Wild forward Tyson Jost (MHM Photo / Rick Olson)

When it comes to trade success for the Wild, the 2022 trade deadline has entered the chat.

The Wild were one of the top and hottest teams in the NHL headed into the All-Star Break this year. Despite a stretch where the Wild lost six-of-seven games in late February, Wild general manager Bill Guerin showed the faith he has in this team and its ability to win by being very active at the deadline, gaining four players to help the team’s playoff push and potential playoff run.

“This is my first time at a trade deadline where we’re going for it, in a sense,” said Wild alternate captain Marcus Foligno. “You usually stay pat, if it’s a good team. Or you’re trading away some guys.”

Indeed, this year’s Wild squad has felt different in many ways this year. That definitely includes the position they were in at the deadline. No need to trade away fan favorites, like a Jason Zucker of the past. This time, the Wild picked up young forward Tyson Jost from Colorado in exchange for Nico Sturm, then got veteran, physical forward Nicolas Deslauriers from Anaheim for a third-round draft pick. On the blue line, they picked up Jake Middleton from San Jose, dealing away goaltender Kaapo Kahkonen.

“I think the biggest thing with all these guys is they’re character people,” Foligno said. “And they really care about a team mentality.”

Down a goaltender, the splashiest move was the Wild landing reigning Vezina Trophy winner and 3-time Stanley Cup Champion Marc-Andre Fleury. The 37-year-old goalie came most recently from Chicago, has a victory against every NHL team and entered Minnesota with a career 511-297-85 record, 2.57 GAA, .913 save percentage and 71 shutouts in 928 career games. He won his first Wild start in overtime against Columbus on March 26.

“It’s pretty crazy to think of the career he’s put on,” said Wild captain Jared Spurgeon. “And he’s still playing at such a high level.”

New Minnesota goaltender Marc-Andre Fleury (MHM Photo / Rick Olson)

So is Cam Talbot, as it turns out. The top netminder went 0-4 allowing 17 goals over that stretch during the Wild’s skid in late February. It created some angst among Wild fans about the goaltending situation. But after Fleury was acquired, Talbot shut out Vegas, then made 42 saves in an overtime win against Colorado on Sunday for his seventh-consecutive victory.

Having a combination of Talbot and Fleury in the nets is a tandem every team would want, Spurgeon said.

“Just getting to know Flower the last couple days, the energy that he brings to the rink and just how much fun he has with it in practice, it’s contagious,” Spurgeon said. “And that’s awesome to have in the room.”

Foligno agreed that Fleury is the most energetic of the new deadline acquisitions. Fleury also knows what it takes to win the in the playoffs, as evidenced by his Stanley Cup runs with multiple teams. Contrast that to a guy like Deslauriers, a player who understands his role on the team wants to win and wants to play in his very first playoff game. Nine years in the NHL, it’s something Deslauriers hasn’t accomplished yet with Buffalo, Montreal or Anaheim.

Foligno and Deslauriers played for a few seasons together, at times on the same line, with the Buffalo Sabres. Deslauriers is the type of player who worked to earn his roster spot and eventually developed into a tough guy, according to Foligno. They’ve kept in touch over the years and supported each other in their careers, Foligno said. Their game styles are similar, with some offense mixed into their physical play. Deslauriers joked “what skill set?” when he arrived in Minnesota, then promptly scored a goal against Vegas in his first game in a Wild sweater, adding a jubilant celly on the ice to find his place as already a fan favorite.

Foligno knows bringing in Deslauriers will be a huge plus for a Wild team playing with more energy and physicality lately.

Stepping into the Wild locker room, it helps to have a familiar face like Foligno that Deslauriers can rely on. But besides that, the trade transition from what Deslauriers called a young team in Anaheim to a mature team in Minnesota has been very welcoming. That goes all the way from the players to the coaching staff, training staff and equipment managers, he said. Deslauriers felt like a member of the Wild team from day one, which isn’t something to take for granted.

