Minnesota Wild: Three takeaways from their loss to the Toronto Maple Leafs

The Minnesota Wild went down to the Toronto Maple Leafs 5-3 on Saturday night, but didn’t go down without a fight.

On the night, the Minnesota Wild vastly out-shot their opponent to the tune of 41 shots to 23, but despite that, they succumbed to a 5-3 loss on their home ice. Far from letting all of the talk around the newly re-signed William Nylander distract them; it actually seemed to focus the resurgent Maple Leafs.

Of all the players to net a goal against them too, Tyler Ennis, who the Minnesota Wild let go in the summer, was one of them. He managed just 8 goals in a whole season with the Wild, the goal against them is his 4th this year already, whilst fulfilling fourth-line duties.

Far from struggling though, the Minnesota Wild actually seemed like they may come out of the game with at least a point. They were down 2-0 early on and showed a lot of fight to bring the game to a 3-3 tie with five minutes left in the third period.

Unfortunately though, they suffered the ignominy of some bad puck luck when Nazem Kadri‘s late game-winner bounced off Nick Seeler to deflect past Devan Dubnyk in the Wild net.

The sheer volume of shots they put on net was testament to how much the Minnesota Wild wanted a result. Unfortunately, the Maple Leafs’ goalie Frederick Andersen, showed form that Dubnyk at the other end hasn’t been able to of late.

The result can’t be hung on one player individually, but there were some certain frailties in the Minnesota team’s performance that need addressing.

Minnesota Wild special teams lack any finish

The Minnesota Wild special teams proved lacking and it’s well-known that if you can’t get the game going with a man-advantage, you’re also likely to struggle at full-strength.

First and foremost, the Wild did a decent job of limiting the speedy Maple Leafs to just the one power-play.

However, the Maple Leafs top power-play unit features elite names like Mitch Marner, Auston Matthews and John Tavares. It’s a power-play that is proving, especially since the return of Matthews from injury, to not need more than one chance.

Unfortunately, that was exactly what occurred. The Maple Leafs required just 45 seconds to net the game’s opening goal, after Matt Dumba hooked Patrick Marleau.

This isn’t to berate the penalty-kill of the Wild; few teams can defend the speed and skill that Toronto move the puck about with at 5-on-4.

The Minnesota Wild power-play, by comparison, proved feeble. Despite having three opportunities with the extra-man, the Wild only managed two power-play shots on net.

Whilst obviously not boasting the same level of offensive talent on the man-advantage, the Wild should be able to generate enough to take at least one goal from six minutes of power-play time.

Given the size of the players they can place in front of net, with the likes of Charlie Coyle and Jordan Greenway, and the slick hands of Jason Zucker and Mikael Granlund, you expect a little more.

This isn’t a new problem either; it’s been the case for quite some time. If the Minnesota Wild are to trend upwards again and put themselves firmly back into the contention for the play-offs, they need to find a way to spark life into their special teams.

Eric Staal couldn’t catch a break for the Minnesota Wild

You had to feel a little for Eric Staal; this was the Canadian-born Staal’s first ever Saturday night appearing on their flagship broadcast, ‘Hockey Night in Canada’.

However, given it was the Toronto Maple Leafs in town, Staal knew he’d have to have at least a two-goal night to get a chance at an intermission interview and the elusive towel that is given out.

He managed to open the scoring late in the first period, taking a two-goal game to one and changing the momentum when his team returned to the ice after the intermission.

With five shots on net, you couldn’t say he wasn’t trying. Eric Staal tried again and again to best Andersen in the Maple Leafs net and again and again from himself denied.

Some of it was down to bad luck, but realistically it was a case of running into a hot goaltender and not getting the perfect tape-to-tape passes needed to best him.

Staal showed up in other areas on the ice too; with a team-leading two takeaways and a comfortable 50% face-off winning percentage – no mean feat given the center depth of the Toronto team.

It’s fair to say that he might have had one of his best games of the year, despite just netting the single goal. Maybe the Minnesota Wild need the Canadian television cameras to show up more regularly!

If it was that which spurred Staal on, it’s going to be hard to recreate it; hopefully it’s more a case of veteran experience knowing that the team is trending downwards and doing everything he can to pull them out of the slump. Who knows though!

With Vancouver next on the schedule, the Minnesota Wild would be wise to rest up, reset and come out all guns blazing once more. Surely they won’t run into another in-form goalie!

Statistics courtesy of Natural Stat Trick.