Article: How Red Are the Minnesota Wild's Red Flags?

[Tony Abbott]

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[Citizen Strife]

The thing that worries me is the PP isn't as lights out as it was the first few games, and the PK is abysmal (66-67%).

A lot gets masked by how fewer penalties they are taking compared to last year, so I suppose a worse PK showing up less evens out as bad as last year's March to the box showed.

On the plus side, about 5-7 players are at or near PPG.  Kap's surge is huge, but the team is helping behind him.

[Protec]

The scoring ability is very good for this team. An injury or special-teams collapse would make it worse for sure.

It's been a great way to begin, but the Wild need to settle into a routine and find a safe groove to stay firmly on-track. That encompasses a lot of little things but keeping guys healthy, and staying out of the box is the most important.

The PK has sucked for years. PPs are streaky. EDM had an amazing PK last season, somebody needs to study that. MN's PK or down 6-5 at the end of games has been crummy still. Just stay out of the box and stay healthy.

[mnfaninnc]

Just like CS, I think being reasonably healthy is the main thing and the red flag here is that depth is not their strong suit especially at forward. 

I like the way the team is blocking shots and packing the middle of the ice. The red flag here, however, is that sometimes blocked shots lead to injuries. 

This season's version of the Wild has been to counter score quickly when someone else takes the lead. The red flag here is if this is sustainable? Last season, we had a terrible time scoring 1st. This season seems to be different in that respect, and I think it should be a stressed goal. It is always easier to play with a lead, something that adds confidence to the team and cuts down on injuries. 

I don't mention the stats here, nor the underlying numbers. It's not that I don't believe in them, it's just that right now, the eye test is much better. The numbers are to goofy this early to mean anything. 

Another flag, I'm not sure what color it is, is that our schedule to this point has been Eastern Conference heavy. To me, the Eastern Conference is probably the better conference at this time. Banking points against those teams is very good. 

You could say something similar about our road/home ratio too. Coming up big in that long 7 game road trip probably puts us in the playoff hunt with 5 games to go. 

I think it is still way too early to believe anybody's % on playoff odds. I said this a little while ago, but you cannot make the playoffs with a good October and November. However, you can miss the playoffs with these as bad months. Just like in a game, chasing teams ahead in the standings is far more exhausting than having the lead. The banked points can actually help you stay within yourself and not try to do too much, keeping you healthier. 

My biggest red flag, though, is what happens when Kaprizov isn't scoring 2 or more points a night? We've enjoyed 7 in a row. This, to me, is the greatest reason for our record. We need to have improvement throughout the other lines so that they can provide the vital secondary scoring.

One last item. Hynes. Last night and on some previous nights, Heinzy makes some very subtle line switches through the game. Sometimes it's dictated by special teams screwing up the lines, but moving Trenin to 4th line and elevating Hartman to 3rd line worked well. So did Rossi moving late to Boldy's line. In comparing this with Evason, he didn't really do this. Hynes hasn't hit the line blender as much as Boudreau, but he has a feel that shouldn't go unnoticed. He won't get every switch right, but I do applaud him for doing it.