Wild defenseman Jake Middleton (MHM Photo / Rick Olson)

“Just open arms,” Deslauriers said. “It was something special. Made my life so much easier.

“I can tell you it doesn’t happen everywhere. I played on a few teams. Yes, there’s some situations that it’s sort of easy, but this one was by far the easiest. … It was the easiest transition I’ve ever had in my career, for sure.”

Wild leaders like Foligno take pride in hearing that, though the winger added it all started at the top with ownership and especially Guerin, who’s really identified “what this room’s going to be like,” Foligno said. It’s a team mentality, which starts with Foligno, Spurgeon and alternate captain, Matt Dumba.

“We’ve created a culture here,” Foligno said. “It’s a welcoming culture. It’s one that we have a certain way of doing things. It’s doing the right things all the time, being professional, working hard. And if you don’t do that you’ll stick out like a sore thumb. We want everyone just to get along and be inclusive and have fun.”

There’s nothing better than seeing the entire team of players jelling together and having fun. Seeing players like Deslauriers come in at the deadline to see firsthand what a great locker room environment the Wild has only goes to show Foligno that they’re doing something right, Foligno said

The post Guerin Goes For It appeared first on Minnesota Hockey Magazine.

“That’s the word we use most and that’s what it is,” Evason said in response to the word fragile being attached to his team. “… What we’ve done is praised our group all year for just staying the course and not panicking, but, human nature, we are a fragile group right now.”

If Evason’s words were meant to show that everything will be fine, it didn’t work. The tone in Nico Sturm’s voice reflected a player who is searching for answers, and alternate captain Matt Dumba, back from injury after missing 10 games, had just addressed his teammates in the hopes of finding the right words.

Let me offer one that comes to mind: Panic.

Kirill Kaprizov and his Minnesota Wild teammates are searching everywhere to find their game with their playoff hopes slipping away. (MH Photo / Rick Olson)

The fact Evason acknowledged his team is fragile creates plenty of questions about the Wild as a group. This collection was supposed to be different and played like it was different for an extended time this season. No more Zach Parise, no more Ryan Suter, and none of the others who too often seemed like they had excuses at the ready whenever the Wild hit one of these rough stretches.

General manager Bill Guerin paid big money to jettison Parise and Suter with the feeling that a remade roster would respond in a much different manner when things didn’t go well. Guerin and Evason had to like what they saw early as the Wild sat at 19-6-1 following a victory on Dec. 9 at San Jose. That was followed by a five-game losing streak and then a 10-game point streak that included nine wins.

The Wild’s up-and-down season appeared to become more stable as they went 3-3 over the next six games. But the Wild have won only once since Feb. 22 and that was a come-from-behind victory last week over a terrible Philadelphia club. The Wild’s inconsistency has become alarming and their special teams have been dreadful. In the past seven games, the Wild are 1-for-20 on the power play and have given up 10 power-plays goals on 23 penalty kills.

The hope that once existed for a deep playoff run has been replaced with doubt about this team’s ability to overcome regular-season adversity. The NHL playoffs are nothing but adversity, and yet Evason doesn’t seem all that bothered by his team’s mindset.

“All the good things that we do don’t seem to work out and the bad things become magnified,” said Sturm, who gave the Wild a 1-0 lead in the first period Sunday before Dallas scored the next four goals. “It’s like (we make) a little mistake and it just blows up. That’s just how it feels to me. I said in the first intermission, we can either feel sorry for ourselves, it might go on another three games like this or five games, I don’t know? Maybe next game our luck turns around.

“Dumbs said in the locker room, we just have to take a look in the mirror tonight and ask ourselves if that’s all we’ve got right now, or if we have to change something. Whatever it might be. If you need another hour of sleep everyday or take your vitamins, I don’t know what it is. Like Dumbs said, I like this group and it would be a shame if we keep going like this and we can’t stay together. If we keep going (like this), we all know something is going to happen.”

