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Thank Dub-ness

October 20, 2018, 11:09 AM ET [7 Comments]
Dan Wallace
Minnesota Wild Blogger • RSSArchiveCONTACT
Wild Game Day number 8
Wild Record (3-2-2 8 pts)
Home Record (2-0-2)

Opponent: Tampa Bay Lightning (4-1-0 8 pts)
Road Record (0-0-0)

Site: Xcel Energy Center, St. Paul, MN

Time: 7:00PM CT

TV: Fox Sports North (FSN)

Last season result:
12/23 Wild 0 @ Lightning 3
1/20 Lightning 2 @ Wild 5


Last night it was the Devan Dubnyk show once again as the Wild goaltender all but stole 2 points in Dallas. Dubnyk has been All-World through his first 6 games sporting an impressive 2.11 GAA, but an amazing 94.4% save percentage.

I don't want to discount the Wild's third period team effort though. After surrendering the go ahead tally, on a wonderful tip in from Jason Spezza of Miro Heiskanen's shot, 36 seconds into the final frame, it was all Wild the rest of the way. Minnesota took the play to Dallas outshooting them 15-2 following Spezza's goal, while tallying two goals of their own,before Zach Parise supplied the final dagger with the empty net tally at the 19 minute mark.

The Wild now have won two in a row for the first time this season, and have climbed over the .500 plateau as well. All is not rosy though for the Wild as they still are working to find that consistency needed to be a playoff team. They are still experiencing long periods of ineptitude as we saw last night when the second period was all Stars.

Tonight's opponent, the Lightning are playing their first road game of the season surprisingly, two and half weeks into the year. Last season the Wild and Lightning split their meetings with Tampa shutting out the Wild 3-0 in Tampa, and the Wild winning by a 5-2 margin on Hockey Day in Minnesota.

Tampa is one the Eastern Conference's powerhouses, expecting to be playing deep into the Spring. Their top guns Steven Stamkos, Nikita Kucherov, and Norris Trophy winner Victor Hedman get most of the press, but they have some very impressive young stars in Yanni Gourde, Brayden Point, and Mikhail Sergachev that are just scratching the surface of what their true potential will ultimately be.

The Lightning have it all from the star power at the top of the lineup to the young up and coming stars, combined with a top tier defense unit, and one of the league's best goalie's in Andrei Vasilevskiy.

The quick turnaround for the Wild will tell us more about this veteran club. They have yet to put together a full 60 minute effort to date, but last night's third period is definitely encouraging as they prepare to host the Lightning.

It is important that Wild stay out of the penalty box and allow Boudreau to keep his lines rolling as much as possible. The Wild bench boss also needs to continue to make adjustments with his line combinations and matchups in order to keep the Wild competitive. That is no easy task especially given the injury to Joel Eriksson Ek who will miss his fourth straight game tonight.

The strength of the Wild team is their defense, and if they can continue to push the play it takes a lot of the pressure off the Wild forwards, who as a collective unit rank at or near the bottom of the league in team speed.

Last night was a great example of how the Wild are going to have to win games with their defense highly active in the offense, while playing solid defense in front of strong goaltending. That is not a formula for long term success, but until Paul Fenton can pull the trigger on a deal, this is how they have to play.

Tonight's projected Wild lines:
Zucker Staal Read
Parise Koivu Granlund
Niederreiter Coyle Greenway
Foligno Fehr Brown

Suter Dumba
Brodin Spurgeon
Seeler Pateryn

Stalock
Dubnyk

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

Follow me on Twitter @dwallace17
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