The losing streak ended but all is not rosy with the Minnesota Wild. Last night's opponent, the Flyers, are far from a competitive foe for the Wild, yet it took four comebacks before they took their only lead, scoring the eventual deciding goal.
Territorially the Wild dominated the game from start to finish much as they should have. However some very suspect goaltending on the first two Flyer goals particularly made the game an uphill climb for the Wild. Thebthird Flyers goal was the result of very poor D zone coverage from the Wild skaters which left Cam Talbot out to dry as he was face to face with an unguarded Travis Konecny, who deed Talbot giving the Flyers their third lead of the night.
Things we had grown accustomed to with the Wild were close attention to detail inball three zones, and hard nosed get the puckbdeep, forecheck and get pucks and bodies to the net. That is clearly missing from their game of late and something that must be addressed in short order before all the work they have done to this point gets erased as the standings in both the Western Conference and in particular the Central Division are tightening.
This most recent string of poor performances is not truly representative of the Wild overall, however it does reveal certain aspects of this team that need improvement. With the trade deadline approaching it may be better forbthem in the long run that this is happening now, rather than down the road a bit.
Bill Guerin is aware of his teams' needs and it is true he does not want to upset the chemistry of the group. However a team's chemistry is really shown in adversity and how they pull together to fight their way out of it as one cohesive group. We have yet to see that element of the chemistry and it has tonplay into Guerin's thought process as he assesses what moves to consider and ultimately pull the trigger on.
Buffalo is a better team than the one the Wild just beat in Philadelphia last night. The Sabres are coming off an impressive 5-1 victory over the Maple Leafs in Toronto on Wednesday night. That Sabres victory of course followed their own six game losing streak that saw them outscored 28-12 in those contests.
The Sabres defeated the Wild in their previous meeting in Minnesota when they came back and won in the shootout 3-2 on December 16th. That game was one of the few first half of the season Wild games where they took their lesser opponent lightly and it came back to haunt them inbthe end as they lost a very valuable point that could be a factor when all is said and done after game 82.
It is a process for a team to make strides and climb the tiers to become contenders and it is not an ascent that happens methodically. There are significant bumps and pitfalls along the way that every successful team goes through which establish the character of the team. This is part of that process and for some fans they do not get it, they just assume that a teams' trajectory toward elite status is a straight uphill climb. That is notbatvall logical and could really never have any lasting effect if it were to happen that way.
This current slump is good for the Wild and for the individual players themselves to evaluate where they are and what exactly needs to change in order to get this train back on the rails.
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