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The\u00a0Minnesota Wild\u00a0(8-7-4) is back on home ice tonight to host the\u00a0Vegas Golden Knights\u00a0(8-4-5).\u00a0\u00a0The Wild will be without forward Vladimir Tarasenko for the second straight game.<\/p>\n
Tarasenko, 33, has two goals and ten points in 18 games this year for the Wild.\u00a0He missed Saturday’s game against the Anaheim Ducks\u00a0with a lower-body injury and will not play again on Sunday.<\/p>\n
Wild head coach John Hynes said after the game that Tarasenko’s status will be day-to-day.<\/p>\n
The Minnesota Wild have started to find the right track in terms of both finding their game and getting the win. While they still have consistency issues and other problems that need fixing as the season goes on, they are heading in the right direction, and they just finished their 20th game.\u00a0<\/p>\n
They recently strung together two big\u00a0wins over tough teams,\u00a0with the first being the Anaheim Ducks, who have had a strong start to their season, and the second team\u00a0was the Vegas Golden Knights, who\u2019ve always been a tough opponent for the Wild. In this article, we\u2019ll look at how the team has done in their first 20 games, with a couple of good items, and then what needs fixing, starting with finding their game.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Anyone who\u2019s been following the Wild this season knows they had a rough start and truly struggled to find not only wins but their game. In the past, they\u2019ve been a team that\u2019s\u00a0always had an identity\u00a0pretty early on, and they worked hard to fit that style. This season, they seemed lost and unsure of what they wanted to play to which made finding wins harder than it should\u2019ve been.\u00a0<\/p>\n
This team has the talent, everyone knows that, and they know it, but finding a way to put that talent together in a winning way eluded them, at least in the beginning. In their game against the Golden Knights, they finally showed some of that identity everyone has been waiting to see. The crowd picked up on it, too, and let them know it with very loud cheers.\u00a0<\/p>\n
They figured out how to incorporate everything into their game, from physicality to speed to making the simple plays. While it wasn\u2019t a complete all-around game, it was closer to it than they had been in the past. Hopefully, they can use that game to build on and keep improving their identity until it\u2019s fully there, consistently.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Filip Gustavsson\u00a0is still firmly in the number one slot; however, he has some competition in\u00a0Jesper Wallstedt, who has really solidified his game alongside his teammates. He had a bit of a struggle early in the season, but he was still transitioning to the NHL, and although he\u2019s still adjusting, he\u2019s made big strides. He\u2019s done very well managing any nerves and being someone the team can rely on.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The other thing that\u2019s important to note is that his being strong in net makes his tandem partner, Gustavsson, better. The better one plays, the more the other strives to be better as well, and it creates a healthy level of competition that\u2019s good for all involved. Gustavsson\u2019s game hasn\u2019t quite reached its strongest point yet, but it\u2019s getting there, and having Wallstedt along can only help.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cYeah, that\u2019s a good goalie relationship. If he (Wallstedt) were to play bad, like he screws around, it\u2019s not good for me, no, I like when he plays good because then I have to\u2026\u00a0perform as well, otherwise\u00a0I\u2019m not getting as much playing time, so it\u2019s good. We\u2019re battling against each other and we\u2019re really pushing each other and that\u2019s what a good goalie tandem do(es),\u201d said Gustavsson after the team\u2019s win over the Golden Knights when asked if he feels pressure about how good Wallstedt is playing.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The list is a bit shorter than when the season started, but there are still a high number of things the Wild need to fix in their game if they expect to keep winning games. As\u00a0Marcus Foligno said after\u00a0their win over the Golden Knights, their \u201cOctober\u201d game is still showing, and it can\u2019t continue to do that.\u00a0<\/p>\n
They have to find a way to first fix their consistency issues, which is a constant battle with almost every team. They can play very strongly for short periods, and then they somehow lose it, and that\u2019s when the mistakes happen. It\u2019s probably the hardest part of their game to figure out, but somehow they\u2019ve done it in the past, and they can do it again.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The other items are typical; the special teams need help, their faceoffs need work, their turnovers need to stop, etc. However, while the list is still long, it\u2019s getting shorter, and they are aware of all the things they have to do to be better. They\u2019ve found a way to start winning games despite some of these issues still being present, and the more they improve these items, the more wins they\u2019ll get.\u00a0<\/p>\n
They still have 62 games left of the season, and that\u2019s quite a few games to get these things right. They won\u2019t fix everything, they\u2019re going to make mistakes, but as long as they learn from them and don\u2019t keep making them over and over, things will be fine. They can still get this season headed in the right direction and continue to move up the standings.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The\u00a0Minnesota Wild\u00a0(8-7-4) is back on home ice tonight to host the\u00a0Vegas Golden Knights\u00a0(8-4-5).\u00a0\u00a0The Wild will be without forward Vladimir Tarasenko for the second straight game. Tarasenko, 33, has two goals and ten…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":17027,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-17028","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-hot-news"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t