Wild @ Leafs - Oct. 15th, 7:00pm - TSN4, Fan 590

[CarltonTheBear]

@

1-4-0, 2 points | 3-2-1, 7 points

Projected Lines

Parise-Koivu-Zucker Fiala-Staal-Hartman Foligno-Eriksson Ek-Kunin Donato-Rask-Greenway Suter-Dumba Brodin-Spurgeon Soucy-Hunt Dubnyk ​

Kapanen-Tavares-Marner Johnsson-Matthews-Nylander Mikheyev-Kerfoot-Moore Timashov-Shore-Gauthier Rielly-Ceci Muzzin-Barrie Marincin-Holl Andersen​

Scratches

Mats Zuccarello Gerald Mayhew Nick Seeler ​

Nic Petan Jason Spezza Kevin Gravel​

Game Notes

MIN
?Dubnyk (0-4-0, 4.55 GAA, .862 Sv%) will likely start for the Wild
?Minnesota won their first game of the season on Monday night, beating the sens by a score of 2-0
?The win came with the help of two unlikely players: back-up goalie Alex Stalock earned the shutout and their $4mil 4C, Victor Rask, scored the GWG
?Devan Dubnyk, who as you can see in the stats is having a rough start to the season, was scheduled to start the second game of their B2B but Stalock's shutout might have earned him another go
?Defenceman Brad Hunt leads the Wild in scoring so far this season with 4 points in 5 games. Defencemen Jared Spurgeon and Ryan Suter are in a 3-way tie along with Marcus Foligno for 2nd in scoring with 3 points

TOR
?Andersen (3-2-0, 3.37 GAA, .886 Sv%) will likely start for the Leafs
?The Rasmus Sandin era has been put on pause... it's Marincin-Holl time now
?Timashov and Shore were with Gauthier at practice on Monday, so it seems as though they'll get consecutive games for the first time this season
?Mitch Marner is now just one of two Leafs to not record a point at 5-on-5 this season. The other is Marincin

Injuries

?Greg Pateryn - Lower Body - Injured Reserve ?Mats Zuccarello - Lower Body - Day to day​

?Travis Dermott - Shoulder - Injured Reserve ?Zach Hyman - Knee - Injured Reserve​

Stream Options

https://www.reddit.com/r/NHLstreams
​

 

[herman]

It?s nice to avoid the annual Alex Stalock revenge win for a change, either by his sitting or playing the second of a B2B.

 

[Arn]

When I started following hockey around the turn of the millennium I briefly thought it would be a good idea to follow one of the new teams entering the NHL cos I too was new to the NHL. I briefly considered the new Wild cos Minnesota sounded a bit better than Columbus.

Thankfully I then went on a trip to Toronto and the rest, as they say, is history.

But I always enjoy when these games come around cos it makes me think how much different my hockey fandom career may have been

 

[L K]

It's way too early in the year to care about PP conversion percentage but at what point do we start talking about not having Tavares/Marner/Matthews/Rielly be our PP.  It's a new system so it is going to take time to work out, but do we wait 20 games?  Until Hyman gets back?

 

[CarltonTheBear]

It's way too early in the year to care about PP conversion percentage but at what point do we start talking about not having Tavares/Marner/Matthews/Rielly be our PP.  It's a new system so it is going to take time to work out, but do we wait 20 games?  Until Hyman gets back?

Just looking through some PP stats right now and something jumped way out at me: Tavares doesn't have a single shot on the powerplay yet this season. 99 players so far this season have played at least 15 minutes on the powerplay, he's one of just three without a shot (Ennis and Taro Hirose being the others). Last season he was right at the very top of the league in shots per minute on the PP.

 

[CarltonTheBear]

Another weird specialty team stat: Marincin has played 3:45 on the PK (just 2 GP) and the Leafs did not give up a single shot attempt during that time. His CF% on the PK this season is actually 100% (1 CF, 0 CA).

Is he the greatest penalty killer of all time, or is this just a fluke? Only time will tell.

 

[L K]

It's way too early in the year to care about PP conversion percentage but at what point do we start talking about not having Tavares/Marner/Matthews/Rielly be our PP.  It's a new system so it is going to take time to work out, but do we wait 20 games?  Until Hyman gets back?

Just looking through some PP stats right now and something jumped way out at me: Tavares doesn't have a single shot on the powerplay yet this season. 99 players so far this season have played at least 15 minutes on the powerplay, he's one of just three without a shot (Ennis and Taro Hirose being the others). Last season he was right at the very top of the league in shots per minute on the PP.

The new format seems off when you take him away from the front of the net where he can deflect and get rebounds.  I?m kind of pushing to see them split one of those guys to pair with Nylander

 

[Bender]

At some point the Minnesota Wild should consider rebuilding, no? Shocked it hasn't happened yet.

 

[CarltonTheBear]

At some point the Minnesota Wild should consider rebuilding, no? Shocked it hasn't happened yet.

