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

By Luke Ryan

ST. PAUL, MN - DECEMBER 01: Nino Niederreiter #22 of the Minnesota Wild and Connor Brown #28 of the Toronto Maple Leafs battle for the puck during a game at Xcel Energy Center on December 1, 2018 in St. Paul, Minnesota.(Photo by Bruce Kluckhohn/NHLI via Getty Images)
ST. PAUL, MN - DECEMBER 01: Nino Niederreiter #22 of the Minnesota Wild and Connor Brown #28 of the Toronto Maple Leafs battle for the puck during a game at Xcel Energy Center on December 1, 2018 in St. Paul, Minnesota.(Photo by Bruce Kluckhohn/NHLI via Getty Images) /
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ST. PAUL, MN - DECEMBER 01:
ST. PAUL, MN - DECEMBER 01: /

Devan Dubynk looks frail in the Minnesota Wild net

Since the Minnesota Wild’s win over the Vancouver Canucks in mid-November, Devan Dubnyk has been unable to post a save percentage above 0.900%.

This was yet another game in which he failed to do so, conceding four goals on twenty-two shots (the fifth goal was an empty-netter).

Far from putting the blame solely on Dubnyk, you have to also look at his defense. The players in-front of him didn’t show enough battle for the puck at times and were susceptible to the Maple Leafs’ speed in attack.

Greg Pateryn and Nick Seeler, the third pairing for the Minnesota Wild that has looked so reliable so far this year, were the scapegoats in this performance. They were on the ice for two Maple Leafs’ goals but beyond that didn’t seem to do too much wrong.

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The pairing of Matt Dumba and Jonas Brodin, which we still can’t quite fathom surrendered far too many scoring chances to an elite offense; 11 times, they allowed a scoring chance.

Surely Devan Dubnyk in the Minnesota net has to be questioning why Bruce Boudreau is pushing this pairing so hard, especially since the previous shut-down pair of Jared Spurgeon with Brodin seemed to be so effective.

Why do you split up a highly talented offensive blue-line duo in Ryan Suter and Dumba and a perfectly able shut-down pair?

Finally, on to Devan himself, he conceded twice on chances viewed as low danger. That really isn’t good enough at NHL level. The two high danger chances that went by him are more acceptable, the low danger ones are likely related to low confidence right now.

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