The Minnesota Wild are not good at overtime this season. The team has played in four extra periods and lost all four. Their strategy needs some work if they think they can escape the Central Division basement. Their issues with overtime stretch back to last season and have given the Wild eight losses in their past nine contests.
Minnesota Wild Need Help in Overtime
It is difficult to draw conclusions from four games but the team has just four shots in their four overtime games this year. That won’t do in a league built around Corsi and putting pucks on net. Minnesota shoots approximately 49 percent of all shots at 5-on-5 so their possession game is not especially strong at any point during a game.
The easiest thing to adjust is personnel. Eric Staal leads the team in 3-on-3 ice time but has the worst Corsi For Percentage of any Wild forward. Conversely, Jordan Greenway has the fewest 3-on-3 minutes with one of the best Corsi For Percentages. Flipping those two is an obvious move even if they play slightly different roles.
The best players to pair with Greenway would be Luke Kunin and Jonas Brodin. Natural Stat Trick records that trio as having a Corsi For of 66.67 when tied at even-strength. Not all even-strength deployments translate to overtime but any group taking two-thirds of shots is worth using. The coaching staff must make more of an effort to use the younger skaters. There is very little point in relying on slower veterans when overtime is a speed and maneuverability contest.
However, overtime struggles are not entirely because of who is skating the most. The goaltending duo of Devan Dubnyk and Alex Stalock has been average at best but the only way to change things in the net is to trade or waive one of them. Minnesota has more issues than just overtime but this is one area where even a slight improvement could net a few more points via wins.
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