The Minnesota Wild’s inability to consistently score goals has forced coach Mike Yeo to switch up the line combinations again.
Yeo is going back to the lineup he used in Minnesota’s win over Buffalo last week.
- Line 1) Nino Neiderreiter, Mikko Koivu, Zach Parise
- Line 2) Jason Pominville, Mikael Granlund, Dany Heatley
- Line 3) Matt Cooke-Kyle Brodziak-Justin Fontaine
- Line 4) Stephane Veilleux-Zenon Konopka-Torrey Mitchell
Minnesota has just five goals in its last four games.
“I think everyone’s all uptight because we haven’t scored a lot lately,” Zach Parise told the Star Tribune after Monday’s practice. “Everyone’s thinking about it. Everyone goes home thinking about it. You get to the rink, and everyone asks you about it. I think we’ve just got to relax a little bit. We’ll be fine.”
On top of the lack of scoring, the Wild’s 73 percent penalty kill ranks 29th in the NHL — a stat that will help kill any team.
Despite that, as Hockey Wilderness points out, the Wild is ranked second in face-off wins percentage, fifth on the power play and they’re the best in the league in average shots against. It doesn’t all add up, but 3-3-3 is the Wild’s record, and beauty stats won’t change that.
Minnesota is back on the ice Tuesday against the Nashville Predators.
Still no official word on who will start in goal, but Josh Harding and his NHL-leading 1.11 goals against average seem like the logical choice. Niklas Backstrom is still recovering from a knee strain, according to the Pioneer Press.
