Looking at the calendar, the game Thursday between the Minnesota Wild and visiting Washington Capitals at Xcel Energy Center could have been the night Alex Ovechkin made NHL history. But he came into the game still needing six goals to pass Wayne Gretzky (894 goals) for the most goals scored by a player in NHL history. So, at the very least he could have scored a goal to get a little bit closer to the milestone.

That didn’t happen either. Ovechkin was held off the scoresheet in his 1,482nd NHL game as the Wild captured a comeback 4-2 victory over the Capitals, snapping their two-game losing streak.

So, about that memorable ending?

After Freddy Gaudreau scored an empty-netter for his second goal of the night to put the game away, and the final horn sounded, the Wild congratulated their starting goaltender Filip Gustavsson on his seventh victory of March. Some of the Capitals players made their way toward the tunnel leading to the locker room. Ovechkin called them back to the ice, and the Capitals lined up near center ice to form a handshake line.

They were led by Ovechkin and waiting for one Wild player: Marc-Andre Fleury.

The Wild goaltender has been backing up Gustavsson more often these days, which is more about the hot-hand of Gustavsson and that the Wild are playing for their playoff lives. So, the Flower didn’t start and didn’t play in Thursday’s game.

“It was a little surprise there at the end. Then Bogo (Zach Bogosian) told me to look back,” Fleury said the next day after practice. “Everybody gets on and we fist bump everybody and went to go see Gus after the game. They were all lined up.

“A little surprise. Little bit… weird, I would say. I didn’t play the game, and then the whole team’s lined up. Very classy.”

Ovechkin mentioned Thursday morning that this game would mark the last time going up against Fleury, regardless of if the legendary goaltender played a minute in between the pipes. It’s been one of many memorable moments this season for Fleury, who is on a one-year contract and will likely retire from the NHL after this season.

The handshake tribute after the game was something the Capitals wanted to do, said Washington coach Spencer Carbery.

“Just paying the respects he deserves and the impressive career,” Carbery said. “He’s done so much. They’ve had so many battles. He’s had so many battles with the Caps, with ‘O’ (Ovechkin). So, pretty classy to be able to send him off and just say how impressive a career he had.”

Fleury was one of Charlie Lindgren’s favorite goalies growing up. Lindgren, the 31-year-old Lakeville North grad who made 17 saves for the Capitals in the loss Thursday, said he loved watching him play.

“The way he competed, the way he battled, just his personality,” Lindgren said. “I never had the chance to talk to him. Heck of a career.”

Wild winger Marcus Foligno also mentioned watching a bit of the Ovi-vs.-Fleury rivalry over the years before the he came into the NHL.

“That relationship is a little bit of a hate-love, but it’s one of those where you just tip your cap to the other guys and the battles that you saw in Pittsburgh and Capitals,” Foligno said.

Ovechkin thought the handshake line was a classy gesture, said Washington first-line center Dylan Strome, especially with their history as opponents.

“They played I don’t even know how many games against each other – I think I saw 47 today, not including playoffs,” Strome said. “It’s one of those things where you’ve got to respect greatness, and Fleury’s been great his whole career.

“I got the chance to play with him in Chicago, and everyone knows he’s one of the best people of all time in the game, so the little respect we can show him at the end of the game I think goes a long way and is well deserved for him.”

Yes, it’s been 47 games between the two. Ovechkin has scored 28 goals against Fleury in that time.

“We had so many battles,” Fleury said. “The Penguins, a few playoff series, even throughout the season, too, with him and Sid (Sidney Crosby). It was always a big deal. It was always a big game.

“I felt very lucky and fortunate I got to play so many games against him, compete against him. Obviously, a tough opponent.”

Fleury added that he was glad for the moment so he could tell Ovechkin it was fun playing against him, because “he’s had such a tremendous career also.”

Wild keeps giving Flower his flowers, too
The moment was special for Fleury’s Wild teammates, too. They stayed on the ice watching the handshake line unfold like the rest of the fans who stayed. Hearing players describe Fleury as “one of the best” they’ve ever played with is a common refrain this season.

