Everything Else

Tonight I’m Gonna Rock You Tonight – December 19th

By Sam Fels 1692 0

First Screen Viewing

Jets v. Predators – 7pm

With the Jets suddenly in the targeting area and the Hawks about to find a shooting solution on them, this one seems pretty important. The Hawks have a game in hand on the Jets and are four points back. Get dinged in Music City and suddenly the Men of Four Feathers are going to get awfully big in the rearview mirror (HEY BUDDY!). The Predators are rolling these days, and look to be the class of the West and even though the Blues are tied with them in the standings I’m not sure it’s close as to who is better. Seeing as how the Preds have three games in hand on the Blues, you can see why. They’ve won six of their last seven, and somehow their one loss was to Vegas, though that was in a shootout. If the Jets still have designs of running with the big dogs, and it would be adorable if they do, they kind of need this. Lose in reg, and it’s a five point gap with the Preds having two games in hand. That’s kind of a massive gap.

Second Screen Viewing

Capitals v. Stars – 7:30

The Stars are a point behind the Hawks, but things haven’t really clicked yet as you have a roster designed for high-event hockey with a coach who couldn’t be more allergic to that. They’ve been ok, but the goaltending isn’t holding up and you could see the floor drop on it. The Caps have no such problems, as they’ve been on fire can’t can’t stop getting rubber into twine (HEY BUDDY!). Everyone is scoring on this team, and Ovie might be headed for 50 again. The past couple years we would have marked this as a potential 4×400. That would cause Hitchcock to choke on his two-pound cheeseburger, so we won’t get that. But we will get some intrigue.

Other games

Red Wings v. Islanders – 6pm

Ducks vs. Rangers – 6pm

Wild v. Senators – 6pm

Bruins v. Sabres – 6:30

Panthers v. Coyotes – 8pm

Canadiens v. Canucks – 9pm

Lightning v. Knights – 9pm

Everything Else

The Thinking (Or Drinking?) Man’s Awards

By Sam Fels 2700 0

I like to do this every so often. I’m not sure it makes total sense, and it certainly would make more sense to do it in a couple weeks when the season is half over. But I’m here now and it’s rattling around in my head so let’s do it and circle back in a month or so.

Some of the NHL awards, or more to the point the criteria that are used to pick the winners, are borked. There’s no other way to put it. MVP… that’s usually easy to figure out as long as you don’t get too mired into what “valuable” means and really just pick player of the year. I suppose this year, at least so far, we could get a real dumb debate about how Kucherov and Stamkos are actually vaulting each other and hence aren’t as valuable as say, John Tavares who’s doing more with less. Fine, whatever. Pick any of the three and I don’t think you’re wrong.

Vezina is usually pretty easy, though can get muddied by win totals much like pitcher-wins used to be the defining characteristic for Cy Young winners in the past (like last year. Fucking Rick Porcello?). Still, with save-percentage and GAA are the best we have, and this year it’s Corey Crawford and if he keeps it up and doesn’t even make the finalist list I’m going to go kick several people in the shins and not explain why to leave them in the same fog of confusion I will be in. By any measure it’s Crow, as he’s got the best GAA among starters, the best save-percentage among starters, and the best difference between his save-percentage and his expected save-percentage, given what the team in front of him is surrendering. Good god, he’s been so good.

It’s the Norris and the Selke that always have the cloudiest parameters. The Selke has basically become “What center do we all know who scores a lot, wins faceoffs, and we’re pretty sure has good metrics but don’t check?” And that answer is always Patrice Bergeron. And you could hand this award to Bergeron from here until he retires, take Nick Lidstrom’s last Norris away because that was just stupid, melt it down, turn it into another Selke, and give that to Bergeron, and you wouldn’t really be wrong. But I think we can do better. Let’s see:

So if we’re looking for best defensive forwards, one place we can start is the best forwards at restricting attempts against so far this year. We won’t use goals, because that’s too dependent on the goalies behind these forwards which is out of their control. So you’re best forwards for corsi-against per 60:

  1. Adam Lowry – WPG
  2. Taylor Leier – PHI
  3. Brandon Tanev – WPG
  4. Mikko Salomaki
  5. Pierre-Luc Dubois – CBJ

I can assure you that none of these players will get a Selke vote. But when they’re out there, their teams surrender the least attempts, which has to account for something.

