Minnesota Wild: Parise Talks Power Play
Mar 13, 2015; Saint Paul, MN, USA; Minnesota Wild forward
Zach Parise(11) celebrates his goal on Anaheim Ducks goalie
John Gibson(36) during the second period at Xcel Energy Center. Mandatory Credit: Marilyn Indahl-USA TODAY Sports
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The Minnesota Wild have been on fire. The have won a franchise-tying best seven straight road games after struggling for much of the season away from the Xcel Energy Center. They have gone from being in 12th in the Western Conference to finding themselves in the top Wild Card spot in the conference. Devan Dubnyk has gone from second string on a terrible Arizona Coyotes team to a Vezina Award candidate on a playoff contender. All of these great things, and yet…
…the power play has still sucked.
Per Chris Miller of the Minneapolis Star-Tribune, the Wild rank 28th in the NHL in power play percentage and 30th in PP% on the road. Some of that is due to their historically poor start this season but that is only part of the story. In fact, they haven’t popped one with the man advantage away from home since February 1st. Zach Parise is one of the unquestioned leaders on the Wild so it is no surprise he has taken notice. According to the same article from Miller, Parise had this to say about the Wild’s issues:
"“We haven’t practiced it, and the numbers don’t lie. You need your power play to be really good going into the stretch and into the postseason as well. It’s something we can’t ignore. We’d like to get [the puck] up top more. We’re getting jammed down low. Teams are recognizing that and they are collapsing on us. You have to know where your ‘outs’ are when you are in trouble, where you can throw it — sometimes blind. You need to have that familiarity of where the other guy is, and I don’t think we have that right now.”"
For what it’s worth, I don’t think the part about not practicing the power play was a shot at Mike Yeo and the coaching staff. The fact is, the team has played so many games and traveled so much lately they have not had much time to iron things out outside of games. Their saving grace has been their outstanding play at even strength and the play of Dubnyk.
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As for the rest of Parise’s thoughts, they certainly make sense. Getting the “outs”, or point men, involved can help to open everything up. It seems like lately even when the team has had good puck possession during the power play, it is all around the boards and not in prime scoring areas. Somehow, they must find a way to get pucks in front of the net and capitalize from there.
The good news is that I don’t see this in a negative way. In fact, if the team can keep playing this well but add in some power play goals here and there, they could be supremely dangerous in the postseason.