“It’s special to have that when you quit hockey someday, that you played with that guy, for sure,” said Wild defenseman Jonas Brodin.

Wild coach John Hynes noted what a great teammate Fleury has been everywhere he’s played. Fleury was a Stanley Cup winner in Pittsburgh in 2009, 2016 and 2017. He also played with Vegas and Chicago before landing with the Wild at the 2022 trade deadline.

Fleury deserves all the accolades he’s gotten, Hynes said Thursday, adding that he’s said that same thing a couple of times in the past.

“He’s been a tremendous competitor to compete against. And obviously the quality of a human being that he is, all those things combined, I think we’re witnessing in part of a hall-of-fame player, a hall-of-fame person. That’s earned the respect not only as a player but I think as a competitor. Which is probably the best compliment you can get.”

The post Hall-Of-Fame Handshakes appeared first on Minnesota Hockey Magazine.

No, this was not an encore performance from Mason Kraft and the Moorhead Spuds boys’ hockey team.

This was the Minnesota Wild getting out to the fastest goal-scoring start at home in franchise history when they jumped all over the Seattle Kraken following an 8:52 p.m. puck drop Wednesday night at Xcel Energy Center. The end result was a 4-0 win.

Here are five rules from the Wild’s second consecutive win on home ice:

1. The Wild scored goals in a 1:42 span, also the second-fastest three goals to start a game in franchise history.

The floodgates opened early for the Wild, the same team that’s had trouble scoring goals across its last dozen or so games. It hadn’t scored a first-period goal in six games, let alone pumping in multiple goals in quick succession. The Wild scored the trio of goals in a span of 1 minute, 42 seconds. That prompted Seattle (30-35-5) to call a timeout and calm things down at the 4:29 mark of the game.

“The plan was to try to come out right away, get everyone involved, and that was a really good start for us,” said Wild forward Ryan Hartman.  

The fastest three goals for the Wild came Jan. 14, 2017 in Dallas when they scored three in four minutes.

The Wild also became the fastest team to score three goals to start a game this season in the NHL. The previous mark was the Detroit Red Wings scoring three by the 5:06 mark on Feb. 23.

The Wild also scored at least three goals in back-to-back games. The last time that happened was sandwiched around the break in February with a 6-3 win against the New York Islanders on Feb. 8 and then a 4-3 overtime victory in Detroit right after the break on Feb. 22.

2. Hartman scored first, Matt Boldy broke out of his slump, Liam Ohgren scored his second of the season.

First, it was Hartman tallying his second goal in as many games. He slid perfectly into the slot, accepted the puck and fired it into the net only 2 minutes, 47 seconds into the game. It’s his ninth goal of the season and third since returning from his eight-game suspension.

Matt Boldy scored an unassisted tally just 1 minute, 12 seconds later to break his 11-game goal drought.

“It’s always fun to score,” Boldy said. “I was happy to see one go in, for sure. Some relief.

“I think the more you build it up, the more stress you create about yourself. You try to stay away from it and keep if off your mind.”

He also added an empty-netter, which gave him 23 goals for the season and putting him into a tie for the team goals lead with the injured Kirill Kaprizov.

Liam Ohgren, playing his first Wild game since Feb. 28 at Colorado, made it 3-0 at the 4:29 mark of the game. It’s the third goal of his NHL career and first at Xcel Energy Center. He’s spent the majority of the season in Iowa, but he also recognized how much it helped when the team got out to such a quick lead.

“When that happens, you’re always on a roll, and you always want more,” Ohgren said. “That’s what keeps the guys going. It was fun.”

3. The game was pretty quiet after the first five minutes.

Unlike the Stillwater vs. Moorhead boys’ state championship game that turned into an exciting 7-6 win for the Spuds, the similarities to the Wild game ended at that 4:29 mark in the first period.

Any late-arriving fans to the late-evening puck drop missed all the action. Beyond the three quick goals, there wasn’t much in the way of excitement. The Wild couldn’t generate much of anything on two first-period power plays. They also went cold in the shots-on-goal department in the final minutes of the opening period and didn’t register a shot in the second until just after the first TV timeout.

