Going up against the league’s worst team, the 20-win San Jose Sharks, the Wild were hunting two points in the standings. They got them, but it took an offensive outburst and overcoming defense lapses to get there with an eventual 8-7 overtime win that also included a combined six goals from two returning starts.

Here are five rules from the Wild’s second overtime victory this week:

1. Kirill Kaprizov returned to the lineup for the first time since Jan. 26 after a lower-body injury, and he scored a power-play goal.

At the first stoppage of play, Kirill Kaprizov stepped onto the ice for the ensuing faceoff. Downtime in the game, but the Minnesota fans offered loud cheers for the winger playing in just his fourth game since Christmas.

Kaprizov scored a power-play goal late in the second period to tie the game 4-4. It was a snipe from down low after he tried earlier on the man advantage to fire the puck toward the net and perhaps get a tip from a teammate.

After the game got to overtime, Kaprizov got a feed from Mats Zuccarello and finished the crazy game with a blast from a similar spot on the ice for his 10th overtime winner. Game over.

“It was not our best defense game,” Kaprizov said. “But it’s nice win. We take these two points.”

2. Joel Eriksson Ek also returned to the lineup after being out injured since the 4 Nations Face-Off. He scored a career-high four goals.

Joel Eriksson Ek stole the show with a career-high four goals. His first goal was part of a chaotic couple of minutes in the six-goal second period. Then he scored three consecutive tallies with 11.9 left in the second period and 1 minute, 2 seconds into the third period – both on the power play – to complete his first hat trick since Feb. 19, 2024 against Vancouver.

He added goal No. 4 only 1 minute, 4 seconds later. The first three goals were all classic Eriksson Ek – rebounds and crashing the net, scoring from around the blue paint. The last one was a feed from Matt Boldy, who assisted on three of Eriksson Ek’s goals, that found him in the slot.

“Good bounces,” Eriksson Ek said. “They chirped me, or Hartzy (Ryan Hartman) did, that they were all in the crease, so the fourth one was a little bit better.”

Eriksson Ek’s season goal total went from nine to 13 for the season in 43 games played. He joined Marian Gaborik as the only two players in franchise history to score four-plus goals in a single game.

3. Matt Boldy had a four-assist game.

Four assists pushed Boldy’s season total to 30 and 71 points. Four helpers in a game also marks a career-high for the winger, tied for the second-highest single-game total in Wild franchise history. Kevin Fiala has five assists on April 22, 2022 vs. Seattle.

Boldy played on the top line opposite Marcus Foligno and Eriksson Ek at center. Boldy praised Foligno’s play in the last few games they’ve been on a line together.

“And then you got Ekky,” Boldy said. “I don’t think anyone can take the puck from him. He’s a beast.”

4. It was Marc-Andre Fleury’s night… until it wasn’t.

This was supposed to be a celebratory night in a very sentimental way for goaltender Marc-Andre Fleury and the Wild. He made likely his final start at home in the regular season Wednesday. It could have been another wonderful moment during his farewell tour. But not all these moments can have a fairytale ending.

The Wild had a 7-4 lead in the third period before three straight Sharks goals, including one of the final minute to tie the game and force overtime.

“As a goalie, those aren’t the most fun games to play,” Fleury said. “You know, too many goals going in.

“I think I’ll remember the national anthem and having two points.”

The best moment of the night for Fleury was taking his spot in between the pipes prior to the game. His three children joined him in the crease during the national anthem.

“I think it’ll be good memories for me, for them, right?” Fleury said. “Just to be on the ice and see what it feels like to be there and having all the people around.

“That was pretty cool.”

Fleury made 24 saves in the game, including a vintage windmill save in the second period, which generated a few “Fleury! Fleury! Fleury!” chants from the crowd.

After Kaprizov ended the game in overtime, a few Wild players mobbed Fleury near center ice. It was also the 70th overtime win for Fleury, which passed Martin Brodeur (69) for most in NHL history. Fleury is 13-9-1 this season, marking his 19th winning season of his career; only Brodeur has more with 20, according to NHL Stats.