If we go a bit deeper, we can use xGA/60, to not only use pure attempts but the types of chances against that these forwards are on the ice for.

  1. Lowry
  2. Tanev
  3. Jason Zucker – MN
  4. Oskar Sundqvist – STL
  5. Mikko Koivu – MN

Again, we see Lowry and Tanev at the top of the list, and as they play on the same line together, that makes sense.

But it isn’t so simple, is it? Because you’d want to suss out who are doing really dynamo defensive work and who is just benefitting from playing on a great defensive team. So, you’re relative CA/60 leaders are:

  1. H. Sedin – Van
  2. Tanev
  3. Evgeny Dadonov – FLA
  4. Marcus Kruger – CAR
  5. Lowry

And Relative xGA/60 leaders:

  1. Ondrej Kase – ANA
  2. Lowry
  3. Mitch Marner – TOR (ain’t that some shit?)
  4. Zac Rinaldo – AZ (what?)
  5. Carl Hagelin – PIT

So if anyone actually used these numbers, you’d have a pretty convincing case for Adam Lowry this year, yes? The problem of course is that Lowry is skating third line shifts, with Scheifele and Little taking on the harder competition. Yes, Lowry is kicking aside everything he’s seeing, and that shouldn’t be discounted, and he’s also starting the most shifts of anyone in his own zone. So even though he has to start in his own zone the most, he’s making sure the least happens there. So yeah, right now, if the world made sense, Adam Lowry is your Selke front-runner. Don’t sit on a hot stove waiting for any voter to actually say this, though.

The Norris is a bit harder. Or it’s easier, because you could just hand the thing to Erik Karlsson, along with the three others he should have gotten but didn’t because voters were either MJ’d/LeBron’d out or they’re fucking xenophobes or both. But unlike the Selke, you do have to consider the whole package. Karlsson hasn’t won as many as he should because every so often voters decide merely scoring from the back end isn’t enough, and conveniently forget that Karlsson just pushed everything to the other end of the ice all the time and made life easier for everyone.

If this went how this normally went, John Klingberg or Tyson Barrie would get it because they’re the highest scoring d-men. But again, we know better now. We don’t get to vote, but we know better.

So if we wanted to find the overall best d-man, Corsi-percentage would be a good place to start. Who’s preventing attempts and generating more at the same time? Don’t worry, you’ll like this. Your top five d-men in CF%:

  1. Connor Murphy – CHI (funny, don’t hear Mark Potash complaining about the Hjalmarsson trade at the moment)
  2. Noah Hanifin – CAR
  3. Mark Giordano – CGY
  4. Zach Werenski – CBJ
  5. Dougie Hamilton – CGY

Man, that feels good. But like we did with the forwards, let’s go with xGF% too to see the types of chances that are being surrendered and generated as well:

  1. Brandon Davidson – MTL/EDM
  2. Tim Heed – SJ
  3. Roman Polak – TOR (No, I’m serious)
  4. Jared Spurgeon
  5. Yohann Auvitu – EDM

So this is no help. Aside from Spurgeon, these are four d-men who are skating third pairing minutes and are heavily sheltered. And they play on possession-dominant teams for the most part. So let’s do the relative thing again. First relative Corsi-percentage:

  1. Hampus! Hampus! – ANA
  2. Spurgeon
  3. Josh Manson – ANA (He’s mad… he’s glad…)
  4. Werenski
  5. Giordano

And relative xGF%

  1. Hampus! Hampus!
  2. Spurgeon
  3. Christian Djoos – WSH
  4. Murphy
  5. Drew Doughty – LA

Basically I want to hand the Norris to Murphy because… well, because. And if we’re going strictly but non-points and non-goals, there’s a case. There’s probably a stronger one for Spurgeon or Hampus, and you can throw Giordano and Werenski on the list, but you see what we’re doing here. Both Hampus! Hampus! and Murphy have the best relative corsi-against as well, if we’re going by straight defensive metrics as that’s in the job title. I’ve never thought that was fair, because d-men shouldn’t be punished for contributing offensively, but it’s fun to mention. Murphy also has the best relative xGA/60, and Hampus! Hampus! is 3rd.

Basically, Connor Murphy has been fucking excellent, and if hockey had a Fangraphs-like site that people paid attention to, I would spend all my time making his Norris case and dealing with the laughter. And Hampus! Hampus!’s, because I like saying, “Hampus! Hampus!”

