Bruce Boudreau has his team off to a 6-2-1 start through nine games including an impressive 4 and 0 at home. It is still very early and nothing to get too giddy about, but the fact is, this team is performing well and responding efficiently to the new coaching staff.
Devan Dubnyk has established a new team record with three consecutive shutouts, and the Wild have gotten goals from an astonishing 18 different players. In addition every player on the roster has recorded at least one point.
The strength of the Wild is their defense and their overall team depth. That has already been put to the test with Erik Haula, Jared Spurgeon, Marco Scandella, and now Zach Parise all missing multiple games.
The NHL regular season is a marathon for sure and teams will have to deal with adversity which comes in many forms throughout the season. The teams that can adapt and make the necessary adjustments and become better through that adversity are the teams that fare the best come playoff time.
Again nothing to get too excited about, but something to very encouraged by. Bruce Boudreau has brought a new approach to the Wild along with his assistants Scott Stevens and John Anderson. Nothing against Mike Yeo, because Yeo is responsible for making the Wild a perennial playoff team, but this team appears to be much more accountable under Boudreau.
It is just a nine game sample size but the results are good so far and that's all we can ask.
Happy Halloween!!!
Too bad the NHL played a nasty trick on all of us turning the lights off on the league tonight. A huge blunder in my opinion as the World Series is in a travel day and this could be a night to grab some headlines.