Wild Game Day 2016-17 Stanley Cup Playoffs Round 1 Game 2
Series: Blues Lead (1-0) Game 1: 4/12 Blues 2 @ Wild 1 (OT) Game 2: 4/14 Tonight @ Minnesota 7PM Game 3: 4/16 Sunday @ St. Louis 2PM Game 4: 4/19 Wednesday @ St. Louis 8:30PM Game 5: 4/22 Saturday @ Minnesota TBA (will be necessary) Game 6: 4/24 Monday @ St. Louis TBA (if necessary) Game 7: 4/26 Wednesday @ Minnesota TBA (if necessary)
Wild Regular Season Record (49-25-8 106 pts) 2nd Place Central Division, 2nd Place Western Conference Home Record (27-12-2) Road Record (22-13-6)
St. Louis Blues Regular Season Record (46-29-7 99 pts) 3rd Place Central Division, 5th Place Western Conference Home Record (24-12-5) Road Record (22-17-2)
All-Time Record: Wild vs Blues vs. St. Louis Blues 33-34-5 @ Home 21-14-2 @ St. Louis 12-20-3
All Time Playoff Record: Wild vs Blues 2015 Wild 4-2
Opponent: St. Louis Blues (32-27-5 69 pts) Road Record (14-16-1)
Site: Xcel Energy Center, St. Paul, MN
Time: 7:00PM CT
TV: Fox Sports North (FSN), NBC Sports Network (NBCSN)
Regular Season Results: 10/13 Wild 2 @ Blues 3 11/26 Wild 3 @ Blues 4 (SO) 12/11 Blues 1 @ Wild 3 1/26 Blues 1 @ Wild 5 3/7 Blues 2 @ Wild 1
So let's try this again. Wild look to even their series tonight against the Blues at a much more normal start time. For the Wild they will be looking for a lot more of the same effort that they had through the majority of game 1, of course with better results on the scoreboard.
The Blues will be making their own adjustments to slow the Wild down. They do not want a repeat performance of Wednesday night as far as the territorial play and shot differential is concerned. Mike Yeo's team has an opportunity to take a 2-0 series lead back home with them to St. Louis and you can bet that they will not be resting on the fact that they took game one in overtime.
The Blues have been the NHL's hottest team since Yeo took over the full time head coaching duties from Ken Hitchcock. That turnaround also included an absolute about face for Blues goalie Jake Allen, who was much maligned through most of the first half of the season, even being left home while the team traveled to Winnipeg to take on the Jets, back in late January.
Since that time Allen and the Blues have turned it up and the team has become a much tougher opponent to play against. Yeo seems to have team buying what he is selling, even after trading All-Star defenseman Kevin Shattenkirk, who is due to become an unrestricted free agent, at the trade deadline.
Jake Allen played very well in game one, but let's not anoint him Dominik Hasek, just yet. The Wild did not generate a lot of high percentage chances and the second and third opportunities were almost non-existent.
Expect a much closer territorial game tonight with puck possession being a huge factor. The face-off circle dominance the Wild displayed in game one, could go a long way in establishing their possession game. Clearly the Wild have the upper hand in that department, but it does not matter if they don't take advantage of the possessions.
Look for Boudreau to make a few adjustments in getting more players to the net, but still look for the offense to be generated off of the shot, much as it was in game one. They will need to battle harder to the middle of the ice and get sticks into lanes for deflections. Good things happen when the puck goes to the net. All one has to see, is the two Blues goals from Wednesday night, were direct results of getting the puck to the net. One a deflection, the other an inadvertent lost puck, that opportunistically ended up on a well positioned Joel Edmundson on the puck support.
That is the game the Wild need to play and if they play any where near the game that they played on Wednesday this could turn into a laugher. I don't see that happening, but the Wild are definitely looking more like the team that was at or near the top of the league standings for much of the season.
No one thought this would be a short series, and if game one was any indication we are in for a real treat as the series is only going to get more heated and the time and space will be less and less.
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