Wild head coach, Dean Evason, once again showing that he does have his finger in the pulse of this Wild squad. After a couple of weeks of lackluster performances, Evason threw his line's into the proverbial blender and what came out was an inspired Wild bunch last night in Vegas.

Back to playing entertaining hockey games with much more attention paid to the details, the Wild matched the Vegas Golden Knights and ultimately earned the 2 points with the skills competition victory. Vegas is a deep and talented team and they are very difficult to beat, especially on their own home ice at T-Mobile.

Evason inserted Kyle Rau into the lineup and made Nico Sturm a healthy scratch. Luke Johnson continued his strong play particularly at the faceoff dot, where he is winning 55% of his draws. In limited ice time Johnson playing his natural position at center is making his presence felt.

We have seen all year how Evason has created internal competition and he himself may have become a bit complacent with the Wild having success and things kind of rolling along. However, learning comes through adversity and although the Wild these last couple of weeks would not qualify as a slump based on their record, but the play on the ice was certainly not to the level we had seen earlier in the season.

Cam Talbot once again was brilliant in the Wild net showing that Bill Guerin knew what he was doing when he signed the veteran goaltender to a three year deal in July. As you recall there were a number of high quality goalies on the market and when Guerin tapped Talbot as his guy many questioned the move.

The battle for the Wild net has driven both Wild goalies as Kaapo Kahkonen, earned his way into a regular role and for a time was the number 1 while Talbot was out of the lineup on a couple of separate occasions. Since Talbot's most recent return, Evason has anointed his original number 1, his starting gig back. Talbot has taken that bull by the horns and rewarded his coach and teammates with grade A performances on a nightly basis.

Talbot's strong play also presents another interesting wrinkle to the Wild and their expansion protection list. As we know each team can only protect one goalie and Kahkonen would most certainly be the one with his upside potential and very vap friendly contract. Talbot though could be on the Seattle radar as we move toward the expansion draft.

Saturday should be another good tilt and another test to see if the Wild can back up their strong effort with another against a top team.

Join the Discussion: » 7 Comments » Post New Comment

» Walker Up, Goligoski On LTIR

» Wild Look To Tighten Up The D Zone

» New Season Of Hope For Wild

» Kirill Gets The "A"

» Zuccarello Extended For 2 Years