The Wild won on the road, against a division opponent, and a team in which they are battling with, and in regulation. Check, check, check, and check!
Not their best game by any stretch, but definitely a good win.
After a very poor first period, Boudreau let them know about it, and the team responded with a much better second and third period effort.
A few takeaways from the game. Dubnyk played well, but again the lone goal he gave up was a softy. Not going to get too wrapped up in that but we all know that as the games gather more meaning it is not the amount of goals that get scored, it is the type of goal and the timing that play bigger factors in the overall outcome of games.
The Wild are a below average team when they play a pure finesse game always looking for the perfect passing play. That needs to be hammered home each and every day with this group because somewhere along the way they got this idea that everyone on the team has supreme playmaking skills.
A very good example of this flaw came in the third period with the Wild on the powerplay leading 2-1 and Eric Staal passed up a high percentage shooting opportunity with the puck between the circles, to pass the puck to Zach Parise for what would have been a tap in had the pass connected.
Call it an effort to get Zach a goal and get his season going with his first goal, or a play to make the perfect pass. Either way you look at it is not good and not the way the Wild are going to win games consistently.
If the score had been 4-1, no problem make that play, but at 2-1 in the third period on the road, shoot the puck, Parise is there for the rebound if it doesn't go in.
Marcus Foligno got a chance to begin the game in the top six forwards and quickly played himself out of it. His turnover with one of those trying to get cute passes ultimately ended up in the Wild net.
Foligno has been on Fletcher's radar for a few years now, as he said after the deal with Buffalo to bring him here. So if he has been on the radar, what role did Fletcher see him playing?
It is clear that Foligno is nothing more than a fourth line player at best who brings a physical game that we saw a whole lot more of before he suffered the fractured facial bone in the third game of the season.
Since then he has struggled to either stay in the lineup or become an integral part of any of the Wild many line combinations.
I for one believe that Foligno can play a role on this team, but he needs to get up on his toes more and stop playing a reactionary game. He has the ability to create havoc on the ice and be a physical presence in front of the opposing net, but gets in trouble most when he has the puck for any real length of time.
It is time to give Eriksson Ek a real shot in the top six minutes. Slot him in and give him Niederreiter's minutes over the next two games. The only way the Wild will ever get over the hump is for change to occur. Yes the team has several new faces this season, but when push comes to shove in crunch time it is always the same old same old.
And when I say old that is in reference to the age of the players being relied upon.
Been there done that, we have witnessed this same mindset for the better part of six seasons now.
Follow me on Twitter @dwallace17