The Wild’s latest lifeless performance resulted in a 4-1 defeat and had coach Dean Evason searching for answers he didn’t have. In what had been a mostly disastrous season, the Wild had tried everything to jump start a team that was struggling from top to bottom.

Players-only meetings, individual meetings between team leaders and Evason, a meeting in which Guerin chewed out the players. Nothing had worked and the Wild were sitting only two points ahead of Chicago and San Jose at the bottom of the Western Conference standings.

There was only one thing left to do.

Evason’s dismissal was announced late Monday afternoon and his successor, former Devils and Predators coach John Hynes, was introduced on Tuesday morning as the Wild’s new (not interim) coach.

Evason’s supporters had been quick to point out that the Wild isn’t that good of team and that Guerin had plenty to do with the problems, given he was the guy who put the roster together and the guy who put the team in salary-cap hell with his decision to buy out the contracts of Zach Parise and Ryan Suter in 2021.

That is true, but there is a difference between being a bad team and being a disinterested team and the Wild appeared to be guilty of the latter offense on far too many nights this season.

New head coach John Hynes (left) and Wild general manager Bill Guerin (right) meet with the media at Hynes’ introductory news conference on Nov. 28, 2023. (MHM Photo / Heather Rule)

Odds are good the move to the 48-year-old Hynes will provide a spark for the Wild. At least a short-term one. That’s the way the NHL works. A different voice with a new message gets the type of attention that often isn’t given to the bench boss who has been around for a few years.

In Evason’s case, his tenure in Minnesota dated to when he joined former coach Bruce Boudreau’s staff in 2018. Boudreau was fired in February 2020 and Guerin replaced him with Evason. Evason had regular-season success — he went 147-77-27 (the last figure is overtime and shootout losses) and back-to-back 100-plus point seasons — but he went 0-4 in playoff series.

That might have been a concern for the Wild, but it wasn’t enough to question Evason’s job security. But a 5-10-4 start to the season was more than owner Craig Leipold and Guerin could stomach.

Some thought the Wild’s putrid start presented a perfect opportunity for the team to take its lumps and focus on the draft lottery, but anyone who has been around Leipold or Guerin knew that wasn’t going to happen.

Guerin has made it clear that he expects to win, even with his team’s salary-cap issues. Guerin and Hynes have a history from their time in the Pittsburgh Penguins organization when the former was a player development coach and assistant general manager and the latter coached the Penguins’ affiliate in the American Hockey League.

This hiring will be considered underwhelming by many. Hynes coached New Jersey for four-plus seasons before being fired during the 2019-20 season and then spent three-plus years behind the bench in Nashville before his dismissal after last season.

His teams have made four playoff appearances but, like Evason’s clubs, have never gotten past the first round. Hynes is 4-15 in the postseason; Evason was 8-15.

The guy who now will be feeling the heat is Guerin. The discouraging thing about the Wild’s meltdown under Evason was how much it resembled the work, or lack of work, put forth by the players that Guerin inherited and began moving after taking the general manager’s job.

Guerin’s purpose in buying out Parise and Sutter, and trading away other familiar names, was to reset the culture of an organization that had too many guys who worried about themselves more than the team.

So how did the Wild end up right back in this spot?

The current roster isn’t filled with top-level players, but the guys who are supposed to carry the team aren’t coming close. Kirill Kaprizov had been a no-show for much of the season before emerging a bit in recent games. Mats Zuccarello, Matt Boldy and Marcus Johansson have underwhelmed since getting new contracts.

Ryan Hartman, Marcus Foligno and struggling goalie Filip Gustavsson also have gotten extensions since the end of last season. All of this is why Guerin isn’t going to admit his team’s fate is sealed. Not when he’s the one who handed out the extensions.

Guerin’s next move is turning to Hynes in hope that he can stop the bleeding and save the season. If that doesn’t happen, Guerin will be the next guy left searching for answers.

The post Zulgad: Guerin Feels The Heat appeared first on Minnesota Hockey Magazine.

In the words of Wild general manager Bill Guerin: “Something had to change.”

That something came in the form of coaching changes. The Wild fired head coach Dean Evason on Monday before later announcing former Nashville and former New Jersey coach John Hynes as the team’s seventh head coach in franchise history. He’s spent eight seasons as an NHL head coach with a career 284-255-63 record.

Wild assistant coach Bob Woods, who coached the team’s penalty kill, was also relieved of his coaching duties on Monday. The team announced Tuesday that Patrick Dwyer will be a Wild assistant coach and focus on defense and the PK. Dwyer has been an assistant coach with the Iowa Wild since July 5.

Though the list of problems for the Wild is much longer than simply stopping with the man behind the bench, it was Evason who took the fall for the team’s 5-10-4 start to the season.

“’We can’t trade 23 players,’ is the old saying,” Guerin said Tuesday, during a news conference introducing Hynes. “But I just had that feeling that it wasn’t going to come back.”

Guerin cited confidence, swagger, ability to make plays and the overall feeling that players will accomplish something when they step on the ice as pieces that are missing from the team. He didn’t feel like that list of things was headed in the right direction; it actually got worse.

Rookie defenseman Brock Faber said it’s the players who have underperformed and lost hockey games, but they need to look internally, play for the guy next to them and do what they can to win.

“We have a good hockey team in here,” Faber said. “We have a playoff hockey team in here when we’re playing the right way. I think this is a wake-up call for a lot of us.”

Dean Evason spent parts of five seasons as the Wild’s head coach. (MHM Photo / Rick Olson)

Players react to in-season change
This is the second time Guerin has made a mid-season coaching change. On Valentine’s Day in 2020, he fired Bruce Boudreau with the Wild three points out of a playoff spot at the time. Evason went from assistant coach to interim head coach that day.

“The one thing I really do like about Dean is his passion, his fire for the game,” Guerin said when he hired Evason as head coach. “I am hoping that that translates to the players. I think these guys really like Dean a lot.”  

A few seasons later, this was a move that seemed to be written on the wall, with the ink becoming more permanent as the losses mounted. It didn’t seem to be a matter of if but a question of when Evason would take the fall for an extremely underperforming Wild team.

Evason was first hired by the Wild as an assistant coach in June 2018 under then-general manager Paul Fenton. Previously, Evason was the head coach for the Milwaukee Admirals in the AHL for six seasons.
Wild players Tuesday mentioned the respect they have for both Evason and Woods. Marcus Foligno used the word “shocked” regarding Evason’s firing while also recognizing the frustrating start to the season turned into a bad snowball effect.

