Minnesota Wild @ Buffalo Sabres, Saturday 1-7-23, 6:00pm, KeyBank Center

[MNSOTA]

Minnesota Wild (22-13-2)  46pts  3rd in the Central

 

3.19 Goals For Per Game (16th in the NHL)

2.76 Goals Against Per Game (9th in the NHL)

 

23.5% Power Play (14th in the NHL)

79.5% Penalty Kill (14th in the NHL)

 

Top 5 Scorers:

1. #97 Kirill Kaprizov ~ 22G 25A = 47pts

2. #36 Mats Zuccarello ~ 16G 24A = 40pts

3. #14 Joel Eriksson Ek ~ 13G 16A = 29pts

4. #12 Matt Boldy ~ 12G 17A = 29pts

5. #46 Jared Spurgeon ~ 5G 14A = 19pts 

 

Top 3 PIM's:

1. #24 Matt Dumba ~ 54 PIM's

2. #5 Jake Middleton ~ 50 PIM's

3. #15 Mason Shaw ~ 49 PIM's

 

Top Goaltenders:

1. #29 Marc-Andre Fleury (13-8-1)  2.81GAA  .904%  1SO

2. #32 Filip Gustavsson (9-5-1)  2.25GAA  .924%  1SO

 

 

Vs.

 

 

Buffalo Sabres (19-15-2)  40pts  4th in the Atlantic

 

3.94 Goals For Per Game (1st in the NHL)

3.39 Goals Against Per Game (23rd in the NHL)

 

28.2% Power Play (2nd in the NHL)

73.1% Penalty Kill (26th in the NHL)

 

Top 5 Scorers:

1. #72 Tage Thompson ~ 30G 25A = 55pts

2. #89 Alex Tuch ~ 18G 24A = 42pts

3. #53 Jeff Skinner ~ 17G 22A = 39pts

4. #26 Rasmus Dahlin ~ 10G 29A = 39pts

5. #24 Dylan Cozens ~ 12G 23A = 35pts

 

Top 3 PIM's:

1. #26 Rasmus Dahlin ~ 44 PIM's

2. #46 Ilya Lyubushkin ~ 26 PIM's

3. #53 Jeff Skinner ~ 25 PIM's

 

Top Goaltenders:

1. #1 Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen (8-3-1)  3.39GAA  .894%

2. #41 Craig Anderson (7-5-1)  2.61GAA  .923%  1SO

 

Lines:

 

Buffalo Sabres

 

Skinner~T. Thompson~Tuch

Quinn~Cozens~Peterka

Mittelstadt~Jost~V. Olofsson

Girgensons~Krebs~Okposo

 

Samuelsson~Dahlin

Power~Clague

Bryson~Lyubushkin

 

Luukkonen

Anderson

 

Minnesota Wild

 

Kaprizov~Steel~Hartman

Greenway~Eriksson Ek~M. Foligno

Boldy~F. Gaudreau~Duhaime

Shaw~Dewar~Reaves

 

Middleton~Spurgeon

Brodin~Dumba

Merrill~Addison

 

Fleury

Gustavsson

[ClusterChuck]

Duhaime back but no Zucc??
Should be a fun game. These aren't Sabres of past years we could overlook.
Wild Win 4-3

[Alexandron]

Predicting a trapping game. We should pay attention to their 1st line. Tuch always playing well against us. Wild can lose in OT ( 4:5).

[Tomdog]

Zucc being out could be the best thing to happen for the Wild, as long as it’s a short time. 
KK needs to learn how to play with others. 

[wildstars95]

if the wild can snag a point that's good 

spurg and addison will have a hard time boxing out the stork(tage) and tuch 

[ClusterChuck]

Since we rarely find out injuries and such like with Gustav. I heard illness and given there's been something going around the team it's a possibility that's why he had to leave with 2 mins left.
I watched the replay of the save and nothing looked like he caught the puck weird.
So I'm thinking maybe if there was some IBS going on and they way he squatted to make the save...Well, I leave it at that. 

[bbgarnett]

5-4 Sabres in OT

[MNSOTA]

Do they regularly sing Oh Canada in Buffalo?

[MNSOTA]

Holy buckets, this was the slowest performance of the Star Spangled Banner. 

[ClusterChuck]

Lots of turnovers already...

[bbgarnett]

very disjointed so far 

[TropicalFruitGirl26]

Just tuning in...hear Zucc is out.
Who does Dean Everson have step up in his place on the first line?

[MNSOTA]

So it looks like we’re going to play as if we’re on the penalty kill all night. 

[bbgarnett]

1 minute ago, TropicalFruitGirl26 said:

Just tuning in...hear Zucc is out.
Who does Dean Everson have step up in his place on the first line?

Boldy

[TropicalFruitGirl26]

Ahh, I see.
It's Matt Boldy.
Good choice!

[ClusterChuck]

Need some quicker cleaner passes to get out of our zone instead of those soft touch passes when somebody is on you constantly.

[TropicalFruitGirl26]

Not sure how long Zucc would be out for, but it if turns out Boldy-Steel-Kaprizov works well, I'd consider moving Zucc to the 2nd line and try to establish a 1a-1b situation with lines.

Would be nice for the Wild to have players like Kap, Bolds, and Steel, similar in age, growing as NHL professionals together. It could get to the point where each guy knows what the other guy is going to do before he does it (almost like a hockey ESP type thing), and could give MIN a huge advantage in line matchups especially in post season.
Plus, I think Boldy could provide a power element to that line that Zucc lacks.

That sort of thinking with young players and diverse skillset amongst players worked REAL well in Tampa Bay. Would like to see the Wild emulate that somewhat.

[TropicalFruitGirl26]

Too easy for Buffalo!

Overcommitted to one side....can't leave Olafsson alone like that.
Five skaters to the right of Fleury.
Can't happen.

[wildstars95]

[Alexandron]

0:1 at this moment. Not many shots we see. Our 6 shots vs their 4.

[Alexandron]

1 minute ago, TropicalFruitGirl26 said:

Too easy for Buffalo!

Overcommitted to one side....can't leave Olafsson alone like that.
Five skaters to the right of Fleury.
Can't happen.

Agree.

[Alexandron]

Superb chance for EEK on SHG.

[ClusterChuck]

Survived the first.

[wildstars95]

that was basically a defensive drill for 20 minutes by the wild 

[TropicalFruitGirl26]

2 minutes ago, Alexandron said:

Superb chance for EEK on SHG.

 

The Un-Johnny made that chance happen with a great defensive play in his own zone.