These stats were padded with another chapter when the Vegas Golden Knights defeated the Wild 3-2 in Game 6 Thursday night to close out the series, 4-2.

To add salt to the wound, this stat was posted from the @OptaSTATS account on Twitter/X just before midnight after the loss:

“The Wild are the first team in MLB/NBA/NFL/NHL history to make the playoffs 8+ times in a 10-year span but lost in the opening round every time.”

So yes, Minnesota sports and all that.

“We hear the noise of getting by the first round,” said Wild forward Marcus Foligno. “We understand it. We really felt like we could have done it this year, and that’s the disappointing part, right? But we always want to be a team that has commitment and will and sacrifice and comes together as a family, and that’s what our fans deserve.”

Minnesota Wild fans waved their rally towels at Xcel Energy Center during Game 6. (MHM Photo / Rick Olson)

Writing “same old Wild” and ending the piece here wouldn’t be much of a story. Besides, it’s already been typed probably hundreds of times on social media by diehard and casual hockey fans.

While some of those franchise stats are the same when it comes to the playoffs, this season and playoff series was not the “same old Wild.” It’s okay for disappointment with the overall results – the win/loss record – while also enjoying the good chapters written along the way. Sports offer incredible moments, memories and amazing plays, along with frustration, anger and heartbreak.

“It’s tough,” Foligno said. “I mean, especially when you felt like you deserved better, right?

“It’s unfortunate we just couldn’t get our looks and get our bounces and move on like they did.”

Capitalizing on chances, miscues make or break a series
The loss absolutely stings for the Wild and their fans. Mistakes and missed opportunities are heightened during the playoffs, and this year was no exception.

In Game 4, the Wild had a chance to take a 3-1 series lead that’s eluded the franchise forever. Instead, they lost in overtime after a defensive miscue by Jake Middleton in the Wild’s zone led to the winning goal for Vegas. In Game 5, it was a goal getting overturned on a coaches’ challenge late in regulation of a tie game that will haunt the Wild – and Gustav Nyquist, who was offsides before Ryan Hartman put the puck in the net – for years to come.

Back home for a must-win Game 6, the Wild never led after giving up a power-play goal just 3 minutes, 30 seconds into the game. Vegas was also more opportunistic than the Wild and made a couple of great plays as they finally got production from a couple of their best players – Jack Eichel and Mark Stone.

Brock Faber handles the puck while Joel Eriksson Ek battles with Tomas Hertl. (MHM Photo / Rick Olson)

On the go-ahead goal, Wild defenseman Brock Faber pinched in from the blue line and didn’t get back once Vegas got control of the puck. It created a breakaway for Eichel, a superstar who didn’t miss the net, scoring his first goal of the series for a 2-1 Vegas lead late in the second period.

The Wild were down two goals late in the third but responded 31 seconds later to make it 3-2, the second time in the series the Wild had a quick answer in the third period. Minnesota had a flurry of chances in the final two minutes after pulling Filip Gustavsson for the extra attacker. But the clock ran out on the game and the Wild’s 2024-25 campaign.

The feeling was “raw” after the game for Wild coach John Hynes.

“I thought we worked enough and were playing well enough to be able to continue to push the series,” Hynes said. “Unfortunately, it didn’t go our way. But I commend the guys. This was a really fun group to coach, extremely competitive group, coachable.

“It’s obviously disappointing right now because you feel like you deserve a little bit better, at least in the last few games here, and unfortunately, it didn’t go that way.”

This wasn’t the average Wild playoff series
Vegas won the series with four victories in essentially one-goal games. The Golden Knights won three in a row with a pair of overtime victories and then Thursday’s 3-2 result. Game 1 was 4-2, but that included an empty-net goal just before time expired.

Both Gustavsson and Hartman mentioned the two overtime losses in their postgame comments Thursday. Gustavsson thought a moment before answering that the Wild should have one of those overtime games was a deciding factor. It’s small details in tight games, he added.

“I think years past we had some pretty good teams, but this one, those things we went through, the way we stuck with things,” Hartman said. “This one feels like we could have gone deep.

“We battled. Two overtime losses the last two games, and a close one tonight. Felt like it could have easily gone seven, but we felt like we had what it took to go forward.”

“Credit to them. They found a way to get it done,” said Wild coach John Hynes, following the Game 6 loss. (MHM Photo / Rick Olson)

The Wild were close. They were right there. For many stretches in the series they outplayed Vegas. Gustavsson looked like the better goaltender than Adin Hill at the other end. That’s what was so different about this playoff series for the Wild, and perhaps what will make the loss sting that much more.

Minnesota wasn’t overmatched. The Wild didn’t run into a brick wall of a hot goaltender. They didn’t struggle to score goals and generate offense. Their top players didn’t figuratively disappear. All problems that have plagued this franchise for years in the playoffs.

The only game that looked similar to years past was Game 6, because of the close-but-no-cigar chances the Wild had to score more than two goals. The Wild outshot Vegas 31-23 in the game, but they left so much on the table when it came to finishing off plays. It wasn’t for lack of trying or offensive zone time.

Wild fans have seen the movie before, where a puck bounces one way, a player’s stick is just in the wrong spot, a gaping net is staring at the Wild while the goalie is out of position, but they can’t cash in, for whatever reason. That’s hockey, and no matter how many chances the Wild generated with their season on the line, the puck wasn’t finding the back of the net when they needed it the most.

“You feel a little bit gut-punched,” Foligno said. “It does feel a little bit like that. You’re feeling ‘what do we have to do in order to get by, what’s next’ type thing, that’s the game of hockey. That’s why it’s frustrating to play it, but it can give you the best thing in the world and what we all dream of, and that’s winning the Stanley Cup and that’s our goal and always will be.

“But it feels like we had something a lot better, a lot different this year.”

