What Has Been Plaguing the Wild the Most This Season?

There has been a lot underlying angst in the Minnesota Wild fan base in the past several weeks, and I wanted to focus my latest rant (first on this new blog) on the topic of where the Minnesota Wild stand right now in the standings and what has been plaguing the team so far this season.

The Minnesota Wild currently stand in 5th place in the Central Division, and 10th place in the Western Conference overall.  That's a bit deceiving because the Wild have played less games than every team in front of them, and at least 2 fewer games than every team except for Nashville.  That said, the Wild are currently 3pts outside of San Jose for the 2nd Wild Card spot in the West.  Tells you something about how big that game is tonight.

That brings us to the question of what exactly has been plaguing a team that many in Minnesota expected to be a firm playoff team this season, if not a Stanley Cup contender?  I know what many Minnesota Wild fans have been focusing their angst on, but is it really what is holding the team back the most?

Unless you are living under a bridge somewhere, you'll remember that Wild fans recently booed the team at the end of an abysmal (major understatement) five minute power play in a game where the Wild were leading 2-0.  Not going to rehash the debate on how stupid it was to boo your team when they were dominating possession in a game and enjoying a 2-0 lead, but mention that because I have noticed that much of the frustration from Wild fans has centered on their (while recently better) horrific power play results.

Yes, the Wild's power play has been nothing short of horrendous this season, and undoubtedly they would have probably won a few more games at least if they were converting on the power play at even a pedestrian level.  However, I contend that this is NOT the aspect of this team that is holding them back them most, and it is NOT the aspect of this team that Wild fans should be most concerned about.

Take a look at where the Minnesota Wild rank in these current possession and scoring statistics and let me know what really jumps out at you.  The definitions for the stats are at the bottom of this post in case you are unfamiliar with them.  All of these rankings are for 5x5 play.

GF60 - 2nd
GA60 - 24th
GF% - 14th
SF60 - 2nd
SA60 - 2nd
SF% - 1st
FF60 - 2nd
FA60 - 3rd
FF% - 1st
CF60 - 4th
CA60 - 4th
CF% - 2nd

The Wild have been absolutely dominant 5x5 so far this season.  They have clearly out-possessed most of their opponents this season, and rank 2nd in the NHL in goals while playing 5x5 per 60 minutes of ice time.  Read that again.  SECOND in goals scored 5x5.  In the entire NHL.

However, despite giving up the 2nd fewest shots (3rd and 4th fewest in total shots if you count shots that missed the net and missed the net and were blocked respectively), the Minnesota Wild have given up the 7TH MOST goals in the NHL while playing 5x5 per 60 minutes of ice time.  So, should we be more concerned about adding power play goals to an offense that is second in the NHL in scoring 5x5 or should we be concentrating more of that nervous energy on why we are amongst the worst in the league in giving up goals at even strength?  Now, let's look at why we have been bleeding goals at even strength this season.

In case you haven't figured it out already, the Minnesota Wild's goaltending has been absolutely atrocious this season.  In fact, their goaltending has been an insult to the word atrocious.  The Minnesota Wild rank DEAD LAST in Save Percentage while playing 5x5 hockey.

Now, either every opponent that plays us has a career game in Shooting Percentage (if you believe that, I have a bridge to sell you), or the Minnesota Wild's goaltending needs to be a heck of a lot better for this team to have some sustained success.

Backstrom has been serviceable as a backup, but I think his days of carrying this team for long stretches are long gone.  And for a guy who held out in contract negotiations right up until training camp started this season, Kuemper has been pulled in 3 of his last 4 home starts.  Let's just say that our goaltending situation doesn't leave me feeling overly confident at this point.

If we are going to pick an aspect of this team to be concerned about and voice our frustration about, I think the team's goaltending situation is every bit as deserving (if not more so) than the team's power play struggles.

Let's face it folks.  If our goaltending doesn't improve, it probably won't matter how much our power play improves this season or how much you boo it when it's bad.






GF = Goals For
GA = Goals Against
GF60 = Goals For per 60 Minutes Ice Time
GA60 = Goals Against per 60 Minutes Ice Time
GF% = Goals For Percentage = 100 * GF/(GF + GA)
SF = Shots For
SA = Shots Against
SF60 = Shots For per 60 Minutes Ice Time
SA60 = Shots Against per 60 Minutes Ice Time
SF% = Shots For Percentage = 100 * SF/(SF + SA)
Fenwick = Shots + Shot Attempts that Missed the Net
FF = Fenwick For
FA = Fenwick Against
FF60 = Fenwick For per 60 Minutes Ice Time
FA60 = Fenwick Against per 60 Minutes Ice Time
FF% = Fenwick For Percentage = 100 * FF/(FF + FA)
Corsi = Shots + Shots Attempts that Missed the Net + Shot Attempts that were Blocked
CF = Corsi For
CA = Corsi Against
CF60 = Corsi For per 60 Minutes Ice Time
CA60 = Corsi Against per 60 Minutes Ice Time
CF% = Corsi For Percentage = 100 * CF/(CF + CA)