COLUMBUS, Ohio – Here's why Wild coach Bruce Boudreau is committed to tightening up his team's defense.
In the past nine weeks, the Wild has managed to go 21-6-2 despite allowing 2.93 goals per game. The Wild has averaged nearly four goals per game in that stretch to overcome the leaky defense, but the coach worries that output isn't sustainable as teams gear up for the tight-checking playoffs.
Heading into Thursday's 1-0 loss to the Blue Jackets, the Wild had allowed 85 goals in a 29-game stretch after allowing only 60 goals in the season's first 32 games. In the three previous games, the Wild allowed 14.
That's not a recipe for long-term success, and the Wild certainly tightened up Thursday after a Wednesday afternoon extensive video session at the team hotel.
"We're [working] on fine-tuning our game positionally," defenseman Marco Scandella said. "We don't have a lot of practices [the rest of the season], so we're going to have to have to be doing a lot of video and making sure we're really tight. That's our identity, playing good defense, and we're going to have to start bringing that back into our game because we've been allowing too many goals lately."
Boudreau believes the Wild's game has cracked because the condensed schedule has meant little practice time. That will only get worse. The Wild and Blue Jackets each have 16 games in March, so energy will need to be conserved. That means Columbus coach John Tortorella and Boudreau's teaching will mostly have to come through off-ice video.
"I'm going to rely on rest more than practice," Tortorella said. "Being on the ice is not a priority for me right now."
One wonders if players, no longer worried they could be on the move, also will start to play better with the trade deadline in the rearview mirror.