Hartman, goal scoring and one last moment for Flower
In Game 6, the Wild got two goals from Hartman, who played excellent – and disciplined – hockey throughout the series. He had four assists coming into Game 6 before finally getting a goal that counted with four seconds left in the first period to tie the game 1-1. Hartman also buried the puck from the side of the cage with 3:27 remaining in regulation. He had another great chance off a feed from Kirill Kaprizov earlier in the third period but couldn’t finish the play with a goal; Hartman banged his stick on the end glass in frustration.

Ryan Hartman scored two goals, both in Game 6, and four assists in the six-game playoff series. (MHM Photo / Rick Olson)

Hartman bounced back well this season from an eight-game suspension for roughing in a game in Ottawa in early February. It left a Wild team riddled with injuries all season even more shorthanded at the time. But he was a catalyst for the Wild in this series. Hynes said Thursday that Hartman “grew a little bit” coming back from the suspension.

“I think just his mental focus really when he came back from that coming down the stretch to end the regular season and into the playoffs,” Hynes said. “Just more focused, channeled his energy the right way, played the game the right way, and he had a great playoffs for us. It was really good to see.”

Hynes added that Hartman has a competitive gene which produces an ability and mindset to play his best during a hard playoff series. But Hartman, who’s played in the last five playoff series losses with the Wild, wasn’t interested in focusing on the personal positives of his game.

“I’d rather have been out of the lineup and we’d move on,” Hartman said. “It really doesn’t (expletive) matter.”

Hartman wasn’t the only bright spot in this series. The Wild’s top line of Kaprizov, Joel Eriksson Ek and Matt Boldy combined for 10 goals and nine assists, with Kaprizov and Boldy each scoring five goals. Though they were kept off the scoresheet in the final game, the Wild received the kind of play they needed from this trio. As a reminder, two of those players missed a combined 77 games this season due to injury. Eriksson Ek and Kaprizov each returned to the lineup April 9, with Eriksson Ek scoring four goals while Kaprizov notched two.  

Boldy, who played in all 88 games this season, showed the type of skill and hustle expected of a top-line winger. Eriksson Ek’s presence is felt all over the ice, including with the level of physicality and in the faceoff circle, although he wasn’t able to get a goal in these past six games. Kaprizov is one of the best players in the league and was playing like an MVP candidate before his injury around Christmas.

One of the best plays of the series was Kaprizov’s saucer pass to Boldy up the ice for a goal in Game 2 Boldy called it the best pass he’d ever seen. Foligno quipped during that press conference that it was a “rude” thing for Boldy to say, since he assisted on Boldy’s first NHL goal.

Foligno was another player who threw his weight around in the series, both with hits and offensively. He scored three goals in the series and assisted on Hartman’s first goal of the night Thursday. Foligno came into Thursday leading the league with 38 hits in the playoffs; he finished with 42 hits in six games.

The end of the Wild’s season also marks the end of goaltender Marc-Andre Fleury’s NHL career. (MHM Photo / Rick Olson)

Gustavsson had his own highlight reel of important saves when his team needed it. He played all but the third period and overtime of Game 5, exiting because he was sick. That gave Marc-Andre Fleury one more period-plus of NHL hockey before his expected retirement at 40 years old.

As the traditional post-series handshakes ended, the fans who remained at Xcel Energy Center started a “Fleury! Fleury! Fleury!” chant in appreciation. He gave a brief acknowledgement to the crowd before being the first Wild player to skate off the ice and down the tunnel; the rest of the Wild players and the Vegas players stayed on the ice and offered stick taps to acknowledge the future hall of famer. It was a brief moment shortened by the deflating team loss.

Still, it was an emotional scene for Foligno, though it’s safe to say he wasn’t the only one.  

“You feel for him,” Foligno said. “I think we all pushed really hard for him and trying to extend this as long as we can. The big goal was to go out a winner. That would have been the ultimate sacrifice and ultimate dream going out.

“We’re all very fortunate in this room to have played with him.”

Gallery: Wild vs. Golden Knights

The post Early Exit appeared first on Minnesota Hockey Magazine.

But Joel Eriksson Ek tied the game 2-2 officially with 22 seconds remaining in regulation Tuesday night against the Anaheim Ducks at Xcel Energy Center. That goal helped send the Wild to the playoffs; all they needed was one point in the game, which they achieved when they sent the game to overtime.

With the playoff spot clinched at the end of regulation, starting goaltender Filip Gustavsson wanted a word with coach John Hynes at the bench.

“He came to me and just said, ‘We get in, do you think we could put Flower in?’” Hynes said. “I was like, ‘Yeah, great idea.’”

So, as the teams prepared for the reset before 3-on-3 overtime, backup netminder Marc-Andre Fleury got off the bench and started stretching on the ice. Fans noticed, and the cheers grew louder as he took his place in the crease. The 40-year-old goaltender was coming in cold. But the move was heartwarming.

He was thrown right into the fire, too, as the Wild went on the penalty kill just 18 seconds into overtime, the only Wild penalty of the night.

No worries. The Flower squeezed a vintage performance into the overtime period that lasted nearly the full five minutes. Fleury made five saves in his 4:42 of ice time to earn his 575th career victory. Along the way, he also got some help from his friend, the goal post, with a Ducks shot that just missed. He made sure to thank the post in his traditional way, by giving it a quick tap with his glove hand. Fleury also made a sprawling pad save earlier in the sequence.

Marc-Andre Fleury won his 575th career game on Tuesday night, playing only the overtime period. (MHM Photo / Rick Olson)

“That was just an unbelievable regular season ending to Marc-Andre Fleury’s career,” said winger Marcus Foligno. “To come in and get awarded a penalty, too, to kill a penalty kill, we’re all looking at each other like are you kidding me? I can’t believe the ref called that to just throw Flower under the bus like that. And then to see two poke-check saves and a post and keep playing the puck, too, it was electric and it’s so fitting for the way you can end that guy’s regular-season career.”