Sturm was referring to the NHL trade deadline on March 21. It was assumed a few months ago that Guerin might try to acquire a Top Six center. But the way the Wild are now playing, they also could use a big presence on the blue line and the most glaring need appears to be in goal.

Kaapo Kahkonen started for the second consecutive game on Sunday but was lifted in the second period after giving up a soft goal to Jason Robertson to make it 4-1. Veteran Cam Talbot, who also is struggling, finished the game and was sitting on the bench as the Stars scored two late goals into an empty net after Kirill Kaprizov had scored twice with the Wild skating 6-on-5.

Like Dumbs said, I like this group and it would be a shame if we keep going like this and we can’t stay together. — Nico Sturm

Will Guerin still make a move? One would have to think given how this team played earlier in the season he is going to do something to provide a spark. It would be a shame to just give up and let this once promising season go down the drain.

But privately Guerin and Evason have to be baffled by what’s happening. The Wild might not be as good as we thought — the team that had the third-best points percentage in the NHL on Valentine’s Day (.732) is now 13th in the same category (.620) — but Guerin and Evason were known as tough-minded players during their NHL careers and seeing this collection lose all confidence is alarming.

The Wild will play host to the Rangers on Tuesday before heading on a two-game trip and then returning home for nine in a row. That stretch will include Boston, Vegas, Vancouver, Colorado and Pittsburgh. If the Wild hasn’t rediscovered their mojo by that time, they likely won’t be playing any postseason games.

“I don’t want to say we’re panicked or scared to lose, but everybody realizes what’s going on and we’re grasping at something, trying to stop it and it’s not working out right now,” Sturm said. “I don’t really have the answers for you guys. I just know that it’s not for lack of effort.”

If that was meant to sound reassuring, it didn’t do the trick.

The post Panic at the Xcel appeared first on Minnesota Hockey Magazine.

Minnesota’s Kaapo Kahkonen gave up five goals on 29 Nashville shots in his first action of the season while the Wild’s fourth line of Nico Sturm, Nick Bjugstad and Brandon Duhaime provided all of the offense which wasn’t nearly enough.

Big Picture

Already with two goals to his credit, Nashville’s Ryan Johansen surveys the landscape for more in the second period of the Predators’ 5-2 win over the Wild on Oct. 24, 2021 at Xcel Energy Center. (MHM Photo / Rick Olson)

Although undefeated through four games, Minnesota hosted the 1-4-0 Predators with perhaps the most precarious, albeit entertaining, 4-0-0 record imaginable. Including tonight’s game, the Wild have surrendered the first goal in each of its five games thus far.

Wild forward Frederick Gaudreau said it becomes a different game when trailing from the start.

“Not the game itself, it’s more mentally,” Gaudreau said. “It’s just harder to always trail behind and feel like you always have to come back. When you get the lead it just gives you more confidence.”

With a pair of overtime wins and Marcus Foligno’s game winner with eight seconds left in regulation to beat the Kings, Minnesota has led only 30:19 of the season’s 308:13 total playing time, meaning the Wild has only played with a lead for 9.8 percent of the season. 

“You can’t do it every night and we’ve been putting ourselves in that position but, fortunately, we’ve been able to come back and score those big goals when needed,” Wild captain Jared Spurgeon said. “Tonight we didn’t have that, I guess, luck we can call it.”

Reliance on luck was bound to catch up with Minnesota sooner than later. Tack on some inconsistent goaltending and the Wild were ripe to be knocked down a notch by a hungry Nashville team trying to slow the bleeding of its rough start. 

That fact wasn’t lost on the team as Sturm noted it was a topic of discussion in the dressing room prior to the game. 

“At some point you know you’re gonna face a team, like today, they were so desperate,” Sturm said. “I think that it’s, it’s definitely a lesson to learn. I mean at some point we’ve just gotta score first, it’s that simple.”

Minnesota has allowed 14 goals against over its last three games and, outside of Cam Talbot’s massive save on Winnipeg’s Logan Stanley in overtime in the home opener, the Wild have not been able to count on Talbot and Kahkonen to bail them out when their sloppy play required it.  

