FT. LAUDERDALE, Fla. — Paul Maurice — aka “quote machine” — always has interesting takes.
Anybody who has listened to the reigning Stanley Cup-winning coach expound on just about anything during his nearly 30 years behind an NHL bench knows this.
After Florida Panthers practice Monday, the coach was asked what he thinks about Tuesday’s opponent, the Minnesota Wild. The Wild have gotten points in all five of their games this season and have yet to trail in 300 minutes of regulation — but also haven’t had many tests, which is about to change with games against the Panthers and Tampa Bay Lightning in Games 4 and 5 of a seven-game road odyssey that has started 2-0-1.
Plus, they’re in this weird, wonky part of the schedule where they’re playing only five times in 16 days.
So it’s tough to tell what the Wild really are.
Maurice, in his pre-scouting of the Wild, seems to have noticed that because he volunteered something about the Wild that almost has been a little elephant in the room, although to be fair, Maurice didn’t name the names he seemed to be referring to.
Marcus Foligno and Yakov Trenin, the bruising, aggressive forecheckers on Minnesota’s third line, haven’t gotten any traction yet. They were supposed to help the Wild regain their hard-nosed identity but have only one assist each in five games and 14 and 13 hits, respectively.
“They play hard,” Maurice said of the Wild. “I think the Wild and Vancouver play a game similar to us in terms of the intensity on pucks, the value of physicality, the bite in their game (along) with some really high-end guys that have some fine skill. And then they got some hard players that are going to grind.”
That’s when Maurice turned his attention to those “hard players.”
“Sometimes too much rest does not help you get into the rhythm of the grind,” Maurice said. “They’ve got about five or six guys in that lineup that actually don’t get to play their game in practice. They don’t actually get to hone their game because they’re physical players. It’s kind of like they come into training camp and you’re running drills in camp and you don’t really notice them until the first exhibition.
“Because, man, it’s the first time the guys been able to hit. So it’s more rhythm for them. You want to get into that kind of right rhythm. The National Hockey League doesn’t allow this very often. They either jam you with a ton of games or you’re sitting for five.”
In other words, as the schedule picks up, guys like Foligno and Trenin should find their footing.
That’s the Wild’s hope.
Hynes agreed with Maurice’s assessment and, in fact, said he plans to sit down with Foligno and Trenin before Tuesday’s game to go through some of their shifts and give them ideas as to how they can have a bigger impact.
Hynes said the Seattle home game — the Wild’s second game, way back on Oct. 11 — ramped up physically and Foligno and Trenin were huge factors. But, Hynes said, “We haven’t had a lot of those style of games yet and haven’t had a ton of games in a row.”
“So I think it’s a combo,” he added. “They can be better, but I think we’ve got to help them get into that mode because their identity as two players on whatever line we have them on can be really difficult to play against.”
Hynes pointed out that Trenin was played in Nashville for his first four-plus seasons, then was dealt to Colorado at the trade deadline before signing a four-year contract with the Wild as a free agent. The Avs play a very different system than most teams, especially in the defensive zone, where they have a man-to-man system.
He has been a little slow to adjust to the Wild’s system, even though Trenin did play for Hynes in Nashville. Similarly, Foligno is coming off a second year in a row where he had core muscle surgery, so Hynes intimated there could be some hesitancy from being a physical force.
Hynes said he’s seen examples where Foligno and Trenin can be more connected with puck decisions, whether that’s routes in the offensive zone or with their puck support. It would help them cycle pucks, get pucks back and be more of a presence at the net front and behind the net where they could use their bodies to make plays or wear down opponents.
“Playing the game is the only way you can really get into the rhythm,” Foligno said. “You can practice until you’re blue in the face, but I mean, when it’s real-life … I’m not about to hammer one of our guys in practice flying in on the forecheck. I can in games and we haven’t had many where you’re playing every other day.
“Sometimes it’s good to keep rolling and keep playing and it starts snowballing.”
It’s early, but Foligno has not been happy with his lack of offense. He and Trenin teamed up to assist on Marco Rossi’s second goal in as many games Saturday, but other than that, they’ve created little.
Foligno doesn’t have a shot on goal in five games. Trenin has four.
“We haven’t done enough offensively,” Foligno said. “But we hope that we can figure it out. There’s five games of playing with each other. I think last game was a little bit better. There were some flashes maybe in Seattle where we got some decent looks, but for the most part, we know that we’ve got to start producing and start clicking.”
Foligno feels good physically but said it has been a challenge mentally not wanting to get hurt again.
“I won’t lie,” he said. “There’s sometimes where you just want to make sure that a certain situation you put yourself in that you feel like you can come out of it. It’s getting up to speed, like the straightaway kind of thing where you can feel comfortable and know it’s OK to put the pedal to the metal and just let it go and go as fast as you can and not worry.
“But it’s the same thing as (Maurice) said. That’s all about playing games and getting in the rhythm of things, so we can just gain traction.”
The Wild play Tuesday night and Thursday night against the Panthers and Lightning, then Saturday afternoon at the Philadelphia Flyers before a couple of days off in Pittsburgh in advance of facing the Pittsburgh Penguins to close the road trip.
So games are coming — games where we can see the Wild face better competition then, let’s just be blunt, their two games against the Columbus Blue Jackets.
Last season, the Wild didn’t play well against the top teams in the league. They went 0-10-1 against the top three teams in the Central Division and won nine of 31 games against the top nine teams in the West. One thing that drove Bill Guerin batty was it felt like every time the Wild faced a big test, they fell flat on their face.
“This will test how true we can stay to our system and playing within it, because right now we’re doing a really good job, we’re all committed and everyone’s really buying in, and I think defensively we’re locking things down,” Foligno said. “But now we’re playing a steamroll of great teams and this will show what we learned in training camp and how well we can be committed to just playing the right way. You’ve got to be geared up to play the Stanley Cup champs, and it’s always a measuring stick.”
Hynes talked to his players on the ice about just that after Monday’s practice at the training facility of last season’s Stanley Cup winners.
“We had a five-game segment,” Hynes said. “And then now we got nice day off (Sunday), a good practice (Monday), but we’ve got to get back into work mode now. We have the defending Stanley Cup champions, obviously, (Tuesday), then you go into Tampa.
“These would be two of the premier teams in the league. So our mindset, our ability to play, we know they’re going to be tough, competitive games. So this is a different test than we’ve had … to see where our game is at, where our competitive level is at. So I’m looking forward to seeing it.”
(Photo of Marcus Foligno: David Berding / Getty Images)
