Well we have had a few days to digest the first 2weeks of the 2015-16 season and the Wild's 3-1-1 start. There are no shortages of early season surprises, from the fast start in Arizona led by the kids Domi and Duclair to the slow starts in Pittsburgh, Anaheim, and possibly the biggest being the 0 and 7 start by the Wild's next opponent Columbus.
The Blue Jackets will have a new coach behind the bench as this morning Columbus General Manager pulled the trigger relieving former Wild bench boss Todd Richards of his coaching duties. Richards was replaced by former Vancouver Canucks coach, John Tortorella. Tortorella won the Stanley Cup back in 2004 with Tampa and also coached the Rangers prior to his most recent coaching stint in Vancouver.
The Jackets were supposed to be a real legitimate Stanley Cup contender in the Eastern Conference after finishing last season on a nearly unbeatable run that saw them lose just 1 of their final 17 games in regulation. The buzz was they were healthy and with the big off season acquisition of Brandon Saad coming from the Blackhawks they were more dangerous offensively, combined with the hope that net minder Sergei Bobrovsky would recapture his Vezina Trophy winning form of two seasons back.
The latter part of that equation has been the single biggest disappointment leading to the dreadful start. Bobrovsky has self admittedly lost his confidence. It is interesting how fragile a team's psyche can be. One can look at the first game of the season where the Jackets had just taken a 2 to 1 lead late in the third period at home against the New York Rangers. In just over a minute they turned that 2 to 1 lead into a 4 to 2 deficit and ultimately loss. The goals the Rangers scored were not just untimely, they were soft and Bobrovsky has been a below average minor league goalie ever since.
The Wild on the other hand are where they had hoped to be as far as the record shows. That said how they got here is not exactly as they may have liked. Their best 60 minute effort ironically came in their lone regulation loss. They have shown early glimpses of promise, coming back from 3 goals down on the road in game one to earn the victory in Colorado, a rejuvenated powerplay that connected in each of the first four games, and excellent play from Zach Parise, Nino Niederreiter, Mikael Granlund, Ryan Suter and Darcy Kuemper to name a few standouts through the first 5 games.
Contributions have come throughout the Wild lineup and there is good reason for optimism. The team is off to a solid start and have only played one game at the Xcel. But the early concerns still lie in the constancy of a sustained offensive attack. They still settle for low percentage shots with very little traffic in front of the opposing net. Devan Dubnyk needs to be a bit more consistent and get closer to the form he showed last season. Darcy Kuemper will help with that if he can build on his brilliant performance in LA.
Nino Niederreiter really took off in the loss to Anaheim creating scoring chances almost every shift. Some off plays where it seemed there was nothing at all. That is a great sign as he will be counted on to take the next steps in his maturation process to becoming a great power forward in this league.
Matt Dumba has shown signs of becoming the player we all saw last year in the playoffs, but not enough. Dumba has the ability to make things go and we have not seen that part of the game. He has a swagger to his game when he is going good, we have yet to see that side of his game this year.
It's early and we can't expect midseason form, but the Wild have collected 7 of a possible 10 points into the point bank already. They have shown that they can play at a very high level and the lows that they have experienced are not dramatic. They are more lulls where they get caught flat footed or chasing the puck. For anyone who has played hockey that is a normal course of action, the good teams are the ones that can not only limit the lulls, they can recognize them and adjust quickly to regain game control.
The Wild are an elite team and it is evident from the first two weeks of the season. They have played 5 games of the 82 game marathon. The goal is to get into the dance come mid April. Then the real goals come into focus. So Wild community the ride is just getting started, so buckle up it should be exciting.