Also, you should be pronouncing “Connor Murphy” just like Chappele’s Rick James said, “Charlie Murphy!” right before he punched him.

 

 

Everything Else

High On The Hog: Power Outage

By Jon Fromi 1987 0

The Rockford IceHogs, AHL affiliate of the Chicago Blackhawks, have been struggling on the power play. No…perhaps that doesn’t do this unit justice.

Toothless? Impotent? These are probably better ways to describe the period of time when the Hogs have an opponent in the sin bin.

Rockford’s success rate on the power play is dead last in the AHL though 28 games. The IceHogs are drawing cord just 11.8 percent of the time. This was capped off by an 0-13 stretch in this past week of action.

The piglets managed to pick up a point but dropped all three contests. A power play goal could well have turned two of those losses into wins. Alas, power play scoring has been problematic over the past two months.

Rockford began the season with quite the efficient group, posting a power play goal in seven of its first nine games. This culminated in a four-goal effort in a win over Grand Rapids October 28 that pushed the success rate to 22 percent.

Since that evening, the Hogs are 4-83 when up a man. That’s 4.8 percent. Which sucks.

Rockford coach Jeremy Colliton has remained pretty calm when talking about the power play, though he has tried to remedy the problem with some different looks. This weekend in San Antonio, for example, Colliton sent out five forwards as his first unit. The experiment did not bear fruit. In fact, that group gave up a shorthanded goal Sunday afternoon that wound up being the game-winner for the Rampage.

Sometimes the puck movement is there; other times the Hogs look fearful to leave the perimeter. All Colliton can do is continue to tinker with combos until something clicks.

 

Roster Activity

Rockford has been fortunate in terms of health this season. The last few weeks, however, have seen some IceHogs out of the lineup for extended turns. Scott Powers of theathletic.com got Colliton to dish on the status of several players who have missed time of late.

First off, Jordin Tootoo shouldn’t be expected back for a while despite being sent down to Rockford last month. Apparently, Tootoo has aggravated the injury that saw him on the IR list to begin the season in Chicago.

Goalie J.F. Berube, who suffered a left leg injury December 9, looks to be out for about a month. Jeff Glass started all three games for the IceHogs this past week. Will Colin Delia get a start? Rockford has back-to-back games this weekend, then three in a row to close out December. If Delia isn’t in net for one of those games, I would have to assume that the organization lacks confidence in him right now.

Erik Gustafsson, who has missed Rockford’s last nine games, is nearing a return. Colliton was non-committal on a target date for the defenseman, though it sounds like it will be before the end of the calendar year.

Defenseman Luc Snuggerud has missed the last four games. This, plus Ville Pokka being recalled to Chicago last week, leaves the IceHogs a bit thin on the blue line.

Brandon Anselmini was recalled on December 10 and saw his first action against the Wolves last Tuesday. He left the game in the third period after taking a hard run into the boards but was on the ice for both games in San Antonio this weekend.

 

Recaps

Rockford dropped three games this week, scoring just three goals in three games. The point they collected Friday in San Antonio has them tied for second with Iowa in the Central Division standings. Overall, the IceHogs are 15-11-1-1 in 2017-18.

Tuesday, December 12-Chicago 2, Rockford 1 

A very late Wolves goal brought Rockford’s four-game winning streak to a unsatisfying halt.

The Wolves got on the board 5:03 into the game. Teemu Pulkkinen fired on Hogs goalie Jeff Glass. The shot was stopped, but the rebound came out to Brandon Pirri in the slot. Firing into a wide open net, the ex-IceHogs forward put Chicago up 1-0.

That lead survived until Rockford won an offensive draw midway through the final frame. Carl Dalhstrom fired from the point; Anthony Louis provided the redirect past Wolves goalie Maxime Lagace at 732 of the third.

It appeared that this game was headed for overtime. The Hogs made a final rush that got broken up and became a Chicago rush the other way. Paul Thompson got off a backhand shot from the slot that got over Glass with less than a second remaining to give the Wolves the win.

