It was not that long ago that the Minnesota Wild were one of the hottest teams in the NHL.
At one point, the team was in the middle of a 17-game stretch where they went 12-3-2 and had points in seven of eight games. Now, the team is going through a stretch where they are 3-7-1 in 11 games with no wins in regulation.
Due to their poor play, the Wild are currently (Thursday, February 16) out of a playoff spot in the Western Conference. They are 28-21-5 for 61 points in the regular season, and if things continue to go the way they are going for the Wild, they may end up missing the Stanley Cup playoffs this season.
For starters, they are struggling to put the puck in the net. They are 25th in the league in goals this season, as they scored 156 goals in 54 games (2.89 goals per game).
Even when the Wild generate a lot of offense, they still have trouble scoring. An excellent example of this is when they lost to the Colorado Avalanche by a score of 3-2 back on Wednesday, February 15.
In that game, the Wild outshot the Avalanche 43-19 while also out-attempting them 85-43. Despite those numbers, they still scored just one even-strength goal and lost the hockey game.
Secondly, Wild Goaltender Marc-Andre Fleury is struggling. In his team’s loss to the Avalanche, he allowed three stoppable goals.
What is more is that according to Wild beat writer Michael Russo of The Atheltic, Wild fans “mock-cheered him when he made his next save.” Fleury is 16-13-0-3 this season with a 2.98 goals-against average, a .901 save percentage, and one shutout, numbers that are not great.
Meanwhile, his backup, Filip Gustavsson, has been outstanding this season. Gustavsson is 12-8-0-2 with a 2.18 goals-against average, a .926 save percentage, and one shutout. Maybe the team should consider playing him more, right?
Lastly, moving forward will not get any easier for this hockey club. They play the Dallas Stars, the seventh-best team in the NHL, on Friday night, February 17, and the pressure is going to be on them to figure out a way to get their game together so they can get into the playoffs come April.
It will be interesting to see if Wild general manager Bill Guerin will make any moves at the trade deadline to shake things up and get this team moving in the right direction. If he does not, this team will need to figure out a way to get their game back on track or risk missing the playoffs and disappointing what is a hockey-mad state in Minnesota.
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