One of These Things is Not Like the Others

The NHL standings are, um, interesting:

(click to embiggen)

Yes, that is your Minnesota Wild.  In first place.  In the entire league.  As you can see, this is almost entirely due to their surprisingly strong defense and the fantastic goaltending they have gotten out of Niklas Backstrom (1.92 GAA) and Josh Harding (1.79 GAA).  GM Chuck Fletcher spent the offseason shoring up the offense, which has typically been one of the team's biggest weaknesses, but his efforts have yet to bear fruit.  Matt Cullen is leading the team with 8 goals and 11 points in 20 games.  Unless guys like Dany Heatley and Devin Setoguchi start doing more of this:



And this:



They won't be on top for very long.