The Wild successfully killed off a penalty in the first minute of the second period, going 11-for-12 across the last five games.

Also on the defensive end, Filip Gustavsson made 34 saves in net for his 27th win of the season and fifth shutout. The victory was the Wild’s sixth shutout this season. Gustavsson is 5-2-1 with an NHL-leading .944 save percentage in March.

Wild coach John Hynes likes the consistency he’s seeing from Gustavsson lately.

“It seems like he’s mentally alert and physically he feels good,” Hynes said. “That’s what I like.

“Naturally, the game forces you to be completely engaged and intense, and I thought in tonight’s game he was there when we needed him because we didn’t play a perfect game, but even though we were up with a lead I thought when they had some looks he was sharp and that to me was a really good game by him and then I think it shows you where his mental focus is.

4. The Wild can’t make it through the game without another player getting injured.

The news wasn’t all good on the Wild front. Marco Rossi left the game early in the second period when he took a Boldy shot off his leg. The team announced in the second period that Rossi wouldn’t return after sustaining the lower-body injury. Hynes didn’t have an update on Rossi after the game.

“Hopefully he’s okay, and it’s nothing serious,” Hartman said.

The Wild were already shorthanded (what else is new?) to start the night with Marcus Foligno missing his second straight game with day-to-day status. Marcus Johansson also missed Wednesday because of illness. Ohgren found out he was playing when he got to the rink pregame.

Add Rossi to the mix, and that brings the Wild’s list of players not suiting up quite lengthy:

Kaprizov, Joel Eriksson Ek, Jonas Brodin, Foligno, Johansson and Rossi. It’s another blow for Rossi, whose goal slump reached 11 games including Wednesday.

5. That’s back-to-back Wild wins on home ice for the first time since early February.

The Wild have been a better road team all season, with a 22-10-3 record. Home ice has not been their advantage, for whatever reason. They’ve hovered around the .500 mark at home and have also put up some real lackluster efforts. They were just booed off the ice Saturday in a 5-1 loss to the St. Louis Blues, after all.

But the win against the Kraken improved the Wild’s mark at Xcel Energy Center to 17-15-2, and 3-2-1 on the seven-game homestand that wraps up Saturday afternoon against Buffalo. Coupled with the team’s 3-1 win over Los Angeles on Monday, the Wild won back-to-back home games for the first time since Feb. 6 and Feb. 8 against Carolina and the Islanders.

The post Rink Rule: Kraken vs. Wild appeared first on Minnesota Hockey Magazine.

It was a bit of a surprise when Kaprizov didn’t make the trip to Dallas for the Wild’s first game after the break because of a lower-body injury but the word was it was a day-to-day situation. He would be fine and back before long.

More than two months later, Kaprizov has played in only three games since exiting the lineup. He has been seen a few times in the bowels of Xcel Energy Center catching up with fellow Russian players after games but that’s been it.

Those last three appearances by Kaprizov came in late January and were followed by the announcement that he would undergo surgery. The original timeline for his absence was four to six weeks. In late February, Wild general manager Bill Guerin said Kaprizov would be out for an undetermined amount of time.

So what’s wrong with Kaprizov? The Wild have declined to provide specifics other than Guerin saying he expects Kaprizov back before the end of the regular season. Given how the situation has unfolded it’s probably best to assume any timetable put on Kaprizov’s return is nothing more than a hopeful guess.

Kaprizov’s importance to the Wild never has been in question, but his absence has enabled the team, its fans and Kaprizov’s representatives to see just how futile the Wild are in the goal-scoring department without him.

That has been on full display since the team’s return from the break for the 4 Nations Face-Off. The Wild have averaged two goals per game in going 5-6-1 since Feb. 22. They scored four goals in victories over Detroit and Seattle but have been held to one goal five times.

Minnesota rallied for a 3-1 win over the Los Angeles Kings on Monday night at Xcel Energy Center, but two of the goals came on the power play and the last one was into an empty net.

He was the Wild’s offense
How bad is it?

