Wild Game Day number 24 Wild Record (11-9-3 25 pts) Road Record (5-6-1)
Opponent: Winnipeg Jets (14-6-3 31 pts) Home Record (7-2-1)
Site: Bell MTS Place, Winnipeg, Manitoba
Time: 7:00PM CT
TV: Fox Sports North (FSN)
Last season results: 10/15 Jets 3 @ Wild 4 11/23 Jets 1 @ Wild 3 2/7 Wild 4 @ Jets 2 2/28 Wild 6 @ Jets 5 3/19 Wild 4 @ Jets 5
Last result: 10/21 Wild 3 @ Jets 4 10/31 Jets 2 @ Wild 1
The Wild travel to Winnipeg coming off of their worst performance of the season on Saturday night in their 6-3 loss at St. Louis. Winnipeg has already taken two games from the Wild and sit second in the Central Division with 31 points.
This Jets team is for real, and the Wild better be ready to bring a much better effort than we have seen over the past several games if they think they are coming home with points in the standings tonight. We have seen the Jets maturing over the last several seasons but now add to that tremendous offense, a quality goaltender in Connor Hellebuyck and his 12-2-2 record and 2.33 GAA, and .929 save percentage and you have a force to be reckoned with.
The Wild are coming off a dreadful performance in St. Louis that saw them give up three goals in the first period, and give the Blues eight powerplay opportunities. St. Louis capitalized on 3 of the eight man advantage opportunities including two in the third period to seal the deal after the Wild had gotten within one.
Devan Dubnyk continued his up and down play looking shaky in the first, then in the second he made some really big save to keep the Wild in the game. Then in the third period the shorthanded breakaway by Kyle Brodziak was as poorly played by a goaltender as you will see at the NHL level. Brodziak could have put that puck in any number of holes, as he raced in on Dubnyk.
Not to put all the blamer on Dubnyk by any stretch, the Wild defense was not good and the backcheck from the forwards was lackadaisical at best.
The Brodziak shorthanded goal was the result of an awful pass by Nino Niederreiter to Jared Spurgeon at the point which hopped past Spurgeon and Brodziak was off to the races. But if you look a little deeper into that sequence Mikko Koivu carried the puck into the zone and had a simple drop at the blue line which would have established possession in the zone and allowed the Wild PP to setup, but instead Koivu sent the puck deep and the Wild were never able to establish possession which led to the Niederreiter giveaway.
The third defensive pair has quickly become a major issue for the Wild, with Kyle Quincey looking out of place and slow. He was directly responsible for two of the Blues goals Saturday and most likely will be a healthy scratch a lot more often. Mike Reilly has been the best of the three defenseman rotating on the third paring, but he too has struggled as of late. The third member of the defensive rotation Gustav Olofsson has not fared much better and the results are showing up on the scoresheet.
The Wild clearly miss Marco Scandella and Christian Folin for that matter. Scandella gave the Wild a real luxury having five defensemen that can be utilized in all situations. Folin gave the Wild a presence in front of their net with his size and physical play. That too is something this group of Wild defenseman is sorely lacking. It is far tooo easy for opponents to get to the Wild net and no price to pay once they get there.
Chuck Fletcher really tied his own hands with the salary cap situation. There is not much he can do to address the roster without a major deal involving a core player or two.
I would say to expect the Wild to come out with a lot more energy tonight, but that is something they should be doing every night. This is a team that has performed well below expectations and needs some sort of shakeup to get them going.
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