Well, that sucked. The Wild were flying high (some people even crowned them as good at hockey) after beating up on Arizona and Las Vegas. And then they got steamrolled by Colorado. Two games and a combined score of 11-1 not in Minnesota's favor.
Ouch.
The problem, it turns out, was that Colorado's first line is full of really good players and the Wild just didn't have an answer. So it felt like the Avalanche could score at will. The good news here is that those games are over and Minnesota only meets Colorado for 2 games of their remaining 27. So there's some time to maybe figure out a better strategy.
Speaking of the remaining 27 games, the Wild schedule really settles into a pattern here after this week. Minnesota gets a three day weekend with no games in the upcoming weekend, and that will be the last time this season they get two days off in a row. There are 7 sets of back-to-back games in the last 7 weeks, so we're going to see a lot of hockey if we so desire (hopefully hockey that looks like two weeks ago more than this past weekend).
This week's schedule:
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The Ducks are bad and getting worse. Playing them at home should be the perfect palate-cleanser after that bitter pill in Colorado. Anaheim has struggled to score all year, but have been pretty good at keeping the puck out of the net. If the Wild can score some goals, they should be good here.
Thursday is the first game against St. Louis all season. The Blues have been hurt by injuries and bad goaltending, but have capitalized on a soft schedule to maintain their place in the top 4 of the West. If the Wild have any thoughts of getting home ice in the playoffs, they will need to win a good number of the 8 remaining games against St. Louis.
- Vegas - 43 points (29G)
- Colorado - 40 points (29G)
- Minnesota - 37 points (29G)
- St. Louis - 37 points (31G)
- LosAngeles - 32 points (30G)
- Arizona - 31 points (31G)
- San Jose - 26 points (29G)
- Anaheim - 24 points (32G)
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The Kirill Kaprizov Corner
It was a slow week for highlights in general. Colorado did a pretty good job of limiting Kaprizov and Zuccarello and everyone else.
On the rookie leaderboards, Kaprizov's first in goals (10), first in assists (15), and first in points (25).
Kaprizov is in the top 15 in the NHL in even-strength points (23).
Players not Named Kirill
The injury list has a couple important guys out for now.
- Foligno is still out - the Wild miss the defensive winger, and that series against Colorado might be a strong argument for Foligno as team defensive MVP.
- Dumba hurt his ankle(?) in game one and was missed as well. He's had a really solid season, which was nice to see.
Leaderboards
| Player | G | Player | A | Player | Pts | Player | GAR |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Eriksson Ek | 11 | Kaprizov | 15 | Kaprizov | 25 | Eriksson Ek | 6.8 |
| Kaprizov | 10 | Greenway | 15 | Greenway | 20 | Foligno | 6.6 |
| Fiala | 9 | Zuccarello | 15 | Zuccarello | 20 | Brodin | 6.1 |
| Foligno | 7 | Foligno/Suter | 9 | Foligno | 16 | Kaprizov | 5.4 |
| Rask | 7 | Brodin/Parise | 9 | Eriksson Ek | 16 | Soucy/Rask | 4.8 |