Getting To The Net

Last week, we took a look at the Wild's schedule to end January. It basically said that the Wild's hot streak has a good chance of coming to an end due to the quality of the teams they were playing.

Well, after three games against the Western Conference's elite (Chicago, at San Jose, at Anaheim), the Wild escaped those three games earning five out of a possible six points. Not a bad outcome by any means.

During this past week, the Wild have improved drastically in getting shots from out front of the net, a place they have not often been to this year. Below on the left, is the Wild's shot chart on the year with the red indicating where most shots are coming from. To compare, last night's opponent, the Anaheim Ducks shot chart is on the right.

Photo courtesy of  sportingcharts.com

By comparison, the Wild are not getting anywhere close to the front of the net like the Ducks are. It is rather bad as to how little the Wild are getting out front of the net (i.e. their power play has generated no chances in front of the net in the past month). But that is taking into consideration every game each team has played this season.

In the last week, the Wild have been getting guys to the net, and low and behold, they are scoring goals.

There were two against Chicago:

Then there came the the pair against San Jose:

And that lead to three in Anaheim last night:

Its a small sample size here, but it looks as if the team is putting more emphasis on getting shots and bodies out front of the net. Whether or not they can continue this trend, or at least after the Olympic break, remains to be seen.

Just a nice little trend to point out after a big win in Anaheim last night.


Follow Giles on Twitter @gilesferrell