Article: Was Minnesota's Slow Start Really Just Puck Luck?

[Tom Schreier]

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[Protec]

It's been a combination of things that has made it a tough start. No Boldy or Spurgeon. Posts, bounces, and missed nets. Chemistry and rhythm issues with replacement guys. Coaches looking for answers and doubt swirling.

The Wild need to go to work. More hard work and committed effort to right the ship. That's the basic fundamental element they need to adhere to. Do the small things, build the good habits, compete like every loose puck matters, etc. They need to build the confidence in that formula. It's the same thing they've had success with before. Not cute passing, not grit videos, not line shuffles. Simple hockey and full team buy in. The Wild don't have enough talent, size, speed, elite top picks, money, depth to be successful any other way.

[Dean]

Great article. 

[FredJohnson]

So glad to have you writing articles here Tom. Good stuff! Thank you!!

[Pewterschmidt]

IMO our 4-5-2 record is a direct reflection of quality of the line combo talent thru 10 games.  This team got stale and Deano finally got bumped off his log. (imagine if he'd done this against St Louis couple years ago) Then Deano changed the lines up and we got a major spark driven by ROBOKAP.  This line looks like a top NHL line that can pot goals against anyone, not just the bottom of the league teams.  Time will tell but i liked what i saw.  

All that positivity aside, this group (basically same group as last few years) looks weaker/softer/less dangerous this year.  If Rossi continues to take stair steps in his development that'll hide alot of warts over next 70 games.  If he regresses/get's hurt/or Boldy get's hurt restart the revolving door from Iowa so we can cut the dead wood and make room for new prospects.  Speaking of dead wood is anyone still excited about having Duhaime around long term?

[Luke Sims]

This was going to look a lot different if the Wild lost to the Rangers.

[Tom Gribalski]

Some of the games we've been getting hammered, so I don't know

[Willy the poor boy]

3 minutes ago, Tom Gribalski said:

Some of the games we've been getting hammered, so I don't know

" I mean you're not going to be banging each other down low when you've banged the night before and you're about to get hammered again the next night."

Edited November 7, 2023 by Willy the poor boy
clarity

[mnfaninnc]

To answer the question, NO, this was not due to puck luck. 

This was due to shoddy special teams, can't kill penalties, can't score on the power play. 

Puck luck has nothing to do with gap control, suspect defense and poor goaltending. Puck luck is when weird stuff happens that you can't overcome, like stanchions coming into play, pucks hitting people in the butt and bouncing in, or an awful lot of friendly fire tips that make it through the goalie. 

No, this was not puck luck issues.