Dan Wallace: Atlantic Division Trip Begins with Matinee in TO

Dan Wallace: Atlantic Division Trip Begins with Matinee in TO
- Dan Wallace

No running the goalie, OK?

I don't want to have to play the third period.

They are getting plenty of scoring opportunities, but struggling to finish.
- Dan Wallace

This has been the status quo tale for this squad for years now... Nothing new and nothing will change until Fenton starts blowing this team up.

Go Leafs!!!

So a big part of the Wild's ineffectiveness is that they just cannot put the puck in the net. Shooting has not been the problem, but scoring is. I know that everyone (or at least a lot of Wild fans) have been clamoring for Kloos to get called up, me included. So I decided to take a look at what the Wild have in Iowa and who can help. The 2 most commonly named guys everyone wants up (as a forward) has been Kloos and Kyle Rau, but I am not so sure they would be of help...at least looking at it statistically. I looked at who are the sharp-shooters in Iowa to come up with this...and what I found is kind of funny, and kind of scary at the same time. What I looked at was who was scoring with the chances they got. I left out guys like Wil Biten, as he is a LOOOOOONG way from playing in the NHL, and Mason Shaw (who is 3rd in scoring for the Wild) who only has 3 goals to go along with 18 assists.

Gerry Fitzgerald - a staggering goal on every 4.8 chances
Matt Read - goal in every 5.6 chances
Gerald Mayhew & Colton Beck - a goal in every 6.5 chances
Dmitry Sokolov - goal in every 6.9 chances
Cal O'Reilly - goal in every 7 chances
Justin Kloos - goal in every 10.1 chances
Kyle Rau - goal in every 12.2 chances

Now, I don't believe any of these players have the realistic chance of being a 20 goal scorer in the NHL (besides maybe Sokolov), but if the Wild can't score, why not give them a chance? I think we all have seen what Read can do, so I drop him from here. Both Mayhew and Beck have been around a few years and I tend to think they are scoring more, since Iowa is a better team then they have been in recent years. So that makes me look at Fitzgerald and Sokolov...2 rookies to the AHL. SO it's 2 AHL rookies that appear to be the best choices for helping the Wild in the scoring department.

YESSSSS!!!!!! Now that's WILD hockey!!!! Great start

@Gus, you also have to look at shooting percentage and volume of shots. You don't want a guy who is a low volume shooter with a high percentage of goals being called up, because they always regress to the mean average of around 10%. Kloos is a volume shooter and has speed to burn. No one on the wild seems to want to shoot the puck these days? It would be refreshing to have a player who shoots 4-6 times a game instead of 2 or 3. Just my two cents...

Figures, they beat one of the best young teams in the East... Don't get me wrong, i want them to win, but it seems like the more they keep winning, the less likely Fenton is going to make some moves...

The writing should be scrawled all over the walls in BOLD NEON paint that this roster is NEVER going to win in the post season...

@Gus, you also have to look at shooting percentage and volume of shots. You don't want a guy who is a low volume shooter with a high percentage of goals being called up, because they always regress to the mean average of around 10%. Kloos is a volume shooter and has speed to burn. No one on the wild seems to want to shoot the puck these days? It would be refreshing to have a player who shoots 4-6 times a game instead of 2 or 3. Just my two cents...
- mnhockeyguy

I'm glad you brought that up. Because that gives the case for Kloos and Rau. From those 8 players I listed, Rau and Kloos are numbers 1 & 2, at 3.03 and 2.89 shots per game. The 3rd best is Sokolov, at 2.44...which is not a surprise given his history as a shooter. The worst? O'Reilly at 1.40 and Fitzgerald at 1.71...but only Rau, Kloos and Sokolov are over 2 shots a game. Of course, I don't believe this includes shots that miss the net, but the Wild already have an entire roster of those kind of shooters.

So, from looking at these numbers, Fitzgerald should stay in Iowa. His 12 goals in 34 games probably are a little skewed, but he is 3 for 6 in the shootouts as well. So I tend to think that there just might be something there (is also the best +/- forward on the team at +12). The thing I am seeing here is that Sokolov is Top 3 in both categories. Should they bring him up now? No, he needs to learn to play the entire game, not just score. But bringing up Kloos or Rau, they only should be getting 4th line playing time, maybe 3rd line in a pinch. We have all seen over the last couple of years what guys like Chris Stewart and Jordan Schroeder brought to the team when moved up on lines...and that was not much.