“Losses pile up, this is what happens,” Foligno said. “Unfortunately, there are coaches that have to take that fall on the knife for players like us. It’s not fair, but at the same time, it’s a wake-up call – and we’ve had enough of these this year to understand what’s needed and we need to get out of it.”

Players had a brief meeting with Hynes before Tuesday’s morning skate ahead of the evening’s home game against the St. Louis Blues. Hynes has some familiarity with a few players. He knows goaltender Marc-Andre Fleury from the Pittsburgh days, and coached Jon Merrill in New Jersey and the national development program. He also coached Patrick Maroon and Marcus Johansson in New Jersey.

“I think you have to come in and, first and foremost, get to know the players,” Hynes said. “It’s on the fly, but I believe that when you come into this situation, everybody’s hurting.

“I think it’s important to really come in and connect with those guys, connect with the coaches, get feedback – particularly from the players on some of those things that they’re seeing and feeling.”

With a new voice leading them, perhaps the team will get back to finding its identity.

“I think we’ve had spurts of it,” said captain Jared Spurgeon. “But we haven’t put it together in full games. There’s a period of half periods where I think we’re getting back to it, and then we get away from it and start chasing games. I think that comes with consistency and obviously holding each other accountable.”

John Hynes speaks with the media at his introductory news conference as the Wild head coach. (MHM Photo / Heather Rule)

Hynes, Guerin go way back
Players should expect consistency behind the bench for a while, too. Guerin said Tuesday that he and Hynes settled on contract terms, though he wouldn’t give any specifics to the deal except to say: “This is not a one-year thing.”

Guerin and Hynes have a long relationship, going back to Guerin’s days working in player development and his time as an assistant general manager in the Pittsburgh Penguins organization. Guerin made it clear he believes in Hynes with the detailed and passionate way he has coaching hockey.

Hynes was the Predators head coach starting on Jan. 7, 2020, just a few weeks before Evason took over the Wild. Hynes coached the Devils from 2015-19. He was previously a head coach in the AHL for five seasons, leading the Wilkes-Barre Scranton Penguins to a 231-126-27 record and five consecutive appearances in the Calder Cup Playoffs.

A Boston University player with four Frozen Four trips and a 1995 NCAA championship, Hynes made two stops as an assistant coach with Mass-Lowell (2000-01) and the University of Wisconsin (2002-03) along with his nine seasons behind the bench for USA hockey’s National Team Development Program as an assistant coach from 1998-2000 and 2001-02, and head coach from 2003-09.

The coaching change didn’t come down to one game, according to Guerin. He added that he thought the team played well during its Global Series games (a shootout and overtime loss) in Sweden recently. But things still just “didn’t feel right,” Guerin said.

“There’s kind of that ‘it’ factor, and you feel that and you know it,” Guerin said.

Any ‘it’ factor for Hynes won’t include, as Guerin put it, reinventing the wheel or making wholesale changes. Instead, both Hynes and Guerin acknowledged it will be some little tweaks.

“It’s important to be able to play a fast game, and come in and have some plans to get out of our zone with speed, get on the attack, get north, be able to hem teams in the offensive zone,” Hynes said.

The post Wild Hire Hynes appeared first on Minnesota Hockey Magazine.

This spring marks 20 years since the Wild made their franchise-best playoff run to the Western Conference finals. Fans who watched that unexpected and remarkable journey have many great memories: Richard Park’s overtime goal in Game 6 of the first round against Colorado; Andrew Brunette’s OT goal the following night that eliminated the Avalanche; and the Wild rallying from down 3-1 against both the Avs and Canucks to win the first two series.

One of the biggest reasons for the Wild’s success was the man behind the bench. Jacques Lemaire, a part of eight Stanley Cup winning teams as a player with Montreal and a Cup winning coach with New Jersey in 1994-95, proved to be a marvelous tactician as he outcoached the inexperienced Tony Granato and the Canucks’ Marc Crawford before the Wild was swept in the conference finals by Anaheim.

Lemaire’s coaching, combined with his players’ work ethic, a commitment to playing within a certain structure, the presence of two quality goaltenders and star winger Marian Gaborik, made the improbable possible.

Sound familiar?

The NHL has opened up its game to be a far more exciting product than it was in 2003, but this Wild team has many of the same qualities. There might not be a lot of star talent up front but winger Kirill Kaprizov is among the league’s most dynamic players and there is no doubting the work ethic of those around him. There also is a structure to the system that was lacking last season. Filip Gustavsson and veteran Marc-Andre Fleury provide a solid 1-2 punch in goal, just as Manny Fernandez and Dwayne Roloson did 20 years ago.

The X-factor as the Wild gets set to start their opening round series at Dallas on Monday is coach Dean Evason.

Evason has done an excellent job in the regular season since taking over for Bruce Boudreau in February 2020. In three full seasons, Evason has guided the Wild to a 75-point and third-place finish in 2020-21 (a pandemic-impacted season was only 56 games); a 113-point and second-place finish in the Central Division in 2021-22; and a 103-point and third-place finish in the Central this season.

Former Wild coach Bruce Boudreau talks strategy with assistant coach Dean Evason in a Jan. 12, 2020 game vs. Vancouver at Xcel Energy Center. Evason would replace Boudreau 33 days later while Boudreau would eventually take over behind the Canucks’ bench. (MHM Photo / Rick Olson)

But that success has not carried into the playoffs for the Wild or Evason. Evason’s issues in the playoffs date far beyond his arrival in Minnesota. He was given a pass for how the 2020 season ended, considering it was halted in early March because of the pandemic and didn’t resume until the Wild took part in the playoff qualifying tournament that August in the Edmonton bubble. Minnesota won the opening game of the best-of-five series against Vancouver before dropping the next three.

The following season, the Wild lost in seven games in the opening round to the Vegas Golden Knights and last season went out in six games against the St. Louis Blues, despite having home-ice advantage. That series was concerning because while Blues coach Craig Berube was willing to make quick adjustments — including replacing goalie Ville Husso with Jordan Binnington with the Blues trailing 2-1 — Evason seemed intent on standing pat.

