The Minnesota Wild finally got into the win column on Saturday, Nov 1, against the Vancouver Canucks after what felt like an eternity to most Wild fans. They’d lost the previous five games despite having a lead in one of them and outplaying their opponent in another. It felt like no matter what the team did, they couldn’t get the mojo working their way, and several times it felt like they couldn’t get their chemistry going either.
They started to show some improvement, only for it to go backwards just as quickly. Their consistency was the biggest issue, but now that they have a win under their belt and have proved to themselves they can do it, hopefully that consistency will stick around. In this article, we’ll look at how the Wild can continue to win, including their next game against the Nashville Predators on Tuesday, Nov. 4, starting with getting on the board first.
Wild Have to Score First More Often
Although the Wild have proved they can come from behind, even if they didn’t win, they’ve proven it’s a bit easier for them to win when they get the lead first. Against the Canucks they got on the scoreboard late in the first period and gave themselves that energy boost that comes with getting the first goal.
In their opening game of the season, they scored first late in the first period and put up four more to win 5-0 over the St. Louis Blues. They know they have the ability to score goals; they just need to focus on getting that big push and scoring first. Once they have the lead, they can relax a little and focus more on playing their style of game.
“I thought Vinnie (Hinostroza) had a great quote at the end. October wasn’t a good month for us for numerous reasons. We’re 1-0 in November, but coming into the challenge now, is even though October wasn’t a great month, we did have some really good games, but we didn’t follow them up. So, the challenge today is to follow up that style of game, the intensity of the game, the commitment level that we play with needs to be again tonight. That’s going to give us a chance to win tonight’s game,” said head coach John Hynes when asked how important it was to start their next game fast.
Their shootout win against the Los Angeles Kings started out the same way; they jumped to a lead later in the first period, but they struggled to hold it, and their lack of consistency showed. They bounced back to get the win in the end. Hopefully, with this win, they can have some faith in themselves and get the first goal in more games.
Wild Need Their Power Play
Apart from scoring first, the Wild have proven they need to rely on their power play this season. While their power play has been up and down in seasons past, this season, they have a top power play, and it’s helped them get the wins they do have. They can’t expect it to win their games for them all the time, but if they can continue to produce as they have, it’ll help.
Of course, their top unit of Matt Boldy, Kirill Kaprizov, Vladimir Tarasenko, Joel Eriksson Ek, and Jared Spurgeon has been successful, along with Zeev Buium, Brock Faber, and even Marcus Johansson has gotten in on the action. However, the second unit has done okay as well, but they could always use more contributions from both.
With Mats Zuccarello possibly coming back to the lineup in the next week or so, it’ll be interesting to see who gets shifted and if they can keep the production level going. Regardless, the Wild need their power play units to keep doing what they’ve been doing, and maybe they’ll get more wins too.
Wild Need to Keep it Simple
Of course, the Wild need to score first and have their power play successful. They also need goals from throughout their lineup, their goaltending to stay strong, play more consistency, but the biggest thing they need is to keep it simple. Win the faceoff, make the simple pass, take the shot, and score the goal.
Sometimes, in order to get out of a losing slump, they have to take the little victories where they can get them, similar to having a rough day. Focus on the good while also accepting the bad, and they get out of it. The Wild have started to do the right things, and while their game is far from perfect, they’ve found the way to success.
Related: Wild’s Zeev Buium Discusses His Transition to the NHL With THW
Now they just need to figure out how to keep it going and do what they did to get the win. Once they start doing that, the little mistakes in their game will start to become fewer and fewer. Every team goes through rough patches, and while it seemed like the Wild’s wouldn’t end, there is light at the end of the tunnel.
It was just one win, but it stopped a losing streak, and sometimes just one win is enough to spark things heading in the right direction. Hopefully for the Wild, this will be the start of a lot of good things, including another win.
