The Wild threw 22 shots and a kitchen sink at Connor Hellebuyck in the first period. He stopped all but one.
ST. PAUL - The Minnesota Wild (13-4-4) threw 22 shots and a kitchen sink at Connor Hellebuyck in the first period. He stopped all but one.
The Jets' head coach Scott Arniel was not convinced the shot volume meant the Wild played better in the first.
“Not really. I think the shot guy fell asleep on the button," Arniel said. "Minnesota, they throw a lot of pucks to the net front. I mean, we went and looked at our scoring chances and it certainly didn’t reflect were all of the shots that were coming. But they are a team that likes to throw pucks there, with bodies around there."
According to Natural Stat Trick, the Wild had 1.75 expected goals in the first period and Hellebuyck only allowed one. They had 15 scoring chances in the first period and seven high-danger chances.
"I thought they did everything they could," Hellebuyck said on the Wild's shot volume. "You've got to give credit to (the Wild). They played a hard game, and they threw everything on net and created a bunch of rebounds and that's why the shot total got so high."
The Winnipeg Jets (18-4-0) seem to think the Wild didn't create many chances in the first or the second but the Wild think otherwise.
"We threw a lot at him," Jake Middleton, who got the only Wild goal, said. "That was probably the best first period we played all year, as far as not giving up shot opportunities and funneling pucks to the net. Tip your cap to Connor (Hellebuyck). He played really well, but we didn't play the same game in the third."
Minnesota followed up its great first period with another high-flying second. They had 17 shots in the second, nine high-danger chances and ten scoring chances. Hellebuyck stopped them all.
"Yeah, he played good," Marcus Johansson said on Hellebuyck. "Unfortunately for us, we couldn't get any more to go. I feel like we had enough chances to win the game and have the lead after the first and second periods. Sometimes that's how it goes."
Despite throwing everything at Hellebuyck in the first and second period, the Wild only fired five shots on net in the third. Not a single one was a high-danger chance.
“I don’t think anything really changed," Wild head coach John Hynes said on what happened in the third period. "They’re a good defensive team as we are. They had three guys high. They didn’t give up any odd-man rushes. They checked hard. They collapsed on the house. I thought they played good defense. They played how you want to play with the lead.
"We had some looks. We didn’t have as many as we had earlier in the game. That’s what happens when you play good teams and they have a lead, that they’re going to make it hard for you to then generate offense. They don’t need to score another goal. They need to keep it out of their net and they did a good job.”
At the end of the day, the Wild played a good game. They just ran into a hot goaltender who stopped 3.63 goals above expected, according to MoneyPuck.
But it isn't fair to use that excuse every time. At the end of the day, the Wild are going to have to win games against the top dogs in their division.
In the last two seasons, the Wild are now 0-5-1 against the Jets and 0-4-0 against the Dallas Stars. They have been outscored 45-17 with a 0-9-1 record against the two teams. They have been outscored 22-6 by the Stars the last two years and 23-11 by the Jets.
The Wild are 0-2-1 against the Stars and Jets this season and 2-2-2 against the Central Division this year. They are 11-2-2 against the rest of the league for a 13-4-4 overall record. Their only two wins against the Central Division this year have been against the St. Louis Blues.
Now, these numbers can be deceiving a bit. The Wild lost to the Stars 2-1 without Joel Eriksson Ek, Jonas Brodin, and Mats Zuccarello earlier this year. They played a lot better than last year in that game. Despite losing 4-1 on Monday to the Jets, the Wild played a much better game than what the score suggests.
So give credit where credit is due. But at some point, the Wild need to win some of these games, regardless of who plays, if they want to be seen as this top team in the league which they are right now.
"I mean, we are right there," Johansson said about this Wild team being legit. "Obviously, we want to win against every team and win every night but I feel like we showed that we can play with anyone tonight. We needed to score more goals and that's just how it goes sometimes. We had enough chances to win and yeah, I don't know what else to say."
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