The Wild was on the brink of elimination by the time Evason decided to sit Fleury and start Cam Talbot in goal for Game 6. The Blues cruised to a 5-1 and outscored Minnesota 15-5 in the final three games. It would have been one thing if Talbot had been a backup all season, but he was the Wild’s primary starter before Fleury was acquired at the trade deadline and finished the regular season on a 13-0-3 run.

Minnesota goaltender Marc-Andre Fleury gloves a puck blasted off the stick of St. Louis Blues forward Vladimir Tarasenko, one of 32 for Fleury in the Wild’s 6-2 win over the Blues in Game 2 of their Stanley Cup playoff first-round series on May 4, 2022 at Xcel Energy Center. (MHM Photo / Rick Olson)

Evason’s failure to make changes was bewildering considering the urgency that comes in the playoffs and the necessity for a coach to make tough and sometimes unpopular decisions.

Wild general manager Bill Guerin, who welcomes tough decisions and always has high expectations, likely will be very interested to see how his coach handles this series. 

What will make this more interesting is Evason’s lack of postseason success as a head coach at any level.

He spent six seasons leading the Nashville Predators’ American Hockey League affiliate in Milwaukee and guided the Admirals to four playoff appearances. This resulted in a 1-12 record and four first-round exits. 

Evason’s time in junior hockey was only slightly more successful.

He spent six seasons in the Western Hockey League — coaching Kamloops, Vancouver and Calgary, where he was co-coach in 2004-05 — with his teams winning two first-round series and never getting past the second round.

The Wild, with or without Evason, have had about as much playoff success as their coach. Minnesota hasn’t advanced beyond the second round since Lemaire’s team overachieved in the franchise’s third season and the last time they won a first-round series was in 2015 with Mike Yeo behind the bench. The Wild have been in the playoffs in seven of the past eight seasons, if you include the qualifying round in 2020, but have gone 10-23 in losing in the opening round each time.

Wild GM Bill Guerin expresses his displeasure during Minnesota’s 5-2 loss to the Boston Bruins on March 18, 2023 at Xcel Energy Center (MHM Photo / Rick Olson)

Despite likely being without top center Joel Eriksson Ek in this series because of a lower body injury, there is an expectation both internally and externally that it’s time for the Wild to end their playoff drought. This current stretch of first-round defeats began in 2016 with a 4-2 series loss to Dallas and now it can end with a victory over the franchise that was based in Minnesota before relocating 30 years ago.

For that to happen, Evason is going to have to get the best of Dallas coach Pete DeBoer, who was Vegas’ coach two years ago when the Golden Knights eliminated the Wild. Evason, like Lemaire, is going to have to push many of the right buttons and make quicker adjustments than he often does in the regular season. Line shuffling, goalie changes and sitting veterans he likes are part of the job description this time of year.

If Evason doesn’t do those things, Guerin will have to start considering whether he has the right guy coaching his team when it matters most.

The post Everything To Prove appeared first on Minnesota Hockey Magazine.

“We want to have fun, but we’re still working,” said Wild head coach Dean Evason. “We haven’t had a lot of practice time. It was work today, but it was also clearly fun to be outside and to have the fans. As we’ve talked about, our fans have been absolutely incredible all year.”

Those incredible Wild fans who showed up for the outdoor practice two seasons ago have seen this Wild roster go through some major changes.

It’s amazing how much has happened since the Wild last hosted an outdoor, open-to-the-public practice on Jan. 2, 2020. The most obvious item, of course, is the global pandemic that changed everything before that season was over.

But looking at the Wild team specifically, so much is different. In January 2020, Bruce Boudreau was still the Wild’s head coach. Though he was fired on Valentine’s Day that year. There was also a ton of buzz at the ROC (Recreation Outdoor Center) at the time with the official announcement of the NHL Winter Classic coming to Target Field. That game was originally scheduled for Jan. 1, 2021 before the pandemic canceled those plans.

Following the announcement and practice in early 2020, the media talked with Boudreau and a few players to get their thoughts on the exciting news of playing outdoors. Zach Parise said the Winter Classic coming to Minnesota was “a little overdue.” Ryan Suter reflected on the Wild’s Stadium Series game in 2016 against the Chicago Blackhawks. Eric Staal, 35 years old at the time, looked forward to the Winter Classic having never played in an outdoor NHL game.

That trio no longer wears Wild sweaters. Neither do Devan Dubnyk, Mikko Koivu or Jason Zucker, who played in the Stadium Series game. Only captain Jared Spurgeon and alternate captain Matt Dumba remain from that 2016 squad that played in the Stadium Series. Dumba scored the game’s first goal in a 6-1 Wild win at then-TCF Bank Stadium at the University of Minnesota.

The loss for guys like Staal, Suter and Minnesota-native Parise looking to play that Winter Classic is the gain of Minnesota products Nick 

Bjugstad and Alex Goligoski. Bjugstad grew up playing hockey for Blaine High School while defenseman Goligoski represents the North out of Grand Rapids.

“It’s kind of crazy that we get to play an outdoor game in Minnesota with my hometown team,” Bjugstad said. “I’m sure that’ll sink in probably a few days before. That excitement’s there.”

For now, Bjugstad and his teammates got a taste of outdoor hockey at the ROC. It was a typical Wild practice, until the end when players tossed souvenir pucks into the stands for eager fans. The players talked about how perfect the weather would be if they could copy/paste this for Jan. 1. Conditions were so perfect that bundling up in layers wasn’t necessary, according to alternate captain, Marcus Foligno.

“We know it will probably be a little bit colder than today,” Foligno said. “We were all thinking about it (the Winter Classic) out there for sure.

“Obviously being in a bigger stadium. It’s the same thing, you step on that outdoor pond and you feel all the good jitters when you were young again. It brought back a lot of good memories today.”

Some players even stopped to greet fans or sign autographs on their way off the ice. A few players, like Goligoski and Jon Merrill, went back onto the ice afterward with their kids skating around and shooting at the net. Kirill Kaprizov didn’t come off the ice because he was busy passing a puck back and forth with a youngster donning a Goligoski jersey.  

With so many road games and a tiring travel schedule lately, the outdoor practice was a welcome break.

“When you step on the ice in front of the fans in this kind of scenario, you get that childhood feeling again,” Foligno said. “A lot of fun, a lot of smiles on guys’ faces today. We’re all looking forward to that Jan. 1 game.”