His saves helped keep overtime alive, and the Wild eventually won the game 3-2 on a Matt Boldy goal with 18 seconds left. While it’s traditional to mob the player who scored the game winner, Fleury’s teammates mobbed him near center ice.

“I think our fate was winning the game like we did,” said Wild defenseman Jake Middleton. “Maybe it was fate to go to overtime and get Flower in net the way we did, too. What a all-class move by Gus there, too. Very cool.”

A fond memory
Fleury said he was “very surprised,” plus a little shocked and a little worried when he was called upon for overtime.

“I’d been sitting there for a few hours,” Fleury said. “A good talk from Gus, and obviously Hynes let me go in, too. I’m happy I got to go play just a little bit more at home.”

He was a much happier hockey player than six days earlier when he stood in front of his locker stall following another Wild overtime win, but in that topsy-turvy game against San Jose, Fleury allowed seven goals. That game last Wednesday was set up to be his final home start of the regular season in his career. Afterward, he could only take solace in the fact that the team got the important two points, and the emotions of the national anthem, when his three children joined him in the goal crease.

“I think I’ll remember the national anthem and having two points,” Fleury said, after the game against San Jose.

The Wild had a chance to win-and-get-in in Calgary on Friday, but they lost 4-2 and Fleury saw a few minutes in net late in the game when Gustavsson was pulled. That meant Fleury didn’t start in Vancouver the next night either, which was a likely plan, but the Wild still needed the valuable points and went with Gustavsson in net.

It looked like Fleury might not see meaningful minutes or get another shot at a regular-season sendoff. Until overtime, with the relief of the playoff clinch scenario in the bag.

“I feel lucky to have another chance to play in front of them,” Fleury said, of his family in attendance and the Wild fans, who went nuts for his entrance into the game and showered him with “FLEURY! FLEURY!” chants. “Get a win. Not give up seven goals. That was nice, too. Hopefully they remember that time.

Fleury had tears in his eyes by the end of the postgame media session: “It was fun to go one more time out there and play the game I love. That was cool.” 

After the victory, the Wild players and fans saluted Fleury as he stood at center ice with a graphic on the videoboard above thanking him: “Merci Fleury.”

Flower deserves all his flowers. That seems to be the unanimous opinion among Wild players.

“Every compliment, everything that’s been thrown his way, he deserves,” Middleton said. “He’s just one of the best dudes in hockey.

The post Flowers For Fleury appeared first on Minnesota Hockey Magazine.

No, not “booze,” although that was perhaps a pregame (and postgame) focus for many Minnesota Wild fans taking part in St. Patrick’s Day weekend festivities on West Seventh Street in downtown St. Paul.

First, fans directed boos at the scoreboard Saturday when the starting lineup for the visiting St. Louis Blues was announced, notably when former Wild defenseman Ryan Suter’s name came up. Then Wild fans – among the 800th sellout crowd at Xcel Energy Center – let the boos rain down when the Blues went up 3-0 on the Wild in the second period.

The Wild got on the board 25 seconds later, but it was an overall lackluster and sloppy effort from Minnesota as it fell 5-1. The loss dropped the Wild to 1-2-1 on this seven-game homestand and 3-6-1 in the last 10 games.

March Madness? More like March Sadness for Wild fans this season.  

“We definitely need more jam in our game, especially at this time of year,” said defenseman Jake Middleton, who scored the Wild’s lone goal Saturday. “We were just kind of waiting, I thought.”

Waiting for a hero to save them? No, Chad Kroeger. Middleton said they’re waiting for the next guy on the team to score. But it takes a team effort.

The Wild are obviously missing its superstar Kirill Kaprizov, who’s played only three games since Dec. 23 and is out for an unknown timetable with a lower-body injury that required surgery. Jonas Brodin and Joel Eriksson Ek are out injured, too.

“The guys we got in the lineup, we just got to figure out a way to bring it every night and compete,” Middleton said. “I think we have more than we had tonight.”

But in its most grueling part of the schedule late in the season, the Wild are floundering and failing to put pucks in the net. Getting a goal a game as a team isn’t going to cut it (that 1-0 victory, no doubt a solid win, March 2 in Boston aside).

Next man up?
Earlier in the season, the Wild preached the cliché of a “next-man-up mentality” when they were consistently shorthanded in the lineup because of injuries. They’ve had their fair share up and down the roster since October. For a while, the Wild weathered that storm by getting wins, points and goal production from guys not named Kaprizov.

It’s just not happening lately. In six of the last 10 games, the Wild have scored only one goal through regulation time. They’re 2-4 in those games. There’s the 1-0 victory against the Bruins and a 2-1 shootout victory against Colorado on March 11.

The Wild had to rally for a pair of third-period goals Thursday against the New York Rangers, or it would have been four consecutive games with just one goal. That Rangers prevailed 3-2 in overtime. Marcus Johnasson scored in that game, marking his first goal since Jan. 7. The Wild played strong defensively in that game, leading coach John Hynes to give his players credit in his postgame comments Thursday.

“I think we’re playing extremely hard and strong attention to detail, playing the way you really need to win this time of year there,” Hynes said, after the loss to the Rangers. “They’re highly competitive games.”

Top-line drought
But despite the playoff-type atmosphere that some of these games take on, there are other goal droughts on the team. Matt Boldy and Mats Zuccarello have played on the first line with center Marco Rossi. They’re just not producing.

Boldy hasn’t scored since just after the break in the Feb. 22 game at Detroit, a 4-3 overtime victory for the Wild. That’s zero goals in 10 games for him, and only five assists. He still leads the team this season with 21 goals and 55 points.  

