ST. PAUL, Minn – Friday’s game between the Minnesota Wild (14-7-4) and the Colorado Avalanche (17-1-6) was one of the best games of the season. It was so high-paced and quick, making for fun hockey to watch.
The Avalanche are one of, if not, the best team in the NHL off the rush this season. The Wild let up ten shots off the rush for Colorado. They finished with 41 shots. I asked Jesper Wallstedt what the Wild did well in front of him to limit rush offense.
“I think our structure and the way we want to play off the rush was successful,” Wallstedt said. “I think we kept them to the outside. Shots from the outside I can usually make the save on, and then they helped me out with the rebounds and I felt like we just stuck to what we wanted to do and that worked.”
Wild head coach John Hynes pretty much had Jonas Brodin and Brock Faber out against the Avalanche’s top line the whole game. On 20 rush attempts by the Avalanche top line, Brodin and Faber were on the ice for 16 of them.
Joel Eriksson Ek, Marcus Johansson and Matt Boldy were also out there for pretty much all of them.
As you can see from the image above, the Brodin and Faber pair shut down the Avalanche’s top line when it came to shots and chances off the rush. Not a single one of those Shots off the rush were high danger chances.
“Yeah, no, I think even our forwards, they’re doing a great job there,” Brodin said on shutting them down. “But they [MacKinnon’s line] still got two on us today. But we won, so it doesn’t matter. But yeah, those are tough to play against for sure.”
The Wild didn’t hold MacKinnon off the scoresheet but they did limit his scoring touch off the rush. MacKinnon still picked up a goal and an assist, so that just speaks to the type of player he is. But, the rush chances were shut down by the Wild.
I followed up and asked, since Brodin didn’t want to take credit, if it takes all five guys to shutdown rush chances rather than just him and Faber.
“Yeah, for sure. We had Ekky play against them with those guys too, that line, and me and Fabes. So I think, yeah, it’s a good job by everyone today.”
We all know that turning pucks over can lead to offense and the Wild really didn’t do much of that, other than the Kaprizov turnover in the first period that led to the MacKinnon goal.
Usually turnovers lead to rush chances, but the Wild didn’t allow any of that today.
“A big part of line rush against defense is being able to have structure. Probably the biggest component of that is your puck play. If you’re turning pucks over in bad areas of the ice or you’re making bad decisions, then you’re going to give the other team an opportunity to attack you in an unorganized defense,” Hynes said. “So, I think that’s the root of it.”
Out of 34 rush chances for the Avalanche, the Wild allowed ten shots. Seven of the ten were with Jared Spurgeon and Jake Middleton on the ice. The Avalanche only had two high-dancer chances off the rush, which again was with Spurgeon and Middleton on the ice. Wallstedt stopped them both.
“I think we’ve done a good job with our forwards reloading in the offensive zone, giving our defensemen support, and I think our D are making good decisions of whether they can pinch and keep a play alive in the offensive zone or if they read we’re not on top, they get themselves in structure,” Hynes said on rush defense. “So, we’ve allowed ourselves to play in a structured defense on the rush defense vs. getting caught in odd-man rushes or in an unorganized play where if you do that against good teams they can pick you apart.”
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