I should have prefaced this all with the idea that I was looking for internal help for the Wild in scoring...and there really isn't any. The only player in Iowa right now that could be of help, if you look at percentages (and only percentages), is JEE. He is now sitting on 4 goals in 3 games, with 13 shots. That hits that # of 4-6. They just have to figure out how to make the game he is playing in Iowa translate to the NHL.

YESSSSS!!!!!! Now that's WILD hockey!!!! Great start
- MnGump

And yet they still won Gump. Haven't you caught on the Wild's game plan of letting the other team score first, which the Wild executed to perfection to start the game, then come back and win?

Figures, they beat one of the best young teams in the East... Don't get me wrong, i want them to win, but it seems like the more they keep winning, the less likely Fenton is going to make some moves...

The writing should be scrawled all over the walls in BOLD NEON paint that this roster is NEVER going to win in the post season...
- MnGump

I think Fenton IS ready to make a move, but who? Spurgeon is needed now since Dumba is out. Nino and Coyle haven't increased their values...even Staal hasn't made himself that attractive of a trade asset. What the Wild need is for someone like Coyle to play (and score) like he did yesterday for about a 2-3 week stretch, then he becomes a valuable trade asset. And I really haven't heard any rumors of ANYONE wanting to take on Nino.

I think Fenton IS ready to make a move, but who? Spurgeon is needed now since Dumba is out. Nino and Coyle haven't increased their values...even Staal hasn't made himself that attractive of a trade asset. What the Wild need is for someone like Coyle to play (and score) like he did yesterday for about a 2-3 week stretch, then he becomes a valuable trade asset. And I really haven't heard any rumors of ANYONE wanting to take on Nino.
- Gusrichards

I wonder though, why it has to be a top return for someone like Nino for instance. I would be more than happy if Fenton rolled the dice and say, traded Nino straight up for Nylander, if the Leafs were willing to make that trade? Both have big salaries and both are struggling this year. Those are usually the types of trades that end up working out for both teams. For instance Domi for Galchenyuk. Albeit Galchenyuk has been hurt, but when he's played, he's played well for Arizona. And Domi has been good for Montreal.

I'm glad you brought that up. Because that gives the case for Kloos and Rau. From those 8 players I listed, Rau and Kloos are numbers 1 & 2, at 3.03 and 2.89 shots per game. The 3rd best is Sokolov, at 2.44...which is not a surprise given his history as a shooter. The worst? O'Reilly at 1.40 and Fitzgerald at 1.71...but only Rau, Kloos and Sokolov are over 2 shots a game. Of course, I don't believe this includes shots that miss the net, but the Wild already have an entire roster of those kind of shooters.

So, from looking at these numbers, Fitzgerald should stay in Iowa. His 12 goals in 34 games probably are a little skewed, but he is 3 for 6 in the shootouts as well. So I tend to think that there just might be something there (is also the best +/- forward on the team at +12). The thing I am seeing here is that Sokolov is Top 3 in both categories. Should they bring him up now? No, he needs to learn to play the entire game, not just score. But bringing up Kloos or Rau, they only should be getting 4th line playing time, maybe 3rd line in a pinch. We have all seen over the last couple of years what guys like Chris Stewart and Jordan Schroeder brought to the team when moved up on lines...and that was not much.

I should have prefaced this all with the idea that I was looking for internal help for the Wild in scoring...and there really isn't any. The only player in Iowa right now that could be of help, if you look at percentages (and only percentages), is JEE. He is now sitting on 4 goals in 3 games, with 13 shots. That hits that # of 4-6. They just have to figure out how to make the game he is playing in Iowa translate to the NHL.
- Gusrichards

That's where I really wish they would give Kloos a fair shot on a good line here. In camp, he very obviously outplayed both EK and Greenway. He was all over the ice and he scored. He was apparently hungry to make the team. Neither Ek or Greenway had overly good camps in my humble estimation. Give the hungry guy playing with a chip on his shoulder a chance to showcase what he has. When it comes to Sokolov, I would say let him come up and score. Many of the snipers in the game are not fantastic two way players... we need a pure goal scorer and perhaps he is it?