Tuesday Thoughts

Photo: Zumapress/mvphotos.com

• Yesterday, the team announced that they are demoting Erik Haula to Iowa and promoted Jason Zucker for this week's games against Anaheim and San Jose. Haula had played well in his six games with the team, but saw his role get limited to fourth line duties in the last couple of matchups. I guess the coaches saw something we don't see, but its hard to justify a Zucker for Haula swap right now, especially if Zucker goes straight to the second line. Why not just put Haula up there?
• Speaking of that second line, Mike Yeo was pleased with two of the three players on that line from Sunday's game. The one player he was not pleased with was Dany Heatley. So Yeo has decided that Heatley will be moved down to the fourth line. Was there ever a point to moving him up to the second line to begin with?
• Tomorrow and Thursday the Wild have back to back games playing in Anaheim and San Jose. Welp, take a deep breath and remember that the Wild went 0-2 in both "the Pond" and the "Shark Tank" last year, and historically have not fared well in those arenas (10-13-1 in Anaheim, 8-14-2 in San Jose). Also note that the Ducks and Sharks are two of the better teams in the league right now and will punish the Wild if they come out flat, like they did in Columbus.
• Via Extra Skater, this downward trend in the Wild's puck possession numbers are rather concerning.
• The Wild have ten games remaining this month, and seven of them come away from Xcel Energy Center. The Wild carry one of the worst road records in the West (5-6-3) and have not won a game away from Xcel Energy Center since their 3-2 shootout win at Winnipeg on November 23rd. Yeah, its concerning. 

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