Minnesota Wild, NHL

Weekly Wild Whangdoodle: Week 3

40 Comments

This week's schedule:

Four home games this week, the Wild get another look at the Kings and then start a stretch of four in a row against the Avalanche.

Both of these teams are currently at .500 (Kings are 2-2-2, Avs are 3-3-0). That's surprising in both cases, although for different reasons.

Last week's results:

MIN 0 - ANA 1 - Highlights

The power play is bad (0 for 5 on this night, 0 for the season through three games). The Wild actually had the better control of play, but couldn't solve Gibson. Cam Talbot played a pretty good game in goal. Losing 1-0 is just so annoying. The team shooting percentage went from 11% (highest in the West) before the game to 7.7% (middle of the pack) after.

MIN 3 - ANA 2 - Highlights

The Wild were cruising, up 2-0, outshooting Anaheim 24-7 and then they just kind of lost it at the end of the second period and allowed the Ducks to tie the game. Then Kaprizov to Greenway to Eriksson Ek about 90 seconds into the third period and the Wild had their third win of the season.  And they got a power play goal! Their power play was now 1 for 20 (5%) on the season. Infinitely better than 0%, but still not great. On the other side the penalty kill was 12 for 13 on the year and added a short handed goal in this one.

MIN 4 - SJ 1 - Highlights

Hey! A game with a goal differential greater than one! Thanks to two empty net goals by the Wild, but at least Parise and Fiala got their first goals of the year here.

MIN 3 - SJ 5 - Highlights

WW

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Two splits with two not great teams is not ideal, and this week will be a bit more of a test.  We're over 10% of the way through the season, and now the Wild get to play some more of the top end of the division.  Series splits with Colorado / Vegas will feel a lot better.

TEAM CORSI% FEN% xGF/60xGA/60Sh%Sv%
Wild51.852.22.41.87.5%92.6%

Overall stats look OK - CORSI and Fenwick are above 50%, so the Wild are carrying the play at 5 on 5 versus their opponents. Their shooting percentage is a little low, and their save percentage is high.

Special teams is going to be the thing, I think. If the power play starts going well and they keep this up at 5 on 5, they'll do very well.

The Kirill Kaprizov Corner

Is he more of a playmaker than a goal-scorer? That could be interesting.

Players not Named Kirill

  • Eriksson Ek and Greenway are having a really good start to the season paired together on the third line. I really hope both of them continue to be productive
  • Cam Talbot - great game against Anaheim (the 1-0 loss) and then an injury.
  • Kappo Kahkonen - Seen more minutes right away in the season, seems to be OK as far as I can tell. Metrics through 2+ games seem to say he's a tick above average, so ... that's something.
Shots AgainstGoals AgainstFenwick AgainstSV%FenwickSV%Reb per 100SV
Talbot1068140.925.9454.2
Expected8.5.921.9393.7
Kahkonen766114.921.9462.0
Expected5.4.921.9533.4
  • Fiala and Parise both scored goals last week - empty net goals totally count - and it's nice to see them get some points. The Wild will need both of them to score as the competition gets better.

Leaderboards

PlayerGPlayerAPlayerPts
Eriksson Ek3Kaprizov5Kaprizov6
Dumba2Suter5Suter5
Parise2Greenway4Eriksson Ek5
Fiala2Eriksson Ek2Greenway5
9 players tied1Pateryn2Parise / Dumba3

40 thoughts on “Weekly Wild Whangdoodle: Week 3”

  1. Also, I'm going to continue to plug the NWHL and the Minnesota Whitecaps here.

    The Whitecaps are 2-0 with 5 games remaining in the season. They have a game today (at 4:30) against the Metropolitan Riveters, the only other 2-0 team in the league, which would be a huge win if they can get it, since the opponent for the last two games of the season is determined by the standings after 5 games. With a win today it makes a #1 seed much more likely, and in a league with 3 good teams, getting to face the four seed in the semifinals would be really nice.

    3. Connecticut beat Boston yesterday. Last year Boston went 23-1, while Connecticut went 2-20-2.

      So that was a surprise. But it does mean that the Connecticut-Minnesota game happening tonight (7:30 PM) is all of a sudden a battle for first place in the standings.

    1. No one doubts JEE's offensive prowess!

      I'm having as much fun with this as anyone, but at some point if 100% of your offense is coming from your third line ... it's not gonna go great.

        2. This seems like a very un-Wild thing... was it precipitated by something or somehow accidental?

          1. Seeing it now, looks like a bit out of control, outcome worse than intent, but that's still not allowed.

      1. I was digging the North Stars/Wild hybrid. I'd love to see it with a green base, instead of the white.

        1. I thought it looked a lot better on ice than online. Maybe it is the stars on the breezers that added to the whole package.

            1. I've always disliked the Avs uniforms and thinking about it had to look up the sweater history. The primary is remarkably stable (and terrible) for a team that started in the mid-90s!

          2. Love this throwback uniform. On the ice it looks great. Now we just need to paint the seats in Excel to match the old arena. I miss the fact that the old Met Center looked like it was furnished via garage sales.

      1. I gotta say that Greenway looks much better this season. JEE as well. Brodin is one of the most effortless (and awesome) skaters in the league.

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