Article: Where Are Minnesota's Greatest Defensive Breakdowns?

[Bekki Antonelli]

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[mnfaninnc]

This was the area where I felt improvement was needed:

Quote

Ten came on rebounds

Controlling rebounds is one of the Wild’s biggest weaknesses. 

Many of them look like Jack Eichel’s goal on March 25. All 5 Wild defenders are out front, trying to figure out where the initial shot on net went. Somehow, none of them prevent Mark Stone from chipping the puck to Eichel, who is able to shoot and score on Marc-Andre Fleury, who is already down. 

This also, to me, is a red flag of goaltender fatigue. What makes this very difficult is that the rebounds are getting kicked out lazily where opponents are, but if you lock it down, your faceoff% is so low you anticipate losing the draw and get bottled up. 

Goaltender fatigue may mean he's just a tad late on the save and can't lock it down, nor can he kick it out where he wants to. On a different note, defensive fatigue means you don't cover the opponent as well so there may be plenty of that going on too. 

Just looking at the standings, to me it appears that some of the teams chasing us forgot to pit and are trying to catch us with very little gas left in their tank. I think they fade. Flames went down to the Hockey Club on Tuesday, Canucks last night to the Kraken. Both were brutal losses for them in winnable games. Connor Zary is out with a pretty severe leg injury. I think both teams are a bit like us and don't have a lot of depth.

[Imyourhuckleberry]

I know the last game was excluded from the analysis, but I felt a little bit bad for Gus last night. He had an okay game, but seemed like he was playing against 6-7 guys at times against the Rangers, particularly when Chisholm banked a rebound off of his pads so the Rangers could tally a goal.

I'm pretty sure I understand what Chisholm was attempting to do(pull the puck back behind the net), but that mistake just cannot happen, particularly this late in the season fighting for playoff seeding, or just to get in.

I think in the 1st Devils game, Gus wasn't ready to go. He was playing too far out of his crease on shots from distance and the rebounds were kicking to guys who ended up with wide open shots. He's tightened up his game since last Saturday, but the Wild's skaters have been getting outplayed. Excited to see Kaprizov back, likely in less than 1 week now.

Edited 16 hours ago by Imyourhuckleberry

[Patrick]

I get that there is always room for improvement but if you take out the 3 empty net goals the Wild are giving up 2.5 goals a game over this stretch.  That would tie them for #1 in the NHL!  Even with the empty netters they would be ranked 9th!  

Scoring goals is the problem. Not preventing them.

[Up North Guy]

13 minutes ago, Patrick said:

I get that there is always room for improvement but if you take out the 3 empty net goals the Wild are giving up 2.5 goals a game over this stretch.  That would tie them for #1 in the NHL!  Even with the empty netters they would be ranked 9th!  

Scoring goals is the problem. Not preventing them.

All very true, but that just makes the bonehead plays (looking at you Chissy) all the more glaring. If a team is struggling to score, it just can't give up brutal mistakes. This is particularly true when chasing a playoff spot.

[Imyourhuckleberry]

Danila Yurov still held off the score sheet in 4 playoff games, but his team won 3-1 today to tighten the series to 2-3. After losing the first 3 games(two by just 1 goal), it would be a nice effort to push that series to 7 games.

I don't think the Wild will be bringing him over before the summer now, so I wouldn't mind his team going on an extended playoff run where Yurov can tally some points.

[FredJohnson]

1 hour ago, Patrick said:

Scoring goals is the problem. Not preventing them.

Bingo.

[Imyourhuckleberry]

Zeev Buium's Denver Pioneers face Western Michigan 1 week from tonight.

They've played 3 times this season, with each game decided by 1 goal. First game was lost by Denver in regulation 3-2. Second game was won by Denver 3-2 in the first OT. Third game saw Denver give up a 3 goal lead in the 3rd period to lose 4-3 in double OT. Buium had at least 1 point in each game.

Based upon the pattern so far, one might anticipate a tight game with at least 1 point from Buium and Denver possibly coming out on top in the third OT.

On the other side of the bracket, I imagine Boston University, with Cole Eiserman(2024 Pick #20 overall), Cole Hutson(2024 Pick #43 overall), Quinn Hutson(undrafted top scorer), Tom Willander(2023 Pick #11 overall), Ryan Greene(2022 Pick #57 overall), and a 2nd round(2024 Pick #49 overall) goalie named Mikhail Yegorov is likely favored over Penn State, who has a 5'4" 145 forward among their top 6 scorers.

Penn State was ranked 12th before the tourney, with Boston U at 8th, Denver at 6th, and Western Michigan at #3 in the country.

[RedLake]

Rossi is a defensive liability. Send him down and get Ohgren up.

[Dis-allowed display name]

2 hours ago, RedLake said:

Rossi is a defensive liability. Send him down and get Ohgren up.

 I don't know what you mean specifically, but on the OT goal, I saw him lunge at the puck carrier and whiff, and I just knew it was over at that point.  

I thought, "OH CRAP!   Yep.  Saw that comin."  We hung in there for a good twenty seconds or so.  A faceoff win to start OT might help some day.

[mnfaninnc]

I don't think they should have started Rossi in OT. That knee is still a problem and the coaches should realize that. I'd have probably gone with Boldy and the suddenly hot handed Johansson. Boldy is proficient in taking draws. This was a coaching error and drops specifically on their feet.

[Patrick]

7 hours ago, RedLake said:

Rossi is a defensive liability. Send him down and get Ohgren up.

Huh? Rossi is better defensively than Ohhren by any measure.