Minnesota Wild vs Buffalo Sabres, Thursday 12-16-21, 7:00pm, Xcel Energy Center

[MNSOTA]

Minnesota Wild (19-8-1) 1st in Central Division

 

3.68 Goals for Per Game ( 2nd in the NHL)

2.89 Goals Against per Game (17th in NHL)

17.4% Power Play (23rd in NHL)

81.0% Penalty Kill (13th in NHL)

 

Top 5 Scorers:

1. #97 Kirill Kaprizov ~ 10G 22A = 32pts

2. #38 Ryan Hartman ~ 13G 10A = 23pts

3. #36 Mats Zuccarello ~ 8G 14A = 22pts

4. #14 Joel Eriksson Ek ~ 11G 9A = 20pts

5. #17 Marco Foligno ~ 13G 6A = 19pts

 

Top 3 Penalty Minutes:

1. #17 Marcus Foligno ~ 48 PIM's

2. #21 Brandon Duhaime ~ 44 PIM's

3. #38 Ryan Hartman ~ 25 PIM's

 

Top Goaltenders:
1. #33 Cam Talbot ~ (15-6-0)   2.71GAA   .917SV%

2. #34 Kaapo Kahkonen ~ (4-2-1)   2.75GAA   .905SV%

 

 

Buffalo Sabres (9-15-4)   22pts   6th in Atlantic Division

 

2.71 Goals for per Game (23rd in NHL)

3.50 Goals Against per Game (28th in NHL)

19.7% Power Play (13th in NHL)

79.7% Penalty Kill (18th in NHL)

 

Top 5 Scorers:

1. #21 Kyle Okposo ~ 6G 13A = 19pts

2. #72 Tage Thompson ~ 10G 8A = 18pts

3. #53 Jeff Skinner ~ 9G 8A = 17pts

4. #71 Victor Olofsson ~ 5G 12A = 17pts

5. #26 Rasmus Dahlin ~ 5G 12A = 17pts

 

Top 3 Penalty Minutes:

1. #28 Zemgus Girgensons ~ 23 PIM's

2. #26 Rasmus Dahlin ~ 18 PIM's

3. #8 Robert Hagg ~ 17 PIM's

 

Top Goaltenders:

1. #1 Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen ~ (1-2-1)   1.99GAA   .939SV%

2. #80 Eric Dell ~ (0-5-0)   4.52 GAA   .872SV%

3. #31 Dustin Tokarski ~ (4-5-3)   3.28GAA   .903SV% (currently listed as Day to Day)

 

LINES:

 

Buffalo

 

Skinner-T. Thompson-V. Olofsson

Murray-Cozens-Okposo

Asplund-Girgensons-Haydn

Bjork-Eakin-Hinostroza

 

Dahlin-Jokiharju

Butcher-Pysyk

Bryson-Hagg

 

Luukonen

Dell

Tokarski (DTD)

 

Minnesota Wild

 

Kaprizov-Hartman-Zuccarello

Greenway-Eriksson Ek-M. Foligno

Fiala-Rask-Gaudreau

Duhaime-Sturm-Bjugstad

 

Goligoski-Spurgeon

Brodin-Dumba

Merrill-Kulikov

 

Talbot

Kahkonen

 

 

Let's try this again, shall we? The Wild got a little extra "break" as their game against Carolina was postponed on Tuesday due to so many Hurricanes players having to enter Covid-19 protocols. So now, the Wild must pivot and ready themselves for a game against the Buffalo Sabres. Will that lead to the NHL hitting pause on the season? Maybe, maybe not. The holiday games are big money makers, and the last thing the Minnesota Wild want, considering they're supposed to be hosting the Winter Classic in a couple weeks, is to hear anyone around the league talk about a potential "pause."

 

The Sabres started out fast, but then injuries built up fast and the club tumbled down the Atlantic standings. Like the Hurricanes, the Sabres want to roll four, young, skilled lines and try to overwhelm you with speed. The key word is that is what Buffalo wants to do, but what happens all too often is while the team has good pace, they are a bit hit or miss offensively. This means that if the goals don't materialize, they find themselves in trouble. So in others words, it's a team that wants to play run and fun hockey, but they don't scorer enough to play that way and win most nights.

