The Blue Jackets and The Wild

[TropicalFruitGirl26]

 

I thought I read somewhere that this is a history making game.

Historic in the sense that at NO time in NHL history have two teams met with concurrent winning streaks of 12 or more games.

 

Well, that is exactly what will be happening on Saturday night in St. Paul, MN.

 

The Columbus Blue Jackets, big, heavy, hard hitting team with Vezina caliber goaltending and scoring to spare go visit the very disciplined, defensively sound structured Minnesota Wild, who ALSO happen to have Vezina caliber goaltending and getting scoring from all 4 of its lines.

Jackets carry the 14 game win streak, the Wild carry a 12-gamer.

 

The Wild are a fantastic 13-3-0 at home....but the Jackets are no slouches on the road, sporting a very fine 11-2-3 road record.

The goals for/goals against and goal differential are eerily similar...

Cls... GF-GA   119-72, +48 differential

Min... GF-GA  111-72, +39 differential

 

Some other stats,

PP%

Cls-- 28.0% (Numero UNO)

Min-- 17.5% (17th)

 

PK%

Cls-- 81.4% (15th)

Min-- 85.6% (5th)

 

Sergei Bobrovsky-- 30GP, 23-5-2, 1.95 GAA, .934%, 3 ShO in 1,751 minutes played

Devan Dubnyk-----  28GP, 19-6-3, 1.67 GAA, .944%, 5 ShO in 1,690 minutes played

 

Wow...just wow.

Damned shame only ONE of these teams are gonna leave the Xcel Energy Center with their winning streak intact.

 

Which one will it be and why?  

[jammer2]

8 minutes ago, TropicalFruitGirl26 said:

Which one will it be and why?  

 

 Columbus. More high end talent. The Wild don't have anything like Wennberg or Werenski. I think as I type, Werenski is better than Suter.....seems the ice better, disperses the puck better or at least on par and has rocket of a shot. Wennberg was a masterful draft choice, one the big steals of the last decade. When somebody makes a guy like Gagner fantasy relevant again, well that speaks volumes to me. A young kid who is elite enough to make those around him significantly better....Gagner went from maybe out of the league to a possible 30 goal guy on the back of Wenneberg.

 

 Not chopping down your Wild, a great team in their own right....but more of a system based team. Dubnyk would not be as good on a team that did not emphasize strong positional play. Boudreau teams compete, and compete hard. A theory tested over time, with the Caps, the Ducks and now the Wild. Gibson is not even close to being the same outside of a Boudreau system. As good as Bruce's system is, you do need the players to carry it out....enter "real men" like Charlie Coyle, Zucker, who make it easy to play in this type of system....perfect storm, the coach with the idea and the roster to carry it out.

 

 As far as the game itself, I see Columbus winning in OT, on a Savard slap shot. It "will" be a war though, and maybe a bit dumb for me to go against the Wild at home...but we shall see.

[TropicalFruitGirl26]

@jammer2

 

Very well stated post, Jammer.

I am having a tough time deciding myself who will take this.

 

I agree on Wennberg being gold for the Jackets.

Of course, he will need to be proven over time, as consistency is king, but I see nothing in his game that would suggest he can't have the kind of season he is having now every year.

 

Werenski better than Suter?

Hmm...don't know about that one.

Werenski for sure is good looking young defenseman, but Suter is and continues to be, a proven commodity.

Frankly, I think many people underrate Suter at times because of his salary and the fact he doesn't have eye popping numbers.

 

Yet at the end of every season, his numbers are there for a D-man, he logs minutes only a cyborg can, and does all the little things on defense most fans don't take notice of, but are just as important as the sexy production numbers.

 

That all said, the Jackets are put together in such a way that it just boggles the mind that they could have been playing this way for the last 2 or 3 seasons had it not been for injuries.

They have players that can play with anyone, they defend as well as anyone, have the goaltending, and are very well coached, regardless of what anyone thinks of Tortorella's abilities as a head coach.

 

My heart wants to say Minnesota, but realistically, I think the Jackets are favored team here, as Minnesota, despite the 12-gamer, have looked ugly in some of those wins (including yesterday's game against the Isles)....yet still managed to find a way to win games.

 

I am thinking, if Minnesota doesn't play up to par, Columbus will be unforgiving and the Wild will find a comeback just not happening if they fall too far behind.

