This has to be a record of some sort. The Wild were 1st in both the Western Conference and the entire league on December 18th. With tonight's 3-1 loss to Columbus at home the Wild have now fallen to 12th in the Western Conference and 21st in the league. The team sports the 2nd lowest goals per game in the league at 2.18 with only the Kings being lower at 2.07.
I was expecting them to come back down to earth, but I was thinking "earth" was something like 8th-9th. I don't think anyone was expecting that big of a drop.
Got absolutely destroyed by injuries, and Harding was playing out of his mind. I expected them to come back down to earth and finish in a low seed but it doesn't seem likely now. Koivu is the heart and soul of that squad.
Scoring depth will be huge for them next season. Let's see what Granlund can do.
They're rebuilding, not the worst thing although Yeo does need to at least prove he can get back to winning this season. And it's not like the play of some of the younger guys on D like Sprugeon and Prosser has gone downhill a lot.
At the height of their success they were +15. The Bruins, the team they battled with for top spot, were flirting with +50 around that time, while teams like the Canucks, Wings, Rangers, Flyers and Pens all had a goals differential above 20. I knew the Wild would slow down but I thought it would be more gradual like the panthers.
Where did that thread go where that guy said the Oilers were the "real deal" this year and that they would stay in the top 8 the rest of the season, .
I don't mean to hijack this thread or anything, but hypothetically, if the Oilers didn't Eberle, RNH, Gilbert, Whitney, etc. for a significant amount of time, I'm sure they'd still be at least battling it out for a playoff spot.
Really surprised at how much they have fallen. I liked the Yeo hiring and thought they would do good (as they did) but now are just under achieving. I really expected them to fight for the 5th-8th spot.
At least they didn't go down as low as the Oilers.
Everyone looking at Minnies game stats knew they were destined for a fall it was completely ridiculous,as bad as the Oilers at the start of the year,Heatley being your leading scorer is just terrible,
That being said Minny/Eddy had some entertaining games, Minne getting 8 points and edmonton getting 7 points out of the season series was much funner to watch then a EDM/CAL game
Hmmm... guess another fanbase feels the pain Avs fans did last season now.
What's killing the Wild most, defense?
I would say yes, but add not doing a lot of the little things also. Like fighting for loose pucks or getting traffic in front of the goalie. Tonight was a good example. They had a ton of shots but a majority were weak shots with no traffic in front of Mason and no one fighting for rebounds. Everyone just kinda skates around a shot gets taken they watch it go off the goaltender and no one fights for it.
This team is about were most Wild fans figured it would be tho. There are a few that want to jump off a bridge but I would say a majority didn't expect to make the playoffs this year. This team is just not that talented right now and hopefully in the next few years some of their up and comers pan out and fix that.
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