It’s almost the end of November, and the Wild have had a great start to their season. They have a record of 13-3-4, with their recent loss coming on the road in a shootout against the Calgary Flames. Most of their success has come from scoring while 5-on-5, which they’ve struggled with in previous seasons.
Their power play started hot and went cold quickly, but it has rebounded. In this article, we’ll look at how their power play started, why it went cold, and how they hopefully got it started again. We’ll start with how they were successful at the beginning of the season.
Wild’s Man Advantage Looked Promising
At the start of the season, the Wild scored nearly a goal in a game on the power play. They even managed two power-play goals in one game, one of which was Filip Gustavsson’s goalie goal against the St. Louis Blues. They succeeded because they tried something different; they passed quicker and took faster shots.
In previous seasons, the Wild liked to pass the puck nearly the whole time on the man advantage and wouldn’t get many clean shots. They’re passing more this season and changing positions rather than staying stationary. They also have their defense getting more involved in the play and stepping up to take shots.
These changes made a difference in the Wild’s man advantage and how they were so strong at the beginning of the season. They also had a higher confidence level that they could and would score on the power play rather than being hesitant.
Wild’s Power Play Went Cold
Sometimes, teams have one bad game where they can’t produce on the man advantage, and then it turns into a streak because they can’t figure out what’s wrong. That happened to the Wild this season. They started not producing in one game and couldn’t get back on track for a few games straight.
They struggled to score on their power play chances mainly because they fell back into bad habits. They held the puck too long without moving around, and the opposing defense had all the time they needed to set up and block any shots the Wild attempted.
However, out of three chances against the Flames, Brock Faber finally found the back of the net on one of them. It took until their third and final chance on the man advantage to score, but they broke through and will hopefully look to build off of that to get out of this funk their power play has been in.
Wild Need Their Power Play
The Wild were one of those teams that figured out how to win games without scoring on the power play, but it’s affected their game recently. While they did find a way to score on the man advantage against the Flames, if they had found a way to do so on all three of their chances, or at least two, the game could’ve ended in their favor instead of the Flames.
With the amount of talent in the Wild’s top power-play unit in the likes of Kirill Kaprizov, Joel Eriksson Ek, Matt Boldy, and others, they should be scoring at least once per game on the power-play. They proved early on that they can meet those expectations and must find a way back to that success.
Related: Wild’s Filip Gustavsson Has Cemented Himself as Team’s No. 1 Goalie
They can ensure more power play success by returning to their original game from the beginning of the season. They should take more shots from the point, move the puck quicker, and change positions consistently; consistently moving around makes it hard for the opposition to defend and score more goals.
Wild Can Find Their Way Back
The Wild have shown they can succeed on the power play and come back from behind. They haven’t had to do that too much this season, but they’ve now proven they can do both. While they didn’t beat the Flames, they came back and got a point, which they couldn’t have done without their power-play goal. Hopefully, that lone goal on the man advantage is enough to spark more, and they can get back to scoring consistently and winning games on the power play.
