Minnesota Wild, NHL

Weekly Wild Whangdoodle: The Quarter Post

37 Comments

A Monday night game threw off my schedule. Here's a whangdoodle.

14 games represents 25% of the scheduled season, so we're now into the second half of the first half. Other than Eriksson Ek still leading the team in goals scored, I think this team has been pretty much as expected.

This week's schedule:

We have to be almost done with the Kings at this point, right?

LA won three in a row last week to vault to the top of the bottom of the West standings - Minnesota's sweep of Anaheim puts them with the best points percentage, but the fewest games played.  Separation remains difficult for this group.

LA - 17 points in 16 games
Arizona - 17 points in 17 games
Minnesota - 16 points in 14 games
San Jose - 16 points in 16 games
Anaheim - 15 points in 18 games

===================================================

The Kirill Kaprizov Corner

Kaprizov continues to lead all NHL rookies in assists and is tied for first in total points. (3G - 8A - 11Pts)

He is indeed - fun.

Players not Named Kirill

  • Eriksson Ek continues to have a spectacular year.  I'm not even questioning it any more.
  • Fiala is scoring. This is a very good thing.
  • Rask continues to score when Kaprizov feeds him the puck. I guess we let it ride?  (special shout out to Rask winning 12 of 13 faceoffs against the Ducks on Saturday - I'm as confused as any of you)
  • The Wild continue to be saturated with good defensemen. Dakota Mermis and Calen Addison sound like they acquitted themselves well in short stints on the COVID-decimated roster.
  • Zuccarello is back! (three points in three games? Yeah, he gets an exclamation point for that)

Leaderboards

PlayerGPlayerAPlayerPts
Eriksson Ek6Greenway9Kaprizov11
Fiala6Kaprizov8Greenway11
Rask4Suter6Eriksson Ek10
Dumba3Brodin / Parise4Fiala7
Kaprizov3Eriksson Ek4Brodin / Parise / Suter6

37 thoughts on “Weekly Wild Whangdoodle: The Quarter Post”

  4. I gotta hand it to this front office and coaching staff. Under the old regime, I just felt like we were mired in a hopeless state of mediocrity. It is early to say, but I just feel like we have made some nice moves and quality drafts to give us some depth and flexibility in our roster. In addition, there seems to be no "pecking order" regarding the seasoned vets. Setting egos aside and putting forth the best line up possible each night. Think you are a first line winger? Play like it. Not saying we will win the Stanley Cup in the next 2 years, but there is a level of excitement I have not felt in quite a while regarding this squad.

    1. I like to joke around about things like #1 CENTER VICTOR RASK, but I think it's important to remember that so far (partly because of the protocol break) these guys have played 12 of 15 games against the California teams. Jury's still out on how effective this roster is going to be against the three titans of the division, for me.

      2. Agreed... yet that doesn't change the fun to watch factor of this squad. Like I said, even if they struggle to finish this year, it is just a more exciting brand of hockey.

        1. Yup, they're fun. I just had a conversation with a bunch of people in town about the Wild. We are definitely not in a hockey town (my backyard rink is the only ice in the city), and I don't think I've ever discussed the Wild around here. It's been a fun stretch.

  5. Now San Jose is cancelling practice and games after having players enter the COVID protocol. Feels like there won't be a full 56 games played in this division.

    1. What would be completely fatal is if one team had to re-enter protocol.

      I have no idea what the plan is if some teams can't get their games in... some sort of winning percentage approach? That seems unfair.

        1. It's what they did in the NHL in 2020 as well.

          They haven't officially announced they will do points percentage, but Wyshynski (ESPN) said that's the league's plan.

  8. Watching a team that scores more than 2 or 3 goals a game is, apparently, fun. I don't think I've ever had that as a fan before. What a great stretch!

  10. As a note, I think they should always do the NHL like they're doing it this season. I'm loving the impact that every regular season game has in the standings, getting to see the same teams, more games crammed into less time, etc.

    Maybe they could shift a little more back towards normal, but this is absurdly fun as a casual fan.

  13. The Wild and Kings play twice in two days here and it's pretty amazing how different the two teams are considering they are separated by only one standings point and both riding winning streaks (Wild - 4 game winning streak, LAK - 6 games)

    At 5-on-5 expected goals (from Evolving Hockey)

    Wild are +0.41 expected goals/60 minutes (highest in the division)
    Kings are -0.49 expected goals/60 minutes (lowest in the division)

    Power Play expected goals (from Evolving Hockey)

    Wild are +5.32 expected goals/60 minutes (2nd lowest in the division - how terrible is the Arizona power play to be worse than the Wild?)
    Kings are +7.95 expected goals/60 minutes (highest in the division)

    So yeah, basically what I said here. Only in statistics.

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