Lines (Starters In Italics)

Matthew Highmore-Tanner Kero-Luke Johnson (A)

Anthony Louis-David Kampf-Alexandre Fortin

Matheson Iacopelli-Tyler Sikura-Andreas Martinsen

Graham Knott-Laurent Dauphin (A)-William Pelletier

Carl Dahlstrom-Viktor Svedberg

Darren Raddysh-Robin Norell

Brandon Anselmini-Ville Pokka (A)

Jeff Glass

Scratches-Luc Snuggerud, Robin Press, Erik Gustafsson, Tomas Jurco, Jordin Tootoo, Jean-Francois Berube

Power Play (0-3)

Kampf-Kero-Louis-Highmore-Dahlstrom

Dauphin-Knott-Johnson-Raddysh-Pokka

Penalty Kill (Wolves were 0-3)

Dauphin-Kampf-Pokka-Norell

Kero-Highmore-Dahlstrom-Svedberg

Sikura-Martinsen-Pokka-Norell

 

Friday, December 15-San Antonio 2, Rockford 1 (SO)

Jeff Glass was a hard luck loser for the second straight game, stopping all but one of the 36 shots he saw in regulation and overtime. It wasn’t enough as his counterpart, Ville Husso, made 43 saves to beat the Hogs.

The Rampage got the games first tally 8:27 into the second period. Julien Nantel took a pass from Adam Musil, skated around Glass’s net, and banked home a shot off of the Rockford goalie’s back.

The IceHogs would even the score late in that period on a quirky play. Faced with too many skaters on the ice in the eighteenth minute, San Antonio attempted to right the problem. In the confusion, Andreas Martinsen was able to gain possession of the puck between the benches.

The Rampage’s Duncan Siemens collided with an official, giving Martinsen a clear path to the San Antonio zone. Martinsen skated to the top of the right circle before attempting to snap a shot off toward Husso. Whiffing on this try, Martinsen collected the gaffe and fired for real. The shot beat Husso to the far post at 17:53 of the second to knot the game at a goal apiece.

Siemens, possibly enraged at the turn of events, took a run at William Pelletier shortly after the resulting center ice draw. Coming to Pelletier’s defense was Laurent Dauphin, who dropped gloves with the big defensemen and received a cut for his effort. Dauphin returned for the third period with a full cage.

Glass and Husso kept the score where it was through the remainder of the contest. In the shootout, the lone put to draw cord came off the stick of San Antonio’s David Warsofsky in the final round. Rockford shooters David Kampf, Anthony Louis and Luke Johnson all came up empty as the Rampage picked up the point of contention.

Lines (Starters in italics)

Alexandre Fortin-Tyler Sikura-Andreas Martinsen (A)

Anthony Louis-David Kampf-Tomas Jurco

Matthew Highmore-Tanner Kero-Luke Johnson

Graham Knott-Laurent Dauphin-William Pelletier

Carl Dahlstrom-Viktor Svedberg (A)

Robin Norell-Darren Reddysh

Brandon Anselmini-Robin Press

Jeff Glass

Scratches-Luc Snuggerud, Erik Gustafsson, Matheson Iacopelli, Jordin Tootoo, Jean-Francois Berube

Power Play (0-6)

Jurco-Kampf-Louis-Highmore-Kero

Dauphin-Johnson-Knott-Dahlstrom-Raddysh

Penalty Kill (Rampage were 0-4)

Jurco-Kampf-Dahlstrom-Svedberg

Dauphin-Knott-Dahlstrom-Svedberg

Sikura-Martinsen-Anselmini-Norell

 

Sunday, December 17-San Antonio 4, Rockford 1

Special teams figured heavily into what went down as the IceHogs third straight loss.

San Antonio grabbed a 1-0 lead 8:19 into the game on a Kenny Agozzino power play goal. The IceHogs evened the score 8:55 into the second period. As was the case in the previous game, the goal was scored by Andreas Martinsen on a bit of a fluky play.

Martinsen took advantage of Rampage defenseman Chris Bigras losing an edge as he was about to corral a pass from Tage Thompson in the San Antonio zone. Martinsen collected the turnover at the right dot and got a wrister past goalie Spencer Martin for the equalizer.

The Hogs had an opportunity to take the lead on the man advantage with San Antonio’s Alex Belzile in the box for tripping. Rockford’s fourth power play of the game yielded a goal; just not for the IceHogs.

Trent Volgelhuber took control of a long rebound in the Rampage zone and led a shorthanded rush. With five forwards on the ice, Rockford was slow to get back. The resulting two-on-one ended with Chris Butler beating Hogs goalie Jeff Glass high on the stick side. San Antonio took a 2-1 lead at 7:28 of the third.

