Hmph. The 6-0-0 vaunted offense-style Minny Wild are in Anaheim (4-0-2) tonight and in San Jose (6-1-0) tomorrow night. Now I’m not going to go off and say that the Wild hasn’t been a good team this young season, but there’s a lot of Malkinesque hype going for this squad:
- Yeah, they’ve won their first six games, but only twice have they been able to win in regulation. 2 OT wins and 2 SO wins do well to inflate a team’s record.
- Anaheim and San Jose, on the other hand, each have only twice NOT been able to win in regulation.
- Yeah, they’ve got a PP clicking at 27.8%, but you should consider that a large part of this was that they went 5-for-8 against a "wait, the season has started?" Nashville squad, who started the season by killing 3 of their first 10 penalties.
- Anaheim (27.8%) and San Jose (26.9%) are right there with them, at any rate.
- Yeah, they’ve got a perfect road record, but that was only a 2-1 OT win in L.A.
- Anaheim and San Jose have a combined home record of 7-0-2, outscoring opponents 31-16.
- Yeah, they did take 6 of 8 games against the Ducks and Sharks last year (including 2 shootouts).
- Um, not much I can say against this, except that the Sharks and Ducks took both decisions after the Olympic break.
J.S. Giguere 2003 WCF: 4-0, 0.22 GAA, .992 S%, 122 saves on 123 shots, 3 shutouts.At any rate, some high-profile games coming today and tomorrow. Though all three squads have started with fairly easy schedules, the numbers look good: 3 teams, 2 games, 1 regulation loss.