Parise and Suter still have FIVE years left on their contracts after this season.

 

[Guilt Trip]

It's way too early in the year to care about PP conversion percentage but at what point do we start talking about not having Tavares/Marner/Matthews/Rielly be our PP.  It's a new system so it is going to take time to work out, but do we wait 20 games?  Until Hyman gets back?

You're right. It's way too early to worry about a PP that's 15th in the league. It's a work in progress at this point.

 

[CarltonTheBear]

The new format seems off when you take him away from the front of the net where he can deflect and get rebounds.  I?m kind of pushing to see them split one of those guys to pair with Nylander

They're trying to get Marner more shots. He has 6 in 6 games this season after just 42 in 82 games last season. Maybe that's just an early season strategy to get penalty killers away from Matthews/Tavares a bit, but yeah eventually Tavares needs to start getting more pucks on/off his stick.

 

[Frank E]

The new format seems off when you take him away from the front of the net where he can deflect and get rebounds.  I?m kind of pushing to see them split one of those guys to pair with Nylander

They're trying to get Marner more shots. He has 6 in 6 games this season after just 42 in 82 games last season. Maybe that's just an early season strategy to get penalty killers away from Matthews/Tavares a bit, but yeah eventually Tavares needs to start getting more pucks on/off his stick.

That middle spot is more of a distribution position though, isn't it?

 

[CarltonTheBear]

That middle spot is more of a distribution position though, isn't it?

I don't think there are any strict rules about stuff like that. Two seasons ago Kadri led the team in PP goals from that spot.

 

[herman]

The new format seems off when you take him away from the front of the net where he can deflect and get rebounds.  I?m kind of pushing to see them split one of those guys to pair with Nylander

They're trying to get Marner more shots. He has 6 in 6 games this season after just 42 in 82 games last season. Maybe that's just an early season strategy to get penalty killers away from Matthews/Tavares a bit, but yeah eventually Tavares needs to start getting more pucks on/off his stick.

That middle spot is more of a distribution position though, isn't it?

The middle is a terrible spot to distribute from because that's where PK concentrates their structure to prevent dangerous passes through the slot. it's a 1v4 situation with no room or time to operate. Best used to change the angle/direction on passes (see Marner's PP goal off Tavares' touch pass) and as a collapsing attacker on rebounds (see Kadri).

Even though Tavares hasn't had many touches there yet, his play off the puck has resulted in cleaner passes getting through to Matthews as he anticipates the play and ties up sticks or draws attention away.

 

[Frank E]

The new format seems off when you take him away from the front of the net where he can deflect and get rebounds.  I?m kind of pushing to see them split one of those guys to pair with Nylander

They're trying to get Marner more shots. He has 6 in 6 games this season after just 42 in 82 games last season. Maybe that's just an early season strategy to get penalty killers away from Matthews/Tavares a bit, but yeah eventually Tavares needs to start getting more pucks on/off his stick.

That middle spot is more of a distribution position though, isn't it?

The middle is a terrible spot to distribute from because that's where PK concentrates their structure to prevent dangerous passes through the slot. it's a 1v4 situation with no room or time to operate. Best used to change the angle/direction on passes (see Marner's PP goal off Tavares' touch pass) and as a collapsing attacker on rebounds (see Kadri).

Even though Tavares hasn't had many touches there yet, his play off the puck has resulted in cleaner passes getting through to Matthews as he anticipates the play and ties up sticks or draws attention away.

I should be more specific...I'm noticing this year that the bump pass is a thing they're using to open up the lane a bit.  That's what I was referring to...less of a goal scoring position, more of an "assist" position.  But now that I've said that, Tavares will lead the team in goals scored on the PP from that exact spot.

 

[herman]

I think their PP problem is not so much what happens when they're in the zone, it's getting it started up to begin with. They're both overthinking and being remarkably predictable and that's just a no-no for PPs in general. You can't penetrate the zone standing still.

 

[ZBBM]

I think their PP problem is not so much what happens when they're in the zone, it's getting it started up to begin with. They're both overthinking and being remarkably predictable and that's just a no-no for PPs in general. You can't penetrate the zone standing still.

Well, they def miss Hyman here.  There's no option to dump it in and have Hy-dog fetch it.  So they all have to be William Nylanderlike to skate it in.

 

[herman]

Willy is magic at PP stuff. I bet if we went
Rielly - Nylander - Tavares - Johnsson - Matthews
there'd be lots more fun.

 

[herman]

https://twitter.com/FriedgeHNIC/status/1184132552375844866

 

[Guilt Trip]

I think their PP problem is not so much what happens when they're in the zone, it's getting it started up to begin with. They're both overthinking and being remarkably predictable and that's just a no-no for PPs in general. You can't penetrate the zone standing still.

Well, they def miss Hyman here.  There's no option to dump it in and have Hy-dog fetch it.  So they all have to be William Nylanderlike to skate it in.

They don't miss Hyman on the PP...Hy-dog, lol