The Recap

A disastrous first period saw the Wild commit four penalties — two of them in the offensive zone — leading to two of Nashville’s three goals, consistently turn the puck over, fail to score on a rookie goaltender and get a shaky start from its own goaltender. Minnesota trailed 2-0 before the game was six minutes old on back-to-back power-play goals by Roman Josi and Ryan Johansen, his first of two in the period, and the Predators led 3-0 after one. 

Minnesota’s Brandon Duhaime tosses Nashville’s Mattias Ekholm aside as he looks for a rebound Predators’ goaltender Connor Ingram would not surrender in the Wild’s 5-2 loss on Oct. 24, 2021 at Xcel Energy Center. (MHM Photo / Rick Olson)

Energy was the hot topic after the game, specifically the Wild’s lack thereof.

“We didn’t start right,” Wild coach Dean Evason said. “We knew they were going to be desperate, which they were, and we didn’t come close to matching it.

“To a man, likely besides Sturmy’s line, we were were all bad.”

A great bank pass by Wild defenseman Jon Merrill found Bjugstad in stride behind the Nashville defense and the former Gopher netted his first of the season at 11:30 of the second period to cut the lead to two. But Josi picked up his fourth point of the game when his shot deflected off Filip Forsberg’s leg just 1:45 later and Tanner Jeannot gave Nashville what appeared to be a 5-1 lead entering the final period. 

Sturm, Bjugstad’s lookalike, had other ideas and the pride of Clarkson University cut the lead back to three at the 19:57 mark. Duhaime, who scored his first NHL goal the night before against Anaheim, picked up his first career assist when his shot trickled through Ingram to a waiting Sturm at the weak-side post. 

“The harder you try, the more complicated it gets sometimes in most games, and I think that’s what helped us, at least tonight,” Sturm said of his line’s three-point night. “It was mentioned just try to keep it simple and get the pucks in and go and forecheck and try to recover those pucks. As long as we keep doing that we’ll have success.”

Sophomore Slump?

Minnesota’s top line of Joel Eriksson Ek, Mats Zuccarello and Kirill Kaprizov has provided a few spectacular moments to start the season and have a combined 14 points (5-9–14) but the $45 million man on the left side is still seeking his first goal of the season. Whether the contract and its enormous expectations are weighing on him or not is up for debate, but the fact that he appears to be pressing and trying to do too much, resulting in turnovers and poor decisions, is not.

“Not only one guy is concentrating on you, but all five guys on the ice are watching for him,” Evason said. “So if you try to beat people one-on-one, it usually turns over or you try to make a softer play, it turns over. As we know, he’s a gritty guy and he’ll figure it out.”

Evason said the key for Kaprizov to get back on track is to simplify his game going forward. 

“We know that he can get in on a forecheck, he can finish his check, and that’s what he’s got to do first. Then, you know, worry about the pretty passes and pretty plays after.”

Minnesota’s Kirill Kaprizov dives for the puck as part of a net-front scramble in the Wild’s 5-2 loss to the Nashville Predators on Oct. 24, 2021 at Xcel Energy Center. (MHM Photo / Rick Olson)

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Sounds like a few ingredients for a letdown, right?

In the end, yes.

The Wild (31-14-3) looked like a different team in the third period, in a bad way, and the night ended in a 4-3 defeat at the hands of the rival St. Louis Blues (22-19-6) Wednesday at Xcel Energy Center. The game-winner hit the back of the net with 23 seconds remaining in regulation.

“It slipped away at the end,” said Wild coach Dean Evason. “Majority of the game, we were real good. Had majority of the play, and we made some mistakes at the end. It’s disappointing, no question.”

For the first two periods, the Wild kept its foot on the gas and generated offensive-zone time, took 1-0, 2-0 and 3-1 leads. But things did not go well in the third period for a Wild team that was one of the first in the NHL to clinch a playoff spot.