 

They have good young talent up front, even after sending Jack Eichel to the Vegas Golden Knights. Unfortunate, Upstate New York-native Alex Tuch is hurt and the rest of the haul from that trade was mostly futures (draft picks and prospect Peyton Krebs), so they're mostly making due with what's left. Former Golden Gopher Kyle Okposo is having a terrific season, leading the Sabres in scoring. Jeff Skinner is way overpaid at $9 million a season, but he's still one of the Sabres' most talented players and perhaps their most dangerous sniper on the team. Rookie Dylan Cozens is learning and improving, but he's still a ways away from being able to carry this team on his young shoulders just yet. Tage Thompson has turned into a big, strong center, who has some scoring ability, although he's probably better in the middle six than being Buffalo's 1st line center. Zemgus Girgensons is a poor-man's Joel Eriksson Ek, an annoying, defensive-minded forward that can chip in ugly goals on occasion and gets under oppnents' skin, by simply being a pain to play against. In fact the bottom six for the Sabres feature a whole bunch of players who pride themselves of being difficult to play against. Cody Eakins, John Hayden, Anders Bjork, and Vinnie Hinostroza are all players who revel in driving opponents crazy.

 

On defense, Rasmus Dahlin was thought to be this team's savior. He's getting better and more comfortable in the NHL as he enters his fourth NHL season. Will Butcher doesn't put up a lot of points, but he tries to bring stability to the Sabres' blueline. Mark Pysyk is one of those rare players who primarily plays defense, but at times will moonlight as a forward when needed. Robert Hagg gives the Sabres a little bit more size and grit, but overall they're a finesse driven group.

 

Between the pipes was an area where the organization seems to have dropped the ball. After parting ways with Linus Ullmark and Carter Hutton a year ago, they didn't really replace them. They added 40-year-old Craig Anderson, but he's out of the lineup with an injury and minor league journeyman Dustin Tokarski who is now listed as day-to-day. That's forced Buffalo to reach back into their minor system and call up Ukko-Pekka Luukonen from the Rochester Americans and veteran backup Aaron Dell. Luukonen is their goaltender of the future, but he is now being tasked with trying to salvage Buffalo's season.

 

The Sabres just snapped a 7-game losing streak on Tuesday with a 4-2 win over Winnipeg. With that in mind, tonight's game has all the markings of a trap game for the Wild. Minnesota is coming off a loss to Vegas, and should be feeling a bit ornery as they've waited for Buffalo to arrive. However, they've been out of game action a little longer, due to the postponement of the Carolina game. Luukonen made 34 saves in the win against the Jets, so I would expect him to start again tonight. I would guess Minnesota will start Cam Talbot hoping to get both him and the team back on track against the Sabres. 

 

 

 

[MNSOTA]

So all, I had to type the actual preview here today. For whatever reason, WordPress isn't letting us log in OR reset our passwords. I'm guessing the continual issues with Amazon Web Services is at the root of this. Enjoy all/

[wildstars95]

a nice win by at least 3 goals would be cool 

[lynxrattle]

5  - 2 Wild win. The Sabres have been better and in the last game Luukkonen and Dahlin seemed quite good. I still think it's too early for these new talents in the Sabres. The Wild should be able to expose their weaknesses. 

[ClusterChuck]

We've had days to stew over those 2 losses.
Looking for a return to the play we saw in the middle of the win streak.
Wild win 4-1

[Jimtown guy]

Totally expect a fired up Wild team after their last 2 losses. I’ll go with a 6-1 drubbing of the lowly Sabres 

[Alexandron]

Wild win 6:2. A must win game.

[CreaseAndAssist]

I don't think its a must win, but its one we should feel confident in.  But sometimes injuries / illnesses force teams to simplify their game and sometimes they rally around it.  Hopefully we take their spirit right away and take care of business.  

[wildstars95]

look at this .... a right handed shot D-Man    

[Tomdog]

I just hope they can go a full game with no penalties.

Long term that would be a win.

[bbgarnett]

5-1 Wild 

 

Kaprizov, Zucchini, Hartman, Ek and Brodin will score

[Tomdog]

so much for going penalty free

[ClusterChuck]

Why do I expect to see Pomminville here.  

[Tomdog]

Is Pitlick a healthy scratch or is he injured?

[bbgarnett]

Merrill!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Edited December 17, 2021 by bbgarnett

[ClusterChuck]

Thank God Merril shot it !! 

[MNSOTA]

When I was writing up the stats today, I realized I didn’t know Okposo was still playing. 

[ClusterChuck]

11 minutes ago, Tomdog said:

Is Pitlick a healthy scratch or is he injured?

Good question...I know he was a Healthy scratch a few back, But what/why tonight? 

[bbgarnett]

Talbot moving well tonight 

[Tomdog]

The only thing I can see is Gudreau is righthanded and can win a faceoff. 

[ClusterChuck]

There's no good reason why we're giving up so many chances and SOG's.

[bbgarnett]

Damn Talbot 

[bbgarnett]

Geeze Talbot doing all the work in that period.

[ClusterChuck]

Looks like they've been practicing short cutesy passing during the 3 days off.

[Tomdog]

I hope they shuffle Hartman and Rask round at intermission.

The Fiala, Rask Gudreou line doesn't cut it.