Confidence & Wins

I am not sure if confidence breeds wins or if winning produces confidence, but it appears that our Minnesota Wild have been playing and having results with both. The team is currently on a 3-game winning streak, disposing of the Oilers (3-1), Blues ( 4-3), and most recently on the road against the Kings (4-3) and are playing with confidence. The phrase was uttered by Coach Richards after they held off an onslaught brought on by Los Angeles late Monday night, and it has been ringing true as of late...good teams find a way to win. And that is exactly what the Wild have been doing for much of the season. I hate to bring it up, but subtract that dreadful early season road-trip where they went 0 for 5, and the Wild are right in the thick of it. As it is now, Minnesota is only 3 points off the pace for the final playoff position in the Western Conference.

What a month!

December has been huge for the Wild. In a month where the team's schedule is jam-packed with 16 games, they definitely have held their own, and more so far, winning 10 out of 14 with 2 games remaining this month and calender year. Stop and think about that...20 points out a possible 28, which makes this month the most successful December in franchise history and ties the team record with 10 wins in a month (March 2007). And if the Wild can earn 3 points in the remaining two games, it will go down as the most successful month in team history in terms of points earned. To date, Minnesota earned 22 points during the month of March in 2007 and is the tops.

Big D contributes

It does not seem that long ago where the 'D' were doing just as their position says, playing defense. In Richards system, the position that is labeled 'D' may be just a formality of sorts because more often than not, our defensive players have been charging the offensive net, something that would have earned a permanent spot on the bench under the old bench boss. But with the change in coaches came a change in how involved the defenseman have become , as they are playing an important part in not only playing solid in their own end, but also pinching and forechecking in the offensive zone. The new approach has paid dividends recently...over the past 2 games, Wild defenseman have accounted for 3 goals out of 8 that the Wild netted. In fact, it was back-to-back goals by Shane Hnidy and Kim Johnsson that helped propell Minnesota in its win over the Blues.

Havlat & Latendresse

These two have become two of the biggest acquistions, with one expected to make an immediate impact while the other came in as a bit of an unknown. Havlat, after a slow start, has seemed to have found his touch and has notched 10 points in his past 10 games. This comes after starting with only 11 points in his first 24 games. And his linemate as of late, Latendresse, has been nothing short of spectacular since he was acquired in a trade one month ago. He is living up to his pre-draft scouting report and has 3 goals in his past 3 games. But more importantly, he is using his size, speed, and is driving to the net, all things that Wild fans were hoping for when he came from Montreal.

Quick hits

It may have ended with a disappointing finish, as the Minnesota Wild lost a close one to the Canucks last night 4-3, but you would be making a mistake if you did not consider the teams recent 5-game road-trip a success. The Wild went 3-2 during those five games, posting wins in Nashville (5-3), Colorado (1-0), and Calgary (2-1 OT), while dropping games in Phoenix (0-2) and most recently Vancouver. That 3-2 record is a far cry from the team 0 for 5 that they had early in the season. Unfortunately, that 0-for at the beginning really put this team in a hole...even with their recent points (27 pts in the past 20 games), they still find themselves in last place in the Northwest Division, and more importantly, 13th in the Western Conference, 5 points out of the 8th and final playoff spot.

Winning in the circle

There are a few things that have been pretty constant since the teams inception, one being that they have seen limited success in faceoffs. Putting it in plain and simple terms, this franchise has been downright lousy in the circle. However, this version of the team has been spectacular winning the draws and currently have the 4th best faceoff win percentage at 52.9%. And most recently against the Canucks, the Wild won 49 fo 69 draws, or 71.0%. This is a definitely a departure from seasons past as the Wild have never finished a season in the top-half of the league in faceoff winning %, and instead usually finishing near the bottom. The teams highest finish in faceoff % was 48.5%, which happened twice (01-02 & 08-09).

Below are the stats for players that have taken at least 20 draws...

	FOW	FOL	%
Eric Belanger	221	153	59.1
Mikko Koivu	350	261	57.3
Nathan Smith	26	23	53.1
Kyle Brodziak	192	192	50.0
Owen Nolan	71	83	46.1
Andrew Ebbett	25	30	45.4
James Sheppard	65	92	41.4

Special teams

Minnesota has seen their power-play sputter as of late, netting only 2 man-advantage goals during this recent road trip...and both of those came in the win over the Predators a week ago Saturday. That left the team with only 2 goals on 22 power-plays, a dismal 9.09% and far short of the teams 17.9% season total to date. Fortunately for the Wild, the team has remained steady on defense when short-handed, killing 21 of 24 short-handed situations on the road-tripper, good for 87.5% and slightly above their season total of 82.1%.

First goal

The team is still struggling out of the gate and has given up the opening goal in 4 out of 5 games during this 5-game stretch. For the season, Minnesota has yielded the opening goal in 21 games out of 32 played to date. The good news is that this is seemingly a useless stat as far as the Wild are concerned because allowing the opening goal first has not seemed to hamper the team, as making a comeback seems to be their MO.

Keeping with the 'first goal' theme...Defenseman Shane Hnidy netted his first goal in a Wild uniform when he scored Minnesota's opening goal in the 4-3 loss at Vancouver. Hnidy is only 4 points shy of tying his career high of 12, which he netted two times (06-07 & 08-09) during his career. Hnidy was one of GM Chuck Fletchers first off-season free-agent signings.

Havlat revving-up

Finally, a point streak again from the off-season free-agency signing that fans had anticipated as being our main and top scorer. To date, Martin Havlat has stumbled through the season but looks to be on a roll. He has a 2-game point streak going (1 goal, 3 assists) and has 8 points in his last 7 games...this after a 4-game pointless streak. For the season, Havlat has 4 mulit-point games and 16 points (4 goals & 12 assists) in 26 games.