Kaprizov’s 23 goals in 37 games still lead the Wild and are two more than Matt Boldy and Marco Rossi have produced in 68 games apiece. Kaprizov’s 52 points trail Rossi by one and Boldy’s team-leading total by four.

Kaprizov wasn’t just an important part of the Wild’s offense, he was the offense. It doesn’t help that the Wild have battled injuries all season — just as they did a year ago. Joel Eriksson Ek, the team’s best center, has missed the past 11 games and 25 overall, and defenseman Jonas Brodin has missed the past eight games and 30 overall.

The Wild’s 19-5-4 start helped to catapult them to the top of the NHL standings in early December and likely created such a cushion that they are going to make the playoffs as a wild card.

But this has become a grind and, John Hynes’ relentless positivity aside, it’s difficult to believe the Wild are going to accomplish anything without No. 97.

What makes this situation even more interesting is that Kaprizov is eligible for a contract extension on July 1. He will enter the final season of his five-year, $45 million contract in 2025-26 and can sign for a maximum of eight years with the Wild this summer. If he plays out his contract, he will become an unrestricted free agent on July 1, 2026.

Kaprizov’s timing could not be better. The NHL informed clubs in late January that its salary cap would rise by $7.5 million to $95.5 million in 2025-26 before increasing to a projected $104 million in 2026-27 and $113.5 million the following season. These are substantial increases for a cap that remained flat for several years after the pandemic.

The Wild will benefit from the fact that the dead cap hits from the buyouts of Zach Parise and Ryan Suter will go from $14.8 million combined to $1.7 million next season, but a good chunk of that extra money will have to be used to keep Kaprizov.

At what price?

Wild owner Craig Leipold said before the regular season that, “nobody will offer (Kaprizov) more money than us, or longer,” before adding, “all we have to do is prove to him that we want to win.”

Kaprizov’s injury should be a concern
After missing the playoffs last season, that’s what the Wild were doing with Kaprizov, but he has had plenty of time to watch his teammates struggle to score goals without him. It’s fair to wonder if Kaprizov will question whether the Wild adding a free agent, such as Colorado’s Brock Nelson or Vancouver’s Brock Boeser, will be enough to give him a real chance at a Stanley Cup.

Despite his boyish looks, Kaprizov isn’t a kid. He didn’t arrive in Minnesota until his age 23 season and will turn 28 on April 26. If Kaprizov does sign an extension this summer, how much might his price have increased because of his absence?

The 31 games Kaprizov has missed are a career high. He sat out 15 games near the end of the regular season in 2022-23 after Winnipeg’s Logan Stanley crumpled him to the ice. In his three others seasons with the Wild, Kaprizov has missed a combined nine games.

Kaprizov’s unknown injury has to be a concern for the Wild brass that wants to make him a very rich man but they are in no position to balk. He is fourth in franchise history with 183 goals in 315 games, fifth with 382 points and second in power play goals with 61.

Kaprizov’s return undoubtedly would provide a significant boost to the Wild’s playoff hopes, not to mention the morale of a team whose confidence is shaken. But when might that happen — if it happens at all?

“You guys have been asking me nonstop about this,” Guerin said shortly before the March 7 trade deadline. “I just don’t know. … There’s no exact science. I can’t tell you because what I tell you today might be different tomorrow. Things change constantly. I’m not going to say, ‘Oh, he’s going to be back 17 days from now’ and he’s not back 17 days from now, you guys are going to be like ‘What happened?’ So, I don’t know. I just don’t know.”

What Guerin does know is that Kaprizov’s value increases with each game the Wild fail to bury the puck in the net.

The post Buzzkill Without Kirill 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.

The only team that didn’t make a trade that moved the needle was the third-place Minnesota Wild. Bottom six winger Justin Brazeau was acquired from Boston late Thursday after veteran winger Gustav Nyquist was obtained from Nashville last weekend.

Will Wild general manager Bill Guerin be criticized for not doing more? Probably. Should he be? Absolutely not.

