Wild Blog: Wild Acquire Goaltender, Still A Lot Of Work To Do
By Craig D. Schroepfer, WCCO Radio
On Jan. 2, the Minnesota Wild defeated the Toronto Maple Leafs by a score of 3-1. The hope at the time was that winning the first game in 2015 would be a springboard to another playoff berth much like last year, when Minnesota defeated Buffalo in their first game of 2014.
Instead, the Wild have lost six-straight games and find themselves eight points out from the final playoff spot.
With the season slipping away, something needed to be done. The first step was taken Wednesday to fix the problem as Minnesota acquired goaltender Devan Dubnyk from the Arizona Coyotes for a third-round draft pick in 2015.
With the Coyotes this season, Dubnyk is 9-5-2 with a .916 save percentage and 2.72 goals-against average. In six NHL seasons with Edmonton, Nashville and Phoenix, Dubnyk has a record of 70-82-24 with a save percentage of .910 and a GAA of 2.88.
While Dubnyk's career numbers look less than impressive, the fact is there weren't many good options on the goaltending market. With Josh Harding unlikely to return, Darcy Kuemper hurt and Nicklas Backstrom being unable to stop giving up rebounds, something needed to be done. The hope is that Dubnyk can do what Ilya Bryzgalov did when he joined the Wild late last season and give the team some stability in net.
That being said, the acquisition of Dubnyk doesn't address the biggest issue facing this team -- lack of defensive awareness. Look at the goals scored against Minnesota recently. A majority of the goals have come due to either a bad turnover or a player losing track of his man in the offensive zone.
Last year on defense, Minnesota had a plus/minus rating of plus 9 along with a GAA of 2.42. This season so far the Wild are minus 16 in plus/minus and have a GAA of 3.02. The defense has been so bad this year that Ryan Suter is minus 22 over his last 20 games and currently a minus 9 on the season. This is a player who over his career has a plus/minus rating is plus 43.
Suter averages nearly thirty minutes of ice time each game. When he struggles, the team struggles and right now Suter is struggling bad.
The next thing General Manager Chuck Fletcher needs to do is find another defenseman, one that can add depth to the blue line and help alleviate Suter's minutes on the ice.
Getting Dubnyk should help the Wild sort out their goaltending situation in the interim, but unless they get better play from the blue line, it won't be enough to save the season.
Minnesota's next game is Thursday night against the worst team in the NHL, the Buffalo Sabres. Last year, a win over the Sabres started a winning streak that helped the Wild make the playoffs. With the team sitting eight points out of a playoff spot, time is running out to turn things around.
Wild fans can only hope history repeats itself.
Follow Craig D. Schroepfer on Twitter at @CDSWCCO.
