Boudreau has Wild riding high

[yave1964]

As usual, a Bruce Boudreau team sits in first place.

 

  The Wild are one of the hottest teams in the NHL with a record of 6-2-1. Currently they are riding an insane three game stretch where they have shut out their opponents in every game and have outscored them 13-0 during that stretch.

  The Wild are led by a group of vets, Devan Dubnyk has a 1.43 goals against with those three consecutive shutouts and an eye popping .952 save percentage. Ryan Suter is earning his pay with 10 points thru 9 games, Parise has been solid, Newcomer Eric Staal is earning his pay nicely. Center has long been the weak spot for the Wild and Boudreau with moving Coyle and Granlund to the outside to take advantage of their natural skill and playing Staal, Koivu, Eriksson Ek and Dalpe down the middle with regularity the team has jelled.

  Jason Zucker is a wonderful 5 on 5 guy and is an insane plus 9 already. Defense is underrated led by Suter and the up and coming Dumba and the underrated Brodin, Spurgeon and Scandella. in front of Dubnyk have allowed the second least amount of shots per game to get on net at a lowly 25.9.

  Yeah I know the rep of Boudreau, regular season wonder who folds come April. His teams should move tot eh Philippines and rename themselves the Manila Folders. All the rest. But he has taken a team that traditionally starts slow and stumbles and bumbles to an 8 seed or so in the West and has made them formidable on both ends of the ice.  

[TropicalFruitGirl26]

@yave1964

 

Most surprising of all on this team is that they are scoring via a TRUE committee!

 

No single Wild player has eye popping offensive numbers, but the team has 18 DIFFERENT guys come up with goals this season.

Right now, Bruce Boudreau feels he can put ANY line out there and expect good, if not elite, results.

 

Also, he isn't messing around with waiting around for guys to "get it".

If he puts you on a line, and you don't produce or don't play a role as expected, he shuffles things around.

 

He thus far has shown ZERO favoritism to any player...he doesn't care if your name is Zach Parise, Mikko Koivu or Zac Dalpe, Joel Ericsson Ek....if you do your job, you get the prime ice time and PP time.

 

Boudreau, as expected, has also shown a preference for a bit tougher style of play (to go along with overall team production), and to that end, has kept larger bodies like Tyler Graovac up front and Christian Folin on defense in the lineup, while guys like Teemu Pulkkinen (whom you know well) was put on waivers yet again, cleared, and is now in Iowa to continue to work on his game, due to his lack of production.

 

Minnesota STILL has yet to run with a completely injury free roster....I can only wonder what they could be doing with EVERYONE of note up n running and at peak performance.

 

Zach Parise is currently out week to week, Marco Scandella is currently out as well, as is Erik Haula.

Jared Spurgeon has missed a bit of time already...he just recently came back to action.

 

I think most Wild fans are very well aware of "Bruce Boudreau" teams as it pertains to the playoffs, but honestly, at this stage, I think the fanbase will take an outstanding regular season, get into the playoffs with authority, and worry about what will happen then.

 

Like many Wild fans, I too tire of the slow starts of this team, the mid season swoons, and the need to play perfect games and string together ridiculous winning streaks just to barely make it in to the playoffs.

 

Would be nice for once to get in comfortably so that the team isn't 'worn out' from just trying to get in, and they can focus more on team strategies rather than just pour gallons of emotion into games simply to will out a win every single time.

[MadDevil]

Hasn't Boudreau won a division title every full season he's coached in the NHL? I'm not sure Minnesota can keep this up all year (they're shooting over 13% as a team and only one team finished with a shooting percentage of 10% or better last year) but it looks like he might be working his magic again. Of course it probably helps to have a guy who is pretty good with defensemen on the bench too (we miss you Scotty).

[TropicalFruitGirl26]

2 hours ago, MadDevil said:

Hasn't Boudreau won a division title every full season he's coached in the NHL? I'm not sure Minnesota can keep this up all year (they're shooting over 13% as a team and only one team finished with a shooting percentage of 10% or better last year) but it looks like he might be working his magic again. Of course it probably helps to have a guy who is pretty good with defensemen on the bench too (we miss you Scotty).

 

No doubt this part of it is an anomaly. And yea, one can't realistically expect that to continue all year.

 

Hence why it's good that the team, as a whole, is contributing on offense.

That said, eventually, the stars of the team have to behave like stars and separate themselves from the other players and really make the difference.

 

Parise, who is currently out, will of course, be counted to lead the way.

But then you have guys like Mikael Granlund, Eric Staal, Jason Zucker, and Jason Pominville who are supposed to be scorers as well...they will need to be consistent as perhaps the rest of the team "comes back to earth" in offense and shooting %.

 

From the D, Spurgeon, Dumba, and of course, Ryan Suter should lead the charge there.

 

I do like what Boudreau and his staff have been doing with this team so far (Scott Stevens included!), but I also think Boudreau isn't done sorting through players to find out who really belongs on this team playing his style of hockey and who doesn't.

[TropicalFruitGirl26]

**Thread Bump***

 

Riding high indeed!

 

On a current 6 game winning streak, all four lines seem to be doing their jobs, and Devan Dubnyk is simply playing out of his mind!

 

If Duby continues his play and DOESN'T get consideration for the Vezina (or even wins the damned thing), then a serious crime would have been committed.

 

Right now, past the quarter mark of the season, Dubnyk > Price in GAA, Save %, Shut outs...and doing this while playing almost 200 more minutes than Price AND in the tougher Central division.

 

And the Wild seem to be more stable at this juncture as well up front than the Habs.

 

Of course, now that I said that, I probably jinxed Duby, the Wild, and the win streak.....so umm, yea.....that....

 

At any rate, Bruce Boudreau really does have this team riding high!

Not to say the team couldn't use some improvements (ok, lots of improvements...to be a real SC contender anyways), but for now, one can't ask for too much more than the Wild are doing.

 

Areas such as backup goalie (Dubnyk will need rest days...and Kuemper doesn't always inspire confidence when asked to backup), maybe a bit more finish when the team creates scoring chances, and maybe a bit more contribution from the blue line in terms of offense (looking at YOU Suter, Spurgeon, and Dumba).....those areas get shored up some, maybe this Wild team can shoot straight to the top of the Central and actually be a FAVORITE in the playoffs in April!

 

 

[hf101]

This a fun team to watch these days.  I'm really liking Charlie Coyle at center between Parise and Niederreiter.  This team has 4 solid lines and has the depth it needs to contend for the cup this year. 

 

Let's go Wild 

[OccamsRazor]

4 hours ago, hf101 said:

This a fun team to watch these days.  I'm really liking Charlie Coyle at center between Parise and Niederreiter.  This team has 4 solid lines and has the depth it needs to contend for the cup this year. 

 

Let's go Wild 

 

That is a expensive 3rd line LW no???

 

On NBCsports they showed Parise on the 3rd line was that not right?

[hf101]

21 minutes ago, OccamsRazor said:

 

That is a expensive 3rd line LW no???

 

On NBCsports they showed Parise on the 3rd line was that not right?

 

 

I think it was more like the first line.