If Guerin had really wanted to deal for a player such as Nelson, Buffalo’s Dylan Cozens, who was moved to Ottawa, or Vancouver’s Brock Boeser, who wasn’t moved, he could have put Joel Eriksson Ek on long-term injured reserve with Kirill Kaprizov and kept both out until the playoffs opened in order to circumvent the salary cap.

But Guerin wisely elected to keep his top prospects and focus on the opening of free agency on July 1. That’s when the NHL’s salary cap will rise from $88 million to $95.5 million and when the dead cap hits of $14.7 million for the buyouts of Zach Parise and Ryan Suter will shrink to $1.7 million.

The Wild and Avalanche both have 76 points, but the Wild are in third place because they have a game in hand. The Avalanche almost certainly will pass the Wild in the coming days, but Minnesota still figures to make the playoffs. A fantastic start to the season that briefly put the Wild atop the NHL standings has helped to give them an eight-point lead on Calgary, the second wild card in the Western Conference, and a nine-point lead on Vancouver, the first team out of the postseason.

But there is no way Guerin could have looked at his roster on Friday — especially once the Jets, Avalanche and Stars started making moves — and thought he had a team that could emerge from the Western Conference. The Wild missed the playoffs last season, were expected to miss again this season and ended up being a pleasant surprise that right now is without two of their top forwards, Kaprizov and Eriksson Ek, and a top-four defenseman in Jonas Brodin.

The what-if? game
While Guerin says he expects Kaprizov, Eriksson Ek and Brodin to return before the regular season is finished, no one knows how effective they will be if they do play again. Let’s say the Wild had acquired Boeser for a 2026 first-round pick — their 2025 first-rounder was dealt to Columbus for promising young defenseman David Jiricek — along with winger Liam Ohgren and a third-round selection.

Would Boeser have joined a team that had a full-strength Kaprizov? The Wild forward has played in three games of 27 games since Dec. 23 after initially being considered day-to-day. Kaprizov underwent surgery for his lower-body injury in late January and still hasn’t started skating. He might return, but will he be his normal explosive self? Clearly, Guerin and the doctors have no idea.

Eriksson Ek, the Wild’s best center, has missed the past five games because of what The Athletic reported is a broken bone in his leg. Wild coach John Hynes told The Athletic it might be a “usage injury,” meaning there is no predicting if Eriksson Ek will be fully healthy again this season. Brodin has dealt with injuries all season and is now out with a lower-body injury after blocking a shot against Colorado late last month.

Add it up and the only thing a significant trade by Guerin would have done is add a player, likely on an expiring contract, to a mix of guys who might be back at some point but also could and should be shut down at the first sign of trouble. The Wild are better off pursuing Boeser when he becomes a free agent on July 1 and not giving up anything for him.

Given Guerin’s penchant for making deals, the guess here is that it pained him to mostly sit out this deadline. But he did the right thing. The Wild’s long-term future looks bright because the cupboard is filled with prospects. Not moving some of them in the name of trying to make a run against what now appears to be superior competition was the type of restraint for which Guerin should be applauded.

The post Less Is More appeared first on Minnesota Hockey Magazine.

The Wild went into the break with momentum, defeating Carolina 2-1 on Thursday and securing a comeback 6-3 victory over the New York Islanders on Saturday.

Here are five rules recapping the Wild’s back-to-back home wins before the break:

1. The Wild have won two consecutive games – in regulation – at home for the first time this season.

The Wild came into Saturday’s game with a 12-12-1 record at home. This season has brought some rough outings in the building, including a 5-1 loss to the Los Angeles Kings on Nov. 5, a 7-1 loss to Edmonton on Dec. 12 and a 6-1 loss to Florida on Dec. 18.

Minnesota came home reeling after a 6-0 drubbing in Ottawa followed by a 3-0 loss to the Bruins, so it was no doubt looking for some momentum before the break.

So, what changed over the last couple of games to get a couple of home victories?

“Pucks went in,” Wild captain Jared Spurgeon quipped. “No, I feel like, we’ve had games where we played well here. And it just hasn’t gone our way.”

Boldy said it was just the Wild getting to their game.

