Why are the Minnesota Wild so much better this season?
Craig Custance: There's no doubt that goalie Devan Dubnyk is a big part of the Wild's success. That's where you have to start. But when I posed this question to Wild defenseman Ryan Suter, he immediately pointed to center Eric Staal along with Dubnyk as the biggest reasons for the Wild's success. This team has in recent years had a strong defense and talented forwards, but the addition of Staal has given coach Bruce Boudreau flexibility with his forwards to move other guys to the wing and slot other centers down the lineup. "Our coach has embraced him," Suter said of Staal. "He's being treated like a top guy." At this point, it's hard to find a better offseason signing than Staal's deal with the Wild.
Scott Burnside: Sometimes it's easy to wonder just how much coaching matters. Could anyone coach the Chicago Blackhawks? To suggest so is to do a disservice to Joel Quenneville, one of the best coaches of his generation. It was the same for Scotty Bowman with the Montreal Canadiens. And maybe it's been easy to be dismissive of Boudreau because he hasn't matched his significant regular-season success with commensurate playoff success. Fair criticism, but Boudreau's demeanor and his approach to the long haul is paying huge dividends in Minnesota, just as it did with the Anaheim Ducks and, before that, with the Washington Capitals. John Tortorella of the Columbus Blue Jackets is the odds-on favorite to win the Jack Adams Award as coach of the year, but the Wild are the best team in the Western Conference -- and you can thank Boudreau for that.
Joe McDonald: At the start of the season, it was tough to figure out which type of team the Wild would become. Minnesota's first periods were awful. After the Wild woke up, they started to score goals, but they still had trouble defending. Minnesota was a funny team to figure out, and you didn't know what you would see from game to game. Then, everything clicked. Goal scorers became goal scorers again. Depth became reliable, and Dubnyk has become a strong candidate for the Vezina Trophy as top goalie. The players trust first-year Wild coach and veteran Boudreau, and it shows.
Corey Pronman: Dubnyk has been playing out-of-this-world good, and the team's shooting percentage is over 2 points better from last season's. The more interesting issue is whether the Wild will continue to be this good. Dubnyk is second in even-strength save percentage behind the Canadiens' Carey Price over the past three years. He's not a .940 save-percentage goalie, but there's some legitimacy to his even-strength stat. I'm skeptical that adding Staal, 32, to its core turned Minnesota from an average shooting team into an elite one. History has shown time and time again that this is likely a product of luck. The Wild are a good team but not a Stanley Cup contender unless Dubnyk steals multiple series.
Rob Vollman: Minnesota's recent adoption of analytics is paying dividends. Within the analytics community, Boudreau is considered to be among the best, Dubnyk's tremendous upside was pointed out even during his disappointing 2013-14 season and Staal was widely lauded as the free-agent steal of the summer. Perhaps the Wild's success might lead to a few more number-cruncher hirings throughout the NHL.