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Canadian Road Trips Wraps Up in MTL

October 17, 2019, 11:11 AM ET [12 Comments]
Dan Wallace
Minnesota Wild Blogger • RSSArchiveCONTACT
The Wild complete their three game Canadian road trip with a visit to Montreal to take on the Canadiens.

Can the Wild continue their dominance of the Canadiens as they have won the last nine meetings and outscored the Canadiens by a 36-10 margin in those contests.

Of course this is a completely different season and the Canadiens are a team on the rise after falling just 2 points short of a playoff berth in the ultra competitive Eastern Conference, while the Wild are slip sliding down the standings and looking more and more like a lottery pick team for the foreseeable future.

We have talked about it a lot that the Wild have the ability to get the game level up for stretches however they have yet to show the ability to sustain it over any extended period. Bruce Boudreau has his hands full trying to mix and match his line combinations to figure out something that will work both offensively as well as in their own zone to prevent the nightly breakdowns we have seen through the first six games.

This is a rare home and home for the Wild and the Canadiens as the two will meet in St. Paul on Sunday to wrap up the season series between the teams. There used to be a lot more of these back to backs with the same opponent leading to some very interesting story lines from one game to the next. The old calling cards delivered in the first game and the retaliatory jabs in the second.

I don't expect much of that between these two as the Wild are more focused on figuring things out while the Canadiens are looking to put some wins together and get themselves back up the Atlantic Division standings following their 2-2-2 start.

Expect the Wild to try to slow the game down as much as they can and use whatever speed they can must up front to generate offense. Combine that with the transition game of their mobile defensemen and that is how they are going to compete.

Jirdan Greenway needs to be more involved in front of the net and for that matter if the Wild intend to get pucks past Carey Price they will need more than just Greenway going hard to the net.

It's always Hockey Day in The State of Hockey!
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