5. San Jose is the worst team in the league, but the Wild engaged in a back-and-forth battle with the Sharks.

The Wild, which has struggled in recent weeks to put the puck in the net in the opening period, found itself down 1-0 about 12 minutes into the game. Then the Wild led 2-1, 3-2 and 5-4, taking one-goal leads into both intermissions. In between, the Wild also trailed 4-3 in the third period before those two power-play goals from Kaprizov and Eriksson Ek late in the second period.

In the third, the Wild were up 7-4 a couple of minutes into the period on Eriksson Ek’s fourth goal of the night. But the Wild had defensive lapses throughout the game, and the Sharks celebrated a Macklin Celebrini hat trick and eventually tied the game.

The Wild scored a season-high eight goals, needed every one to get two points.

“I would say from a defensive standpoint, it was uncharacteristic of us tonight in certain areas,” said Wild coach John Hynes. “Some of the things, we’ll address them and tighten up.”

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

It took a little extra time, but the Wild got the two points it desperately needed in a 3-2 overtime victory over the division rival Dallas Stars on Sunday at Xcel Energy Center. Here are five rules recapping their latest win:

1. Marco Rossi finished a highlight-reel play in overtime for his 24th goal of the season.

Only 13 seconds into overtime, Matt Boldy was tripped up by Stars’ goal scorer Jason Roberston to put the Wild on a power play.

That gave the Wild a 4-on-3 advantage. Boldy and Mats Zuccarello cycled the puck beautifully, with Zuccarello’s shot tipped in on the back door by Rossi at 58 seconds of overtime.

“Try to be open, and Zuccy is going to find you,” said Rossi, who also recorded an assist in the game.

Boldy offered more on how the winner developed, calling it “an unbelievable play by Zuccy.”

“Great battle on the zone entry,” Boldy said. “They played that about as good as they possibly could. The best I’ve ever seen any 4-on-3 play it. Great battle won there and then to get set up. You give the puck to the best playmaker on the team, and he makes no mistake.”

The Wild’s top line accounted for all three goals. Yes, that’s the top line of Marcus Foligno and Boldy on the wings with Rossi at center.

“Today was a good start to a big week for us,” said John Hynes.

2. Matt Boldy whacks his way to a three-point game.

Dallas took a 1-0 lead early in the game on Robertson’s 34th goal of the season. The score remained the same at the second intermission. But the Wild talked afterward about how they played well, even if the results didn’t always show up on the scoreboard.

“We had a really good game,” Rossi said. “Even the first and second period was good. Maybe the puck bounces didn’t go our way. But we played the right way and obviously go out goals in that third period.”

That started with Boldy tying the game about three minutes into the third period when he whacked the puck into the net as he was falling to his knees in the slot. He got up and emphatically celebrated his team-leading 26th goal of the season.

“Just kind of a bouncing puck that found some free ice, and I just tried to hit it as hard as I could,” Boldy said. “Got lucky it went in.”

Less than two minutes later, Foligno punched in a goal in the crease to give the Wild a 2-1 lead five minutes into the third. Boldy had the second assist on the play, as he did on Rossi’s winner.

It’s the sixth game this season in which Boldy (26-41—67) has scored three-or-more points in a game.

“I thought mentally we were in this game right from the start,” Boldy said.

3. The Wild’s penalty kill did its job.

The penalty kill has taken its fair share of lumps and criticism this season. There was a point where skating down a man might as well have come with an automatic goal for the opposing team, and quickly. Teams won faceoffs in their offensive zones and scored within the first 10 seconds of power plays against the Wild.

By the numbers, the Wild’s penalty kill is still one of the worst. Its 72.2% (54 goals allowed on 194 attempts) mark coming into Sunday’s game ranked 31st in the NHL. That ranking is the same on home ice at 69.1% (25 goals on 81 attempts) before Sunday.

The PK came into play on its New York road trip Friday against the Islanders. The Wild trailed just 2-1 headed into the third period but allowed a goal on the kill for a two-goal margin.

But against Dallas, with a road power play ranked ninth in the NHL coming in, the Wild went 4-for-4. Hynes commented on the Wild’s urgency in the play on the kill, along with strong attention to detail.

“I thought we got saves at the right times from Gus,” Hynes said. “We were strong on our clears. That’s the recipe.”

