The Wild need to avoid and break the early season pattern of sluggish starts and break the early season pattern of sluggish starts and it begins in Philadelphia tonight.ST. PAUL — One of the Minnesota Wild's major issues early this season has been sluggish starts, and Tuesday night inside Xcel Energy Center against the Edmonton Oilers was no different.
Except that the Wild won, of course.
The Wild have been outscored 9-6 at five-on-five and 11-7 overall in the first period through six games this season. But it could be much worse as they’ve had slow and unconvincing starts, which has made things difficult for themselves.
The Wild were fortunate to end the first period tied 2-2 in their 7-4 win over the Oilers Tuesday because Edmonton could have had a multi-goal lead.
The Wild surrendered a goal 54 seconds in on the game's first shot and compounded the lackadaisical start when Jon Merrill and Jonas Brodin committed minor penalties 46 seconds apart, which gave the Oilers a minute and 14 seconds of five-on-three power play time 2:25 into the game.
The Wild committed four infractions in all in the first period, but they killed them all off against the Oilers, who were without Connor McDavid and have the No. 8 power play in the league.
Tuesday's slow start against the Oilers wasn't a one-off though as it's become a pattern early this season.
The Wild went down 3-1 after the first against the Toronto Maple Leafs on Oct. 14 and couldn't recover in their 7-4 loss. Then there's the Wild's 4-2 deficit after the first period to the L.A. Kings — which included two goals for L.A. in the final minute — in their 7-3 loss on Oct. 19. The Wild also went down 1-0 after the first to the Columbus Blue Jackets last Saturday in their 5-4 overtime loss.
“Our starts have not been good,” Evason said after practice Monday. “We’ve prided ourselves in being a team that’s ready to go. Certainly at home, we’ve established that work ethic — and we haven’t really brought it as consistently, obviously, as we’d like to and we have in the past.”
The Wild's first-period play in the past three games, especially, has been concerning. It's not just the Wild's lack of scoring and setting the tone, but also their play in their own zone.
"We don't want to be chasing," Marcus Johansson said of their slow starts after Saturday's loss. "So we need to be better from the start, and that's just facts."
The Wild do deserve credit though for not allowing their poor start to dictate Tuesday’s result and having the ability to stick with it and overcome it for their third win in this young season.
The Wild's three-game road trip starts tonight against the Philadelphia Flyers before facing the Washington Capitals Friday and New Jersey Devils Sunday.
And there's no better time than now for the Wild to turn the tide on their first-period starts so far this season.