The Wild continue to space this aggressively Fehr flips his stick into that outside lane, Pateryn pinches up behind David Perron, and Foligno is still right by O’Reilly, and even in a position to intercept a pass to Zach Sanford (to his right). That takes away that central pass to O’Reilly (a breakout the Blues particularly like) and it funnels Jay Bouwmeester up the boards.
The Wild are playing this very aggressively, with Marcus Foligno pressing on Ryan O’Reilly in the neutral zone, and Fehr also in the vicinity, stick in that passing lane. The Blues are breaking this puck up ice, regrouping after having just dumped it in deep and forechecked Minnesota into flipping it back into the neutral zone. Let’s start by setting the scene here, which is the Blues’ top defensive pairing and top line out against the Wild’s third defensive pairing and fourth line late in the period chasing a one-goal deficit. Not only does Fehr do a good job, but his linemate Brown provides puck support up the wall, getting to a spot to help when the puck gets chipped up the wall and get it out of the zone.Īnd this may seem minor, but it’s an important moment in the game, right after scoring and extending your lead and keeping momentum.Īnother big moment came later in the period, when the Blues were able to cut into that deficit, making it 2-1 courtesy a power-play goal. Fehr can use his reach to control the puck, while forcing Thomas to play through the body (a battle that Fehr is pretty much always going to win). It creates separation between the forechecker and the puck, with Fehr engaging Thomas physically. Another thing Fehr does very well here is pump the breaks at the goal line. Ryan Suter presses up when this puck moves through the neutral zone, trusting that Fehr will slide in and stay with the forward, even if the puck gets beyond Suter.Īnd Fehr, in a good defensive position this entire sequence, beat Thomas to the puck below the goal line (no small feat). That’s important because it allows Minnesota to be aggressive at other levels. But going stride-for-stride with him was Fehr. Robert Thomas, probably the fastest skater on either team that night, circles in the neutral zone before getting north, a set play. The Blues win that ensuing faceoff and move the puck around, attempting to get set to advance the play forward. So this is a really important shift: You’ve just taken a 2-0 lead on the road, in the first period, and the head coach immediately throws out the fourth line (probably a nod to Boudreau’s confidence in that group to go out and not take the wind out of Minnesota’s sails). Of course, both of those goals came with the third pairing of Seeler and Pateryn on the ice, but the goals themselves were really simple: Get the puck back to the blue line, bodies in front, and throw it on net. The sequence shown in the pictures below came right after the Wild took a 2-0 lead against the Blues last week. When they chip in, it’s a fantastic bonus, but when they can control play a bit over stretches of the schedule (that eight-game rolling is nearly 10 percent of the season’s games) that’s a nice win.Īnd you don’t sustain over those types of stretches without doing a bunch of things well, which this group has been doing. So the numbers bear out that this group has been more than treading water, because again, the scoring explosion against the Blues was nice, but that’s not the segment of the lineup you’re going to lean on for scoring. The Wild’s depth - a definite Achilles heel at times over the past few seasons - has been doing its job and then some over the past few weeks though, giving Minnesota dependable minutes. Chip in offensively here and there, come out none worse for wear during your time on ice, and that probably checks most of the boxes in the “do your job” column. At the bare minimum, it feels like the break-even point is not to bleed goals or shots at 5-on-5. It’s open to interpretation what makes a third defensive pairing or fourth line effective. Even if it didn’t result in three-goal nights. While head coach Bruce Boudreau has been citing the Predators game as a turning point for Minnesota, it was two games later against the Dallas Stars that the Wild’s depth really started to pick up its level. So yes, on nights like those it’s very easy to sing the praises of your depth skaters, but for Minnesota that group had been slowly turning around its play over the past two weeks.
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