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Game Day Preview: Oilers at Wild. State Tourney Week! |
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First off, congratulations to all of the boys hockey teams that qualified for the Minnesota State High School Tournament, the tournament that decides the champions of the big and small schools in separate tournaments. The irony may be that this year the best team in Class A (small schools), St. Thomas Academy, is the best team in the state. We will get to find that out next year as the Cadets make the jump from Class A to Class AA. A special shout out to the kids of our school district, the Centennial Cougards, who won Section 5 AA and will make a trip to State for only the second time in history. The first time they went, they not only won the State Championship for AA, but they also set a new record for not allowing a single goal in the tournament, something that had never been done before. I remember when my brother’s team qualified for the State Tournament. It was the Sectionals and the State Tournament that cemented my love for this game. That said, this truly is the best week for hockey fans in the State of Hockey and none of the buzz revolves around the Gophers or the Wild. Year in and year out, it doesn’t get any better than the Sectionals and State. The atmosphere is second to none and kids are pouring out their hearts and souls for a chance to be champs of, arguably, one of the best high school championship tournaments out there (akin to Texas and football or Indiana and basketball).
Tonight, the Wild host the Oilers. Many were looking forward to this game as the time for revenge on Taylor Hall for his hit on Cal Clutterbuck. I maintained that, if healthy, the Oil would be stupid to play him. Apparently, however, he may not be healthy and may not be able to play tonight. All the better in my opinion, whether contrived or real. The last thing the NHL needs right now is another Todd Bertuzzi-Steve Moore incident, especially against one of the rising stars in the NHL in Hall. Most will recall that Moore had a hit on Naslund that Vancouver took exception to and, the next time these teams met, it was payback time. Moore stepped up to the plate and accepted a fight with, I believe, Matt Cooke. Score settled, right? Wrong! Bertuzzi took it upon himself to exact his own form of retribution and we all know what happened from there. With Hall and Clutterbuck out for this game, the two teams can focus on the task at hand, securing two points, and leave the monkey business on the sidelines.
Through 20 games, the Wild are ahead of the Oilers by 2 points, having secured 22 points to the Oilers’ 20. That puts the Wild in 10th place in the Western Conference and the Oilers in 12th place. Needless to say, this is a big game for both teams.
The thing I like about the Oilers this season, from reviewing their stats, is that they have limited their string of regulation losses. Only once have they lost two in a row. Ironically, the Wild were involved in their only two-in-a-row regulation losses this season having beaten them in Edmonton after the Oilers had lost to the Kings in the game before. Well, that situation presents itself again tonight as the Oilers are coming off of a loss to the Blues. Can the Wild had the Oil their 2nd set of two-in-a-row losses? History indicates that that may well be the case. (Note: the Wild have not lost two-in-a-row in regulation since February 7, 2013 when they lost to Vancouver for 3 losses in a row. Since then losses in regulation have only come one at a time and not more than one before returning to the “at least getting a point” column).
Edmonton visits Minnesota for the first time since December 29, 2011 as the teams completed their season series in the first half of the year last season. My guess is that that was fine by Edmonton, not having to play in Minnesota. Frankly, it’s a place they don’t fare too well in. The Wild are 18-1-0 in the last 19 home meetings with Edmonton, outscoring the Oilers 65-30. The Wild has outscored the Oilers 20-9 on the power play in that 19-game stretch and needed overtime or a shootout just 3 times in the 19 meetings. The last time Edmonton won at the Xcel Energy Center was on November 25, 2011, a game in which Edmonton won for the first time in 18 games in Minnesota dating to January 6, 2007.
But those Oilers teams were not the current version of the Oilers which is much improved, albeit young and still lacking in significant NHL experience. However, one day, they will be a force to be reckoned with (at least they should be). At the present time, they are still a young team struggling to figure out how to succeed in the NHL. If you thought the Wild’s stats were bad in the plus/minus category (overall minus-32), the Oilers are worse (overall minus-60). Brodziak and Gilbert are worst for the Wild in this category at minus–7 and minus–8, respectively. For the Oilers, Nick Schultz and Nail Yakupov have the dubious distinction of leading in this category at minus-9 each. Tops in this category for each team is Pierre-Marc Bouchard and Mark Fistric, both at plus-4.
Beyond the Hall-Clutterbuck conflict, one of the story lines for tonight is the return of Nick Schultz to Minnesota since being traded to Edmonton over a year ago on February 27, 2012 for Tom Gilbert. As far as judging this trade, it appears that Minnesota has the better of the deal so far. N. Schultz has no goals and 1 assist in 20 games with 6 penalty minuts, 14 shots, 19:09 in time on ice per game, 25 hits and 49 blocked shots. Gilbert has 3 goals, 5 assists, 10 penalty minutes, 25 shots, 21:44 time on ice per game, 13 hits and 30 blocked shots.
