Staal confident he can maintain scoring pace for Wild

Eric Staal's name made it onto one of the 164 ballots cast by members of the Professional Hockey Writers Association for the Hart Trophy last season.

The Minnesota Wild center received one fifth-place vote, good for one point, tying him for 17th place with Pittsburgh Penguins center Sidney Crosby, Boston Bruins center Patrice Bergeron and Tampa Bay Lightning defenseman Victor Hedman, who won the Norris Trophy.
It was good company, but Staal had them beat in one area.
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He scored 42 goals, fourth in the NHL behind Washington Capitals left wing Alex Ovechkin (49), Winnipeg Jets right wing Patrik Laine (44) and Vegas Golden Knights center William Karlsson (43).
"I needed to score a few more goals, I guess," Staal said, laughing.
Said Wild teammate Jason Zucker, "I have no doubt he can do it again."
Staal, who turns 34 on Oct. 29, is confident too, even if he won't guarantee he'll score 42 goals again.
"I think I can still produce and I feel like I can still be a top point producer and goal scorer for our team," he said.
Staal has been the Wild's leading scorer and arguably the best bargain in the NHL since signing his three-year, $10.5 million contract ($3.5 million average annual value) on July 1, 2016.
He has 141 points (70 goals, 71 assists) in 166 games with the Wild, including two this season.
It's been a career resurgence in Minnesota for Staal, who had 154 points (57 goals, 97 assists) in 239 games with the Carolina Hurricanes and New York Rangers in three seasons prior to arriving in Minnesota.
He's also coming off his first season at least 40 goals since scoring 40 with the Hurricanes in 2008-09.
Staal, who is five goals shy of 400 in the NHL, cites confidence and opportunity as the biggest reasons for his turnaround.
"In order to continue to play and play at a high level, you have to expect more out of yourself, because if you don't you'll be left to the side pretty quickly," Staal said. "I've had moments where confidence wasn't very high as well, but you have to have an inner belief inside you to get back to that level. That's where I was at the end of my time with the Rangers. I knew inside what I could do, it was just about finding the right situation and spot. Fortunately it's been great [in Minnesota], but you have to do that every year and prove that every year."
He thinks he can. He's confident he will. So are the Wild.
Minnesota next plays the Chicago Blackhawks at Xcel Energy Center on Thursday (8 p.m. ET; FS-N, FS-WI, WGN, NHL.TV).
"He looks like the same person to me," Wild coach Bruce Boudreau said prior to the season. "He doesn't look like he's gotten slower. He doesn't look like he's aged. He has the same enthusiasm.

"I don't know if 42 will be the same number, but I don't anticipate his play to taper off."
Boudreau, though, is right to wonder if Staal can score 42 again, because history and Staal's shooting percentage aren't on his side for him to reproduce what he did last season.
Prior to Staal, Jarome Iginla was the last player to score 40 in a season after his 33rd birthday (Staal turns 34 on Oct. 29). Iginla scored 43 in 82 games with the Calgary Flames as a 33-year-old in 2010-11. He scored 32 goals in 82 games the following season.
Daniel Alfredsson scored 40 goals in 70 games with the Ottawa Senators as a 35-year-old in 2007-08. He scored 24 in 79 games the following season.
In addition, Staal scored on 17.4 percent of his shots last season (42 goals on 241 shots). That was 6.7 percentage points better than his career 10.7 percent entering the season. It was his best shooting percentage since 2005-06, when he scored on 16.1 percent of his shots and had an NHL career-high 45 goals.
He shot 10.4 percent in 11 seasons from 2006-17.
A regression from 17.4 percent is likely, which means Minnesota should expect Staal's goal output to decrease too.
What happens if it does might be the biggest question facing the Wild.
"If Eric went down to 30 goals or 28 or 27, I think those other guys should be able to make up for it," Boudreau said.
Boudreau said he thinks Zach Parise, who scored 15 goals in 42 games last season, can score at least 10 more if he stays healthy. He has one in two games this season.
He called Nino Niederreiter, who scored 18 goals last season, "a 25-goal guy." He said Charlie Coyle, who scored 11 last season, "has got to be a 20-goal guy."
Staal has no points in two games this season, and perhaps not coincidentally the Wild have scored two goals on 51 shots in two games and are 0-1-1. It's an inauspicious start, especially considering goalie Devan Dubnyk has allowed three goals on 80 shots (.963 save percentage) in two games.
"I've got to figure it out, but obviously we can't win a lot of hockey games with one goal a game," Boudreau said after the Wild's 2-1 shootout loss against the Vegas Golden Knights on Saturday. "Every game this year is going to be a battle like this. We've got to find ways when we get the opportunities to put them in."
Staal included.
"It's a new challenge," he said.