October is in the books and for the Wild a .500 month was not exactly what they had envisioned, but nonetheless here they are. Last place in the Central Division having lost twice to their neighbors to the North now, with both being regulation defeats.
Last night was particularly disturbing in that the Wild actually had some very good opportunities late in the game to tie the game at the very least. That was only made possible by some very solid goaltending by Alex Stalock and some opportune misses by the Jets forwards on their many golden scoring opportunities.
The Wild came into the game ill-prepared and it showed through much of the first and second periods. The Wild were fortunate to have an early Winnipeg goal waived off immediately on the ice or it may have been over quickly. They did however yield one a few minutes later as Kyle Connor scored his 2nd of the season 7:10 into the first.
That lead stood until early in the third period when Matt Dumba, made an ill-fated decision to drop a pass in anticipation that Mikael Granlund was following him up and out of the zone. That errant drop pass turned into a perfect leave for an opportune Nikolaj Ehlers, who raced in and beat a sprawling Stalock for his 7th of the season and the eventual game winner.
After the Ehlers goal, the Wild decided to play and they dominated the remainder of the game but were only able to get one behind Jets goaltender, Connor Hellebuyck.
The Wild players had their chances to steal a game they had no business even being in, but in the end they skated off with a much deserved 2-1 defeat.
Looking back, outside of the dismal start to the contest and the Dumba gaffe, the Wild have to be looking themselves in the mirror and saying how did they miss the net on their many third period scoring opportunities?
0 for 5 on the powerplay again last night, has the Wild in an 0 for 18 PP slump. Again soul searching time for everyone on this team.
Now to the elephant in the room, Matt Dumba.
It is no secret that Dumba has had a dreadful start to the season and it came to a head last night with his brutal decision to make a drop pass that as he said after the game "was like a pick 6 in football" that took the wind out of the sails of his team.
Dumba is in the final year of a bridge deal, paying him $2.55 million this season. His name has come up in trade talk often over the last few seasons and of course the big shuffle that took place through the expansion draft process allowing the Wild to keep both Dumba and Scandella. Scandella, of course, was later dealt to Buffalo along with Jason Pominville, as part of the Foligno/Ennis trade.
In hindsight this one looks bad through the early returns by all accounts. But it is October and this deal was not made to win in October, but more to win when it counts, but wins in October allow teams to play when it counts.
Bruce Boudreau benched Dumba last night after the Ehlers goal, sending a statement that the poor play is not going to be tolerated.
After the game Boudreau acknowledged that Dumba has a lot of talent and skill, but he has not played well all season and he needs to start playing like he is capable of playing. Adding this is his fourth year in the league and he has to get back to playing the way he did when he was going well. Boudreau stated that he holds Dumba to a very high standard, and he may have set the bar too high, but either way things need to change with #24.
Dumba to his credit owned his mistake and added that he let his teammates down. He knows he must be better, and acknowledging that is step one, now how does he follow that up to get back on his game? That is the most important thing here, and Dumba is a professional and hitting the bottom and having to face adversity is often what drives a player to dig deep and work harder to become the best he can be.
It will be interesting to see if Boudreau elects to make Dumba a healthy scratch on Thursday, or if he wipes the slate clean and gives his young defenseman the opportunity to get right back out there and to make amends on the ice.
Either way, Dumba is an integral part of the Wild defense unit and he needs to get his game going and start making the smart decisions with and without the puck. He brings a skill set that none of the other Wild defensemen possess, but that is irrelevant if he rarely displays any of it, or if he continues to make ill-advised decisions that continue to make him more of a liability than an asset.
My thought is that Boudreau will give Dumba an opportunity to play his way out of this but the leash is definitely shorter now and will be moving forward until #24 re-establishes his coach's trust.
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