“We just kind of get complacent and leave our tendy out to dry,” said Wild forward Marcus Foligno. “It’s a crappy feeling, especially the way you lose with 20-something seconds left on the clock. Yeah, we didn’t do the little things right. They did the little things right.”

Some of those “little things” were puck possession and turnovers.

Jordan Greenway checks Justin Faulk into the boards.  Photo by Rick Olson

The Wild held a 3-1 lead headed into the third period, but the Blues cashed in on their second power-play chance of the game to make it 3-2 about 4 minutes into the period. A bad turnover behind the Wild net by defenseman Matt Dumba led to the tying goal a few minutes after that, leaving 25 alone in front for the goal, although the puck seemed to awkwardly slip off his stick before bouncing past Cam Talbot and into the net.

The loss snapped a seven-game winning streak for the Wild, which feasted on the likes of Arizona, San Jose and Los Angeles. Without a goal on the night, Wild rookie Kirill Kaprizov saw his five-game goal streak come to an end, too.

The Wild looked good to start the game, and through pretty much 40 minutes of play. Talbot, who’s cemented himself lately as the top choice in net, came through with an early pad save on a mini breakaway on Jordan Kyrou to keep the game scoreless. Nico Sturm created a turnover at the St. Louis blue line a few minutes after that to spring Zach Parise for a solid scoring chance.

But no other line’s presence was felt as much as the tandem of Jordan Greenway, Joel Eriksson Ek and Foligno. They were on the ice for all three Wild goals.

Jonas Brodin put the Wild up 1-0 with about two minutes to play in the first period when he fired an off-balance shot from the top of the circles. On the play, Greenway kept the puck in at the blue line, and Foligno fed the puck to Brodin.

Eriksson Ek made it 2-0 only 32 seconds into the second period, putting home a rebound into a wide-open net. Greenway generated that play as well, while Foligno skated right in front of the goal. Foligno kept the momentum going in the second when his wrister from the high slot made it through traffic for a 3-1 lead 1 minute, 2 seconds after the Blues got on the board with a power-play goal.

“Moose and Greener were doing a great job on the forecheck, and I was just trying to read off them and support them,” Eriksson Ek said. “But we’ve got to keep playing for 60 minutes if we want to win like this.”

Even in the third period, Foligno still thought their line played well, continuing their trend throughout the season.

“I thought our line’s been dominant all year,” Foligno said. “It was a good line game by us. I thought we still competed hard.”

Jordan Greenway and Marcus Foligno tangle with a Blues player for the puck.  Photo by Rick Olson

Foligno, with his gritty play, enthusiasm and veteran leadership, is one of the reasons the Wild are a playoff team this year. Foligno was reunited with his line after missing 15 games with a lower-body injury. In his eight games back, he’s scored three goals and three assists.

In addition to his goal and assist on the night, Foligno recorded a game-high five hits in his 16:12 on the ice. Foligno and his linemates feed off each other as a smart, physical, hungry line, he said.

“Ekker’s been a huge part,” Foligno said. “You talk about a two-way forward who can handle everything when it comes to physicality and the offensive side, too, it’s been pretty exciting for him to see how he’s grown into the player he is now. And Greener, too, just taking big strides, those young guys.”  

For his part, Greenway’s two helpers pushed him to a career-high 30 points this season (6-24—30) in 48 games. He scored 8 goals and 28 points in 67 games last season. Greenway also added a physical play late in Wednesday’s third period, bowling over two Blues players at the same time in open ice.

Eriksson Ek officially doubled his career-high goal total from a year ago, bringing his tally for the season to 16 and 26 points, three off his career-high total. Eriksson Ek went down after a collision at neutral ice in the third period, but he spoke with the media afterward and confirmed he’s “good.”

It’s a good thing because keeping Ek’s line together will be key come playoff time, no matter the opponent.

The post Late letdown appeared first on Minnesota Hockey Magazine.