 

Then again, Minnesota is one of those teams that really DOES feed off its home crowd, the Xcel Energy Center should be rockin....and the Wild have been getting all these wins with very little contributions from Zach Parise, who SHOULD be their leading scorer, but has had a sleepy year so far....... he has, however, shown some signs of waking up lately though.

 

Biggest key of the game?

Columbus PP vs Minnesota PK.

 

Jackets have an absolutely deadly PP...almost one third of the time they are scoring on it.

Minnesota at one point in the season had the number one PK. That has fallen back just a bit, but it is still good nonetheless, and it will HAVE to be on Saturday.

 

Like I said, tough one for me to call.

I will vote my heart though because its not like the Wild don't stand ANY chance......but you won't catch me putting down $500, HJ, style AGAINST a team like Columbus...

[jammer2]

11 minutes ago, TropicalFruitGirl26 said:

Werenski for sure is good looking young defenseman, but Suter is and continues to be, a proven commodity.

Frankly, I think many people underrate Suter at times because of his salary and the fact he doesn't have eye popping numbers.

 

 I don't think Werenski is better than Suter because of the numbers. He controls the flow of the game better, very rare to have a rookie control the games pace, I saw Lindstrom and Niedermeyer pull that off as rookies, but it a rare commodity to find, even more rare when an 18 year old rookie pull it off. Make no mistake, Werenski is the straw that stirs the drink on the best team in the NHL....at 18 yrs. We are about to see greatness evolve. Ghost made a splash when he came in last year, but he's FAR away from the total package that Werenski is. I believe Provorov will be very close to Werenski, maybe trading the Norris back and forth a few times.

 

. The other factor, Werenski is a better skater, and I think Suter is a very good skater. Werenski is just more agile, faster from point A to point B because of his outstanding first stride. Time will tell, but I really think Werenski wins the Norris multiple times. The last time I said that, I was talking about P.K Subban over a decade ago when he was in the OHL, so I might be wrong, but have hit this before.

[BobbyClarkeFan16]

I think this game is going to come down to intangibles. Basically, who follows the game plan the closest. Right now, I don't think I've ever seen a team as disciplined and driven to succeed the way Columbus has. They've bought into Tortorella's system hook, line and sinker and it's paying off.

[TropicalFruitGirl26]

43 minutes ago, BobbyClarkeFan16 said:

I think this game is going to come down to intangibles. Basically, who follows the game plan the closest. Right now, I don't think I've ever seen a team as disciplined and driven to succeed the way Columbus has. They've bought into Tortorella's system hook, line and sinker and it's paying off.

 

Very true.

Which is why I always felt Torts is a better coach than people give him credit for.

They always want to point out his antics, but behind all that, if players are ALL buying in, his way works.

Worked in Tampa Bay, worked in New York, Vancouver was a mess with too many entitled vets BEFORE Torts stopped there so we will ignore that   , and it is working with the Blue Jackets.

 

That all said, one could say the same about the Wild buying into Bruce Boudreau and his systems.

 

Boudreau doesn't seem to care how much money a player makes or where the general public thinks what line that player is supposed to be on...if you buy in, you play more minutes, you play on the upper lines.

If you don't, you sit or play 7-8 minutes a night.

 

With that in place, and with the Wild players "buying in", Boudreau has created an environment where ALL FOUR lines are going well because none of them want to sit, and as a result, even 4th liners get decent ice time and in key situations.

 

I do agree with you as well, though, on the intangibles.

Neither team can afford to buy into the 'streak hype', and neither can afford to look past the other.

 

Luckily, both have coaches that simply won't allow that.

Should be a damned fun game win, lose or shoot out.

[BluPuk]

I just hope it ends in regulation. Then, it's settled. 

I'll take the Wild, only because they are at home.

[hf101]

I'm going for the home team win. 

 

I really haven't watched Columbus much this season, but the Wild play a fast high tempo game.  Looking forward to watching this one.

 

[TropicalFruitGirl26]

According to dailyfaceoff.com, as of this posting, both Sergei Bobrovsky and Devan Dubnyk are listed as "Likely".

 

I don't see how, if you are either coach, you DON'T put out your number one goaltender in a game where just about everyone in the NHL will be keeping an eye on.

 

I think its a statement game for both teams...statement being, "We are serious, we want the damned Cup"....and you can only really do that if you ice your best possible team and that obviously means Bob vs Duby.

 

Neither goalie will be on the tail end of a back to back and both are having Vezina quality seasons.

"Likely" should change to "Confirmed" any time now...