Rossi’s goal drought pushed to nine games after Saturday, with only three assists in that span. He had the overtime winner in Detroit in that Feb. 22 game. The Wild had just 18 shots on goal Saturday, one each for Boldy and Rossi.

Zuccarello snapped a 10-game goalless streak with a goal Feb. 28 at Colorado. He has three goals and two assists across his last eight games.

“That’s no secret that we’re struggling to score goals as of late,” Zuccarello said. “We got to find a way to do it. They score on their chances, and we don’t.”

Zuccarello also acknowledged that losing 5-1 at home is not acceptable, adding “everyone in here knows it’s embarrassing for us to play like that, but what are we going to say? You’ve got to take it on the chin right now, and it’s not good enough.”

The Wild have consistently been a better road team this season, going just 15-15-2 at home. They’ve had some rough losses, lopsided ones, on home ice this season. A 7-1 loss to Edmonton on Dec. 12 that started a five-game homestand. A 6-1 loss to Florida later in that same home stretch. Another 6-1 loss vs. Colorado on Jan. 9.

The 5-1 loss Saturday could be added to the list, though this one comes when the Wild are playing nearly every other day throughout a busy month of March.

“It’s a competitive time of the year,” Hynes said. “Tonight, I thought there (were) some certain circumstances in the game where I think our attention to detail wasn’t where it needed to be.

“We didn’t have it tonight. … We’re in a tight race. Our team reacts, responds, works, competes all the time.”

The Wild have 79 points and are still in the first Wild Card spot for the postseason.

The Wild have another shot to right the ship, which keeps taking on water at Xcel Energy center this season, on Monday when Los Angeles visits.

“We’ve got to continue to have the belief that it’ll come,” said defenseman Zach Bogosian. “You know, we’ve had our share of looks in these past few games. Unfortunately, they’re not going in right now. But we have to continue to keep directing pucks at their net and you know eventually they’ll go in.”

The post Wild Scoring Woes appeared first on Minnesota Hockey Magazine.

Minnesota, already leading the St. Louis Blues 2-0 after getting two goals in the opening 2 minutes, 12 seconds, lost one of its best defensemen when Brock Faber departed halfway through the first period because of an upper-body injury. The Blues took advantage.

Pavel Buchnevich beat Wild goalie Filip Gustavsson at 13:26 of the first. St. Louis’ Jordan Kyrou, Jake Neighbours and Robert Thomas scored early in the second to chase Gustavsson and quiet the building.

A year ago, that would have been it for the Wild.

Already without superstar winger Kirill Kaprizov (lower body) and defenseman Jared Spurgeon (lower body), the loss of Faber and the four Blues goals would have been the perfect excuse to give up.

The Wild did the opposite.

Players stepped up
Joel Eriksson Ek, who missed 11 games earlier this season because of injury, scored before the second period ended. Defenseman Jake Middleton, returning from an 11-game absence, tied the score 1:16 into the third period and Matt Boldy scored off a Mats Zuccarello pass less than two minutes later to give the Wild the lead.

Marcus Johansson added an empty-net goal to end a three-minute sequence in which Johansson, Eriksson Ek, Ryan Hartman and defensemen Zach Bogosian and Jonas Brodin had to stay on the ice because of multiple icings but managed to fight their fatigue, block numerous shots and hold off the Blues for a 6-4 victory.

Their willingness to continue to battle in front of goalie Marc-Andre Fleury was one of the team’s most impressive stretches of hockey this season.

“A year ago this time, we probably didn’t have players step up the way they’ve stepped up this year,” coach John Hynes said. “That’s a credit to the players. The players are really playing hard for each other, for the team and doing what’s required to win, whether that’s blocking a shot or trying to score a goal or playing a 50-50 shift, whatever that is. The guys are committed to playing the right way for each other, and we’re finding ways to win.”

The victory over the Blues was just the latest test of the Wild’s resolve. The challenges began with a seven-game trip early in the season. in which Minnesota went 5-1-1. The Wild were 20-6-4 on Dec. 15 when they lost the first of four in a row, including a 6-1 home loss to Florida and a 5-0 defeat in Winnipeg. The Wild didn’t fold and, instead, won their next game over Chicago before starting the Christmas break.

The Wild returned without Kaprizov, who was tied for second in the NHL in goals (23) and eighth in points (50) at the time. Center Marco Rossi, Boldy and Zuccarello have played on the top line without their Russian star and the team has gone 5-1. The Wild will take a four-game winning streak into Thursday night’s game against the Colorado Avalanche at Xcel Energy Center. That includes impressive wins last week in Washington and Carolina.

The Wild (26-11-4) are at the halfway mark of their season and are two points behind the first-place Jets in the Central Division. They are an incredible 15-3-3 on the road, leaving room for improvement on an 11-8-1 mark in downtown St. Paul. Last season at this time, the Wild were in the midst of a four-game losing streak and were 17-19-5.

Headed in right direction with Hynes
The roster is largely the same, but the mindset and resilience make this a very different team. Hynes has plenty to do with that. He took over after Dean Evason was fired 19 games into last season, but didn’t get the chance to put all of his systems and philosophy into place until training camp opened in September.

It didn’t hurt that many Wild players were embarrassed by how easy they were to play against and the fact they missed the postseason.

What the Wild are doing isn’t easy. Being willing to block shots earns the appreciation of teammates, but it also takes a toll. Brodin was limping as he came into the Wild’s main locker room late Tuesday to talk to the media. He was smiling and said he was fine, but logging 33:02 of ice time isn’t a recipe to feel your best.

That is how games are won, and many Wild teams haven’t been willing to pay that price. This doesn’t mean the season is a success. There are still 41 games remaining and the intensity will grow as the season progresses.

