After 20 of 82 games, the Minnesota Wild are in trouble. The team sits last in their division and 14th out of 15 teams in the Western Conference with seven wins and 16 points.
The franchise will be broken up into forwards, defensemen, goalies, player development, coaching, and front office management and analyzed and assigned a letter grade at this point in the season.
Forwards D+
Todd Richards' new system is very dependent on forwards getting deep into the zone and pressuring opposing teams into mistakes. There have been few occasions this season where Wild forwards have been able to effective accomplish this effectively.
Richards' style is not the issue, the Wild seem to be able to effectively play this way against tired or flat opponents. There are signs of hope, but when the only positives are coming when opponents aren't at their best, it's generally a sign of a lack of talent.
The Wild rank third from the bottom in the West in goals for and only Mikko Koivu, Andrew Brunette, and Eric Belanger have a higher points-per-game ratio than their post-lockout career numbers.
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Read Full Article at Bleacher Report - NHL
Article written by Austin Lindberg
Minnesota Wild Quarter-Term Grades
November 16th, 2009 by Austin Lindberg Leave a reply »
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