After all the adversity — the losing streaks and the coaching change, not to mention the injuries — the Wild being on the verge of a playoff position this deep into the season wasn’t a pipe dream.
Wild enter All-Star break regretting missed chances in last two games
The Wild blew leads in two losses and enter the NHL break in a precarious position for playoff contention, but even that could be considered progress.
The Minnesota Star Tribune
January 29, 2024 at 12:33PM
It was a very real possibility.
They would have been tied for the last wild-card berth in the Western Conference had they pried two points away from Nashville in their head-to-head matchup Thursday and then prevailed again two nights later against struggling Anaheim, the most winnable game on the Wild’s schedule in weeks.
Instead, they botched both opportunities, for the same reasons, to sputter into their bye week and the All-Star break with two big what-ifs that have put the Wild in a precarious situation coming out of this week-plus layoff.
“If you wait long enough,” winger Mats Zuccarello said, “you’re out.”
As much of an eyesore as these missteps are, even being on the fringe of the playoff picture is some degree of progress.
Back in November when the Wild were flailing, dropping seven in a row on the heels of one of the worst starts in franchise history, they were a bottom-feeder, ranking third to last in the NHL.
They lost nail-biters and blowouts, trotted out the worst penalty kill in the league, and their best players weren’t scoring. Coach Dean Evason was fired after just 19 games, and the climb back to respectability, let alone relevancy, was steep.
But with new bench boss John Hynes in charge, the Wild started taking steps. They won four consecutive games, then three straight, and another four in a row. By the end of December, they were 11-3 under Hynes despite playing without two of their best defensemen in Jonas Brodin and captain Jared Spurgeon.
Winger Matt Boldy resurrected his season and has tallied all but one of his 16 goals since Hynes arrived.
The absences on the blue line opened the door for Brock Faber to emerge as a rookie of the year candidate for how hefty of a role he has taken on playing the most minutes on the team and in every situation while creating offense. Fellow rookie Marco Rossi’s evolution into a regular has also been key, and center Joel Eriksson Ek already had his third straight 20-goal season.
Injuries would eventually really test the Wild, who have been in a budget crunch all season long while almost $15 million of their budget covers the Zach Parise and Ryan Suter buyouts.
Goaltender Filip Gustavsson, who backstopped the team’s turnaround, and leading scorer Kirill Kaprizov were sidelined for two weeks, and the Wild were miserable without them.
Once they healed, the Wild began another surge, going 3-1 earlier this month after picking up four out of a possible six points from a challenging three-game road trip against Tampa Bay, Florida and Carolina. A victory Tuesday in their return home over Washington secured a three-game winning streak, giving the Wild a well-earned chance to finally make up some ground in the standings.
And they were on the cusp of following through, leading the Predators and Ducks in the third period before combusting for 3-2 losses.
Hynes linked both collapses to a lack of attention to detail, which will be “addressed Day 1″ when the team reconvenes from break for practice before restarting its season Feb. 7 at Chicago.
He said the Wild gifted Nashville and Anaheim unnecessary goals.
“There’s some valuable lessons here in the last two games that cost us points,” Hynes said. “Lots of times that needs to be addressed, but we didn’t get away with it. That’s where the learning has to come in, and not just the learning [but] the action when we’re called upon in those situations, understanding that that part of the game in those situations are critical and they need to be executed at the right time.”
The inconsistency these lapses bring has become routine for this roster, but it’s still somewhat puzzling considering how similar the lineup looks to the one that contended for first place in the Central Division last season before finishing third.
To be fair, the Wild — 21-23-5 for 47 points through 49 games — haven’t had everyone available to play at the same time.
Spurgeon is going to have season-ending surgery, while goaltender Marc-Andre Fleury missed the last four games with an upper-body injury; depth forwards Connor Dewar, Vinni Lettieri and Adam Raska have also been on the mend.
Hynes was hopeful the Wild would be healthy after the break, and then Pat Maroon exited Saturday’s game hurt. On Sunday, the Wild assigned forward Jake Lucchini and goalie Jesper Wallstedt to Iowa in the American Hockey League.
At times, the Wild’s resilience has been admirable; at other times, it looks like there’s a limit to their perseverance.
“We almost have the same personnel within the team, and it’s in there,” Gustavsson said. “It’s like it’s locked behind the safe or something. We just have forgot about the combination right now.
“Some days it’s there. We play awesome. We play great. And some days it’s just nonexistent, and we can’t have those roller-coaster nights.”
Their latest seesaw has them six points back of the last playoff spot with five teams ahead of them.
Six points and five teams when it could have been zero points and one team.
The Wild can’t change the past, but their control over the future might be slipping, too.
“Never know when you get a hot streak or we find something to put a lot of games together or play massively better the next games,” Gustavsson said. “So, we’ll see what happens.”
Alex Ovechkin has a broken left fibula and is expected to be out four to six weeks, an injury that pauses the Washington Capitals superstar captain’s pursuit of Wayne Gretzky’s NHL career goals record.
