With the Minnesota Wild’s 3-2 win over the rival Chicago Blackhawks last night, the Wild moved into sole possession of the top spot in the Central Division. It’s a mere formality for Minnesota, who have four games in hand on Chicago and have held a games lead for much of the season in the battle atop the Central. With 61 points, two more than the Blackhawks and now ten more than the third-place St. Louis Blues, Minnesota is in control of the division.
The win in Chicago last night also extended the team’s road point streak to a club-record 12 games (10-0-2), tying the mark set in 2014-15 when they won 12 straight. With their next road game coming against the underwhelming Dallas Stars next week, it seems likely that they’ll set a new team record in the near future. Before that though, Minnesota has a strong chance to continue it’s winning ways as it squares off against NHL bottom dwellers New Jersey and Arizona in it’s next two games to kick off a four-game home stand. The Wild have lost just one game in regulation since the beginning of December, their highly-publicized game against the then East-leading Columbus Blue Jackets, and have only three losses total in that span (17-1-2), asserting their dominance around the league.
With the league’s second-best goals against, 2.1 per game, and fourth-best goals for, 3.3 per game, and much success on special teams to boot, there is little doubt that the Wild have joined the elite of the NHL. There’s no question that Minnesota is headed to the playoffs this season, even with half a season yet to be played, but it’s likely that they’ll be much higher than their 8th-seed finish from 2015-16. Their next big challenge will be to find the same success in the postseason as they have this regular season.
- After last night’s win, the Wild also improved their team goal differential to +46, tied with Columbus for the best in the NHL. A lot of this success, especially in the lack of goals against department, is due to the performance of goalie Devan Dubnyk, who has fairly received a lot of praise from many throughout the hockey world. Dubnyk leads the league in both save percentage, .940, and goals against average, 1.78, and has tallied 23 wins as well, second only to the Blue Jacket’s Sergei Bobrovsky. Dubnyk was denied the Vezina Trophy as best goalie in the NHL in 2013-14, when he first arrived in Minnesota, despite similarly impressive numbers. However, with an even more impressive performance so far in 2016-17, as well as great success for his team, Dubnyk should have the Vezina wrapped up this season barring a major collapse or earth-shattering play by Bobrovsky, Braden Holtby, or Tuukka Rask.
- Missing out on some of the fun in Minnesota has been Kurtis Gabriel, who recently has been passed back and forth between the Wild and the AHL’s Iowa Wild a few different times. The team announced today that, yet again, the gritty energy liner has been demoted. Until Gabriel can provide some offensive contribution, it will be difficult to secure a full-time role with Minnesota.