3 Reasons Why the Minnesota Wild Can Win the Stanley Cup
Scoring Depth
Any team -- with the exception of the Washington Capitals -- the Wild face in the playoffs is going to have a tough time matching up with their depth.
It's hard to say that the Wild have a clear "top six" forwards because, by the stats, they really have a top nine. Three scoring lines for a team that is already sound defensively is a recipe for a legitimate contender. That's what the Wild have, and that's what they are.
Let's look at some scoring adjusted advanced statistics for the Wild's top three lines.
| Line | Corsi For per 60 | Corsi Against per 60 | Corsi For Percentage | Scoring Chances per 60 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Niederreiter, Staal and Coyle | 62.7 | 47.3 | 57 | 7.9 |
| Zucker, Koivu and Granlund | 67.7 | 49.9 | 53.6 | 10.8 |
| Parise, Haula and Pominville | 59.4 | 58.2 | 50.5 | 4.7 |
The Wild's dominance has resulted them having five of the top seven leaders in plus/minus -- Ryan Suter, Zucker, Jared Spurgeon, Granlund and Coyle -- thus far, as well as the NHL's second-best goal differential at 51.
The Koivu line has done a phenomenal job shutting down opposing teams' top lines and is scoring at a good clip themselves, posting a Scoring Chances For Percentage of 71. While this line's offense may regress a bit in the second half, there is no reason to believe they will not continue to be, at a minimum, a quality possession line and a nightmare for opposing top lines.
The job by Koivu's line has left the door open for the Staal and Haula lines as they match up against the weaker possession lines. Staal's and Haula's lines are almost doubling up their opponents in scoring chances, which is something that most teams can't say for any one of their lines, let alone three.
The "third" line for the Wild (Haula's) is a line that without much experience, playing just 60 minutes together, but each player has an Individual Corsi For per 60 minutes of at least 13. If Parise, who has yet to explode, can start to make plays like we have seen season after season throughout his career, this team could actually improve offensively, which is terrifying.