First, the Wild needed to kill a Boldy boarding penalty only eight seconds into the game. They also killed off two tripping penalties in the third period with 9:05 left in regulation. The Wild’s killers didn’t allow much for the Stars with the man advantage.

“The guys are being smarter with shares and things like that in our zone with the penalty kill,” Foligno said. “So, I just feel like it’s a lot of confidence.”

Unfortunately, about 10 seconds after that first penalty in the third period expired, the Stars tied the game with a shot off Zach Bogosian’s leg. A tie game with 3:27 left in regulation, and this time Brock Faber went to the box for tripping. But the Wild killed that one off, too, and eventually skated into overtime after securing a point.

“The PK guys stepped up when they needed to,” said Wild goaltender Filip Gustavsson. “Three minutes on the clock is not an easy task to do. We needed to have a kill, and everyone did it.”

4. Filip Gustavsson made 23 saves on the way to winning his 30th game of the season.

Gustavsson improved to 30-18-6 this season. He’s remained consistent with his game during this recent stretch the last month or so, as the Wild have relied on him heavily.

While the Wild have struggled to find success on home ice this season, Gustavsson is 17-11-1 at Xcel Energy Center in 2024-25. He’s also the fifth goaltender in franchise history to win 30 games in a season. Devan Dubnyk did it four times, Nicklas Backstrom twice, and Cam Talbot and Manny Fernandez also each won 30 games in a season.

“I wish I could play every game,” Gustavsson said. “It’s something I love to do, and I wish I can continue doing it.”

5. The victory broke a four-game winless streak for the Wild.

Since the start of March, the Wild stepped onto the ice Sunday with a 7-7-3 record, earning 17 points in 17 games as they fight to keep pace in the standings and hold onto a wild card spot.

But a rough road trip out east this past week left the Wild with an 0-2-2 stretch even since their inspired victory over the Washington Capitals on home ice March 27, a game known more for its finish when Alex Ovechkin – who made history by scoring his 895th career NHL goal Sunday – made sure his team shook hands with Wild goaltender Marc-Andre Fleury after the game.

From there, the Wild lost 5-2 to New Jersey, then in a shootout at the Devils’ home, followed by an overtime loss at the Rangers. A rough 3-1 loss at the Islanders on Friday generated some pointed and candid comments from the Wild locker room postgame.

But as Foligno said after Sunday’s game, the Wild needed to stop talking about what they need to do and just show up and play during this crucial time of year, which now has four games remaining in the regular season.

“We’ve just got to show up and play,” Foligno said. “Just sick of the meetings, sick of the motivational speeches. We know we have it in here. It’s just getting our head around it and doing it for a full 60.”

The Wild have 91 points in the second wild card spot in the Western Conference. St. Louis is just ahead with 93 points; the Blues can’t lose lately, having won 12 games in a row. Calgary is chasing the Wild with 85 points. The Wild play at home again Wednesday vs. San Jose.

“It’s been a grind, but we’re excited we’re in the driver’s seat still,” Foligno said. “Our fate’s in our hands.”

The post Rink Rule: Stars vs. Wild 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.

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.

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.

The Wild had only five shots on goal in the first period when coach John Hynes decided to go to work. Hynes began juggling his lines in a way his predecessor, Dean Evason, never would have done.

Kirill Kaprizov was taken off the left wing of Marco Rossi and Mats Zuccarello’s line and reunited with Joel Eriksson Ek and Matt Boldy for 3 minutes, 40 seconds on a line that had so much success last season.

The more lethargic the Wild looked, the more Hynes juggled. With only 14 shots on goal and down 1-0 after two periods against the rebuilding Blackhawks, the Wild finally started to show life in the third.

Minnesota outshot Chicago, 19-4, in the period and Boldy beat Hawks goalie Petr Mrazek with a wrist shot at 15:29 to tie the score. The assists came from Kaprizov and Zuccarello, who were the wingers for Boldy. Hynes had made Boldy, a winger himself, a center on the line to try to continue sparking his team.