Rocco Grimmaldi separated Robin Norell from the puck behind the Rockford net and slipped it past Glass at the 15:12 mark for an insurance goal. He added an empty-netter to close out the scoring.

Glass stopped 37 of 40 shots but took another hard-luck loss.

No lines for this one; I went to the movies. The Hogs went 0-4 on the power play, including 1:42 of five-on-three time, and gave up a game-winning shorty. I believe I made the correct choice.

 

Weekend Preview

The IceHogs will be at home this coming weekend. Next on the schedule is a pair of division matchups with familiar opponents.

Friday night, the surging Chicago Wolves pay yet another visit to the BMO Harris Bank Center. Rockford has split the first four games of the season series. Both of Chicago’s victories have come in regulation, including the last-second win Tuesday.

It’s Teemu Pulkkinen (9 G, 15 A) and Brandon Pirri (8 G, 13 A) at the forefront of the Wolves offense. Paul Thompson has five points (2 G, 3 A) against the Hogs this season. As of this weekend, Chicago has won five straight.

On Saturday night, Rockford hosts Grand Rapids, who are currently last in the Central Division. The Hogs have won all five contests between the two teams this season.

Follow me @JonFromi on twitter for thoughts on the IceHogs all season long.

Everything Else

Game #33 – I’ll beat your ass if I beat your ass twice and you still here – Blackhawks 4, Wild 1

By Adam Hess 3226 0

Box Score

Hockey Stats

Natural Stat Trick

The Blackhawks absolutely embarrassed the Minnesota Wild tonight, which is actually harder than you think because the Wild do a pretty good job of embarrassing themselves, usually. To the Bullets-

– The second line was extremely good tonight, dominating the Wild just about every time they were on the ice. They were a threat to score each time they had the puck in the offensive zone, and even Anisimov showed some flashes of fleet-footedness tonight, which was weird but cool. The Hawks first goal was the result of Nick Schmaltz putting yet another pass perfectly in the wheelhouse of Patrick Kane. I will never get used to how nice it feels to see those two go to work together.

– Just to elaborate on the end of that last bullet, I am fully convinced that Schamltz is a better running mate for Kane than Artemi Panarin ever was. Panarin had the speed to keep up with Kane and the shot to put away his good passes, but he isn’t nearly as creative with the puck as Schamltz is. Kane and Yeast Mode did have a great chemistry, but it looks like he has similar chemistry with Schmaltz already. The only change that needs to happen is getting Schmaltz moved to the pivot on that line, but with how well it’s working right now, I’m hesitant to call for too much tinkering.

– Jordan Oesterle has been a pleasant surprise lately. He’s looked good the past few games, and had another good game tonight, including a dime of a pass to spring Kane for the Hawks second goal. He was rewarded with 19 minutes of ice time, third among the Hawks defensive corps. He’s signed through next year at just $650k, so this might be a nice little signing by StanBo. Thanks, Edmonton.

– I know you don’t need me to tell you, but Crawford had another great game tonight. He nearly screwed up in the first period, but recovered well, and then was just his normal solid self the rest of the game. He did have a sweet save on Joel Eriksson Ek in the third period, absolutely robbing him with a stabbing glove save.

– Ryan Hartman showed some more skill tonight with a great, tight quarters goal in the third. He made a nice steal on the boards, and then just went hard to the net before getting creative and scoring from about 5 feet in front of Alex Stalock with a nifty quick shot that was just about impossible to stop. It was the kind of play the Hawks need from him more often – just going to the net and making things happen. He is everything Andrew Shaw was, but with more actual hockey skill, so if he can just embrace a bit more a Shaw-esque mentality (outside of being a shitheel individual) it will result in good things for him and the Hawks.

– Five wins in a row, and two straight over division opponents, is a nice way to head into the upcoming six-game road trip. Here’s hoping they keep the momentum going into that trip.

Everything Else

Game #33 – Wild vs. Hawks Preview, War On Christmas – Don’t Want To Know If You Are Lonely

By Matt McClure 1994 0

 vs. 

Game Time: 6:00PM CST
TV/Radio: NBC Sports Chicago, WGN-AM 720
Paisley Park: Hockey Wilderness

After a brief and suprisingly victorious jaunt to Manitoba on Thursday, the Hawks return home tonight having now had a couple days worth of rest, and will face of against the Wild, with whom they are tied, who played last night, and are beat the hell up by injuries.

