ST. PAUL, Minn. — Truth be told, it was Jared Spurgeon’s duty to score two goals to save the Minnesota Wild’s hide Friday afternoon because it was probably his fault they got off to such a sluggish start in the first place.
Once again, being the great captain he is and being the great captain’s wife Dani Spurgeon is, the Spurgeons opened their home to any Wild teammate who needed a place to spend Thanksgiving.
Fourteen of Spurgeon’s teammates took the couple up on Thursday’s offer. All in all, there were 31 adults and 22 kids in attendance, plus three turkeys, three hams and a whole pile of fixings.
And, “plenty of dessert,” Marc-Andre Fleury added.
So as often is the case with the Wild’s traditional Black Friday game, the Wild looked overstuffed and at the tail end of a tryptophan hangover during the first 20 minutes against the Blackhawks. They fell behind by two goals, but you just knew because of the confidence they’ve been playing with this season and given the lowly 32nd-place opponent they were facing that they’d just need one goal to pull off the inevitable.
Marco Rossi provided just that by finishing a pretty passing play between Kirill Kaprizov and Marcus Johansson.
“We needed something for the momentum change,” Rossi said. “It wasn’t our best game.”
And before the public address announcer even had time to announce Rossi’s goal, Spurgeon tied the game on a bit of a lucky break.
He’d eventually add another for his first two goals of the season — the 70th multi-point game of his career — and the Wild dispatched the Blackhawks, 3-2, for a 13th victory in the past 14 meetings between the rivals.
“It was chaos, but it was a good chaos,” Spurgeon said of the Turkey Day festivities at his home the day before. “It was fun. Good time to get together and get away from the rink. Obviously the people without family, to be able to come over and hang out was a good time.”
Friday was also Spurgeon’s 35th birthday. He also scored on his 30th birthday, so it was a nice touch to celebrate his 35th by scoring twice. The Wild are 15-4-4 in 23 games this season. It took them until their 32nd game last season to win for a 15th time.
Spurgeon is a big reason why they’ve had such a turnaround.
Last year, he was limited to 16 games because of a season-opening shoulder injury, then hip and back problems that ultimately required surgeries a month apart. But while Friday may have been Spurgeon’s first two goals of the season, he has been elite defensively.
According to MoneyPuck, entering Friday’s NHL action, Spurgeon led all NHL defensemen with 1.62 expected goals against at five-on-five when he was on the ice. He was also fourth in on-ice expected goals at 61 percent. That’s tops amongst a group of Wild players who have performed tremendously this season for a team that has allowed a league-low 1.3 five-on-five goals per game.
In terms of five-on-five shot attempts per 60 minutes, he’s second on the Wild behind, barely, normal defensive partner Jonas Brodin, who’s currently injured. Brodin will get further examined next week, and as coach John Hynes said, “fingers crossed.”
Fleury is blown away by Spurgeon’s renaissance.
“That guy doesn’t look like he’s slowing down either,” said Fleury, who made 20 saves to improve to 5-0-1 and became the first 40-year-old in Wild history to backstop the team to victory.
That’s because Thursday was the future Hall of Famer’s 40th. And those 21 children at the Spurgeon household made sure to sing him, “Happy Birthday!”
“He has us at his place all the time,” Fleury said. “Him and his wife are very welcoming, and (their) kids obviously. They’ve got a great setup, but they always make the effort to get the team together, whether it’s his house or somewhere else, which is great for chemistry.”
Added Rossi, who has been to three of Spurgeon’s Thanksgiving feasts, “It’s really nice just to be together with all of the players and with the wives and girlfriends and kids. It’s always fun when the kids are running around and stuff like that. It’s a nice thing to celebrate.”
BDAY CHAINNN ⛓️ pic.twitter.com/DPLlZ0igxj
— Minnesota Wild (@mnwild) November 29, 2024
This is the type of presence Spurgeon couldn’t have last season. He tried to be around the room and the fellas, but when you’re not part of the battle on an everyday basis because you’re hurt, it’s hard to have the same influential voice even when you’re the captain.
But this year it’s been the opposite.
“I mean, it’s really night and day different from the feel in the locker room, having him here,” said defenseman Brock Faber, who frankly could very well be Spurgeon’s heir apparent in terms of the Wild’s eventual next captain. “He’s playing so well. Not only does he contribute in all areas, offensively, defensively, on the power play, but he’s always making the right decision. Always so poised.
“But then off the ice. Everything off the ice, just having him around, having his leadership presence, is a night and day different feel as a group of guys, and obviously he’s the leader of that. His off-ice characteristics and on-ice are just helping us a whole lot.”
Spurgeon played the first two games of the season, then had to miss six as part of the healing process from last year’s surgeries. The discomfort was a slow buildup toward the end of camp, but then he got to Winnipeg for the first road game, woke up and something wasn’t right.
He flew back to Minnesota, got examined and doctors assured him there was no setback. He let things settle down, began to skate while the team was on the road and rejoined the Wild in Philadelphia for the latter part of the Wild’s seven-game road trip. He played in the finale of that trip, which was the last time the Wild rallied from a 2-0 deficit to win.
Spurgeon met with the media that morning, and while he made clear the issues he’s dealing with will be something he’ll likely have to manage before and after practices and games for the rest of his career, he didn’t seem confident it was all behind him.
But he has now played 15 games in a row and is playing at a high, high level.
“When the team’s playing well, it makes it easier, but there’s still little things within the game that you’re still trying to get back to,” Spurgeon said. “You go through camp and everything’s just fine and then just out of nowhere (you’re hurting). So, it was in the back of the mind, but now I’m just trying to go with it every day, day by day, and not really think about it.”
Hynes admits when Spurgeon first left the team he worried this would be, “Here we go again.”
“I think you’re always concerned about it,” Hynes said. “Obviously, when guys are injured and they have procedures done and then they come back, we were expecting (Spurgeon may have to miss time again). So, it always is in the back of your mind. It was nice that he was able to respond well and now he looks great.”
Hynes had no idea Spurgeon’s influence because he barely got to coach him and, frankly, never healthy.
“He’s the captain for a reason,” he said. “I didn’t get a chance to see his influence in the locker room. You always know the captain has respect from the team, but the respect that he has within the room, his leadership off the ice is vital.
“But you can see the impact now of what he says in between periods, what he talks about in the locker room after we leave or before we come in. I think he does a really nice job of understanding in-game when the team needs a little bit of a push. He’s a vocal leader, and he backs it up with his play.”
Faber says watching Spurgeon, the Wild’s all-time leader in games played (884), goals (112), points (392), minutes (19,615:50) and so much more for defensemen, has been a big learning lesson for him, especially in a game like Friday’s where Faber wasn’t at his best the first couple of periods.
“Even in games like this, where it feels like we’re on our heels, it’s just the way he plays,” Faber said. “And he’s always making the right decisions. It’s so good to learn from that. There’s a lot of highs and lows and how he’s just steadily climbing, that stuff you strive to do as a defenseman — especially as a young defenseman. I couldn’t have asked for a better leader.”
(Top photo: Nick Wosika / Imagn Images)
