The Wild's bread and butter is defense. As coach Mike Yeo said last week, "That's our game, that's who we are."
That's why, with two work days before the Wild plays host to the reeling Columbus Blue Jackets on Thursday night, you can bet it will concentrate mostly on defensive-zone play this week, even though the Wild scored only two goals in consecutive California losses.
The Wild has allowed 15 goals in five games, 13 in four starts by goalie Devan Dubnyk. That is atypical of a team considered by many as one of the NHL's most structured. Last season, the Wild ranked sixth in goals against and fourth in shots against. From 2011-15 under Yeo, the Wild ranked ninth in goals against and sixth in shots against.
But the first three goals allowed during a 4-1 loss Sunday at Anaheim came because the Thomas Vanek-Charlie Coyle-Justin Fontaine line collectively had as tough a night as you can imagine. The line allowed the Ducks to fly into the Wild zone with speed, and then inside the zone, there was constant miscommunication (or as Coyle said after the game, no communication) and soft play.
Two other concerns, even though it's early in the season, are the play of Dubnyk and 21-year-old defenseman Matt Dumba.
Dubnyk is 3-1 with a 3.07 goals-against average (39th in the NHL) and .887 save percentage (43rd in the NHL). He has allowed three or more goals three times in four games after allowing three or more 10 times in 39 Wild starts last season.
Yeo said after Thursday's win at Arizona there hasn't been "perfection" with Dubnyk yet. But he was hardly blaming him for Sunday's loss.
Anaheim's first goal deflected off Coyle after the Wild allowed a wide-open point shot and was bunched up in the slot. Anaheim's second goal was redirected by Richard Rakell after the Wild allowed a wide-open point shot (Coyle and Fontaine got fouled up on both goals). And, Anaheim's third goal came off a rebound after Vanek inexplicably curled away from Shawn Horcoff in the slot.
But after Dubnyk's second-half run of brilliance last season (27-9-2 with a 1.78 goals-against average and .936 save percentage), it's out of the ordinary to see him look so mortal. He seemed to be fighting the puck in recent games at Colorado and Arizona.
"I told myself going into the year, I'm sure if it's not great, there's always going to be questions with how good it was last year," Dubnyk said. "After four games [with the Wild] last year, my save percentage was 80 percent, too (.896). It's a long year, and the most important thing is wins.
"I've felt better about my game in each game. [Sunday] was kind of a wash with how I felt about my game. There just wasn't a lot to go off. The goals were going to go in the net just the way the situations happened. I'm just going to continue to build. You just have to see different situations. I haven't had a ton of work, but we're in a good spot as far as wins and losses. I'll just keep working in practices and games to get to another level."
Dumba, after a strong rookie year, has one assist in five games and is minus-2. He has been erratic defensively and Sunday was finally split from Jonas Brodin. He skated with Marco Scandella, and the two were minus-2.
"I thought his first period was a real struggle and I thought he picked it up as the game went on," Yeo said of Dumba. "Early in the game it was similar to the season that he's had just being a little bit careless and very easygoing with the puck, and I thought as the game wore on, he started to play the game the way that we need him to."
So far, the Wild has resisted reuniting defense partners from yesteryear — Ryan Suter and Brodin and Scandella and Jared Spurgeon — because the Wild might then have a third pair it doesn't trust to roll out regularly. But if the Wild's blue line has a whole continues to be inconsistent, the Wild might have to consider this route.
Yeo felt the 3-1-1 Wild played its best game of the season Sunday. It lost by three goals, but offensively, the Wild skated well, moved the puck well and got a strong performance from the Jason Zucker-Mikko Koivu-Nino Niederreiter line (one goal, 29 shot attempts).
"We're not really in the business of trying to paint too rosy a picture," he said. "We lost the game, and we're not pleased with that. But as far as I'm concerned, there were a lot of positives. We're in the business right now where wins and points are very important but building our game is much more important.
"There were a lot of parts of our game that looked like the game we should be playing."