“The home record is what it is, I think we know that,” said forward Matt Boldy. “And to be able to turn it around and get those two wins versus two good teams that are playing really good hockey right now is huge for us. And we wanted to go into break on a high note.”

2. Yakov Trenin scores in back-to-back games.

It’s no secret that injuries and jumbled lineups have been a significant running storyline for the Wild this season, and that’s been especially true with superstar Kirill Kaprizov out for multiple weeks following surgery for a lower-body injury. The Wild need to make up that scoring from somewhere, so it’s always a welcomed sight when bottom-six forwards contribute.

Yakov Trenin gave the Wild a 1-0 lead against Carolina less than three minutes into the game, with the puck coming to him out front on a pretty feed from Marat Khusnutdinov. That goal was a sigh of relief for the Wild, after those back-to-back shutout losses.

“It was a very big goal,” Trenin said. “Especially, few games before, we couldn’t get the lead.”

Against the Islanders, he scored again, finding himself in a good spot for a deflection in front of the crease. It turned out to be the game-winner. His fifth and sixth goals of the season gave him a chance to bring out his celly vibes. He threw himself into the end glass after Thursday’s goal, while Saturday’s tally got him to raise both arms in the air in triumph.

3. Vinnie Hinostroza scores a game-winning goal in his Wild debut against Carolina.

Last week, Ryan Hartman was handed a 10-game suspension. The Wild have consistently played shorthanded this season, but they claimed Vinnie Hinostroza off waivers from the Nashville Predators last week. With 388 career NHL games across 10 seasons with six other teams, Hinostroza made his Wild debut against Carolina.

He also became the 31st player to score a goal in his Wild debut. Against a good Carolina team, the Wild were clinging to a 1-0 lead through two periods. But 49 seconds into the third period, Hinostroza doubled the team’s lead, getting credit for a gritty, greasy goal around the crease.

The puck bounced around off goaltender Frederik Andersen’s back and eventually across the goal line as Hinostroza and Marcus Foligno crashed the net. The play was reviewed but the goal stood.

“I kind of felt like it was because I was right there after I tipped it,” Hinostoza said. “But I saw Moose celly, so I don’t know if he got under the goalie there and stuff. Once I saw the replay, I kind of knew.

“It felt like we had a really good game as a line. We had a lot of opportunities, so that was a lot of fun.”

Hinostroza was on the right wing with Foligno and Gaudreau on the third line. With the final 2-1 score, he also became the eighth Wild player to score a game-winning goal in their Wild debut.

Wild coach John Hynes said Hinostroza played well.

“Good speed, he’s tenacious on the puck, his abilities to make some plays and, you know, plays the game smart,” Hynes said. “He did a nice job.”

4. Matt Boldy helped spark a second-period turnaround with 3 Wild goals in a 5:29 span against New York.

The Wild grabbed a 1-0 lead against the Islanders early in the first period on Marco Rossi’s 19th tally of the season, with a primary and pretty assist from Boldy. But the lead didn’t last long. It was 13 seconds before Palmieri tied the game. The game was knotted at 1-1 at the first intermission, but the Islanders came out flying in the second while the Wild looked like it was already looking ahead to the break.

“For us, we knew that that wasn’t good enough, and that that wasn’t going to win us the game,” Boldy said.

It became the Minnesota show, in a way, as Warroad’s Brock Nelson scored 28 seconds into the second period to give the Islanders the lead. Edina product Anders Lee made it a two-goal margin about seven minutes later.

But in the second half of the period, the Wild picked it up. They also benefitted from a tough-luck night for Islanders defenseman Tony DeAngelo.

First, Gaudreau made it 3-2 with 6:39 left in the period with a power-play goal. The shot deflected off of DeAngelo. Then just after the last TV timeout of the period with 2:01 on the clock, the Wild tied the game 3-3 on a goal credited to Boldy after he tipped in a Jonas Brodin blast from long range.

Trenin’s go-ahead goal came 51 seconds later.

“We stood mentally strong,” Trenin said. “We didn’t get down after that third goal. And the power play came up huge, scored a big goal and kept us in the game, give us some momentum.”

