The Wild's special teams have struggled the last four games despite 3-1-0 record.
ST. PAUL - There were mistakes that led to the Minnesota Wild (8-2-2) dropping Tuesday night's game against the Los Angeles Kings (8-3-3). But their special teams play let them down.
"We talk a lot about details and managing the game. And when you win, sometimes you don’t get exposed in those things," Wild head coach John Hynes said. "But I think tonight it was a good snap back of the importance of details, the importance of staying with your game. Little details in the game matter."
The Wild jumped out to a 1-0 lead in the second period after Zach Bogosian ripped one home from the point. They got a power play chance minutes after and did not score.
"Obviously the power play was ineffective tonight, particularly early to possibly increase the lead," Hynes said. "They get one power play, BANG, it’s in the back of the net. And then I also look at, we get caught on the icing and then we get a mismatch versus a tired group, BANG, it‘s in the back of the net. So, to me, there’s a lot to take out of it."
It was a good chance for the Wild to extend the way and possibly put away the Kings, who played in Nashville the night before, but instead they don't score and allowed Los Angeles to score on the power play.
The Wild scored five games ago on the power play in Philadelphia but have gone four games since with no goals on the power play. They are 0-for-15 in that span.
"I don't know, we started so hot with our seams and with the cute plays (but) obviously teams come in here and pre scout that," Brock Faber said on what's wrong with the power play. "I think it's every guy, including myself, we got to shoot more pucks. That's what opens up lanes and opens up second, third, fourth, opportunities. That's when you score. So, we're going to figure it out. We know we are."
Usually a strong penalty kill will pick up the slack for a struggling power play, and vice versa, but this isn't the case for the Wild. The penalty kill has been even worse.
In their last five games, the Wild have given up six goals on the penalty kill on just 11 chances. They are 15-for-24 on the season which is a 62.5 percent clip. That ranks 31st in the NHL.
They have the leagues worst PK% at 45.5% in the last five games and have the leagues worst PP% in the last four games with 0.0%.
The impressive thing is the Wild are 3-2-0 in their last five games despite having the worst special teams play in the NHL in that span.
"Obviously our power play was not good. Hasn't been good in a while. But we work on it every day," Mats Zuccarello said. "The ten guys that are on there take pride in the power play, and we want to help our team win. But I think it’s important that we don't get down on ourselves.
"When you lose a little bit of confidence, the puck bounces everywhere and your passes don’t go tape to tape and stuff like that. So just in a game like this, we would have liked to score a couple of goals on the power play and help the team. But that was not good enough on our part today, and we have to go back."
Ultimately this is a trend that cannot continue for the Wild and something they have to figure out soon.
"It's frustrating, right? Our power play started really hot and we were really good last year," Faber said. "Obviously, you go in stints like that. And then, yeah, the PK is the same thing. It's frustrating. We have to solve it as quickly as we can."
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