Wild Game Day 2017-18 Stanley Cup Playoffs Round 1 Game 1
Series (0-0)
Wild Regular Season Record (45-26-11 101 pts) 3rd Place Central Division, 4th Place Western Conference Home Record (27-6-8) Road Record (18-20-3)
Winnipeg Jets Regular Season Record (52-20-10 114 pts) 2nd Place Central Division, 2nd Place Western Conference Home Record (32-7-2) Road Record (20-13-8)
All-Time Record: Wild/Jets vs. Winnipeg Jets 18-17-1 @ Home 10-7-1 @ Winnipeg/Atlanta 8-10-0
All Time Playoff Record: Wild vs Jets 1st postseason meeting between Wild and Jets
Opponent: Winnipeg Jets (52-20-10 114 pts) Road Record (20-13-8)
Site: Bell MTS Place, Winnipeg, MB
Time: 6:00PM CT
TV: Fox Sports North (FSN), NBC (NBC), CNBC
Last 2 seasons results: 2016-17: 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
2017-18: 10/21 Wild 3 @ Jets 4 10/31 Jets 2 @ Wild 1 11/27 Wild 2 @ Jets 7 1/13 Jets 1 @ Wild 4
Minnesota/Winnipeg border war takes it up a notch as the Wild and Jets meet for the first time in a playoff series. Surprisingly this is a first playoff series between Minnesota and Winnipeg as neither the first incarnation of the Jets, nor the North Stars ever met in a playoff series.
For sure this will be a fun series as the Winnipeg faithful always represent well in the Xcel Energy Center and their are plenty of Wild fans headed North of the Border to invade the whiteout in Bell MTS Place as well.
Since the Atlanta Thrashers moved to Winnipeg in 2011, the Wild and Jets have played 26 times. 17 of those 26 have been decided by 1-goal and six more decided by 2-goals. Three games having been decided by more than two goals with the Jets winning two of those three, and the teams splitting two such meetings this season.
The Wild have playoff experience on their side with this being their sixth straight trip to the playoffs, while the Jets have only been to the playoffs once since their move to Winnipeg, losing in a sweep to Anaheim in 2015. Winnipeg/Atlanta as a franchise is a combined 0 and 8 in playoff games as the Thrashers were also swept in their lone playoff appearance by the Rangers in 2007.
A lot has been made of the Wild defense and in particular the Ryan Suter injury. Absolutely it is a huge loss for the Wild, but it is also an opportunity for the other Wild defensemen to take a step forward. One of the biggest complaints from the Wild faithful has been the overuse of Suter by each of the head coaches that have been behind the Minnesota bench.
Suter logs between 25 and 30 minutes a night and plays in every situation. So no doubt his loss is enormous and will be felt. But on the flipside there is a school of thought that the Wild have been a rudderless ship when it comes to the leadership department.
Those cries have been directed at Suter as well as captain Mikko Koivu and to a lesser degree Wild assistant captain Zach Parise.
The school of thought has been that regardless of whichever player is brought in, the Wild locker room is controlled by Suter and Koivu and everyone else sort of slots in place behind them.
Well with Suter out of that equation, the opportunity for the next generation of Wild core is ready to step up and take over this team. The attitude in the room has changed and their is a certain chip on the shoulders of Matt Dumba and Jonas Brodin who are more than capable defensemen, with plenty of experience as well as the fire and drive to put past playoff failures behind them.
Jared Spurgeon (game-time decision), the barometer of the Wild, as Bruce Boudreau refers to him, is expected return to the lineup tonight. He is not expected to log his normal work load as he has not seen game action in a month.
As to which defenseman will dress of the Ryan Murphy/Carson Soucy/Gustav Olofsson trio is still yet to be determined.
Jordan Greenway looks to be the forward getting the nod tonight with Tyler Ennis the odd man out.
Size is a factor of course in this series as the Jets are a big physical team with tons of high end talent and speed. The Wild are going to have to stick to a simple road game philosophy and avoid getting into a run and gun game with the Jets. If that happens it will not end well for the Wild and it could set the tone for the series.
Connor Hellebuyck has been magnificent this season compiling 44 wins, a 2.36 GAA, and an impressive .924 save percentage. But the playoffs are a whole new can of worms and if the Wild can notch a couple early it just may eat into the confidence of the Jets young netminder.
Devan Dubnyk on the other hand has been waiting for this moment all season. He wants to put the memory of the early playoff exits behind him and has been on top of his game the last month of the season. Dubnyk went 5-2-2 down the stretch with a sparkling 1.86 GAA to go along with a .934 save percentage.
The Jets top line is going to be a factor in the series for sure, and that will be where the Ryan Suter injury will most likely be felt the most. Brodin, Dumba, and Spurgeon will be called on a ton to do their part in slowing down Patrik Laine, Mark Scheifele, and Blake Wheeler. The old adage you can't stop them, you can only hope to contain them applies appropriately to the Jets top trio. They have it all, speed, size, and World Class skill.
But the Jets are much deeper than that top line as Nikolaj Ehlers and Kyle Connor scored 29 and 31 goals respectively and the trade deadline addition of Paul Stastny from St. Louis have rounded out the Jets into a formidable playoff contender.
The series is set, the battle lines have been drawn. The Wild on one side trying to overcome the early round exits that have plagued them in their recent past, while their head coach, Bruce Boudreau, faces his own playoff demons.
Winnipeg on the other side are looking for not just their first playoff series victory, but their first playoff game win in franchise history. Jets head coach, Paul Maurice, has had some significant playoff success, taking the Hurricane to the Stanley Cup Final in 2002 and the Eastern Conference Final in 2009, but outside of those two runs his teams have been ousted in the 1st round in the each of the additional five years his clubs have qualified for the postseason.
Buckle up this is going to be an exciting series for sure.
Wild projected lines: Zucker-Staal-Niederreiter Parise-Koivu-Granlund Greenway-Cullen-Coyle Foligno-Eriksson Ek-Winnik
Brodin-Dumba Seeler-Spurgeon Murphy-Prosser
Dubnyk
For the record here are my first round playoff series predictions: Eastern Conference: Tampa/New Jersey: Tampa in 6 Boston/Toronto: Toronto in 7 Washington/Columbus: Washington in 5 Pittsburgh/Philadelphia: Philadelphia in 6
Western Conference: Nashville/Colorado: Nashville in 5 Vegas/Los Angeles: Los Angeles in 5 (I have been so wrong about Vegas all year so this will not happen either) Anaheim/San Jose: Anaheim in 7 Winnipeg/Minnesota: Wild in 6
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