Wild vs. Habs: Not all has been bad in Minnesota's start to the season

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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.

Minnesota Wild second-year forward Matt Boldy, right, is tied for first on the team in a plus/minus rating so far this season with a +2. (Matt Krohn-USA TODAY Sports) /

The play of the second-year forward’s has been a source of optimism so far.

The Boston College product has six points to rank third for the Wild behind Mats Zuccarello (10) and Kirill Kaprizov (8). And he is tied with Jake Middleton for a team-high mark in plus/minus ratings at +2.

Boldy had an assist against Colorado last week for his 44th point in 50 career NHL games (17 goals, 24 assists). According to NHL Stats, only two active U.S.-born players recorded more points through 50 career games: Brock Boeser (26-19=45) and Patrick Kane (12-33=45).

Two of his three goals came in the season opener against the New York Rangers.

Boldy also is seventh on the roster with an average of 19 minutes, 25 seconds of ice time through five games, or just under an four minutes a contest more than what he averaged last year.

Minnesota Wild forward Kirill Kaprizov celebrates a power-play goal against Colorado in St. Paul last week. The Wild’s power play has clicked at 36.4% so far this year. (Matt Krohn-USA TODAY Sports /

Minnesota entered the week with a 36.4% conversion rate. That is well above the 21.8% the Wild clicked at last year, and currently ranks second in the NHL behind a ridiculous 52.9% effort by the Colorado Avalanche.

Minnesota’s eight power play goals ranks second in the the league as well, trailing only Colorado (nine).

Mats Zuccarello leads the team with three power-play goals, and Kirill Kaprizov and Joel Eriksson Ek both have two.

Boldy has a power-play goal in Saturday’s overtime loss in Boston and had another one against the Bruins wiped away as it was ruled that the puck was directed into the net with a kicking motion.

Calen Addison leads all NHL rookies with six points so far this season, and his six assists is tied for the most among all defensemen (Paul Rutherford-USA TODAY Sports) /

The Wild blueline entered the week leading all NHL rookies in points with six and also was second among defenseman, two behind Buffalo’s Rasmus Dahlin.

Addison’s six assists through five games is tied with Colorado’s Cale Makar for the most among all defensemen so far this season.

He had three assists vs. Colorado on Oct. 17 which set a franchise record for single-game assists by a rookie defenseman

The 22-year-old has played between 17 to 21 shifts a game so far and playing time has ranged from 15:38 to 20:25 minutes per game so far.

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