The Minnesota Wild have plenty of faults, which general manager Bill Guerin made clear in a sit-down interview with Michael Russo of The Athletic this week.
But, the Wild are not a last-place team — thank you, Arizona Coyotes — and Minnesota earned three points in its last two games, and looking up at a first-place Dallas squad. that sits six points ahead of them.
Minnesota, and its league-worst 5.40 goals against average, heads into Montreal on Tuesday for the second of a four-game road trip. The Wild went 2-0 against Montreal last season and have won 12 of their past 13 games against the Canadiens.
Look on the bright side — it’s been just one game in the road schedule, but the Wild are undefeated away from the Xcel Energy Center. Minnesota is 7-5-2 in Montreal all-time in the series history.
It’s a positive to build on for a Wild team that carried solid expectations for the year.
What has gone right so far (outside of the continued star-level play of Kirill Kaprizov)?
Here are a few things.