The plan, way back last week when everyone in the NHL was 0-0, was for a youth movement to supplement quality established players as the Wild tried to take another step forward after last year's franchise-record 113-point season.
After three games, panicked Wild has replaced planning with hoping
20 goals allowed and an 0-3 start have the team searching for answers and hoping better puck luck is the key.
October 18, 2022 at 3:09PM
The plan was for a completely different goaltending tandem than the one which started last season — led by three-time Stanley Cup champion and likely future Hall of Famer Marc-Andre Fleury — to give the Wild not just steady play but the chance to make a deep postseason run.
The plan, perhaps, was to continue to play an aggressive style while also conceding that without Kevin Fiala anchoring a scoring line there might be the need to win more games 3-2 instead of 5-4.
And now, three games into an 82-game season, the plan is already showing major cracks.
It has been replaced with panic in some cases — benching promising young center Marco Rossi on Monday, the third game of the year.
It has been replaced by mere hope in others, with head coach Dean Evason asserting after Monday's 6-3 loss to Colorado that puck luck was a key factor in the latest defeat.
"We played a very strong game. We did so many really good things in that hockey game," Evason said. "Funky bounces did not go our way. ... We have to believe those bounces aren't going to continue to go that way."
Even if there is a morsel of truth to the idea of luck turning around, and even if three losses (albeit at home) are a miniscule sample size, that's a tough message to deliver.
Somehow, a team that won 53 games last year has been reduced to moral victories already this season — something I talked about on Tuesday's Daily Delivery podcast.
No, the Wild will not continue to give up a touchdown every game. And yes, if you look at "expected goals" the Wild should be a little ahead on the ledger instead of eight tallies behind.
But if Fleury and Filip Gustavsson continue to flounder, even to a lesser degree, that's troublesome.
And Rossi's ice time going from 10:24 in the opener to 4:33 in the second game to 0:00 in the third is concerning. If he's not ready, why is he here? If he is ready — which seems more likely — why isn't he playing?
If navigating the seasons during which the buyouts of Zach Parise and Ryan Suter weigh heavily on the salary cap proves to be a major challenge instead of a minor nuisance, even bigger problems could lie ahead.
But that's getting ahead of ourselves. For now, it's just three games. We'll see if the Wild can get the plan back on track.
Until then, there's always puck luck.
When he was hired after the disastrous 2016 season to reshape the Twins, Derek Falvey brought a reputation for identifying and developing pitching talent. It took a while, but the pipeline we were promised is now materializing.
