Seems like Minnesota has played in the league for a thousand years, and every year they play the same style- very tough defensively, shutting down the neutral zone, but the offensive game is wearing a restrictor plate.   Since 2000, the Wild have had a scorer in the top 40 only four times- Gaborik twice, Brunette, and Rolston.  Several of those years they don’t have anyone in the top fifty.  This is a team that doesn’t care about offense.

Since we’ve now seen the new high-flying high-scoring Sharks, I feel like we match up even better against the Wild than in past years.  Believe it or not, but the Sharks have already faced one of the stingier defenses in the NHL- Tampa.  That’s right- the Lightning have allowed only 24 goals in 10 games, and the Wild have allowed only 22 in 10.  If we can hang three on the Lightning, we can hang three on the Wild.

The pitfall with the decidedly non-wild “Wild” system is the opposition would get frustrated with all the traffic in the neutral zone and take stupid chances in order to create a rush.  Then Minnesota could capitalize with chances the other way.  But with the patient way in which the Sharks dispatched Detroit and Pittsburgh, I doubt that will happen.  I’m predicting a big win here – the Sharks by three or more.