The rescheduled Winter Classic against the St. Louis Blues at Target Field will also mark the first time the event will be played in primetime. It’s the 14th anniversary of the first NHL Winter Classic in Buffalo.

While Evason, Bjugstad and Foligno all agreed that weather conditions were just about perfect for outdoor hockey during Saturday’s practice, Minnesotan Bjugstad acknowledged it might be a different deal in January.

“You feel it out,” Bjugstad said. “Like I said, we’ve all had the cold feet, the cold fingers. I’m sure the adrenaline will just kick in, and it’ll be a game to remember.”

The post Outdoor Appetizer appeared first on Minnesota Hockey Magazine.

The big question of the day – why now?

“Listen, you’re never going to make everybody happy, and people are always going to question,” Guerin said. “I just feel like the timing is right to do it now. That’s just the way I felt.”

They’ll finish out the rest of the season with assistant coach Dean Evason moving into an interim head coach role, one that already started at the team’s Friday practice at TRIA Rink. The move comes the morning after the Wild blew a two-goal lead in the third period before losing 4-3 in a shootout to the New York Rangers. Overall, the Wild are 27-23-7 with 61 points, only three out of a playoff spot.

Dean Evason and Bruce Boudreau on the Wild bench during a January game against Vancouver. (MHM Photo / Rick Olson)

“The one thing I really do like about Dean is his passion, his fire for the game,” Guerin said. “I am hoping that that translates to the players. I think these guys really like Dean a lot.”

The Wild will conduct a full search for the next head coach at the end of the season, Guerin told the media on Friday at TRIA Rink, a couple of hours after news broke that Boudreau was relieved of his coaching duties. Evason’s name will be part of the overall search, Guerin said.

The timing of it all seemed to surprise a lot of people, including Evason and some Wild players. Evason called Friday a “very emotional morning for everybody.”

“You never know the timing of these things unless you’re on the inside, you don’t know what transpired to get to this point,” Evason said. “I can’t speculate on what happened, but certainly we were all very surprised.”

Defensemen Ryan Suter and Jared Spurgeon used the word “shock” to describe their reaction. Goaltender Alex Stalock called it a “wakeup call” and said he will “wear it myself now,” referencing blowing the two-goal lead in Thursday’s game.

“We were surprised,” said captain Mikko Koivu. “Didn’t expect that this morning when you come to the rink. That’s the biggest reaction for all of us.

“But I think it’s also a message that it’s not enough right now. We can get into the playoffs, and that’s why the change is made, but I think that’s also a pretty clear message to the players that now it’s up to us to get whatever changes Dean and his staff will have and do our job to play into that.”

Guerin briefly addressed the team prior to Friday’s practice. He let them know what’s expected of them and offered clarity on the situation. Like he mentioned earlier in the week when he traded fan-favorite Jason Zucker to Pittsburgh, Guerin said he expects his players to show up for the next game – a 4 p.m. contest hosting San Jose on Saturday – and that he expects a push toward the playoffs.

Professional sports are a business, and that’s a sentiment Guerin has brought up this week amid the personnel changes within the team. He addressed it again when asked about the player reactions to Boudreau’s firing.

“If the players are hurt by this, then maybe they’re not the players that we should have here,” Guerin said. “This is the business we’re in. It’s always a sad time when you do this, but this is the business.”

Boudreau finishes his Wild tenure with a 158-110-35 record, leading them to the playoffs his first two seasons in Minnesota. This was his fourth season as the Wild’s head coach, and he was 16 games away from coaching his 1,000th game in the NHL. Guerin did not comment when asked about the conversation he had with Boudreau when he fired him.

“We have a lot of respect for Bruce,” Suter said. “He was a great guy and a great coach. It’s sad to see him go.”

Despite the coaching change, Guerin made it clear that the Wild players need to be better as well. There have been inconsistencies in the results this season, according to Guerin. The Wild have certainly been a mid-pack squad, rebounding from a 1-6 start to the season. The Wild were actually playing better recently, going 7-3-1 in their last 11 games, but there are things that still need to be better, according to Guerin.

“There has to be accountability, and people are going to be held accountable,” Guerin said. “Players are absolutely included in that first and foremost.”

Still, this move does not change the team’s push to make the playoffs, at least from Guerin’s perspective. He said he expects this team to compete for a playoff spot.

It will be up to the players to focus on that goal, with Evason helping along the way.

“I think they’re pretty honed in right now,” Evason said. “I think when something like this happens, it catches everyone’s attention. Hopefully, they all individually feel a bit responsible to what happened. We all should. We all should be motivated to go forward and try to do the right things to get to where we want to be.”

New Wild head coach Dean Evason. (MHM Photo / Rick Olson)

While the news might be shocking and unfortunate to see an established NHL coach like Boudreau be let go (the eighth one in the NHL this season), the move also creates an opportunity for Evason. His goal has always been to be a coach at the highest level, the NHL, he said Friday.

“Regardless of the situation and how you get here, this is something that I’ve strived for,” Evason said. “And I’ve got the opportunity, and I’m going to try to do it the way that I’ve learned how to be a head coach through so many different head coaches that I’ve had.”

Evason was hired as a Wild assistant coach in June 2018 under then-general manager Paul Fenton. Previously, he was the head coach for the Milwaukee Admirals in the AHL for six seasons. He scored 139 goals and 372 points in 803 NHL games across 13 seasons with Washington, Hartford Whalers, San Jose, Dallas and Calgary from 1983-96.

He said he’s going to try to lead as a head coach of the Wild while also relying on his coaching staff of Bob Woods, Darby Hendrickson (who will now move behind the bench full-time during games) and Bob Mason. He’ll look to draw on his past experiences as a player and coach to try and do the right things, Evason said.

“He’s developed great relationships with just about everybody in this room,” said goaltender Devan Dubnyk. “So that will be an easy transition that way and make it easier for us going forward.”

Evason also said he wants the group to be accountable and aggressive.

“If we make aggressive mistakes, you can live with them,” Evason said. “If you make passive mistakes, they’re hard to live with.

“Sometimes you’ve got to give a guy a kick in the pants, and sometimes you’ve got to pat him on the back. That’s our job as the leadership group of the team, the coaches, to figure out which ones need the boot and which ones need the pat.”

The post Bye Bye Bruce appeared first on Minnesota Hockey Magazine.

“Oh, there’s no place like home for the holidays…”

Sing it, Perry.

