By Thomas Williams -
When Minnesota Wild general manager Bill Guerin gave his mid-season press conference and despite the team being miles behind everyone else in the standings, he said that the playoffs are still the goal, we mostly assumed he was just saying that for the sake of saying that. But now, with 32 regular season games remaining, and after a chaotic 10-7 victory over the Vancouver Canucks, the Wild are suddenly just two points back of a Wild Card spot.
There is a real and true possibility of the Wild making the playoffs, yet again.
The only problem is the amount of other teams vying for that same position. And realistically, it is just one spot. The Los Angeles Kings hold the first Wild Card spot, but with two games in-hand over all the teams below them and a four-point advantage, they would need to mess up really bad to fall from that height.
So it's just down to the second Wild Card spot, currently being held tightly by the St. Louis Blues with 60 points. Below them, the Nashville Predators and Wild have 58 points, and the Seattle Kraken and Calgary Flames have 57 points. After that, it's a steep drop off to the Arizona Coyotes, so there is a distinct border of teams who could say that they are still in the race.
That is too many teams to feel comfortable.
But, with the NHL trade deadline coming up soon on March 8, we could see some of those teams sell off pieces and get significantly worse. Both the Predators and the Flames might trade away their starting goaltenders, and the Kraken probably feels pressure to try and get some future assets in the bank.
It might just come down to the Wild and a team that has had their number all throughout this new Kaprizov-led era: The St. Louis Blues.
That's Wild
- Monday afternoon was wild. Here are the 10 craziest stats from that 10-7 comeback win over the Canucks. [Hockey Wilderness]
- Mason Shaw is the tiny farmer that could. [Hockey Wilderness]
- The major reason why the Wild were able to score that many goals was the Canucks' lack of discipline. Getting four 5-on-3 power plays is enough to tell the story of the game. [Sportsnet]
Off the trail...
- What every general manager of contending teams have done with their previous trade deadlines, might tell us what could happen this year. [Daily Faceoff]
- The Pittsburgh Penguins are one of the worst offensive teams in the league this year. That's right. And newcomer defenseman Erik Karlsson says that the blame should go to the entire team. [NHL dot com]
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