Then you have the postseason, in which time and space disappear and sacrificing one’s body and playing through injury becomes the expectation. The Wild, who missed the playoffs for only the second time in 12 seasons last spring, haven’t advanced past the first round since the 2014-15 season.

That will be the real test for a franchise that hasn’t been to the Western Conference finals since 2003. Until the Wild wins a round, or two, there will be a healthy amount of skepticism about how different this team really is. The good news is it appears Hynes has things heading in the right direction.

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The post Halfway Mark appeared first on Minnesota Hockey Magazine.

The reason?

Far too many forwards haven’t provided enough, especially with center Joel Eriksson Ek out the past 10 games because of a lower-body injury. Eriksson Ek is the Wild’s best center and his loss is a big one, but that doesn’t mean everyone who isn’t on the first line has permission to disappear.

Yet, that’s what has happened.

Boldy’s slumping – again
The biggest disappointment is winger Matt Boldy, who had 11 goals and 22 points in the first 20 games of the season. Boldy is one of the Wild’s most important and dynamic players and has the ability to drive a line from the wing. But since his great start, he has two goals and eight points in 15 games and has had goalless stretches of six, three and five games.

Boldy has been playing on second line with Marcus Johansson on the other wing. Ryan Hartman was elevated to second line center after Marco Rossi was moved to the first line to replace the injured Eriksson Ek. Hartman’s struggles became such that he was recently demoted to third line right winger as Freddy Gaudreau was elevated to second line center.

During a four-game stretch earlier in December, Boldy took six minor penalties, getting called for a minor in four consecutive games. (MHM Photo / Rick Olson)

Boldy, 23, has had these types of slumps before, but in his fourth season these extended droughts should be a thing of the past for a player who has been named to the U.S. team for the 4 Nations Face-Off.

When Boldy is going well, he plays an aggressive game, using his 6-foot-1, 200-pound frame to his advantage. When Boldy isn’t going well, he stops moving his feet and takes penalties because he’s reaching with his stick.

That’s been the Boldy we’ve seen far too much of in recent games, and that needs to change when the Wild come back from its break with a game on Friday night in Dallas. If Eriksson Ek has returned and Rossi is back to center the second line, that would be great, but Boldy’s lack of production can not be excused because another player is injured.

Hartman, and others, aren’t producing either
That gets us to Hartman and a cold spell that has turned frigid. Hartman hasn’t scored a goal since Nov. 19 at St. Louis. He has no goals and two assists in his past 17 games and has only four goals and seven points in 30 games this season. Hartman, 30, was signed to a three-year, $12 million contract at the start of last season and is playing like a guy who belongs in the press box, only the Wild doesn’t have enough depth to put him there for a game or two.

Boldy and Hartman are only two who belong on the list of disappointments in a season that started out so well for the Wild. Winger Johansson, who somehow never gets demoted from the second line, has one goal and six points in 15 games. Gaudreau, who is an extremely hard worker but belongs in the bottom six, has two goals and three points in his past 16 games and no points since being promoted to the second line.

There are guys on the third line who could be providing more, but you probably get the point. The Wild have had some key guys out of the lineup, including Eriksson Ek and defenseman Jake Middleton, but if this team is going to make the playoffs it is imperative that others contribute.

Ryan Hartman, pictured here playing against the Chicago Blackhawks in a preseason game, only has four goals so far this season. (MHM Photo / Rick Olson)

It was a pleasant surprise that the Wild got such a good game out of its fourth line of Devin Shore, Ben Jones and Yakov Trenin against the Blackhawks. That line and the first line of Kirill Kaprizov, Rossi and Mats Zuccarello were the team’s best two units.

Two of the Wild’s four goals came from defensemen Jared Spurgeon and Brock Faber, and Marcus Foligno’s goal into an empty net and was his first in 16 games.

Kaprizov’s 23 goals are tied for second in the NHL, but he can’t do it by himself. Rossi has five goals and eight points in 10 games since moving to the first line and Zuccarello has one goal and five points in six games since returning from a lower-body injury.

So how does Hynes get more production from all of his lines — especially the second one?

“I think this is a break at a key time for us and I give the players a lot of credit,” he said. “We’ve been going at max capacity and really dialed in from training camp until now and there’s been way more success than there has been failure. But I also think that guys have really pushed and guys have produced at certain times. It’s important for our group now to be able to get away from it for a few days, come off a win in a game that we played well and then now it’s come back and then we just reset and get moving forward. I think that’s something that everybody needs.”

If that isn’t the answer, the Wild’s fantastic start to the season could be for naught.

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The post Lack Of Production appeared first on Minnesota Hockey Magazine.

It took until mid-December, but the Wild had finally lost back-to-back games in regulation. Make it three in a row – all in front of the home crowd – after Friday’s 2-1 loss to the Utah Hockey Club.

While the loss to the Oilers sticks out as the worst of the bunch, and as uncharacteristic as it may have been for the Wild, it also marks the start of a rough stretch for Minnesota. They’ve lost four of five games and now have a three-game skid.

But Hynes is staying as even-keeled as ever.

“Sometimes when you’re winning games, too, maybe you’re not playing great, but you’re finding ways to win, right?” Hynes said after Friday’s game. “At the end of the day, it is about the end result. I think over the course of 82 games, you’re going to have segments where it’s tough.

“In tonight’s game, you’re going to have games like this throughout the season. … We probably deserved, or played well enough to win the game, but we didn’t win it. As I said before, I think when you’re winning, everything’s not as great as you think it is. And when you’re losing, everything’s not as bad as you think it is. It’s staying the course and making sure you’re staying focused on the things you can control, which is your game.”

The Wild took a 1-0 lead in the first period against Utah on Friday with a goal off an odd-man rush. Marco Rossi took the puck into the zone, and passed it over to Mats Zuccarello who tossed it back to Kirill Kaprizov. One more pass and Zuccarello finished the play for his seventh goal of the season.

