Arizona Coyotes Theoretical Playoff Matchup: Minnesota Wild

As the quest for the Stanley Cup begins without the Arizona Coyotes, Howlin’ Hockey is breaking down how the team would’ve matched up against Western Conference contenders. Today’s theoretical matchup is the Minnesota Wild.

Of all the teams in the Western Conference who made the Stanley Cup playoffs, the Arizona Coyotes would arguably do well against the Minnesota Wild.

In the regular season this year, the Coyotes posted a 2-1-0 record against the Wild. Both of those wins came in extra periods of play.

In the first game, which happened to be the Yotes’ first loss of the season, their were goals from Max Domi, Anthony Duclair and Michael Stone. However Minnesota’s top players in Zach Parise and Mikko Koivu shined in that game and outlasted the Yotes.

In the second meeting during the season, Mikkel Boedker notched a 2nd period goal from Tobias Reider and scored the game winner less than a minute into the 3 on 3 overtime period. Jared Spurgeon‘s 4th goal of the season found home as the only goal of the game for Minnesota at 6:33 of the second period.

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In the final match up on January 25th, the Arizona Coyotes topped Minnesota in a shootout with Antoine Vermette notching a huge shorthanded goal from Rieder late in the 3rd period. Anthony Duclair scored the winning shootout goal in the effort while the Wild whiffed on each of their three shootout attempts. Charlie Coyle notched his 13th of season for the wild in their lone goal of the game.

Looking down the score sheets for these three games, there were a few things that stand out with regard to how these two teams play one another.

The first, and most noticeably, is the amount of penalties. In every game, the list of penalties far outnumbers the list of scoring events, suggesting a group of gritty and emotional games. The penalty list also tells me that a theoretical playoff series between the Arizona Coyotes and Minnesota Wild would be a physical, strenuous series.

The other aspect is that any series between these two teams would likely entail some really close games. Each of the three games came down to the wire and  in a majority of the cases, were decided in extra innings.

As for the coaching matchup, Minnesota fired Mike Yeo midway through the season so there is a reasonably unfair comparison to be made between new Minnesota Wild head coach John Torchetti and long-time Arizona Coyotes skipper Dave Tippett. Torchetti’s record with Minnesota 15-11-1 while Tippett holds a career .574 win percentage as a coach.

Let’s turn to the main point of contention, line matchups. Each line is broken down in comparison, followed by a determined match up winner; dig in.

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First Lines:

Arizona Coyotes: Tanguay-Vermette-Duclair

Minnesota Wild: Parise-Haula-Coyle

Obviously the best player of those six is Zach Parise. I’m not even gonna argue that. But the rest leaves a lot to be argued.

Duclair had a strong rookie campaign and Alex Tanguay had a decent season for an older player, particularly after moving to the desert. Charlie Coyle is a stud in his own respect, as is Erik Haula.

Many fans have noted Antoine Vermette is becoming a bigger liability than threat and, to a degree, that is true. But Vermette is playoff proven, as he showed in clutch ways for Chicago during the 2015 Cup push. Either way, I don’t like the Yotes’ chances purely because of Parise’s talent.

Winner: Wild.

Second Lines:

Arizona Coyotes: Rieder-Hanzal-Sekac

Minnesota Wild: Zucker-Koivu-Jones

Tobias Rieder and Martin Hanzal are two of the best players on the Arizona Coyotes standing roster. Mikko Koivu is the heart and soul of the Wild. Jason Zucker is a growing talent. Beyond those four, I think we can all agree that Jiri Sekac and David Jones leave a lot to be desired, especially as second liners.

That being said, who do you like more? Toby and Marty or Zucker and Koivu because this is a pretty good line match up. My winner? Look down.

Winner: Arizona Coyotes, literally by the flip of a coin.

Third Lines:

Arizona Coyotes: Domi-Richardson-Doan

Minnesota Wild: Niederreiter-Granlund-Pominville

This Wild line has essentially 3 40-point makers in Nino Niederreiter, Mikael Granlund and Jason Pominville. This Coyotes line has two +/- 50-point scorers in Doan and Domi as well as a 31-point scorer in Brad Richardson. One of these lines also has the second ageless wonder of hockey behind the great Jaromir Jagr, Shane Doan.