Everything Else

Game #33 – Wild vs. Hawks: Spotlight – With A Name Like Zucker…

By Sam Fels 2929 0

If you’re sick of Jason Zucker, we wouldn’t blame you. First of all, he needs to decide how he wants people to pronounce his name, because it’s run the gamut. More to the point, if it feels like he kind of murders the Hawks, you wouldn’t be wrong there either. The stats say in the regular season, it’s only been eight points (five goals) in 20 games. Feels like more, right? Part of that is the Hawks were finally able to keep him quiet last year, with no points in four games. Still, he’s been a nuisance.

Zucker is on pace to have his career-best season this campaign. He already has 14 goals, his career-high is 22. He has 25 points already, his career-high is 47. Yes, he’s been awfully hot this season, and a 20% shooting-percentage isn’t going to stick around forever you wouldn’t think.

More to the point, Zucker isn’t getting the same number of attempts he has in the past few years, averaging just 11 when the past three years he’s averaged between 14-16 attempts per game. His individual expected goals are down as well per game, so he’s riding the percentages a bit. What Zucker has been able to do is maintain his possession numbers while the team’s around him has collapsed. Zucker’s relative numbers have sky-rocketed, case in point being that Zucker’s relative expected goals-percentage is +12.1 over the team-rate, fifth best in the whole league.

And if you’re GM Chuck Fletcher, you’re kind of hoping Zucker’s agent doesn’t point that out this summer.

Zucker is a restricted free agent after the season, which pretty much blows for him. Should he be able to keep grinding down the railing of high-percentages, he’d find himself a 30-goal scorer and 55+-point man at the age of 26. On the open market, that’s a $5 million-a-year player. But Zucker isn’t going to be on the open market.

And he’s on a team that’s going to have no space at all. The Wild are already up against the cap right now, thanks to their Monty Python-foot-like deals to Parise and Suter. They don’t get much relief after the year either, as only Chris Steward, Matt Cullen, and Daniel Winnik’s deals come off the roster. That’s only about $3 million to play with. Rumors of the cap going up must have Fletcher with some kind of Jobu-like shrine in his office, praying to whatever god can make that true. Because the Wild also have to re-up Matthew Dumba, and seeing as how they punted Marco Scandella away to elevate his role, you’d best believe they’re not going to give up on him.

If the cap went up $3 million or so, with the three they have coming off the books, the Wild might be able to play hardball and get both Dumba and Zucker in for $3 million each. It’d be a slight raise for each, but you’d have to think that both want more than just a mere percentage-point raise.

And this is where if the NHL didn’t have an unspoken, collusion-lite system of no offer sheets things would get awfully interesting. Part of the reason there are no offer sheets is that the compensation system for them is utterly insane. As stated above, Zucker might prove to be a $5 million player. But if you were to offer him that, it would cost you four first round picks. In any kind of vacuum, you’re not trading four first rounders for what is at best a second line winger. If you were to offer Zucker $4 million a year, an amount the Wild might simply not be able to match, that still costs you a 1st, 2nd, and 3rd. Again, for a second-line winger. You’d have to think this is something the NHLPA will revisit in a new CBA. That is, if they had a clue.

Look for some contentious negotiations this summer between the Wild and Zucker. They simply can’t give him more than $3 million, and he’s earned more than that. Would the Wild allow Zucker to bet on himself for a one-year deal and then go UFA in the summer of ’19? The Wild system is actually stocked. Jordan Greenway looks to be eying that spot as soon as next year.

Wonder if the Wild might think about a trade this season? Stay tuned.

Game #33 Preview

Preview

Spotlight

Q&A

Douchebag Du Jour

I Make A Lot Of Graphs

Lineups & How Teams Were Built

Everything Else

Game #33 – Wild vs. Hawks: Q&A with Ben Remington

By Sam Fels 1900 0

Once again we dig out Ben Remington of ZoneCoverage.com from under the usual mountain of snow in Minnesota to inform us about the Wild. Follow him on Twitter @BenRemington. 