But Utah’s Dylan Guenther tied it with a goal against Marc-Andre Fleury exactly one minute later to create a 1-1 stalemate until halfway through the third period. Guenther scored the eventual game-winner only five seconds into a power play. On the homestand, the Wild’s penalty kill – which went 2-for-3 on Friday – has allowed goals five seconds, seven seconds and five seconds into penalties after losing a defensive-zone faceoff.

The Wild outshot Utah 29-18 but couldn’t find the equalizer. Utah has won six of its last seven games, the only defeat being a 5-4 shootout loss to the Wild on Dec. 10.

“This is the joy of an 82-game season,” said Wild winger Marcus Foligno. “You’re going to have some losses where you just scratch your head. Did we deserve better? Yeah, for sure. A loss is a loss.”

Marcus Foligno, pictured in front of the net against Vegas on Dec. 15, said after the game against Utah: “I don’t think we’re getting a lot of production right now offensively from a lot of other individuals, including myself.” (MHM Photo / Rick Olson)

Wild have been solid this season at bouncing back
The day after the loss to the Oilers – a game in which the Wild also lost yet another player to injury in Jake Middleton – Hynes spoke with the media after practice about what’s allowed the Wild to bounce back so well from any loss this season.

“I think you have more of a foundation as a group,” Hynes said. “Going back to training camp. And not that everything is about training camp, but you do have a foundation that you can instill there in the way that you want to play.”

This is Hynes’ first full season behind the bench with the Wild. He was hired on Nov. 23, 2023 after general manager Bill Guerin fired Dean Evason from the position. The Wild couldn’t recover from last season’s tough start and missed the playoffs. But with a fresh new season, Hynes started with the Wild from day one in 2024-25.

Similar look, different results
The Wild’s roster this season includes many of the same names from last season. Forward Frederick Gaudreau is part of that list, coming off a tough season on the stats sheet with only five goals in 2023-24.

This season, Gaudreau surpassed his goal total against the Oilers on Dec. 12. Through Friday, he has six goals and nine assists this season. So, what’s made the start to this season so special for this particular version of the Wild? Gaudreau pointed to having more time to get into the systems and everyone getting on the same page.

“Last year was a lot of adversity,” Gaudreau said, following practice on Dec. 13. “But the character of the group was the same. Guys showing up at the rink for the same purpose, working out every day with a good attitude. I think going through hard moments like that, you just carry those moments of adversity in the season. Like this year, now we’ve been able to surf the waves a little better and ride the momentum a little better.”

Through the first couple of months of the season, Hynes has led the Wild to becoming one of the best teams in the league. Hynes said they’ve instilled the foundation, bought into it, executed it and believed in it.

“Everything’s great when you win and everything’s bad when you lose,” Hynes said on Dec. 13. “That’s just the game that we’re in. So, I think the focus of the group, the way we go about our business is being on to the next one.

“When you win are you going to get too high on the hog, and then your game starts to slip? We haven’t seen that.”

The post Games Like This appeared first on Minnesota Hockey Magazine.

Two players also made debuts with the Wild this season. Here are five rules from the one-goal loss to Vegas:

1. Kirill Kaprizov is thrilling – as always – and is tied for the NHL lead with 22 goals.

Kaprizov is just putting on a show.

He scored both Wild goals Sunday night, his first giving the Wild a 1-0 lead only 1 minute, 30 seconds into the game. His season goal total is now at 22 tallies, tied for the NHL lead with Edmonton’s Leon Draisaitl. Kaprizov also leads the league with six multi-goal games, although he’s still looking for his first hat trick this season.

The Wild celebrate one of Kirill Kaprizov’s goals against Vegas on Dec. 15 at Xcel Energy Center. Mats Zuccarello (right) assisted on each goal. (MHM Photo / Rick Olson)

Kaprizov has four goals over his last two games and his 22 goals in 30 games means he has the most goals by a Wild player through 30 games played in a season. That’s a better mark than previous Wild stud Marian Gaborik, who scored 20 goals in 33 games during the 2006-07 season.

On his second goal against Ilya Samsonov, a friend of Kaprizov’s, the Wild winger pointed to the puck in the net after Samsonov appeared to freeze in the crease with his glove arm elevated. On the play, Kaprizov grabbed the puck out of the air, placed it on the ice in the circle and fired it top-shelf, over Samsonzov’s shoulder.

“I just saw it was in,” Kaprizov said, even though he didn’t see any fans immediately jumping for joy. It was just a delayed reaction.

2. Peanut butter and jelly combine for a pair of goals.

With Mats Zuccarello back from injury this weekend, he’s reunited on the right wing with his buddy Kaprizov on the opposite wing. Zuccarello assisted on both of Kaprizov’s goals against Vegas. The first one took some work as Zuccarello wrestled the puck below the goal line and fed it to Kaprizov who was all alone in front of the net.

“It’s nice for Zuccy,” said Kaprizov, who added that Zuccarello didn’t play for a month but played well right away upon his return. “He did a great job. I’m happy for him.”

It’s fun seeing these two play together, said winger Marcus Foligno.

“It’s good for our team,” Foligno said. “It’s the way they play. They think so much alike. And it’s a special duo for sure.”

Zuccarello, who missed 13 games due to injury, notched his 37th multi-assist game wearing a Wild sweater. That passed Pierre-Marc Bouchard’s 36 multi-goal games for fifth in franchise history.

3. Jesper Wallstadt made 24 saves in his season debut with the Wild.

Jesper Wallstadt had a quick turnaround getting to St. Paul to make his season debut with the Wild. It’s the fourth regular-season start for him with Minnesota. (MHM Photo / Rick Olson)

Goaltender Jesper Wallstadt got the nod in net after he was called up Saturday under emergency conditions. Marc-Andre Fleury started against Philadelphia that afternoon, and Filip Gustavsson is dealing with an injury that Wild coach John Hynes said isn’t anything major.