The Wild are 22-0-0 this season when leading after the second period.

5. Filip Gustavsson needed a breather.

Goaltender Filip Gustavsson was so spent after the 2-1 victory over Carolina that he was hunched over in his crease as the line of teammates congratulated him for the effort after the win. No, he wasn’t hurt.

“You just try and breathe as much as you can and move and get something to your brain so you can keep focused,” Gustavsson said. “Usually we’re very happy and then talk to each other when they come down. I just had to catch my breath two seconds first there.”

Gustavsson made 38 saves and nearly had a shutout before Carolina’s Sebastian Aho scored late in the game. Gustavsson also kept them off the board in the second period when Jackson Blake had an unsuccessful penalty shot attempt. Gustavsson is 4-1-0 with a 1.40 goals-against average and .954 save percentage in five career starts versus Carolina.

He followed up that performance with 31 saves against the Islanders to take back-to-back wins into the 4 Nations tournament.

For the season, Gustavsson is 22-11-3 with a 2.63 goals-against average, .915 save percentage and three shutouts.

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This will provide a showcase for the NHL to put its talent on display in a highly competitive format that should have playoff-type intensity. So why do I feel conflicted about it?

The answer is simple. Timing.

The NHL season is in its fourth month and the Wild, for instance, will have played 56 of their 82-game schedule when their break starts on Sunday. The trade deadline is a month from Friday (March 7) and the postseason begins in mid-April.

So in the midst of all of this, the NHL is going to have a tournament that runs from Feb. 12 to Feb. 20, creating too long of a break for many players and insufficient rest for the top stars.

Wild sending 5 players to 4 Nations Face-Off
In the Wild’s case, they will be represented by Matt Boldy and Brock Faber on the U.S. team, and Jonas Brodin, Joel Eriksson Ek and goalie Filip Gustavsson on Sweden. Each roster will be loaded with talent that includes guys such as Nathan MacKinnon, Connor McDavid and Cale Makar on Team Canada and Auston Matthews and Matthew Tkachuk on Team USA. That’s only a small sample.

This younger generation of players has been begging for a best-on-best tournament and will be going full speed. But that’s an issue, considering the intensity and pace of these games means it’s likely injuries will happen. Injuries that could sideline key players for extended periods, or cause nagging problems that don’t heal until the offseason.

If I’m an NHL general manager or coach, I wouldn’t be thrilled with the prospect of one of my best players taking part in games that will have a postseason feel, when the actual playoffs don’t start for another two months. That’s not even hitting on the risk of returning to NHL play with a key part of my team sidelined.

This same issue will come up next February as NHL players return to the Olympics for the first time since 2014. As a hockey fan, it will be fantastic to watch. But that doesn’t mean it will be good for the 2025-26 NHL season.

So what’s the solution? There’s a case to be made that best-on-best tournaments and sending NHL players to the Olympics is asking too much. Each team plays 82 regular-season games and last season Florida beat Edmonton in Game 7 of the Stanley Cup Finals on June 24.

So tell me how shoehorning the 4 Nations or Olympics into the schedule best serves the pursuit of a Stanley Cup — arguably the most difficult trophy to win in pro sports. The Canada Cup featured teams from six countries and was held on five occasions from 1976 to 1991. But that was played before training camps opened in a very different era of hockey.

I’m guessing players wouldn’t want to give up time in their offseason to play in such a tournament now, and I can’t blame them. Therein lies the problem. There might be no good time to play a tournament like the 4 Nations — unless you decide the NHL season isn’t the most important thing.

The post Conflicted About The Break appeared first on Minnesota Hockey Magazine.

But Kaprizov did not join his teammates five days later as they reconvened to travel to Dallas for a game that night. Kaprizov had been battling a lower-body injury and the decision was made to shut him down before it got worse.

The Wild suffered another significant loss on New Year’s Eve when defenseman Jared Spurgeon was taken out by a slew foot from Nashville rookie Zachary L’Heureux and had to be helped off the ice.

