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Wild off their game in rare poor road outing against stingy opponent: 3 takeaways vs. Kings

8 December 2024Last Update :
Wild off their game in rare poor road outing against stingy opponent: 3 takeaways vs. Kings

LOS ANGELES — It feels like for 20 years or at least for as long as Anze Kopitar has played for the Los Angeles Kings — 1,400 games, to be exact, it feels like it’s the same story against them.

Big, strong, tight-checking, stingy.

If they get an early lead, they can clamp it down.

Saturday night, 22 hours after their opening puck drop in a one-sided win at Anaheim, the Minnesota Wild had trouble generating much of anything until the third period of an eventual 4-1 loss to the Kings. The Kings scored a couple of empty-netters to make it feel worse than it was, but truth be told, when they had a 2-0 lead, it felt like 5-zip.

“They’re a really good team,” said veteran Marcus Johansson. “They play smart, they play tight, and I think they get the lead, and it’s very hard to get anything going. And credit to them, I think they did a good job, and we gave it our all. I think in the end, maybe 22 hours between starts, it’s an uphill battle. But we tried and just quite couldn’t get it going.”

Yakov Trenin scored late for his first goal streak with the Wild to spoil Darcy Kuemper’s shutout bid, but in the end, Minnesota lost its league-low fifth game in regulation out of 27 games this season. It was their second, though, to the Kings.

Kirill Kaprizov didn’t register a point on the road for the first time in his last 14 games. Marc-Andre Fleury, in what could have been his final start at Los Angeles, was solid by stopping 30 of 32 shots but lost in regulation for the first time in seven starts.

It was the Wild’s second regulation loss in 16 road games and first regulation loss in their past 10 road games.

The Wild, again without Jonas Brodin, Joel Eriksson Ek and Mats Zuccarello, will take Sunday off for a much-needed rest day, then practice Monday in Salt Lake City before their first-ever game at Utah’s Delta Center. The Wild could be getting injured Jakub Lauko back in that game.

Late first-period goal hurts

The Wild, who were tied for the league lead in the fewest first-period goals allowed (15), were 43 seconds from getting out of the first period 0-0 when a sloppy shift resulted in Adrian Kempe giving the Kings a 1-0 lead.

Without pressure in the corner, Declan Chisholm continued a first-period trend for himself by giving the puck away. The Wild began to scramble and Kempe got a beat on the Wild defenders on a drive to the net after a slight collision between Jared Spurgeon and Marco Rossi. Kopitar sent a pass to the backdoor that deflected in off of Kempe’s skate.

It was a low-event period for the Wild in the back end of a back-to-back and the goal put them on their heels heading into what was not a good second period played by them.

The Wild have given up 10 goals in the final minute of a period this season, tied for third-most in the NHL.

Wild weren’t their normal crisp self

The Kings make it tough coming through the neutral zone, and the Wild didn’t help themself with some glitchy breakouts and a hesitance to simply get the puck and go to work.

“I just don’t think we’re as clean against them, and they’re a good team,” left-wing Marcus Foligno said. “Today was tough. I don’t think we had our legs as much and I think our breakouts were just sloppy. Our forecheck wasn’t there until halfway through the game. And I just think they’re good, they’re smart, they get back, they fight to live another day.

“We’ve got to do a better job of the possession game against them. You’ve got to be opportunistic, too. I (missed) a breakaway, we missed some chances in the first that you could easily score. So you’ve got to be opportunistic against a team like this and score first and get your rhythm going. Effort’s there, it’s just you’re a little ticked off because it’s another outcome against these guys that ends the same way.”

Johansson took a kneeing penalty he didn’t agree with in the second period, then the Wild’s 28th-ranked penalty kill couldn’t win a puck battle in one corner and Jake Middleton couldn’t get the puck out on the other side of the night. It resulted in a 2-0 lead on Alex Laferriere’s power-play goal, and it was a battle from there.

Jiricek’s debut continues to be on hold

It has been a week since the Wild acquired David Jiricek from the Columbus Blue Jackets for Daemon Hunt and four draft picks. And it has been a week of Jiricek practicing but not playing.

Hynes has said he doesn’t see a reason yet to change his blueliners and the Wild want to take time to get Jiricek up to speed and put him in the best position to succeed since he has only played six NHL games and four AHL games this season.

But sitting in the press box and not playing games probably won’t be doing him justice either. So there may come a point soon where the Wild call up another defenseman from Iowa to serve as an extra and get Jiricek to the minors to play games and lots of minutes.

Originally, the Wild planned to start him in Iowa. But with Brodin hurt, they decided it would be good for Jiricek to come up to Minnesota, meet his new teammates and practice with the NHL coaches even if he didn’t play.

But there’s no doubt the 21-year-old is going to need game action at some point.

One quandary? For Jiricek to play, unless Zach Bogosian is coming out of the lineup, Jon Merrill would have to be the healthy scratch for Jiricek.

Hynes clearly doesn’t want to scratch Bogosian. But if Merrill comes out, the Wild would have to move the right-shot Jiricek or one of their other right-shot defensemen — Brock Faber, Jared Spurgeon or Bogosian — to the left side with Brodin injured.

Bogosian said after Saturday’s game that he played the left side “a ton” in Winnipeg and Tampa Bay, so perhaps that’s the option.

(Photo: Ryan Sun / Imagn Images)

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