The familiar holiday tune might be off radio stations by now, though it’s one that rings true for the Minnesota Wild. They’re four games into a long stretch of mostly home games – 18-of-22 – after starting the season playing a lot of road games.

But so far for the Wild, home has been more sour than sweet. The latest example was a 4-1 loss to Toronto on New Year’s Eve for the Wild’s second one-goal, losing effort in a row in St. Paul.  

“It’s tough,” said forward Marcus Foligno. “We talk about being at home and how we’re home for a while now.

“It’s great to be home, but unless you’re winning… it’s going to be pretty tough around here.”

The Wild are 1-3 through the first four games of the 18 at home, grabbing just two of the possible eight points while getting outscored 13-5. In the midst of this, they came out of the Christmas break with an exciting 6-4 win in Colorado.

It’s “disheartening,” according to winger Zach Parise, who on Tuesday tied his season-long goal drought at six games.

“We played a good game in Colorado and then responded with a couple of duds back here,” Parise said. “That’s not ideal.”

Toronto captain John Tavares had a goal and an assist in a 4-1 Maple Leafs win over the Wild on New Year’s Eve. (MHM Photo / Rick Olson)

The loss to the Maple Leafs marked the end of 2019 and also the halfway mark of the 2019-20 season for the Wild, who are 19-17-5 with 43 points, including a 10-4-3 home record and 9-13-2 mark on the road. It’s a recovery from the early part of the season, when things looked pretty bleak.

They opened up the year with a four-game losing streak and lost six of their first seven games, only getting a 2-0 win at Ottawa to stop the bleeding. The Wild didn’t have a winning streak longer than two games until Nov. 26 to Dec. 5 when they rattled off five in a row.

“I think the results weren’t what we wanted, but for the most part, the whole season I think we’ve been playing pretty well,” said Mikko Koivu, after the Toronto game. He assisted on Ryan Suter’s goal Tuesday in his return after missing a dozen games with a lower-body injury. “Now we’ve just got to find it again. We’ve got to reset here and find the mojo back that brought us that confidence that we were tough to beat at home.”

Despite the last couple of sluggish games from the Wild, they’ve still been one of the best teams in the league lately, going 13-6-4 in their last 24 games. They rattled off a season-best 11-game point streak from Nov. 14 to Dec. 5. They made up ground with 30 points since that mid-November mark and got themselves back into the playoff picture for a bit, which was better than being in the standings cellar early in the year.

“When we play our best and everybody plays their role… we usually end up on the right side of the scoreboard,” said coach Bruce Boudreau.  

The Wild also had to get used to playing those roles away from Minnesota. They played 23 of their first 36 games on the road, including a stretch of 20-of-their-first-30 games on the road, the second time in NHL history that’s been done. The Chicago Blackhawks did it in 2005-06 and finished the season 26-43-13.

A 6-0 shutout loss to Winnipeg on Dec. 21 kicked off the Wild’s bulk of 18-of-22 home games. The Wild rebounded well before Christmas with a 3-0 shutout of Calgary. But it was after the holidays that the Wild came out flat at Xcel Energy Center, turning a 1-0 third-period lead into a 3-1 loss to the Islanders. Then they rang in the new year with a whimper against the Maple Leafs, getting down 3-0 before Suter’s power-play goal midway through the second period.

The Wild dug themselves a bigger hole with 30.2 seconds left in the first period when William Nylander made it a 2-0 game. That sequence was a point of emphasis in Boudreau’s postgame comments.

Before that goal, Boudreau noted Joel Eriksson Ek’s 3-on-2 chance where he went to his backhand with the puck instead of going to his forehand on the right side, where a streaking Luke Kunin was headed.

“I think, personally, we try to make the difficult plays instead of the simple plays a lot of times,” Boudreau said. “And it gets turned over.”

The Wild still have some time to redeem themselves from a couple of dud games and not let the slump get any bigger.

“We’ve got to try to figure it out here, sooner rather than later,” Foligno said. “We know we have a lot more home games coming up, but we’ve got to get our game going.”

And even after all those road games to start the season, the Wild will still end up finishing their final four games on the road starting March 29, tying a season-long four-game road stretch. Their home regular-season finale is March 28 against Buffalo. 

The post Home Isn’t Always Sweet appeared first on Minnesota Hockey Magazine.

The word “finally” seems like an understatement, while also checking in to the cliché column.

Thirteen years after the inaugural Winter Classic. Five years after Minnesota hosted a Stadium Series game. The Minnesota Wild finally have their chance to host the Winter Classic. The game is set for New Year’s Day 2021 at Target Field, the home of the Minnesota Twins.  

Wild forward Zach Parise said the game’s arrival – which will be the 31st NHL outdoor contest – is “a little overdue.”

“You see warm-weather climates getting the game, and you’re thinking, ‘Why are we not getting one? Why haven’t we gotten one yet?’” Parise said.

The news officially broke on New Year’s Day, when NHL commissioner Gary Bettman made the announcement during this year’s Winter Classic between Nashville and Dallas at the Cotton Bowl in Texas. In a fitting backdrop to the news, the Wild hosted their annual, open-to-the-public outdoor practice Thursday morning at the Recreation Outdoor Center (ROC) in St. Louis Park.  

“It’s pretty interesting timing,” said Wild coach Bruce Boudreau. “It’s a great excitement-builder.”

So, what took so long for the Winter Classic to come to the place that dubs itself the State of Hockey?

Wild President Matt Majka addresses the media in regard to the 2021 Winter Classic (MHM Photo / Heather Rule)

 Wild President Matt Majka noted, “going back in time,” that the NHL wanted the Wild to be a better hockey team and a playoff team with some star power. Those boxes have been checked, he said.

“We’ve been lobbying the NHL for a long time for this marquee game, the biggest game in the NHL annually,” Matt Majka said. “They’ve always said that this market is deserving and our fans are deserving.

“We have been surprised at how long it took to come to the State of Hockey. But all of that’s behind us now.”

The big event will also coincide with the Wild’s 20th anniversary season, “so maybe it’s a good thing that we waited this long,” Majka said.

The Wild’s opponent for the big game is still a mystery. That announcement likely has a “weeks” timeline attached to it, according to Majka. The league is looking at a few factors, including a rivalry opponent, a solid national draw and an opponent whose fans will travel well. Some of the speculation/hopes floating around on social media from fans have been Colorado, St. Louis, Chicago or Winnipeg.