Wallstadt allowed three goals on 27 shots against Vegas, taking the one-goal loss. Hynes said Wallstadt, who’s had a rough season with the Iowa Wild, “looked comfortable in net.”

“I think both teams battled,” Hynes said. “They (Vegas) were fortunate to get one more than we got.”

It marked Wallstedt’s fourth career start with the Wild but first at Xcel Energy Center during the regular season. He has a 3.05 goals-against average and .895 save percentage in four starts with the Wild.

“I was in the rink for a game less than 24 hours after I knew I was getting called up,” Wallstedt said. “So, it was quick, but fun being back and playing. But obviously I would have wanted the win.”

4. Travis Dermott registers 2 shots, 1 takeaway in his Wild debut.

The dawn of a new day lately seems to bring a new Wild player dealing with an injury. After defenseman Jake Middleton left Thursday’s game against Edmonton only 37 seconds into the contest with an upper-body injury, the Wild picked up Travis Dermott off waivers on Friday.

Dermott, who was with Edmonton, didn’t get left behind last week and instead dealt with a frantic travel schedule to reach Minnesota – again – and suit up for his new team. He said after Sunday’s game against Vegas that the quick turnaround was better for him, so he didn’t “overthink anything.”

He dressed with the Wild as the seventh defenseman as part of the Wild’s 11 forwards, seven defensemen lineup. He played 10 shifts in 7 minutes, 47 seconds of ice time against Vegas, his first game since Nov. 19 after a bunch of healthy scratches.

“The first (period) felt like I was gripping my stick a little tight, but as the game went along, you kind of sink into your natural activities,” Dermott said. “I’ve been playing hockey my whole life, so I think it comes back to you quick and it helps even more that these guys are so accommodating.”

Dermott put up two shots and a takeaway on the stats sheet against Vegas.

5. Hockey Hall of Famers say “Let’s Play Hockey!”

Wrapping up the end of the Wild’s recognition of Girls’ Hockey Weekend, the organization brought in Natalie Darwitz and Krissy Wendell-Pohl to lead fans in the “Let’s Play Hockey!” call at the start of Sunday’s game.

Darwitz and Wendell-Pohl, longtime friends and former hockey teammates at various levels, were inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame in Toronto together last month.

The Wild also hosted girls’ hockey clinics on the Xcel Energy Center ice following the Wild vs. Flyers game on Saturday afternoon.

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In a game that had a playoff feel, including the ill will that makes springtime hockey so fantastic, the Wild didn’t give an inch in a 3-2 overtime victory over the Vancouver Canucks. It was a game in which the Wild did not lead until Kirill Kaprizov blasted a shot past sprawling Canucks goalie Kevin Lankinen with 23.4 seconds remaining in the extra session.

The win gave the Wild an NHL-leading 38 points in 25 games and served as the latest bit of evidence that this version of the Wild is different. It’s not the team that missed the playoffs last season or the ones that got bounced in the first round of the playoffs seven of the eight seasons before that.

Most, if not all, of those clubs would have disappeared against a Canucks team that entered with a 10-2-0 road record and clearly thought it could kick sand in the face of the 98-Pound Weakling, or in this case, the Wild. The Canucks dealt out cross-check after cross-check as the officiating crew said “play on.” Former Wild defenseman Carson Soucy took the Canucks only penalty of the night and that was a tripping call.

No complaints, just work
There was a time when the Canucks’ tactics would have worked. Trailing 1-0 after one period and 2-1 after two, many Wild teams would have spent the third period complaining about the non-calls that didn’t go their way before calling it a night.

Jake Middleton (pictured here in a recent game against Winnipeg) tied the game on Tuesday for his fifth goal of the season. (MHM Photo / Rick Olson)

Instead, Jake Middleton tied the score only 1 minute, 43 seconds into the third period as goalie Filip Gustavsson provided the latest of his many fantastic performances this season. The Wild didn’t back down, they answered the Canucks on the scoresheet and didn’t hesitate to dish out the physical play right back.

“Both the teams were kind of (expletives) out there, but it was good,” Middleton said, using a word not fit for a family publication. “That was a fun hockey game. Xcel was rocking on a Tuesday. Hope you guys enjoyed it — I know we did.”

Said Gustavsson: “From the beginning, it was emotions, some very big hits and chirps back and forth. Everyone got going. Both teams just wanted to get this win so much. It was a very hard game to play.”

This was the latest step for a team that’s been answering challenges since going 5-1-1 on a tough early-season road trip.

Even after a recent loss, Wild bounce back
The most recent addition to the Wild’s expanding resume of success came in the past nine days. It started with a 4-1 loss to the Winnipeg Jets on Nov. 25 at Xcel Energy Center. The Jets and Wild entered the game as the top two teams in the Western Conference, but Winnipeg left with its seventh consecutive victory in the series.

The Wild didn’t play poorly in defeat — the Jets final goal came into an empty net — but Winnipeg goalie Connor Hellebuyck slammed the door time and time again as he made a season-high 43 saves.

This was the type of game that would have put previous Wild teams into a funk that would have lasted for a week.

But two days later, Kaprizov scored the game’s only goal and Gustavsson made 39 saves in a 1-0 victory at Buffalo. The Wild then beat Chicago and Nashville by identical 3-2 scores on Friday and Saturday. Kaprizov set up Jared Spurgeon for the OT winner against the Predators and then scored the OT winner himself four days later against Vancouver.

The Wild are doing this without first-line winger Mats Zuccarello, who has been placed on long-term injured reserve because of a lower-body injury, and without one of their top defenseman in Jonas Brodin, who is on IR because of an upper-body injury. There was concern after Tuesday’s win about first-line center Joel Eriksson Ek, who departed the game in overtime with what looked like an injury to his leg.

