Under new Wild coach, Jason Pominville wipes the slate clean

BUFFALO, N.Y. – There are those who would have you believe that jinxes aren't real, but Jason Pominville isn't one of them. For large chunks of this season, the Wild right wing felt like there was a curse on his sticks.

"It was almost like someone put a spell on me," Pominville said of the miserable start. "I know you make your own bounces, but I didn't get any puck luck. Like the bad bounces I had were unbelievable."

If Pominville didn't have to endure the constant dejection, he would have almost found it comical. He shanked and flubbed shots, missed nets, hit posts, found small pieces of a goalie's gear.

The streaky goal scorer went the first 21 games without a goal, then later dealt with another 16-game drought. But coincidence or not, one coaching change has resulted in Pominville being tied with Nashville's Filip Forsberg for the most points in the NHL since Feb. 17.

The former Buffalo Sabres captain enters Saturday's matinee against his old team with five goals and 12 points in the past nine games. His shooting percentage the first 56 games of this season was 4 percent. For the past nine games, it has been 25 percent.

Remember, this is the same player who had two points in the final 23 games of Mike Yeo's coaching tenure.

"I never really had to deal with anything like that before, and it wasn't easy," Pominville said. "You try to stay positive and try to stay upbeat and try to keep your confidence up, but it's not easy to go through. You get down on yourself pretty easily and your confidence starts going the other way pretty fast.

"It takes time to get it back."

Pominville said what was most depressing is that he's a person who thinks about hockey a lot and watches a lot of hockey during his time off.

"So you go home and you're thinking about what can you do, how can I find a way to get out of this?" he said. "Coaches are showing you video of different ways, then you go on the ice and you're just thinking too much and not playing the game the way you've always played the game. When you end up thinking where you should be, you end up being in spots where you're not supposed to be. It's not easy. Fortunately, I stuck with it and found a way."

Ever since John Torchetti took over the Wild 10 games ago, the team is 7-3, and Pominville has been a mainstay on the right side of a line with Nino Niederreiter and Erik Haula. The line has been red-hot and especially at home is used as a shutdown line against an opponent's top line.

They have shown the ability to defend well and play a lot in the offensive zone. In a 6-3 victory over Colorado on Tuesday, Pominville had a goal and two assists, the first two points coming on defensive-zone steals.

And that's what Torchetti loves about him. He can be relied upon in his own zone, likes playing with the puck and has won board battles.

Pominville ranks 12th in Sabres history with 185 goals, ninth with 271 assists and tied for 11th with 456 points. On Saturday, he'll skate in his 230th consecutive game for the Wild. That's two games from passing Kyle Brodziak for the second-longest ironman streak in Wild history. Antti Laaksonen owns the record at 283 games in a row.

At 33, even during his long droughts this season, Pominville never felt his skills were diminishing even through constant criticism and chatter that maybe the Wild would have to buy out the remaining three years of his $5.6 million per year contract this summer.

"I still felt good skating, felt good in practice, and was making plays and scoring goals," Pominville said. "But in the games, it just wouldn't happen for me. But fortunately, now our line is playing well.

"Torch has been giving us good matchups and showing us a lot of trust in a lot of different situations, so it's been nice. It's been a fresh start as well for myself, one I probably needed to wipe the slate clean. I'm feeling great. I'm confident. Now I have to keep it up."