Color Me Impressed

So, after this very positive game, Wild fans took to Twitter to show their appreciation:

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p><a href="https://twitter.com/Russostrib">@Russostrib</a> why granlund? He did not play well</p>— Jonah Miller (@turtleytime) <a href="https://twitter.com/turtleytime/statuses/386181300891029504">October 4, 2013</a></blockquote>

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<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p><a href="https://twitter.com/ciaiei">@ciaiei</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/Russostrib">@Russostrib</a> I think you guys are giving him too much credit he is a one way player.</p>— Jonah Miller (@turtleytime) <a href="https://twitter.com/turtleytime/statuses/386185713365942272">October 4, 2013</a></blockquote>

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<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p><a href="https://twitter.com/Russostrib">@Russostrib</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/ciaiei">@ciaiei</a> one good shift of D. How about the rest of the game? He had a rough go at it last night with D.</p>— Jonah Miller (@turtleytime) <a href="https://twitter.com/turtleytime/statuses/386186859866370048">October 4, 2013</a></blockquote>

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<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p><a href="https://twitter.com/Russostrib">@Russostrib</a> yeah but he looked confused and intimidated last night. Way off</p>— Alyssa (@meggalmel) <a href="https://twitter.com/meggalmel/statuses/386155538666356737">October 4, 2013</a></blockquote>

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<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p><a href="https://twitter.com/russosfilter">@russosfilter</a> no issue w/him not being from Minny but he kept looking at Yeo like he wasn't sure what he should be doing. It was game 1 tho</p>— Alyssa (@meggalmel) <a href="https://twitter.com/meggalmel/statuses/386198672460886016">October 4, 2013</a></blockquote>

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<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p><a href="https://twitter.com/Russostrib">@Russostrib</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/meggalmel">@meggalmel</a> granlund is extremely overrated. His assists were nothing special and he is not quick or elusive enough. <a href="https://twitter.com/search?q=%23zucker&src=hash">#zucker</a></p>— Chad Beltrand (@C_Beltrand) <a href="https://twitter.com/C_Beltrand/statuses/386200392398147585">October 4, 2013</a></blockquote>

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...the "Eye-Test": A flawless system for evaluating hockey. Who needs stats?

Speaking of stats, here are some highly interesting ones last night's game:

Firstly, the regular "boxcar" stats for the entire game, which take in all situations, show that the Wild out-shot the Kings quite heavily and had the same result: 2 goals.

Analysing the possession numbers from close situations (when the game is within one goal in the first or second period, and tied in the 3rd period and overtime) is the best way to get a realistic picture of which team was better at 5v5 as it avoids the interference caused by score effects.

As you can see from the table above, the Wild heavily out-Fenwick'd and out-shot the Kings in that 35.8 minute sample size. They also out Corsi'd them, but not as heavily. What's impressive is how many of their shot-attempts made it through to the goalie. The Wild blocked 14 shots, while the Kings blocked 9.

Narrowing down the sample a little bit more purely for curiosity's sake, with the score tied, the Wild still had the same dominant Corsi, Fenwick and shot totals.

Obviously this is only one game, but the Wild have been an awful possession team for a very long time so seeing them put-up those kind of numbers against an outfit as dominant as the Kings is very very encouraging and impressive. If they can continue to do this then get ready for a healthy dose of playoff hockey in St.Paul this year.

Dominating puck possession is a recipe for success. You're gonna have nights and stretches where the teams shooting percentage and save percentage desert them and they lose, but those averages will even-out through the "magic" of regression to the mean. If the team can repeat last night's performance again and again, the odds on winning are stacked in their favour.

Anyone who is whining about last night's performance is out of their ever-loving mind. The Wild were fantastic and just needed a few bounces to go their way. Mike Yeo and Chuck Fletcher talked about becoming a better puck possession team, but I had no idea we'd see fruits of that this quickly. Whether it continues is another matter, but for now, color me impressed.