Through all of this, coach John Hynes has continued to push the right buttons and somehow has turned this collection into a resilient bunch that doesn’t have any interest in looking for excuses.

“I think coming into the game we knew the style of game it was going to be,” Hynes said. “They don’t give anything for free, they’re well structured, they compete, they have good depth, they play hard, have good goaltending. You know it’s going to be one of those types of games. Tonight, I thought we were challenged in different ways, but I thought we answered the challenges the right way.”

The post Zulgad: The Wild Are For Real appeared first on Minnesota Hockey Magazine.

Judd Zulgad writes about what’s led to the extremely solid start to the season for the Minnesota Wild.

This story was originally published in the MHM 2024-25 High School Preview issue.

The post What A Wild Start appeared first on Minnesota Hockey Magazine.

Anyone watching could undoubtedly see, and Wild defenseman Jake Middleton confirmed it after the game: The Wild (13-4-4) came out flying to start the game. They created scoring chances, pounced on rebounds and quickly turned the shots-on-goal category into a lopsided number.

The Jets (18-4-0) capitalized for a 4-1 victory that was not as lopsided as the score would indicate.

Here are five rules recapping Monday’s game:

1. Winnipeg goaltender Connor Hellebuyck stole the show.

The Wild could have easily taken a multi-goal lead only minutes into the game, but Jets goaltender Connor Hellebuyck didn’t let that happen. The Wild put up 22 shots on Hellebuyck in the first period, including a goal off the rebound from Middleton for a 1-0 lead. The Wild’s 22 shots on goal in the first period was the team’s highest single-period shot total this season. But the Jets tied the game 1 minute, 26 seconds later to create a stalemate that lasted until nearly halfway through the game.

The Wild were disappointed to not put a couple more pucks past Hellebuyck.

“But we threw a lot at him,” Middleton said. “That was probably the best first period we played all year, as far as not giving up shot opportunities and funneling pucks to the net.

“Tip your cap to Connor. He played really well, but we didn’t play the same game in the third.”

Hellebuyck improved to 14-10-2 in 29 career games against the Wild.

Connor Hellebuyck denies a shot from Wild defenseman Brock Faber. (MHM Photo / Rick Olson)

2. The Wild dominated play in the first two periods and shots on goal.

Unfortunately for the Wild, it doesn’t matter how many shots on goal you produce if they’re not going past the goal line.

“We threw the kitchen sink at him,” Middleton said, referring to Hellebuyck. “It’s disappointing. But there’s positives we can take from it.”

After peppering Hellebuyck with 39 shots through two periods, things tightened up in the third as the Jets held onto a one-goal lead. The Wild had only five shots on goal in the final period, finishing with a season-high 44. Sixteen of the Wild’s 18 skaters finished with at least one shot on goal.

“We had a lot of Grade-As, shot attempts, zone time, all those things,” said Wild coach John Hynes. “It kind of turned on a couple quick plays. Their second goal was something like that, and they got the power play later.

“That’s the story of the game.”

3. Kirill Kaprizov returned after missing a game in Calgary over the weekend.

Kirill Kaprizov returned to the lineup Monday after missing Saturday’s game in Calgary with a lower-body injury. He took a knee-to-knee, open-ice hit in last Thursday’s second period in Edmonton, although he returned to play the third period.

Kaprizov was back although he was held off the scoresheet for only the fourth time this season – twice now against the Jets. Kaprizov (13 goals, 21 assists this season) recorded five shots on goal in his 23 minutes on the ice, and he also had five shot attempts blocked.

“That’s what we expect when you have a guy like him in your lineup every night,” said Wild forward Matt Boldy.  “They’re going to put their best guys out there, and they did a good job tonight, but we’ve got to score goals.”

With the game tied 1-1 in the middle of the second period, Boldy fed Kaprizov a beautiful cross-ice pass while on the power play. Kaprizov fired a shot on goal but, as was the story of the night, was denied by Hellebuyck.

The Wild’s top player has garnered recent attention as one of the top points producers in the NHL so far this season. He came into Monday night’s game with a league-leading 12 multi-point games and 1.79 points per game.

Joel Eriksson Ek and Yakov Trenin get tangled up with Alex Iafallo in the Winnipeg zone, just before the Jets took a 2-1 lead at the other end. (MHM Photo / Rick Olson)

4. Nino Niederreiter continues to crush his former team.

Nino Niederreiter popped the game-winning goal in the second period for a 2-1 Jets lead. He also scored in the first meeting between the teams this year, a 2-1 Jets win in overtime back on Oct. 13. So, two of his eight goals this season have come against his former team where he spent parts of six seasons.

Niederreiter scored 110 goals and 228 points in 434 games wearing a Wild sweater from 2013-19. Including the two games this season and going back to the 2022-23 campaign, Niederrreiter has scored goals in seven of his last nine games against the Wild. He’s scored eight times and added two assists for 10 points in those nine games.

5. Jets fourth-liner Alex Iafallo reaches 100 career goals.

The University of Minnesota Duluth product, Jets winger Alex Iafallo, doubled his season goal total on Monday. First, he tied the game in the first period. On the Niederreiter goal, Iafallo didn’t show up on the scoresheet, but he tangled with Joel Eriksson Ek and Yakov Trenin at the other end of the ice. That left the Wild shorthanded during play, giving room for the Jets to take advantage.

Iafallo scored again with a power-play goal in the third period to give the Jets a two-goal lead. He deflected Neal Pionk’s shot through traffic.

“I barely touched it,” Pionk said. “That’s a great shot from up top, because we’re just talking about getting pucks to the net on power play right there, especially at the end. We need a goal to keep the momentum going.”

Iafallo reached the 100 career goals milestone and has four goals and eight points this season.

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