The Wild lost the game, 2-1, in overtime, but Hynes’ line juggling was a major reason his team came away with a point and, thus, five of a possible six points in the three games. The Wild employed 28 line combinations at 5-on-5 in Chicago, according to the MoneyPuck website.

Hynes deserves praise for team’s strong start
There has been plenty of well-deserved credit given for the Wild’s surprising 10-2-3 start that has put them in second place to Winnipeg (30 to 23 points) in the Central Division. Kaprizov is playing like a Hart Trophy candidate, Boldy and defenseman Brock Faber are playing like guys worthy of spots on the U.S. roster in the upcoming 4 Nations Face-Off, and Filip Gustavsson has gone from disappointment to one of the top goalies in the NHL.

But Hynes also deserves praise for what he’s doing with a team from which little was expected. Hynes was hired in late November of last season after Evason’s firing following a 5-10-4 start and during a seven-game losing streak.

Wild general manager Bill Guerin made the move to Hynes without hesitation, or an interim tag. Hynes had coached Wilkes-Barre/Scranton, a minor league affiliate of the Pittsburgh Penguins organization, when Guerin was that team’s GM, so the two were familiar with each other.

The Wild went 11-3 in Hynes’ first 14 games but then went on a 2-7-1 slide. Hynes guided the Wild to a 34-24-5 record but finished 11 points out of a playoff spot.

With a training camp under Hynes, and focused on being a tougher and more prepared team, the Wild have avoided the slow start that buried them last season. This is the 49-year-old’s third NHL coaching stop. Hynes spent four-plus years as coach of the New Jersey Devils before being fired 26 games into the 2019-20 season.

He was quickly hired by Nashville and spent three-plus seasons behind the bench with the Predators. Hyes was fired by Nashville after the 2022-23 season when the team failed to make the playoffs.

John Hynes (left) was welcomed to the Minnesota Wild by general manager Bill Guerin (right) at a news conference Nov. 28, 2023 at Xcel Energy Center. (MHM Photo / Heather Rule)

Making the right moves with talented players
Hynes is similar to Evason in that there are questions about his ability to win in the postseason. The Devils made only one playoff appearance in his four full seasons. New Jersey lost in five games in 2018 to the Tampa Bay Lightning. The Predators made the playoffs in each of Hynes’ first three seasons but never got past the first round. He’s 4-15 in the playoffs, so no one is saying he’s the second-coming of Scotty Bowman.

But since arriving in Minnesota, Hynes seems to be pushing the right buttons, and he’s done that with a team that many thought would miss the playoffs. Money Puck has the Wild’s current odds of making the postseason at 97%, behind only Winnipeg (99%) and the Carolina Hurricanes (98.9%).

Of course, it helps when you have a player as talented as Kaprizov and emerging stars like Boldy and Faber. But all of those guys were on the Wild’s roster last season, and that team couldn’t make the playoffs. Kaprizov had only six goals in the 19 games Evason coached in 2023-24 and Boldy, coming off a 31-goal season, had just one goal in 12 games. The Wild’s goaltending and defense also was an issue as the team was giving up 3.95 goals per game, second-worst in the NHL, when Evason was fired.

Kaprizov already has nine goals in 15 games this season and his 28 points put him second in the NHL to Colorado’s Nathan MacKinnon (30 points) entering Wednesday’s games. Boldy is tied with Kaprizov for the team lead with nine goals in 15 games and has 16 points.This season the Wild goaltending and defense is surrendering 2.53 goals per game, to rank No. 3 in the league.

ESPN’s Greg Wyshynski polled several of the Professional Hockey Writers Association voters to get their early favorites for NHL awards. Kaprizov received 78% of the first-place ballots for the Hart Trophy, which goes to the league MVP. The early voting for the Jack Adams Trophy, which goes to the NHL coach of the year and is ultimately voted on by the NHL Broadcasters’ Association, didn’t even include Hynes as a finalist.

The Jets’ Scott Arniel was the leader and Rod Brind’Amour of Carolina and Spencer Carbery of Washington were the other finalists. If the Wild continue to play like they have early in the season, however, we’re willing to bet Hynes’ name has a good chance of ending up very high on that list.

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The post Credit The Coach appeared first on Minnesota Hockey Magazine.