So the Wild played an inspired first 20 minutes last night and then forgot that it was a three period game.
This is getting old very quickly as the Wild are Ill prepared to lock horns with the NHL's upper echelon teams and for that matter the middle of the road ones as well.
Bruce Boudreau was asked following the game about his team's lack of team speed and what he planned to do about that. Bruce started to answer that and then thought better of the question and defered his response.
The coach knows that his team is unable to compete with the speed of their opponents on most nights. This team is old and significantly slower than they were even last season. They are only baked out by the fact that their defense is quite mobile and jumps into the offense very well.
Last night of course also showed us the downside of Ryan Hartman's game as his awful retaliatory penalty negated a Ryan Donato breakaway that could have evened the score at 2. Instead the Leafs capitalized on the man advantage and put the game on ice.
The bright spots for the Wild were the continued improved play of Luke Kunin who was skating with more confidence than ever before. Kunin scored his second goal of the season and was dishing the puck with his head on a swivel all night.
Gerry Mayhew scored his first NHL goal in his first game which should give both he and the coaching staff the confidence to keep him in the lineup.
Bill Guerin was quoted prior to the game as saying that he has tremendous respect for Bruce Boudreau and that he is going to be patient in allowing this to play out. That is understandable of course and I believe that we were in a very similar situation last season at this time.
The fact of the matter is that there are major issues with the makeup of this roster and there have been for far too long. In order to change that there must be creativity involved. It is simple to say blow it up and then not know how that is even possible.
There are also better ways to work within the system to figure out how yo move some of the veterans that can return value and free up cap space moving forward.
Recent history shows that teams have been able to rid themselves of seemingly unmovable contracts and players. Toronto, Philadelphia, and Chicago come to mind immediately. Some study of past deals and the 30 other rosters may shed light for Guerin to work some magic. The added wrinkle of the expansion draft preparation following the 2020-21 season could also play into Guerin's favor.
Either way it is a mess right now as the Wild sit with their lone victory through six games.
Minnesota Wild Blogger • 
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