Minnesota Wild: Trio of Charlie Coyle, Luke Kunin and Zach Parise on fire

The Minnesota Wild seem to have struck gold with the line of Charlie Coyle, Luke Kunin and Zach Parise. They showed up big again as the Wild won 4-3 against the Ottawa Senators.

On the night, three of the four Minnesota Wild goals involved one or more of the line-mates. Head coach Bruce Boudreau has to be happy with how routinely he’s seeing returns out of them. Charlie Coyle especially has looked very impressive with the combo of young and old by his side.

Against the Ottawa Senators, at even-strength, Luke Kunin rocked a team leading relative Corsi For of 22.73%; incredibly impressive given he saw 14:28 minutes ice-time. Equally as impressive was Charlie Coyle’s 22% over 16:04 ice-time. Zach Parise’s 11% actually seems unimpressive, despite this still being a top relative Corsi score.

Their form isn’t being artificially created, at least not at even-strength; they saw double the number of neutral zone face-offs as they did in either the defensive or offensive zone, meaning that they had to work to drive play in the manner that they did. They’re not beneficiaries of starting every single shift in the offensive zone in that regard.

Even more telling is the Scoring Chances For; when either Charlie Coyle, Luke Kunin or Zach Parise was on the ice, you’re looking at five even-strength scoring chances for the Minnesota Wild and just 2 for the Senators (3 when Coyle was on the ice – he saw 2 minutes more 5-on-5 ice-time than the others).

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Across the board, you look to any of the advanced metrics and it’s blatant that in this game against the Ottawa Senators and to a lesser degree, in the game against the Toronto Maple Leafs; this line has been dominant.

They have driven play, limited chances on their own net and put plenty of puck on the opposition net. Their rate of scoring shouldn’t be altogether surprising in that regard.

Even Charlie Coyle who fans often bemoan for his inability to convert chances has found his scoring game.

Two primary assists for Luke Kunin are due reward for his hard work since being called up from the Iowa Wild. That said, it’s taken this line being formed for him to truly hit his stride in the NHL.

Zach Parise may only have notched secondary assists, but two of them and a goal aren’t exactly a poor return. He’s looked reinvigorated this season and now he’s seeming to roll back the years with the perfect blend of youth and experience on his line.

Now we know that Minnesota Wild head coach Bruce Boudreau has a tendency not to stick with his line combinations too long, but you’d have to be pretty foolish to break this one up anytime soon.

Beyond all of the fancy statistics and advanced analytics, just the plain old eye-test states that this triumvirate is dominating play, is driving the Minnesota Wild forward and forcing the whole team to up their game in the hopes of matching them.

Perhaps most telling of all was the players that Mike Babcock, who is known for trying to match lines, rolled out against Zach Parise, Luke Kunin and Charlie Coyle when the Minnesota Wild took on Toronto.

In that game, it was their number-one defenseman Morgan Rielly tasked with the most even-strength time against them, likewise it was the Auston Matthews line followed by the John Tavares line in terms of forwards. That says a lot for the way this line is being viewed by the league as a whole.

The Minnesota Wild can’t hide them as the secret is clearly out, but we’re hoping that doesn’t matter and they can continue to dominate play in the coming weeks.

Statistics courtesy of Natural Stat Trick.