The Wild had gone 1-1 in their first two games without Kaprizov and beat the Predators after Spurgeon’s lower-body injury. The Wild then went on the road and won back-to-back games against two very good teams in Washington and Carolina before returning to Xcel Energy Center for a 6-4 victory over the Blues.

That put the Wild at 5-1-0 without Kaprizov and 3-0 without Spurgeon. It was the latest impressive accomplishment by a team that had exceeded nearly everyone’s expectations, and had the Wild only two points behind Central Division-leading Winnipeg.

Blue-line depth being tested
But that Blues win came at a steep price. Defenseman Brock Faber took an elbow to the head from the Blues’ Jake Neighbours early in the game and played only five more shifts before leaving. Defenseman Jonas Brodin saw additional time with the minutes-eating Faber out and logged a career-high 33 minutes, 2 seconds. It was late in the game that Brodin remained on the ice for 2:41 and blocked three shots. One of them came off the stick of the Blues’ Colton Parayko and left Brodin hobbling.

He downplayed it after the game but hasn’t played since. Neither has Faber. Not surprisingly, the Wild hasn’t been the same since.

A 6-1 loss to Colorado at home was followed by a 3-1 victory at San Jose. Last Sunday, the Wild lost 4-1 at Vegas and then blew a 2-0 lead in a 5-3 loss on Wednesday to the Edmonton Oilers in St. Paul. The Wild lost second-line winger Marcus Johansson to a concussion in that one when he took an elbow to the head from Oilers superstar Connor McDavid.

There will be no case made that anyone should feel bad for the Wild. Every team loses key players to injury and must find a way to overcome it or get buried in the standings. Wild players have walked the fine line of acknowledging the magnitude of not having Kaprizov and three top defensemen, but not trying to hide behind that as an excuse for now being seven points behind the first-place Jets, only one point ahead of third-place Dallas and three up on the Avalanche.

It’s clear that John Hynes has established what he wants the message to be from his locker room. The Wild coach is very skillful at avoiding any criticism of his players but making it clear there is a standard they are expected to meet.

What’s difficult is judging which players are struggling and which are simply being asked to do more than they are capable of because of the hit to the depth chart. There also are players who are thriving, such as center Marco Rossi. Rossi has been paired with Matt Boldy and Mats Zuccarello on the Wild’s first line and has five goals and 11 points in those 10 games.

Causes for concern? 
As important as Kaprizov is to the Wild, they lost only one game without him but have now dropped three of four without Brodin and Faber. Not surprisingly, goalie Filip Gustavsson hasn’t looked anything like the guy who spent much of the first half of the season near the top of the NHL in goals-against average and save percentage.

Gustavsson registered a 21-save shutout against Carolina in the last full game that Brodin and Faber played. He was lifted in the second period of the Wild’s come-from-behind victory over the Blues after giving up four goals on 18 shots. Gustavsson has given up 15 goals in his past three starts (all losses) for an ugly .850 save percentage. If you include the Blues game, Gustavsson has surrendered 19 goals in four games for an .839 save percentage. His save percentage has gone from .926 to .914 in that time.

Cause for concern or an inevitability when guys like Zach Bogosian, Declan Chisholm Travis Dermott, Jon Merrill and rookie David Jiricek are forced to play elevated minutes because of key losses?

There are a couple of pieces of good news for the Wild. The first is that Kaprizov, Faber and Spurgeon all practiced on Friday, and bottom six forward Jakob Lauko (lower body) could be ready to return from a 13-game absence Saturday against Nashville. Brodin doesn’t appear as close, but the return of Kaprizov, Faber and Spurgeon would provide a huge boost.

The other thing the Wild have going for them is their fantastic start to the season. They went 5-1-1 on a seven-game road trip in October and had 44 points through their first 30 games.

Their start didn’t assure the Wild of a playoff berth, but it gave them a nice head start on making it. Given the current state of their roster, those early-season points might be what get the Wild into the postseason.

The post Injuries Stack Up 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.

Subscribe to Judd’s Substack: juddzulgad.substack.com.

The post Halfway Mark appeared first on Minnesota Hockey Magazine.

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.