For the first time this season the Wild will be coming off a loss. The rematch with the Ducks tonight following the Wild's first defeat of the season on Monday 1-0.
Through three games we have seen some highs with the two third period come from behind and subsequent overtime victories. There have also been some areas of concern as well. The Wild powerplay has yet to find the back of the net despite having 16 man advantage opportunities.
There was a lot of enthusiasm around the powerplay following game one with the number of looks and scoring chances the Wild generated despite not scoring. However in the second game Dean Evason juggled the first unit which had generated a large majority of those scoring chances, opting to split up Fiala and Kaprizov. That quickly changed after the new PP units looked out of sync.
The Wild PK has been very good killing 10 of 11 opposition man advantage opportunities, which is encouraging following last season's slide in the Wild penalty kill statistics.
We knew that this season would be a game to game scenario with the Wild offense as they try different options at center with no true number 1 or number 2 center. That will not change for the most part, with the one caveat being if Marco Rossi makes an immediate impact when he makes his debut. That is not necessarily expected and it is widely believed that Rossi will only get the six games he is allowed to play before his ELC kicks in.
Nick Bjugstad and Victor Rask have been interchangeable from top line to fourth line, while Nick Bonino is playing out of his best use position in the top six. Bonino is better served as a third line center, but Joel Eriksson Ek is far better in that role and his line with Jordan Greenway and Marcus Foligno have been the Wild's best trio thus far.
When Guerin constructed this season's squad he carefully acquired players that are playing for contracts in an effort to take advantage of the potential upside these players could provide in an effort to build their stock value. Hopefully that yields positive results in more cases than it does not but either way the probability of Bonino, Bjugstad, Marcus Johansson, and the newly added Ian Cole being here when the Wild open the 2021-22 campaign.
Of course the early season talk has centered around Kirill Kaprizov the fast start to his much anticipated NHL career. However, Kevin Fiala, who had ascended to the top of the Wild scoring charts with his amazing 2020 performance. Fiala had established himself as an upper tier NHL scorer which continued into the bubble before the Wild were eliminated in four games at the hands of the Canucks.
Fiala has yet to find his name on the score sheet and the rumblings of the Wild faithful are beginning to be heard. Those would be premature to say the least as Fiala has been very active with 18 shots on goal with at least five in each of the three Wild games, not to mention his added shot attempts.
If the scoring chances were not there then the worry would be valid but this is just a small sample size for a player that is a bit snake bitten.
Expect Fiala to get on the board sooner rather than later and the Wild offense to rebound after the shutout loss on Monday night.
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