Which Wild team will show up in Colorado?
DENVER – The Minnesota Wild will be on the ice Wednesday night, Jan. 23, against Colorado, but which Minnesota team will show up against the Avalanche is anyone’s guess.
The Wild have beaten some of the best in the NHL over the past few weeks but can’t seem to beat the also-rans. Signature road wins have been tempered by head-scratching home losses, and it’s a trend that coach Bruce Boudreau can’t explain.
“You come up with (a reason) and I’ll go to bat with it,” he said Tuesday, Jan. 22.
Even with the up-and-down results, the Wild (25-21-3) are in the thick of the playoff race. Entering Tuesday’s schedule, and coming off an impressive 4-2 win at Vegas on Monday, their 53 points put them third in the Central Division, a point ahead of Colorado.
That win, however, came four days after Anaheim came into the Xcel Energy Center and ended a 12-game losing streak.
Defenseman Ryan Suter said added motivation of teams under .500 is a factor.
“Teams that are below us in the standings are usually more desperate; they have that sense of urgency,” he said Tuesday after a practice at Pepsi Center. “I think we sometimes fall into that trap where we don’t have that sense of urgency, and that’s one thing we’ve been talking about as a team — to make sure no matter who we’re playing against we’re doing the right things and committed to playing the right way.”
Colorado (22-19-8) will likely be a desperate team. Since going 10-1-2 into early December, the Avalanche are 5-12-4, including a six-game winless streak. Their goaltending has been shaky, and scoring outside dynamic top line of Nathan MacKinnon, Mikko Rantanen and Gabriel Landeskog has been scarce.
Minnesota has shown urgency against teams firmly in the playoff hunt. Since early December the Wild have beaten Winnipeg at home and on the road, swept the season series from Montreal – outscoring the Canadiens 8-1 in the process – and beaten Columbus, which is second in the Metropolitan Division.
Mixed in are two losses to Chicago and a home loss to Detroit, two teams last in the Western and Eastern Conferences, respectively, and a loss at Philadelphia.
“Our record is, what, 6-0-1 against (winning) teams and not so much against teams below us. I think coaches scratch their heads all night long wondering about those things,” Boudreau said. “Sometimes we’ve gotten great games with no results. Our goaltending’s been off, but there’s been a multitude of reasons; I just don’t know how to corral it and make sure they play great against every team all the time.”
The 3-0 loss to the Ducks might prove to be a turning point. Minnesota followed that with a 2-1 win over the Blue Jackets on Saturday and Monday’s win in Vegas to improve to 4-0-1 all time against the Golden Knights, last season’s Western Conference champion.
“I’ve felt we’ve had the urgency probably the last five games,” Boudreau said. “Anaheim, we played good in the second but we gave up the game in the first period. You get down 3-0 against that team, it’s tough to fight back. I thought the second and third period we were playing with that urgency.”
The Avalanche have won four of the past five games against the Wild, and nothing would help them more than winning Wednesday and jumping Minnesota in the standings heading into the Wild’s midwinter break. After Wednesday, Minnesota doesn’t play again until Feb. 1 at Dallas.
“You want to go into break on a high and playing well,” Suter said. “They’re going to be coming hard. It’s going to be two teams that really need points.”
The Wild will have former Bemidji State defenseman Brad Hunt, acquired from Vegas on Monday, in the lineup against Colorado. He joined the team at the hotel in Denver on Tuesday.
“He’s been in the NHL for the last three years, so you’ve got an NHL player who can play the point on the power play,” Boudreau said. “If you look at his numbers in 13 games, I think he he’s got 13 points, which is more than our bottom three have combined. It’s a worthwhile gamble.”