ST. PAUL, Minn. – Nobody inside the Wild locker room was trying to insult anybody’s intelligence by claiming a one-goal win Monday night over the worst team in the NHL completely cured their recent ills.
But boy oh boy did the Wild need to feel the sweet sensation of victory again, for no other reason than to lower the temperature heading into the NHL’s holiday break and avoid letting their recent skid continue to fester. Especially when the schedule resumes first thing Friday morning with a flight to Dallas, a city that’s rarely kind to them, for a game later that night.
Monday’s 4-3 win over the Chicago Blackhawks was hardly perfect.
They still played too loose, especially coming out of their own end. They still coughed up way too many pucks and looked for style points coming up the ice.
But they looked more like themselves – offensively, defensively and in goal with the return of Filip Gustavsson — and they played to win.
GO DEEPER
Gustavsson returns triumphant as Wild snap losing streak heading into break: 3 takeaways
Now, after getting ravaged by injuries over the past month, which had begun to spoil a tremendous start to their season after winning 18 (and getting points in 22) of their first 26 games, the Wild earned a much-needed mental reset these next three mandatory days off in the NHL season.
“The way I see it is I think this is a break at a key time for us, and I give the players a lot of credit,” coach John Hynes said. “We’ve been going at max capacity and really dialed in from training camp ‘til now, and there’s been way more success than there has been failure. But I also think that guys have really pushed, and I think guys have produced at certain times.
“I think 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 we just reset and get moving forward. I think that’s something that everybody needs.”
Especially some of their slumping forwards.
Let’s be honest: if you buy into analytics (and what self-respecting hockey-writing dinosaur wouldn’t?), the funny math has warned even when things were going gloriously this season that the lack of offensive chances generated would eventually catch up to them.
Luckily for the Wild, Kirill Kaprizov’s brilliance has largely kept the Wild near the top of the Western Conference standings with 23 goals and 50 points in 34 games.
But Matt Boldy has completely dried up with two goals and 48 shots in his past 16 games. Marcus Foligno’s game-winning 129-foot empty-netter against the Blackhawks was his second goal in the past 21 games. Marcus Johansson has one goal in his last 15. Freddy Gaudreau has two goals in his past 16. Marat Khusnutdinov has one goal in 32 games this season.
And Ryan Hartman, who played second-line center since Joel Eriksson Ek’s injury until the past three games, has one goal in his past 24 games and no points in his past 16.
A three-day holiday hiatus won’t be the magic elixir, but it sure will be nice for these players to get away, stop thinking about hockey for a little bit and come back refreshed.
“December was busy for us, with a lot of back-to-backs and a lot of hockey,” Hartman said. “We’ll have three days to spend with family, enjoy Christmas. I’ve got my son (Key’s) first Christmas here, so I’m pretty excited about that. Then, fresh start after Christmas.”
It’s easy for cynics to roll their eyes at the grind of an 82-game season. These guys are paid handsomely, they’re given top-notch amenities and fly all over the continent on first-class charters staying at posh five-star hotels. They’re treated like royalty.
But for a team that until recently spent most of the season on the road and has been so debilitated by injuries that they’ve filled the bottom of their lineup with minor-leaguers, a little rest and relaxation is sorely needed.
As Gustavsson said, completely jokingly, “We come to the rink every day, and even though we’re very good friends in here, sometimes you just don’t want to see them for a couple days. So it’s gonna be a nice reset to see some family and just enjoy time with them.”
“See some family, and enjoy some time with them”
🗣️ Filip Gustavsson on the upcoming break#mnwild pic.twitter.com/8DqunGfHQ7
— Minnesota Wild (@mnwild) December 24, 2024
Still, once Friday comes, it’s back on.
The reality is playing the Stars is never easy for the Wild (three wins in the last 11 regular-season meetings), and it especially won’t be Friday night when, in the grand wisdom of the NHL schedule maker, the Wild will spend six hours on a plane that day all to play a two-hour, 40-minute hockey game after not practicing for three days.
So they’ve got a built in excuse, of course, but they can’t afford that anymore after winning just three times in nine games before the break.
It’s up to the Wild now to muster up more depth scoring so Kaprizov isn’t alone on an island. And it’s up to the Wild to remember what made them successful in October and November was being the best five-on-five defensive team in the NHL. That, even in this recent blip, hasn’t changed. But their special teams – a power play that has scored four times since Nov. 23 and a penalty kill that needs a miracle to not get scored upon (like Monday when they, thankfully, had their 15th penalty-free game in franchise history) – must improve if the Wild expect to make the playoffs, let alone go on a run.
Monday’s win was perhaps a start to the Wild playing more like themselves, but Gustavsson did feel some recent bad habits crept into their game.
“I don’t know from the coach’s perspective, but I just felt like we went D up to the forwards, and it was just sometimes we went back or we went east-west instead of just going north,” he said. “Like it feels like we’re just flying out there. And we had those tendencies throughout the game today and sometimes we got stuck a little bit.”
The big change against the Blackhawks was that the Wild did get offensive chances throughout from players other than Kaprizov. It was arguably the fourth line’s best game of the season with Devin Shore playing his best game in a Wild sweater, Ben Jones playing center for the first time and Yakov Trenin looking downright awesome in his return from injury. Trenin created plays (two assists) and was physical throughout.
The fourth line created a huge Jared Spurgeon tying goal and the third line, centered by Khusnutdinov, helped created Brock Faber’s tie-breaking third-period goal.
a celly to remember pic.twitter.com/hEmSzc0Woe
— Minnesota Wild (@mnwild) December 24, 2024
“Guys are banged up here and there,” Faber said. “Obviously, we got some guys injured that (the break) will be huge for. I think it’s a good reset. There’s been a lot of ups and downs to start already, and there’s going to be a lot more. Just taking time off, taking time away from the rink and coming back focused is the goal.”
As Hartman said, the Wild had the benefit of an exceptional start to keep them from completely sinking in the standings. At 21-10-4, they still have the third-most points in the West and a seven-point playoff cushion. Jake Middleton’s injury has been a dagger to the back end and the Wild’s overall transition and defensive game, but the good news is Eriksson Ek is closing in on a return soon after the break.
The Wild set themselves up nicely, but they understood the importance of not letting their four-game skid bleed into the break.
“We were tenacious,” Hynes said. “We played more of the style of game that we wanted to play. I just like it. We were good. We were free with the puck. I thought we made plays, we came out and played to win the game, and we had the required effort, and I think the competitiveness that gives us the best chance to win most games.
“We needed to find a way to get a win. Everyone had to take ownership of their own games. I thought everybody did that, and we had a strong team effort.”
(Photo of Marcus Foligno and Yakov Trenin: Matt Krohn / Imagn Images)
