7-Game Win Streak Proving Wild, Boudreau Meshing Well
ST. PAUL, Minn. (WCCO) – Well, it's a good thing the Minnesota Wild are good.
With every other local team consistently stubbing their toe, the Wild are the toast of the town --- or perhaps our only hope --- having won their last seven games in a row.
WCCO's David McCoy takes a look at why things are going so well.
Well what do you know -- The team known for its midseason swoons the last few years is absolutely killing it right now with new coach Bruce Boudreau. The Wild has won seven in a row and is holding the second-best record in the Western Conference 30 games into the season.
"It's tough to win in this league. So anytime you can put a little streak together, if you want to make the playoffs, you have to have a couple of these things a year," Boudreau said.
Earlier this year, Boudreau said he thought it would take about 30-40 games before the Wild would fully grasp his new system. So is this seven-game winning streak evidence perhaps that they're ahead of schedule?
"We're playing well within our structure, and the stuff that we've kind of switched up that Bruce has brought in within our structure, yeah, you get more reps out of it in practice, more games under your belt, more experience with it, it just comes natural and you play it better and it's more fluid," Charlie Coyle said. "And you don't have to think as much with it, you just play."
"I think they're getting it. They're understanding me and where I'm coming from in a lot of the things in what we're trying to do," Boudreau said. "The biggest thing sometimes is if you do something one way for so long, is believing that something else can work as well."
What's interesting is that an offensive-minded coach has been doing it largely defensively. The Wild lead the Western Conference in goal differential, largely because they're allowing nearly half a goal per game less than the next closest team.
The team record for a win streak is nine straight -- two more wins away.