The Wild have won four in a row, and five of six, though four of those have come after the 60 minutes. Any big changes during this streak or just a bounce or two in overtime?
Little bit of both. They were having a hard time putting things together before that, and Kyle Quincey was somehow tanking this team singlehandedly, which is a fitting tribute to just how bad he really was. Since he was jettisoned they’ve been winning, and I don’t think it’s a coincidence. Part of the overtime success is a change in philosophy, directly from the analytics department, the former War on Ice folks. I was at the Devils-Wild game when they got destroyed with a slow lineup on the ice in the first minute of overtime, after that, Boudreau has prioritized putting the young faster players on the ice in OT more, and it’s paid huge dividends. They were 5-17 in 3-on-3 overtime games all time before the change and 4-0 since. So I guess you could say things are getting pretty serious.
How has the Matt Dumba thing going lately?
Pretty good. Two of those OT winners came from Mr. Dumba. He’s a classic risk/reward player, like a Burns Lite, so if he can get someone to cover his tuchus, he excels. Well, Boudreau has finally paired him with the painfully responsible Suter after Spurgeon’s groin injury, and it’s worked like gangbusters. He’s still going to have some frustrating moments in the neutral zone and his own end, but he can make up for it on the other end. After being the favorite whipping boy of Wild fans to start the season, his loudest critics have promptly STFU.
Jason Zucker is well on his way to a career-high in points and goals. Anything different about his game this year, other than his impending new contract?
There’s been a few analytic articles on him this year locally that have highlighted his improved playmaking ability, so that’s definitely a thing. Before he was more of a pure scorer, but he’s used his speed to set up some beauties this season now that he’s garnering a little more attention. As far as his contract situation goes, it’s a little bit of a worst-case for Chuck Fletcher that he’s really tearing it up this year as a pending RFA, and it might be yet another Fletcher failure from this summer that he didn’t give him an extension before the season started.
What’s been Devan Dubnyk’s problem?
Well, he’s dinged up with a knee issue right now, but otherwise he’s just been inconsistent, which is kind of his M.O. He strung together three straight shutouts in between some pretty bad stretches, but hasn’t looked terrible lately, and I think he was just as much of a victim of Kyle Quincey as the team on the whole was. Dubnyk usually heats up pretty good in December, .937 sv% in seasons past with the Wild, so he really got hurt at the worst time. Luckily, the Wild have a semblance of a back up this season in Alex Stalock, who’s playing well, so you’ll probably see the former Duluth Bulldog Sunday night.
What do the Wild need to add to get out of the muck in the Central?
The Wild have been as inconsistent as Dubnyk in years past, not coincidentally, so they need a hot streak something fierce. It’s easy to forget that this team won 12 games straight last December because of how horribly the season ended, but they’re capable of that kind of stretch if they get decent goaltending. Also, pin cushion Parise may return soon, which should help the overall depth of this team, and get some guys who should be playing in Iowa off the big sheet of ice. All of that and a sniper at the next Perds-Blyeos game might get us somewhere.
Everything Else

Game #33 – Wild vs. Hawks: Douchebag Du Jour – Welcome, Mikko Koivu…

By Sam Fels 3199 0

His candidacy has been around for years, but we’re finally ready to announce our latest member of the “Team Photo Looks Like It Was Taken After He Was Caught Masturbating” Hall of Fame…

Mikko Koivu

Congratulations, Mikko. You join such luminaries as Cam Barker and… well, that’s the only one we remember but we’re sure there are a few others.

Game #33 Preview

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Douchebag Du Jour

I Make A Lot Of Graphs

Lineups & How Teams Were Built

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Game #33 – Wild vs. Hawks: I Make A Lot Of Graphs

By Sam Fels 1498 0

All stats at even-strength unless noted. Courtesy of Corsica.hockey. 

Key: CF/60 – shot attempts for per 60 minutes

CA/60 – shot attempts against per 60

CF% – ratio of shot attempts for and against

G/60, GA/60, GF% – goals scored, allowed, and ratio of per 60 minutes

xGF/60, xGA/60, xGF% – “expected goals” i.e. goals team “should” have scored and allowed based on amount and types of chances and attempts created and allowed given neutral goaltending. 

PDO – shooting percentage plus save percentage, used to measure luck. 100 is average.

Time On Ice Percentage – amount of even-strength time player skates

Off. Zone Start Ratio – percentage of shifts started in offensive zone

TOI% of Competition: percentage of even-strength time opponent takes of his team player skates against

Game #33 Preview

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Spotlight

Q&A

Douchebag Du Jour

I Make A Lot Of Graphs

Lineups & How Teams Were Built