In 2016 for the Stadium Series, the Wild hosted the Chicago Blackhawks, who’ve played in multiple Winter Classics, at TCF Bank Stadium on the University of Minnesota campus. The Wild won that game 6-1 in front of a paid crowd of 50,426. Only seven Wild players who skated in that game are still on Minnesota’s roster: Devan Dubnyk, Matt Dumba, Mikko Koivu, Parise, Jared Spurgeon, Ryan Suter and Jason Zucker. Dumba is the only one to register a point in that Stadium Series game, scoring the game’s first goal.

Suter reflected on what that experience was like.  

“You walk out there and see all the fans cheering loud,” Suter said. “It’s something I’ll never forget, and I’m sure this is going to be just as special.”

Next year’s outdoor game will be a new experience for much of the Wild’s roster, including veteran Eric Staal. The 35-year-old, who signed with the Wild in the summer of 2016 as a free agent, has never suited up for a Stadium Series or Winter Classic. He’ll finally get to have this hockey feat in common with his brothers.

“They’ve had nothing but positive experiences to say about it,” Staal said. “Pretty cool experience and something that was definitely on my radar of wanting to do before playing this game, and hopefully I get the opportunity next year to do it at Target Field.”

The Wild held their annual outdoor practice on Thursday at the St Louis Park Rec Center. (MHM Photo / Heather Rule)

The Winter Classic will house about 40,000 fans, though the final number will depend on where exactly the rink is configured on the field. Other MLB stadiums have hosted outdoor NHL games, too, including Wrigley Field, Fenway Park, Dodger Stadium, Yankee Stadium and Citi Field.

As Twins President & CEO Dave St. Peter acknowledged, Target Field wasn’t a venue built to host hockey in January, so the team will fully winterize the building in preparation. That includes making sure there’s running water for restrooms and fully operational concession stands throughout the park.

“That’s a commitment for us,” St. Peter said. “It was something that was necessary to host this event, and from our perspective, we thought it was worth it.”  

Of course, being in Minnesota, Target Field was also built for days “when the weather would be less than perfect,” St. Peter said. He added that the Target Field has more radiant heat than any ballpark in Major League Baseball with more interior spaces than most other parks, too.

Boudreau, who coached the Washington Capitals to a 3-1 victory over the Pittsburgh Penguins at Heinz Field in the 2011 Winter Classic, called the whole experience one of the best of his life. It was everything beyond the game itself that he really enjoyed, like the HBO TV special and the fans lined up along the streets as the team bus traveled from the hotel to the field.

Seeing all those fans along the way – either booing or cheering the Capitals bus – was a cool and memorable sight for Boudreau.

“I think that the state of Minnesota, the cities of Minneapolis and St. Paul and all the other little towns in between here, are going to put on quite a show for the national audience because I think people know this is the state of hockey,” Boudreau said. “They’ll go out and prove how much our people love hockey in this area.” 

The post Better Late Than Never appeared first on Minnesota Hockey Magazine.

Koivu celebrates 1,000 NHL games in storybook style

Bruce Boudreau was frank with the media after the game. He didn’t know what he was doing when choosing Minnesota Wild players for the team’s first shootout of the season against the Dallas Stars on Dec. 1.

After being tied 2-2 through the first three round of the shootout, Boudreau went with the captain, Mikko Koivu, who was skating in his 1,000th NHL game that afternoon in St. Paul.

“Initially, I wasn’t going to put him in because he hadn’t scored in a shootout in like two years,” Boudreau said. “And I figured he was rested because he didn’t play in overtime.

“It was his day, so all the stars were shining in the right direction.”

Mikko Koivu watches his shootout-winning goal hit the back of the net to lift the Wild to a 3-2 win over the Dallas Stars on Dec. 1 at Xcel Energy Center. (MHM Photo / Jeff Wegge)

The 36-year-old center became the 55th player in NHL history – out of 342 players to reach 1,000 games – to hit the milestone with the same organization. In the second period, he earned his 700th career point with the primary assist on Kevin Fiala’s power-play goal for a 1-0 lead.

Once called upon in the shootout, with his family in the arena to watch, Koivu went to his trademark backhanded move to score the game-winning goal against Dallas goaltender Ben Bishop.

The ending doesn’t get much more storybook than that.

“I think if you saw our bench after, you could see how excited the guys were for him,” said Wild forward Zach Parise. “It was the perfect ending to a special day for him.”

The scene Parise referred to was a complete mobbing of Koivu on the Wild bench once goaltender Alex Stalock stopped Corey Perry in the fourth round of the shootout to complete the Wild’s 3-2 victory over Dallas. Boudreau didn’t get in on the mob scene but said “it was pretty cool.”

“And that’s what you love about sports, is watching your team happy,” Boudreau said.

Said Koivu: “To be honest, to me that’s what hockey’s all about.”

The shootout victory was a nice touch on Koivu’s big day, but it also capped a comeback win after the Wild were down 2-1 late in the third period. The Wild, 0-4 in overtime games this season to that point, played their most complete extra session of the season before making it to the shootout.

Any extra pressure for Koivu when his name was called? Not really.

“I tried to look at it as an opportunity,” Koivu said. “Just tried to pick a move that I’m comfortable with. That’s pretty much all you can do. It’s always a challenge to go to the shootout against these goaltenders in this league.”

Unfortunately for Koivu, any good feelings from that game were likely dampened when he sustained a lower-body injury the following Tuesday against Florida on the road. He was placed on injured reserve Dec. 6. Despite that, he was honored prior to Tuesday’s home game against Anaheim to recognize his milestone of 1,000 games. 

Long-time teammates Niklas Backstrom, Kyle Brodziak, Marian Gaborik and Nick Schultz surprised Koivu, joining him and his family for the on-ice ceremony alongside Wild owner Craig Leipold and GM Bill Guerin. Fellow former teammates Stephane Veilleux, Mark Parrish and Ryan Carter joined forces for the “Let’s Play Hockey” call just prior to puck drop. 

“That was something that I’ll never forget,” Koivu told reporters after Tuesday’s game. “They built a culture around here early on when the team first got here and when I first got here. Gabby and Schultzie, they’re the guys that really showed me the way things are done here and showed me the way how we do business around here. Then, obviously Backie coming all the way from Finland and Brodzy.