I doubt any Wild fan would agree, but I’d take the Captain over any of those three, especially with he season he had this year. 

Winner: Arizona Coyotes.

Fourth Lines:

Arizona Coyotes: Martinook-Gordon-Chipchura

Minnesota Wild: Carter-Stoll-Fontaine

Neither of these fourth lines are terrible, but neither jump off that page at anyone either. On the wings, I would say Minnesota (Ryan Carter and Justin Fontaine) has an edge on Arizona (Jordan Martinook and Kyle Chipchura) but down the middle, almost nobody wins more face-offs than Boyd Gordon (those people being Jonathon Toews, Ryan Kesler and Matt Duchene).

Notice Jarret Stoll is not on that list of players better in face-offs than Gordon?

So this match up is a toss up, but I think face-offs tilt the scale towards the Grand Canyon State over the Land of 10,000 Lakes.

Winner: Arizona Coyotes, by the slightest of margins

Defensive Pairings:

Arizona Coyotes: Ekman-Larsson-Murphy, Connauton–Michalek, Dahlbeck-Stone

Minnesota Wild: Suter-Spurgeon, Scandella–Brodin, Reilly–Dumba

I’m not gonna kid anybody here. Minnesota’s defense makes the Coyotes’ defense look like a beer league blue line, except for that one guy who is clearly better than every single one of those Minnesota defensemen.

Saying Oliver Ekman-Larsson is a good defenseman would be a monumental understatement. But to say the Coyotes’ defense would be competitive in this matchup would be an overstatement. This Minnesota defensive corp is as potent as Central Division rivals Nashville and Chicago, and to see these guys not have success in the playoffs would be sad, to say the least.

Winner: Wild, by a lot.

Goaltending:

Arizona Coyotes: Smith, Domingue

Minnesota Wild: Dubnyk, Kuemper

This a pretty even matchup of mediocrity. Mike Smith can be good one game and be horrid the next. Devin Dubnyk has a past history of doing the same thing. Following those two partial train wrecks are two solid backup tendys in Darcy Kuemper and Louis Domingue.

We would see a lot of goals if this series ever happened. Thankfully, we won’t have to see if good Mike Smith or bad Mike Smith shows up because this is all theoretical. But if it happened, the winner is…

Winner: Wild, because the defense in front of Dubnyk allows him fewer chances to make bad saves.

Now for some extracurricular fun:

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-What if the series were decided by the teams’ jersey designs?

If the jerseys decided who won a playoff series, the New York Rangers would have won the Stanley Cup every year since they adopted the diagonal New York/Rangers letterhead on their jerseys. But if you pit Arizona’s new jerseys against Minnesota’s odd color scheme, I think a winner is pretty clear cut. Minnesota’s green jersey’s are pretty slick, but the rest of the Wild’s uniforms are ok.

Arizona, on the other hand, has some sleek, decent uniforms that have grown on me during the course of the season. Given a diagonal third jersey based on New York or a permanent reboot of the Kachina-style jerseys, then Arizona wins a by a lot. However given the current unit, the winner is…

Winner: Arizona Coyotes, because I’m not a fan of Minnesota’s red jersey and logo (go back to the North Stars dang it!).

-What if the series were decided by baseball, just for the fun of it?

If the series were to magically be decided by baseball, the D-Backs would thump the Twins 15-0, Zach Greinke throws a no-hitter/complete game and Paul Goldschmidt hits for the home run cycle. Arizona is not off to a great start, but if there is any team that’s bad at baseball besides the despised Philadelphia Phillies (I’m a Nationals fan when it comes to baseball), its Minnesota.

Baseball winner: D-Backs

Final Series Winner: Minnesota Wild

If we are plainly talking about hockey and we can’t rely on Jake Lamb or Shelby Miller to save Arizona, then Minnesota walks away with the series in 6 games.

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Arizona’s current defense is far too weak to survive a decent Minnesota offensive squad and a potent defensive corp. Goaltending is a toss up, but when it comes to pucks shot at goalies, it’s about who allows the fewest shots on net and Minnesota’s defense cleans up better all around.

Stepping into reality, this playoff matchup isn’t obscene to consider in the coming years as both teams could have outstanding years and win their divisions or be wild card seeds and in either situation, likely meet one another. It will be an interesting and fun series to watch when these two finally meet in real life with a berth to the next round on the line.