A lengthy layoff leading up to the Winter Classic might help the Wild improve its performance, but it won't heal up the team in time for puck drop on New Year's Day.
Without Jared Spurgeon and Joel Eriksson Ek, Wild preps for Winter Classic
Two of the team's standout leaders are sidelined because of injuries, and could be out for some time.
December 27, 2021 at 11:16PM
Captain Jared Spurgeon and center Joel Eriksson Ek are dealing with injuries that will sideline them for the showdown against the Blues on Saturday at Target Field.
How much action the two will miss overall is unclear.
"More than anything you feel bad for them," Wild defenseman Alex Goligoski said. "It's such a cool event. For them not to be a part of it and being such a big part of our team, that's tough for them."
Their absence also stings the Wild.
Keeping the puck out of the net has been a challenge lately, and the team won't have its top shutdown specialists on the ice to try to reverse that trend against St. Louis.
"We'll figure it out," winger Jordan Greenway said. "We got a pretty deep lineup, so I think it's a good time for guys to step up, to have an impact and to play a bigger role than maybe they're used to."
Since its season-long four-game losing skid started, the Wild has been scored on 17 times — two more than the 15 goals the team surrendered during the eight-game winning streak that preceded its current rut.
The seven racked up by Dallas the last time the Wild played on Dec. 20 trumped the six tallied by Vegas two games earlier as the most given up this season.
Much of the damage has been done 5-on-5, with the Wild getting exposed off the rush and following turnovers.
"Some of the uncharacteristic goals we were going east to west rather than going north," coach Dean Evason said. "When we're successful, we get out of our 'D' zone and get going offensively in a hurry and ask our 'D' to join. That's an area that we've been working on with our breakouts and getting out and not spending time in there trying to be too fancy.
"Let's get going north and use our skill set on the other end."
Without Spurgeon, who has a lower-body injury, the Jonas Brodin and Matt Dumba duo slides into the spotlight on defense.
Brodin (maintenance) didn't practice Monday, but he is expected to be back for the session Tuesday. Jon Merrill is next to Goligoski, and Jordie Benn remains paired with Dmitry Kulikov.
As for the forwards, the Wild has assigned Greenway and Marcus Foligno (Eriksson Ek's usual partners) to different lines to try to scatter that unit's defensive edge throughout the lineup.
Greenway has worked alongside center Nico Sturm and winger Brandon Duhaime, while Foligno has skated with center Frederic Gaudreau and winger Kevin Fiala.
Ryan Hartman and Victor Rask have filled the other center spots in practice since Eriksson Ek suffered an upper-body injury in the team's most recent game vs. the Stars.
"We rely on them to do a lot of that heavy stuff," Evason said, referring to Eriksson Ek, Foligno and Greenway. "But that doesn't mean that we don't ask everybody to do the same thing. We've obviously been looking at St. Louis' line combinations the past few days and all that kind of stuff, too. Once we get to that game, we'll have a good idea of who we expect to play against who. But everybody has to do the job."
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.
