The 2014-14 Minnesota Wild: Special Teams

Photo: Jim Mone/AP

If Minnesota wants to take a bigger step towards the ultimate prize in 2014-15, their special teams will need to see some major improvement.

Preseason Game Three Thoughts

Photo: Brad Rempel-USA Today

In last night's preseason game, it was the Wild edging the Jets 4-3 thanks to a late Jared Spurgeon goal. Here are some thoughts from last night's game:

Lack of Even Strength Goals

5 on 5 scoring has not been easy this past month. Photo: Carlos Gonzalez/Star Tribune

Mikael Granlund has been out. Charlie Coyle has been centering the second line. Mike Yeo has shuffled the lines more times than you can count. Add all that up, and what has that gotten the Wild?

3-On-3: Minnesota Wild After Three Games

Today we are going to try a new segment here on the site called 3 on 3. We take a topic, in this case its the Wild as a whole, and give three positives and negatives related to that topic. Now before we dive in please watch the video below and take its advice to heart.

Shoot!

(It just happened to be a coincidence that I thought of this video and we are playing the Ducks today)

Tonight, the Wild open up a brief 2 game road trip in Anaheim. And as the team still is trying to find consistent scoring from lines 2-4, they can certainly help themselves by doing one thing: Shoot the puck.

The Wild come into tonight's game with the 4th lowest shots per game average in the league (27.1). They had at least 30 shots in each of their first three games, but since, they have totals of 27, 16, 26, and 25. They have been doing this, despite having one of the higher Time on the Power Play numbers in the league, with 48:33 of total PP time (11th best in the NHL).

But perhaps the most alarming stat out of all of this, is the 3rd period shots, or lack thereof, this team is getting. Through their first three games, they were averaging 11 shots on goal in the third period. But in the 4 game since, they are just averaging 4 (Yep, you read that right, 4) shots on goal in the third period. And miraculously, this team has won 2 of those games, and they have earned 5 out of a possible 8 points.

And during all of this, Zach Parise has fired 30 shots on goal, which ranks 3rd in the NHL, behind scoring leaders Patrick Marleau and Thomas Vanek (Both have 33 SOG).

(This is the part of the post where you cue up Greenlay saying "Every shot is a good shot!")

Now getting back to tonight's matchup, the Wild find themselves playing a Ducks team that comes in with a high goals for (3.2 GPG-8th best in NHL) average, and the same goals against average (3.2-10th worst in NHL). The Ducks have had inconsistent play from Jonas Hiller in the past few years, and they have a more offensive minded defensive core.

So Mike Yeo's pregame message tonight should be pretty plain and simple: Shoot the freaking puck! (He may choose to replace freaking with another word beginning with the letter f)

Even if its like Goldbe...er...I mean Russ Tyler, and he takes a shot from his own blue line (As you can watch in the video at the top), please, shoot the puck! Because sometimes just taking the shot, is better than trying to find the perfect shot.


Follow Giles on Twitter @gilesferrell

Power Play Woes

If there has been one thing that has ailed the Wild this season, its been their power play. A promising opening night in that department (2/4), has since been drowned out by a horrid stretch of play while on the man advantage. In the 7 games since opening night, the Wild have gone 1 for 27 on the PP, including the 0 for 19 stretch they are currently under. The last time Minnesota got a tally on the man advantage, was Devin Setoguchi's goal in Ottawa. Clearly, something has to change on the team's PP unit.

The main concern for me, is that I have grown tired of watching a forward (Lately it has been Pierre-Marc Bouchard) sit on the point with the top line. PMB's performance on the Power Play has been simply abysmal. For proof of this, watch his PP shifts against Pittsburgh. But, there is a lack of scoring defenseman on the team, and it would appear that we will be seeing a forward on the PP blueline for most of the season (Unless the team acquires a defenseman that can score). It also creates a lack of punch on the second line of the PP when PMB sits on the point, and guys like Bulmer and Clutterbuck take his spot (Not exactly the offensive types). But, Mike Yeo has taken notice of PMB's performance, and as Russo points out today, it would appear he is going back to the second PP line, while Matt Cullen takes over on the point.

Another concern with the man advantage is still the lack of shots this team is taking. The Wild are still towards the bottom of the league in shots taken (27th-25.4 shots per game), despite their offensive upgrades this offseason. And as much as I like the quality of their shots, it would still be nice to see them take more shots, period. You never know what can happen when you fire one on net. Hopefully, Yeo feels the same way and sends them the message to start firing more frequently.

I know, there are still some growing pains going on with the new system of Yeo. So you would like to think that at some point, the power play (and the team for that matter) can take off. Perhaps Yeo would also try juggling his PP lines up a bit, much like he has with his regular top lines (Switching up PMB and Devin Setoguchi between lines 1 and 2), to see if he can spark his stale PP units.

This team is very capable of scoring, so you would like to think that that the power play can get out of its funk sooner rather than later. This team needs a strong power play to help the lack of scoring on the team, in general. Otherwise, if it stays like this, we are going to be in for a frustrating season once again.