“I tried calling and talking to those guys in the last couple days and no one answers the phone. Now I understand why.”

They are all part of his storied career, which includes Koivu being named the team’s first full-time captain a decade ago.

“I think everything that I do, and I’ve done, I’ve always tried to do what I believe is right,” Koivu said. “I’m sure I do things different now than I did seven, eight years ago. But I think one thing that hasn’t changed and won’t change is I believe in work and the work ethic you’ve got to put in.”

Koivu and teammate Kevin Fiala celebrate Fiala’s goal set up by the Wild captain’s 700th career assist in his 1000th game in the second period of Minnesota’s win over the Dallas Stars on Dec. 1 at Xcel Energy Center. (MHM Photo / Jeff Wegge)

His lengthy tenure with the club has put his name at the top of many categories in franchise history (with numbers through his first 999 games): Games played (999), assists (496), points (699), plus/minus rating (+70), shots on goal (2,241), power-play points (249), power-play assists (189), shorthanded points (25), shorthanded assists (15), multi-point games (150), face-offs won (10,159) and face-off taken (18,929). He’s also tied for first in overtime goals with 5 and second in goals (203).

He’s only the second Wild player to score 200 goals, with that mark coming Jan. 21, 2019 in Vegas. Gaborik holds the franchise record with 219 goals.

Koivu, a native of Finland, is the third player on the current Wild roster to skate in his 1,000th game. Defenseman Ryan Suter had the honor last October, and the Dallas game Dec. 1 marked No. 1,100 for him. Eric Staal hit the 1,200-games mark right after Thanksgiving. That’s more than 3,300 games between the trio.

Koivu’s milestone might have come last season had it not been for an ACL and meniscus tear in his right knee during a game in Buffalo in early February that ended his season, missing out on the final 29 games.

Of course, like many NHL players, Suter and Staal have played for multiple organizations. Koivu is someone who a player really appreciates once they’re on the same side, Staal said.

“He brings so much to the table,” Staal said. “Eats so many minutes that are important to having success as far as team play goes.”

As for the other side of the spectrum, Wild players Ryan Donato, Fiala and Luke Kunin were just 9 years old when Koivu made his NHL debut. Joel Eriksson Ek and Jordan Greenway were only 8.

Stalock recalled how cool it was as a kid to watch guys like Gaborik and then Koivu lead the way as the Wild’s “star power.”

“Obviously, he’s evolved into a leader, a father, a guy that a ton of young players have come into this locker room and looked up to,” Stalock said. “It’s a privilege for some of these guys to be able to watch a true pro like him prepare.”

The biggest thing Koivu said he’s learned, and is still learning, is dealing with the ups and downs, trying to stay even-keel every day. It goes beyond hockey and is also a good life lesson, according to Koivu.

“If you can keep that attitude and make sure that you control the things that you can, I think that’s when you can feel good about yourself,” Koivu said.

It shows. Stalock said he sees Koivu come to the rink each day with a mission and a drive to get better and strengthen his body.

Koivu is under contract through this season. Might he choose to retire, playing his entire NHL career in Minnesota? It’s a possibility.

Three banners hang from the rafters of Xcel Energy Center: The State of Hockey flag, a 2007-08 Northwest Division Champion banner in the middle and the retired No. 1 for Wild Fans to the right. Might Koivu’s No. 9 be lifted to the rafters as the first Wild player’s number to get that treatment?

It’s a possibility. And he’s built a strong case. 

The post Mighty Mikko Honored appeared first on Minnesota Hockey Magazine.

New month, same results for Wild

It’s pretty easy to say that the Wild were eager to turn the calendar to November. They finished a road-heavy schedule with just four wins – one on the road – and a start to the season that rivals that of their inaugural season back in 2000-01.

Unfortunately for the Wild, their first game post-Halloween was still a scary affair, even if it wasn’t all of their own doing (see: “Refs, you suck!” chant from the home fans). The Wild lost 4-3 in overtime to St. Louis on Saturday night at Xcel Energy Center, although the Wild did put the puck in the net four times. One of them just didn’t count.  

“I thought we were playing well,” said forward Luke Kunin. “Just an unfortunate couple of plays there. Unfortunately, we didn’t get the job done.”

After falling behind 2-1 through the first 20 minutes, the Wild took a 3-2 lead in the second period on goals from Kevin Fiala, his first of the season, and Mats Zuccarello, his second of the season and in as many games.

It looked like the Wild (4-9-1) added a two-goal cushion when Mikko Koivu’s shot hit the back of the net with 5 minutes, 29 seconds left in the second period. But St. Louis challenged the good-goal call and successfully had the goal overturned. Zach Parise was the one in front of the crease deemed to have kept Blues goaltender Jake Allen from doing his job.

“They said his elbow touched his (Allen’s) head, inside the blue,” Boudreau said. “But to me… he was moving into Zach.”

Wild forward Kevin Fiala scored his first goal of the season in Minnesota’s 4-3 overtime loss to the St. Louis Blues on Saturday night at Xcel Energy Center. (MHM Photo / Rick Olson)

Boudreau bluntly said after the game that “it wasn’t” goaltender interference. Parise said he didn’t agree with the call either, adding that he was a “good foot outside the crease.” Wild goaltender Devan Dubnyk had the most to say about the call, having been on the other side of these things a time or two. He called it a joke.

“You just never know what you’re getting,” Dubnyk said, of the goal reviews. “That’s probably the worst I’ve seen since they brought the review in.”

With just a one-goal lead to cling to, the Wild didn’t generate much the rest of the game. The Blues outshot the Wild 22-13 in the final two periods.

The Blues tied the game at three goals apiece on another questionable sequence. St. Louis’ Sammy Blais blatantly tripped Kunin, who was going for the puck in the Wild’s zone. Play went on but quickly ended when Blais went to the side of the net and scored his fifth of the season with 13:55 left to play in regulation. That earned the Wild a bench minor when Boudreau offered his protests.

In overtime, the Blues took control throughout, ending it with a Ryan O’Reilly goal with 2:27 left to give St. Louis a second victory over the Wild this week. The Blues (9-3-3) defeated the Wild 2-1 in St. Louis on Wednesday.

Losses are still losses, of course, although the Wild does earn a point in that third column for the overtime game. Of the Wild’s 14 games this season, just three have been one-goal games: A 4-3 home victory over Montreal on Oct. 20 and the last two games to the Blues.

