What’s up, Wild fans?!?
Happy New Year…sorry it’s been a while since I blogged. Must be something about sitting on the bus en route to Rockford that gets my blogging juices flowing (see my previous post).
Through the 2013 calendar year, the Wild sit at 13-14-2-0 (28 pts.), which is good for 12th in the Western Conference and, somewhat surprisingly, has them just five points out of a playoff spot. Let’s go back to the team’s loss on Sunday for a moment, before I throw some numbers your way…
On Sunday, the Wild were shutout for the fourth time this season (all on home ice). The 4-0 to Milwaukee was slightly concerning for a couple of reasons. First, the Admirals seem to have the Wild’s number this season, as the Wild have been outscored 10-2 in their three losses to the Admirals. It might be too early in the season to say it’s a “match-up thing”, but with seven meetings left in the season series (including one on this road trip), it would behoove the Wild to start picking up some points against their division foes quickly. The second concerning thing was the play of goaltender Johan Gustafsson. In fairness to “Gus”, Sunday’s loss was his first game since December 12th, so some rust was to be expected. But with Darcy Kuemper up in the NHL again, the Wild need Gustafsson to regain his early season form in order for them to keep pace in the playoff race. If not, it may be John Curry that starts to carry the load for the Wild…but with Curry not necessarily being a “Wild prospect”, I have a hard time seeing him start four or five games in a row, no matter how well he’s playing.
With that said, December was a great month for the Wild. A 6-3-2-0 record helped them stay afloat in the conference, and maybe more importantly, the Wild discovered (or you can argue they re-discovered) their recipe for success: Smart, disciplined, 5-on-5 hockey, backed by great goaltending. The team got timely scoring in December – defensemen chipping in, etc., and as a whole, they looked like the team that most of us expected to see when the season started. However, it should be noted that four of their six wins in the month came against: San Antonio, Hamilton and Rockford (2); all teams that are, at best, one game over .500 as of today.
Here’s what I’m looking for moving forward:
- Road Success: Starting tomorrow night, the Wild will play nine of their next 12 games on the road. A 6-3-1-0 road record this season should give the team confidence as they begin this 10-day journey; the big question will be whether or not they can sustain that success. Look for an extremely focused team to hit the ice tomorrow in Rockford – Coach Kleinendorst talked earlier this year about how there are no distractions on the road – that mentality should help the Wild through the adversity they are sure to face on this road swing.
- Depth / Role Players: At the start of the season, Coach Kleinendorst wanted to be a “four-line team”. However in recent weeks, the Wild have gotten away from that philosophy a bit. We’ll see how much they shorten the bench (both forwards and “D” pairings) during this difficult road trip, which is essentially split up into two parts: three games in four days, and then three games in three days.
- Unstable Roster: With the Minnesota Wild struggling right now (six straight losses at the time of this post), the transactions have been coming fast and furious. That type of uncertainty makes it hard to sustain a lot of success. One game Jason Zucker is in the AHL, the next he’s in the “State Of Hockey” playing for the big club. Make no bones about it, the Iowa Wild are in business to support the Minnesota Wild. However, the more that guys are in and out of the AHL lineup, the harder it is to get into a rhythm.
Here are some numbers / rankings to chew on as the Wild near Game #30:
- 3: That’s the (minimum) number of games in hand the Wild have against seven of the 11 teams ahead of them in the Western Conference standings
- 5: Number of wins the Wild have against Midwest division foes (5-7-1-0 record)
- 2.69: The Wild’s team goals against average, good enough for 11th in the 30-team AHL
- 19: The number of Wild games decided by one or two goals this season
- 10: The +/- rating in the month of December for Wild defenseman Jon Landry. Landry leads the team with a +12 overall.
Hope everyone had a safe, and happy holiday season! Here’s to a playoff appearance in 2014…
– Radio
ALL THINGS WILD 