I wrote an article back in November about how the Wild were doing up until that part and now I am presenting you the update, and it’s not pretty. I will always be a Wild fan but it’s hard, being a Minnesota sports fan in general is hard. While the Wild, as of February 27th, are on a four-game winning streak, it’s been a rocky road to get here. Below are the comparisons of my first article in November, and the stats [https://www.nhl.com/wild/standings/2018/league] today.
November
February
Rank in the league
3rd
16th
Games played
17
64
Wins
11
31
Losses
4
27
Overtime losses
2
6
Points
22
68
Goals for
54
176
Goals against
44
186
Goal differential
+10
-10
Shootout record
0-1
1-2
Looking at the bare bones facts, they still have more wins than losses which is great, but their goal differential dropped 20 points because their goals against is larger than their goals for. They also dropped from third in the league to sixteenth which isn’t unusual considering it was still early in the season when I first reported.
There has been a few (for me, heartbreaking) trades since the last update. In January, Justin Kloos was traded to Anaheim in exchange for Pontus Aberg, Nino Niederreiter was traded to Carolina in exchange for Victor Rask and Ryan Murphy was traded to New Jersey in exchange for Michael Kapla. In February, before the trade deadline, Charlie Coyle was traded to Boston in exchange for Ryan Donato and Mikael Granlund was traded to Nashville in exchange for Ryan Fiala. While some of these trades metaphorically broke my gentle heart, I can understand why things needed to happen and they must’ve done something right because we are on a four-game winning streak.
While being a Minnesota sports fan is hard most of the time, it can still be fun. I look forward to the rest of the season and seeing what the Wild can do with their new players.