Currently, the Oilers are led by Hemsky (8 goals/5 assists), Gagner (6 goals/13 assists), Eberle (6 goals/9 assists) and Hall (4 goals/14 assists) with Gagne and Eberle among the leaders in the goal category, as well as the assist category. For the Wild, they seem to spread it around a bit more. Parise (8 goals/6 assists), Heatley (7 goals/4 assists) and Setoguchi (4 goals/6 assists) lead the Wild in goals, while Suter (0 goals/13 assists), Koivu (3 goals/11 assists) and Cullen (3 goals/8 assists) lead the team in assists. Interestingly, the Wild’s leading goal scorers are also their leading power play scorers and their leading game winning goal scorers. Not so for Edmonton as Justin Schultz and Nail Yakupov are among the Oilers leaders for power play goals and Paajarvi is the leading game winning goal scorer for the Oilers.
In goal, expect to see Backstrom facing Dubnyk. Backstrom is 23-3-1 with a 1.78 GAA and a .934 SV% and 4 shutouts while Dubnyk has played in 16 of the Oilers 20 games this season, posting a 2.75 GAA and a .917 SV%, overall, with a record of 1-2-0 against the Wild and a GAA of 1.82 and a SV% of .932 in 4 appearances against the Wild.
As scoring goes, the Oilers spread out their scoring this season with 15 goals in each period thus far, whereas the Wild have scored 9 in the first period, 20 in the second period and 12 in the third period. In goals against, the Wild are more consistent with 15 goals against in the first and third periods so far this season and 17 goals against in the second period. Edmonton has allowed 14 first period goals, 19 second period goals and 17 third period goals.
The Oilers boast the NHL’s 6th best power play and 5th best penalty kill. The Wild’s power play sucks at 26th in the NHL, but have a respectable penalty kill, ranked just behind the Oilers at 6th in the NHL.
Surprisingly, Edmonton has only scored 22 goals when playing 5-on-5 compared to the Wild’s 31. However, they make up for that stat on the power play by having tallied 16 power play goals compared to the Wild’s 6.
Both teams have a penchant for coming from behind. The Wild are 5-4-1 when trailing after the first period. The Oilers are 4-3-2 when trailing after two periods.
Other interesting Wild tid bits:
-Niklas Backstrom is 5-1-1 in his last seven starts with a 1.66 GAA and a .933 SV%. Against Edmonton at home, Backstrom is a perfect 16-0-0 with a 1.30 GAA and a .950 SV%. He has allowed more than two goals just twice in that span.
-Thirteen of the Wild’s 20 games have been decided by one goal –including eight of the last 10. The Wild is 8-3-2 in one-goal games; only Chicago (10) has more one-goal wins.
-D Ryan Suter has four assists in his last three games, nine helpers in his last 10 games and leads Minnesota with 13 assists on the year. That total ranks him third amongst NHL defensemen. He leads all NHL players in TOI/game at 27:35. He has skated more than
30 minutes four games this season, including two of his top six career TOI outings.
-Minnesota’s penalty kills ranks sixth in the NHL at 85.9%, stopping all four chances in the two-game road trip. The Wild is 8-3-1 when not allowing a PPG. The Wild has been shorthanded just 64 times this season –ranked second only to Winnipeg for fewest in the NHL.
-Minnesota’s five wins when trailing after one period is tied with Anaheim for most in the NHL. Seven teams don’t have any victories when trailing after the first, while only 10 teams have more than two wins.
-The Wild ranks third in the NHL in faceoff percentage (53.0%), while Edmonton ranks tied for 26th at 46.8.
-D Jonas Brodin is the youngest defenseman in the NHL and ranks second amongst rookies in TOI/game at 21:55; just 15 NHL rookie defensemen have topped the 22:00-mark in time on ice since the 2000-01 season. Brodin, currently at a +1 rating this season,
looks to join just five on the list who sported a plus throughout their rookie campaign (Carlson +21, Vlasic +13, Myers +13, Michalek +4, Beauchemin +2). Brodin has three assists with the Wild and totaled four points (2-2=4) in nine games with Houston (AHL) this season, suffering a broken clavicle on Nov. 2 (at the hands of Taylor Hall) and playing one game with the Aeros before being recalled by the Wild Jan. 24 and making his NHL debut on Jan. 25. The Swede was the Wild’s first-round selection (10th overall) in the 2011 NHL Entry Draft, held in St. Paul.
-RW Devin Setoguchi tallied two assists Thursday and a goal Friday. He has five points (2-3=5) in his last five games, totaling 10 points (4-6=10) and two game-winning goals on the season.
-The Wild’s 2.40 GAA ranks eighth in the NHL this season.The Wild is T-8th in the NHL in shots allowed/game (27.6). Minnesota averaged 31.7 shots against/game during the last two seasons.
*Game notes from NHL media website were used in this and all blogs this season.
Minnesota Wild Blogger • 
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