Article: What Will Be the Wild's 'Sling That Slays the Giant' In Vegas?

[Justin Hein]

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[mnfaninnc]

I think the key component here will be secondary scoring for the Wild. If we can get it, we might be ok. If we can't get it, we're in big trouble. This really means that Rossi and Nyquist need big series and Foligno is going to have to score.

[M_Nels]

Great article! Goes without saying the Wild need depth scoring but the lack of production at the blueline the last 1/2 of the season has been somewhat concerning. When the Wild were rolling early on their D was contributing a bunch. 

[Patrick]

The easiest path for the Wild is for Gus to get hot. He has shown elite talent.  A hot goalie with elite talent will break any system.  The Wild should prioritize getting him comfortable and confident and build from there. 

[Enforceror]

Love this style of writing. Analytical, backed up by numbers, examples, etc. 

I have tempered expectations but this is hockey. Anything can happen. When we play focused and energetic, we can beat any team in the league.

[SkolWild73]

3 hours ago, M_Nels said:

Great article! Goes without saying the Wild need depth scoring but the lack of production at the blueline the last 1/2 of the season has been somewhat concerning. When the Wild were rolling early on their D was contributing a bunch. 

I have wondered if the lack of D scoring was in direct relation to a style change without Kap.  It felt like we played less aggressive after that, and more defensive.  Since Kap and Ek came back, our D seems more aggressive on offense.  No stats to back that up, just what if felt like the last couple of games.  I think Faber had like 9 shots on goal against Anaheim.

[OldDutchChip]

great article! 🍻

i'll add a small piece too - having our "grit" players deliver. i am talking about foligno, braz, harty and trenin. they have to play to contact and not target just kobesar and hague. they have to try to wear down vegas skill line. hit stone and eichel and karlsson and hertl and dorofeev. hit clean and hit often. 

wild in 6

[Enforceror]

1 hour ago, SkolWild73 said:

I have wondered if the lack of D scoring was in direct relation to a style change without Kap.  It felt like we played less aggressive after that, and more defensive.  Since Kap and Ek came back, our D seems more aggressive on offense.  No stats to back that up, just what if felt like the last couple of games.  I think Faber had like 9 shots on goal against Anaheim.

I agree with this take. Our top four D were racking points early in the season and the timing seems to match up from what I recollect. Quick comparison of last 20 games vs last 10 games below. It's probably an absurd sample to take and make a basis from but I didn't want to get too in the weeds...

Brodin - 20g/17s 10g/10s

Spurgeon - 20g/20s 10g/17s

Faber 20g/48s 10g/31s

Middleton 20g 27s 10g/10s

[Fezig]

It's my belief, and I may be way out there with this one, is that if the Wild score more goals than the Knights each game, they will win.

I hope I'm not wrong, but this is MN and anything can happen.

[Thomas]

Bah......Goliath blah blah blah

Vegas is an infant in a man's world.
In four game-nights, they'll be back in kindergarten 😉

[Imyourhuckleberry]

Buium on line 3, replacing Merrill. Wild PP was already decent and could take a step forward with Zeev running it. He's been spending time with Bogo, including outside of practice, talking through defensive drills and assignments.

Vegas doesn't take a lot of penalties, but hopefully the Wild can take advantage of the power play opportunities they do get since Vegas was in the bottom 1/3 of the league for PK%, below 76%.

If the Wild can keep their penalties to a minimum, possibly even taking fewer penalties than Vegas, they have a shot. If the Wild spend a lot of time in the box, Vegas has a lot of firepower to make them pay.

Hopefully the Wild play a highly disciplined and opportunistic game, winning low scoring close games, and frustrate Vegas over the course of the series.

Go Wild!!!

[Justin Hein]

3 hours ago, Fezig said:

It's my belief, and I may be way out there with this one, is that if the Wild score more goals than the Knights each game, they will win.

I hope I'm not wrong, but this is MN and anything can happen.

Monkey's paw curls, Wild win one game 5-0 and lose four 1-0 

[Justin Hein]

29 minutes ago, Imyourhuckleberry said:

Buium on line 3, replacing Merrill. Wild PP was already decent and could take a step forward with Zeev running it. He's been spending time with Bogo, including outside of practice, talking through defensive drills and assignments.

Vegas doesn't take a lot of penalties, but hopefully the Wild can take advantage of the power play opportunities they do get since Vegas was in the bottom 1/3 of the league for PK%, below 76%.

If the Wild can keep their penalties to a minimum, possibly even taking fewer penalties than Vegas, they have a shot. If the Wild spend a lot of time in the box, Vegas has a lot of firepower to make them pay.

Both of Vegas and MN have been extremely disciplined, so there's a chance for very little power play time. That's a good thing given how good Vegas has been with the extra man. 

I wouldn't count on Vegas's PK to be a weakness -- I think some of that can be explained by Karlsson missing games. 

Buium in the lineup could be a major boon at 5v5. Seems his practices have been encouraging if Hynes is willing to break up the Bogo-Merrill pair. 

[Imyourhuckleberry]

8 minutes ago, Justin Hein said:

I wouldn't count on Vegas's PK to be a weakness -- I think some of that can be explained by Karlsson missing games. 

Karlsson played 38 games between October 26th and January 20th. Vegas was at 77.8% on the PK during that stretch, which is a little better.

Wild struggled badly early in the year, where Wild goalies only posted a .750 save percentage while Khusnutdinov was on the ice short handed. The Wild have been around 79% since they replaced Khustnutdinov with Nyquist on the PK.

Gus has an .893 save percentage on the PK since the Wild added Nyquist compared to .840 prior to that. Fleury wasn't great this year. Gus and Adin Hill should be fairly evenly matched, but hopefully Gus has more good nights than Hill in this series.

[RedLake]

BUUIM PP1