SCHAD: Power Play Woes Overshadow Early Success For Wild

Written by Chris Schad

The Minnesota Wild finished their 24th game of the season on Wednesday night when they defeated the Montreal Canadiens 2-1 at Xcel Energy Center. As it stands, the Wild find themselves in ninth place in the loaded Western Conference and a point behind the Winnipeg Jets for the final wild card spot.

With seven wins in their past ten games and games in hand on virtually every team ahead of them in the standings, perhaps Wild fans should feel comfortable about their position in early December. However, as the game unfolded, the home fans unleashed a flurry of boos toward the ice as Minnesota trudged toward the victory.

Why? The power play.

For an arena that is named after a local electricity company, the lamps behind the nets haven’t been lit when the Wild have had the man advantage. After an 0-for-5 effort against Montreal, Minnesota has gone 7 for 78 (8.97%) on the power play, which is good for 29th in the NHL ahead of the lowly Buffalo Sabres.

Despite the struggles, forward Zach Parise defended the team after the loss. “We won the game.” he said. “I mean, you want us to score four power play goals and lose? We won the game. We beat arguably the best team in the Eastern Conference and that’s the most important thing.”

Jason Pominville, who scored his fifth goal of the season in the victory, (and second in his last 17 games), echoed those sentiments when talking about a failed five-minute power play in the third period saying that the Wild “didn’t get much” but also “didn’t give much” while eating up five minutes of the third period with a 2-0 lead.

Despite all the positive thinking, the power play struggles remain the giant elephant in the room. A season ago, the Wild advanced to the Western Conference semifinals thanks to a power play unit that converted 17 percent of their chances (16th in the NHL). That was supposed to improve with the addition of Thomas Vanek (who has two goals through 24 games) and the continued improvement of youngsters such as Charlie Coyle (two goals), Erik Haula (two goals) and Mikael Granlund (three goals).

For all of the struggles, there is good news when it comes to the rest of the Central Division. Only the St. Louis Blues and Chicago Blackhawks sit above the league power play percentage of 18.64% and that’s helped the Wild maintain a 6-0-1 record against their divisional foes.

Chris Schad contributes to 105 The Ticket and has had his work featured on the Bleacher Report and Yahoo Contributor Network. He serves as the Vikings Lead Writerfor Pro Football Spot. Find him on Twitter @crishad.