While the Wild’s schedule is arguably one of the most unbalanced they’ve had in recent memory, it’s also showed some trends for home versus road games. Yes, the sample sizes are noticeably different. The Wild went 1-8 on the road in October and 3-1 at home before Saturday. The road struggles were real as the Wild were outscored 14-34 in those nine games, giving up four-or-more goals in seven of those nine games.

The Wild faltered in their home opener with a 7-4 showing against Pittsburgh to complete their 0-4 skid to start the season. The Wild were outscored 21-10 overall through those first four contests. Boudreau acknowledged after that game that goal scoring is not going to be this team’s forte; it’s going to be defense.

At home, the Wild seem to have responded well, or at least slightly better, even if it’s just going by the small sample size of games in St. Paul. They have a 4-3 victory over Montreal, a 3-0 shutout of Connor McDavid and the Pacific-Division leading Edmonton Oilers, plus a 5-1 win over the lowly Los Angeles Kings on home ice.  

Overall, the Wild have been outscored 33-49 this season, with a glaring margin coming in the third period, allowing 21 goals in the final 20 minutes; and they’ve allowed 19 in the second.

Both Zuccarello and Parise talked after Saturday’s game about needing to generate more chances. The Wild just don’t spend enough time in the offensive zone, according to Parise.

“You can’t rely on one iffy play to win or lose the game,” Parise said. 

The post November Pain appeared first on Minnesota Hockey Magazine.

Determined Wild stop the bleeding, top Canadiens for first home win

ST. PAUL — For the first couple weeks of the season, the Minnesota Wild had played by the same script. Give up multiple goals in a short span of time, get down on the scoreboard and get down on themselves en route to a checkmark in the loss column. Rinse and repeat.

That pattern ballooned into a 1-6-0 start which prompted a players-only meeting following a shutout loss in Montreal.

As the team returned to St. Paul for their second home game of the season on Sunday, also against the Montreal Canadiens, the Wild seemed to repeat the pattern with a 2-1 deficit in the second period thanks to goals 16 seconds apart.

But the Wild weren’t deterred.

“It was a different feel of the game for us,” said forward Jason Zucker. “It wasn’t like we were playing poorly, and it was just a matter of time until they scored. We were playing really well.

“We just stuck with it.”

The Wild started doing things they hadn’t this season, in a good way. They didn’t collapse after the quick goals. They entered the third period in a tie game. They scored four goals for the second time this season (the other was the 7-4 loss to Pittsburgh in the home opener). They even scored off the rush for a highlight-reel game-winner off Zach Parise’s stick.

All these things helped lift the Wild to a 4-3 victory over Montreal at home for their second victory of the season. Perhaps most importantly, aside from the win, was stopping the bleeding after those two quick goals against. It’s something that’s happened in nearly every game, and coach Bruce Boudreau has talked about it with his team.

 “So when they (Montreal) scored the second goal, I think determination was there that this isn’t going to happen again,” Boudreau said. “We’re not going to let it happen again. And they fought back. It was huge to get that goal at the end of the period.”

That was Marcus Foligno’s goal with 12.9 seconds left in the second period to tie the game, 2-2.

The Wild faced a second deficit when the Canadiens came out strong to start the third period in the 2-2 game. After a 5-0 shots-on-goal advantage in the first three minutes, Phillip Danault put Montreal in front again with his second goal of the game for a 3-2 lead.

The Wild didn’t let the floodgates open again. They didn’t sulk, Parise said.

“We still liked the way we were playing, and it was still a game,” Parise said. “The game wasn’t over.”

Through the first seven games, the Wild consistently scored two goals a game while giving up an average of four goals per game. For a win this time, their offense needed to keep the pressure on and score. That was part of the script that changed, too.

Though the Wild only registered 5 of their 33 shots in the final 20 minutes, they made the most of opportunities. Already with a power-play goal in the game thanks to Zucker giving the Wild a 1-0 lead, the Wild had the man advantage with 11:29 remaining in regulation. Brad Hunt blasted a slapshot from the circle into the net to tie the game up at 3 a mere 6 seconds into the power play in the third.

Boudreau said he loves seeing the emotion on the faces of his players, “especially when it’s good emotion.”

“When everybody was going over to Huntsy after he scored that goal, you could see that they were pumped up about that,” Boudreau said.

The Wild stayed focused on breaking the tie, responding with Parise’s goal a few minutes later.

Zach Parise, Mikko Koivu and Jason Zucker celebrate Parise’s winning goal. (MHM Photo / Rick Olson)

The play started with a clean exit from the Wild’s own zone, according to Parise, something he acknowledged they haven’t done a lot of this season, which would explain the lack of scoring chances off the rush. Zucker, skating on a line with Parise and Mikko Koivu, said he had time to make a play and either feed the puck to Hunt or try to feed it through.

Zucker fired a pass across the ice toward Parise as he enclosed on the net. Parise deflected the puck into the net for the 4-3 lead. That pass through the zone was probably the hardest, in terms of speed, that Zucker said he’s ever made.

“I still don’t know how he did it,” Zucker said, of Parise finishing the play. “I need to watch the replay, but that was impressive. I had to rip that pass to get it through.”

The relief and excitement washed all over Parise as he celebrated with his teammates on the ice.

“The way things have been going, the time of the game, a lot of losses, a lot of frustration piling up,” Parise said.

His goal ended up as the game-winner and reflected a better trend when it comes to tallying the time between goals. The Wild erased the deficit with a pair of goals in 4 minutes, 17 seconds with 7:06 to play in regulation.  

Perhaps it was some hard studying that paid off after the Wild studied video the day before, focusing on their turnovers and bad passes. The Zucker-to-Parise play certainly was the opposite of what the team has seen and done so far.

Boudreau called that pass “tremendous.”

“Tape-to-tape passes create speed,” Boudreau said. “If you can pass tape-to-tape, it has the illusion that you’re skating a lot faster because I’ve never seen a guy skate faster than a puck.”

With so much not going right for the Wild to start this season, one game is still just one game in the first couple weeks of an 82-game season. The question on the minds of many Wild fans after Sunday’s victory might be: How can the team sustain this glimmer of success they had against one opponent to earn one important, confidence-boosting win?

“We need to remember this feeling,” Zucker said. “This feels great. It’s awesome to have a win.” 

The post Wild shift the script appeared first on Minnesota Hockey Magazine.