For the first time in NHL history two teams with winning streaks longer than seven games will face off, when the Blue Jackets, winners of 14 straight play the Wild who have won 12 straight. Both teams have been very lucky this season to be in the positions they are, which is why some have dubbed this the
Unsustainabowl. Travis Yost over at TSN
wrote about these two teams to see if they were for real or not. He found that the Jackets, while lucky have been better than the Wild and are more likely to sustain this success. Right now though were not concerned about the rest of the season, just this one game, so here are three keys for the unsustainabowl.
#1 Power Play vs. #5 Penalty Kill
The Jackets continue to lead the league in power play percentage clicking at 28%. The power play has been a big part of the Jackets success. Whenever they have struggled to produce offense at 5 on 5, the power play has always come through with a goal to keep the team in games. The key for the Wild will be staying out of the box, but if they do take a penalty they have strong PK to fall back on. The Wild kill penalties at an 85.6% rate, 5th best in the league. Ryan Suter is the centrepiece of the Wild’s PK. He’s plays the most minutes for the Wild when down a man, he will be tasked with trying to shut down the league’s best power play unit.
Bobrovsky vs. Dubnyk
You don’t win double digit games in a row without a fantastic goaltender and these teams both have that. Devan Dubnyk currently leads the league in save percentage with an incredible .944. He has been in net for 10 of the 12 wins over this streak, and has been very good with a .942 save percentage. He did struggle in his most recent game, in which he allowed four goals on 28 shots versus the Islander.
Sergei Bobrovsky hasn’t quite been on Dubynk’s level, but he is still putting of a Vezina type season. Bobrovsky is second in the league in save percentage at .934. He has been in net for 12 games during this run and has been every bit as good as Dubynk with a .941 save percentage.
Both of these goalies have the ability to take over games and can steal a win for their team, and both have done so this month. What makes both goalies so impressive is how consistently great they are. They infrequently have bad games and when they do they certainly bounce back the next game. Expect this to be a low scoring game.
Tortorella vs. Boudreau
Each coach has a different feeling towards this game. Bruce Boudreau is looking at this as just another game, not getting caught up in the significance of it.
Tortorella has gone in the opposite direction, wanting his players to enjoy this moment.
One of the biggest strengths of each coach this season has been the way they have got value from players the league had essentially cast away. The Wild brought on Eric Staal who had a down year last season for Carolina and was even worse when he was traded to the Rangers. Under Boudreau he’s been rejuvenated and been a revelation for the Wild. He has 30 points in 35 games this season tying for the team lead.
Tortorella has done a great job at optimizing the Blue Jackets roster. Dimitri Filipovic of Sportsnet
wrote a great article on this very subject, focusing in particular on the usage of Sam Gagner. Gagner has been used as a power play specialist. He plays on the fourth line at even strength but on the top power play. Tortorella has been able to hide Gagner’s defensive issues by putting him in a favourable role for his skill set. Gagner has thrived in this role with 25 points in 33 games, 13 of which have come on the power play.
This game gets underway at 6pm tonight at the Xcel Energy Center. One team will get to keep the streak alive while the other will have to start over. Should be fun one.
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