwise just remain consistent.

Next. A one-for-one trade for Nino?. dark

If they can do that, there’s at least another round of play-off hockey coming to St. Paul come season end!

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