ST. PAUL, Minn. — Here’s something spooky for you to digest over your Friday the 13th cup of coffee and bowl of cereal.
Friday is the 13th anniversary of a loss by the Minnesota Wild in Winnipeg where a hard-nosed defenseman named Zach Bogosian hit Pierre-Marc Bouchard from behind in a defeat that sparked a string of injuries and triggered an eight-game losing streak that tanked the season of the “best team in the NHL.”
The Wild entered Thursday’s NHL action with the best record in the NHL.
The last time they were tops in the NHL this late in a season was mid-December 2011, yet starting with that first loss at the Winnipeg Jets, the Wild won 15 of their final 52 games to miss the playoffs.
More eerily, they traveled to Winnipeg after games in … L.A. and Phoenix.
The Wild’s ugly 7-1 loss to the Edmonton Oilers on Thursday night came after games in L.A. and, cue the Friday the 13th music, Utah — which is, as of last season, the former Arizona (Phoenix) Coyotes.
Coincidence, sure.
Now, without a doubt this Wild iteration — one that has lost just six times in regulation in 29 games — is a much better hockey team, a much deeper hockey team and has a superstar in Kirill Kaprizov that the 2011 version of the Wild didn’t come close to having.
But for a team that’s already without defenseman Jonas Brodin, right wing Mats Zuccarello and center Joel Eriksson Ek (the hope is Brodin and Zuccarello are on track to return soon), the fact top-pair defenseman Jake Middleton suffered what could be a serious injury to his right hand Thursday night is extremely worrisome.
“He’s such a big part of our team, not only defensively, but offensively as well,” captain Jared Spurgeon said. “On the bench and in the locker room as well as a big part of the energy that he brings. Obviously, he’s gonna be missed. I haven’t really talked to see what’s going on, but obviously, the guy he is, if he doesn’t come back out, there’s something going on.”
Here is Jake Middleton’s injury. His night ended 37 seconds into his first shift. Struck on hand by one of the NHL’s hardest shooters pic.twitter.com/CmLT5RdQQ3
— Michael Russo (@RussoHockey) December 13, 2024
As coach John Hynes said after the season’s first clunker, Thursday’s rout was extremely “uncharacteristic.”
It’s also explainable.
The Oilers, last year’s Western Conference finalist, had won six of seven since the Wild beat them in Edmonton last month. At the time, the Oilers felt the Wild were the best team they faced to date. They played well that night, but the Wild were way better.
But three weeks later, the Wild were going to have to go up against Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl without their best checking center and best skating defenseman. Then add in the fact the Wild didn’t get into their own beds until 4 a.m. Thursday after flying home from Salt Lake City, you just knew Thursday was going to be a chore.
But once Middleton, who has been sensational this season and coming off a stellar game at the Utah Hockey Club, was lost 37 seconds into his night, the game unraveled fast.
The Wild were sluggish. Couldn’t defend. Couldn’t break the puck out. Couldn’t sustain a forecheck.
For 60 ugly minutes.
But because this was the first time anything remotely like this happened in a league where all teams have a few of these over the course of 82 games, it’s easy to look at this as an aberration provided the Wild work to make sure 2011 doesn’t repeat itself.
“I think whatever the reasons are, it’s important that we got to get our energy back and we got to have a good day (Friday),” Hynes said. “We got to be ready for the weekend (back-to-back games against the Philadelphia Flyers and Vegas Golden Knights). We’ve had a lot of good things that have gone on for us this year. Tonight was an uncharacteristic night for us. I’m not gonna overthink it. Tonight is what it is. We gotta get ready for Saturday.”
If Middleton is going to be out long-term — Hynes didn’t provide an update, but initial rumblings are it doesn’t sound good — the Wild might need to acquire a left-shot defenseman as early as Friday.
One left-shot defenseman placed on waivers Thursday happens to be the Oilers’ Travis Dermott, a 27-year-old with 339 games of NHL experience who makes just $775,000.
During the first intermission, the Wild’s three assistant general managers were seen huddling and likely discussing the roster, the Wild’s tight cap situation and possible external additions. During the second intermission, Wild general manager Bill Guerin was seen talking with his Edmonton counterpart, Stan Bowman, and you can bet your last dollar Guerin was doing some due diligence into Dermott — the player and person.
Even if the Wild put in a claim, there’s no guarantee they’d get him by Friday’s 1 p.m. deadline. With the NHL’s second-best points percentage at .724, the Wild would have the 31st waiver priority. The other option is to scour the trade market to see whether there’s a quick insurance policy out there because the Wild don’t feel left-shot prospects Carson Lambos or Ryan O’Rourke are ready for the NHL.
It’s uncanny the way it works, but the Wild felt Daemon Hunt was their most NHL-ready defense prospect but couldn’t find him a spot in the NHL. So they sent him to the Columbus Blue Jackets in their package for right-shot defenseman David Jiricek a few weeks ago and are in dire need of a left-shot defenseman like … Daemon Hunt.
“Mids is a big part of shutting down guys, playing big down there, just holding on to pucks and just kind of making a lot of lines get one and dones in our zone,” winger Marcus Foligno said. “So, yeah, it’s tough.”
Middleton’s loss suddenly meant guys like Jon Merrill were playing on the top pair at times and defense pairs were mished and mashed with right-shot guys such as Spurgeon and Bogosian having to play their off-side.
This is why the Wild might need to hurriedly get a left-shot blue liner. Now, the hope is still that Brodin, who has missed eight games, can return soon. He did skate with the team for the first time Thursday, but the Wild have to be careful with what could be a lingering upper-body injury and not rush him back if he’s not ready.
“You have to do what’s right for the player,” Hynes said. “You have to do what’s right for the team. Is he really ready to play? I don’t have that answer tonight. I’ll probably know more (Friday). Same thing with Zuccy. I don’t know. Ultimately there is a medical procedure they have to go through to make sure that they’re ready to play and not force them in there because you’re banged up and you feel like you have needs.”
Sure, there are concerns creeping into their game, which was inevitable with Brodin, Eriksson Ek, Zuccarello and now Middleton injured.
Their penalty kill gave up two more goals and continues to be unacceptably hideous and something that must be fixed if they expect to win a playoff round, let alone four. Filip Gustavsson, who a few days ago had the league’s best save percentage and goals-against average, has suddenly given up nine goals in two starts and was yanked Thursday after two periods. And the Wild continue to generate precious little despite having the second-most points in the West.
“It was one of those nights,” Middleton’s usual partner, Brock Faber, said, “Having two of your best forwards and two of your best defensemen (out) doesn’t help. But it’s one of those things where even from the jump it just wasn’t our night. Just weren’t finding pucks. Couldn’t solidify a forecheck, a breakout. Couldn’t shut down their top guys. It was just one of those nights.
“It’s so easy to get down. We got to obviously acknowledge that those games can’t happen, but they’re gonna happen. And trust the process that we’ve gone through and trust the position we’re in. We’re still a damn good hockey team.
“You hate when those nights happen, and you want to avoid those nights. But now it’s accepting and learning from it, and, again, still staying confident in our game and who we are as a team. We’re playing good hockey, we’re battling, we have a chance every night. And tonight was our first one where it was just frustrating all around.”
But to avoid 2011 eerily repeating itself, they’ve got to fall back on the impressive structure Hynes and his staff have instilled and, as Faber said, remind themselves that they indeed have been one of the NHL’s best teams for a reason.
“You never wanna have games like this, but they’re just instances where plays to be made that we have been making in the past were just little things that we weren’t doing right and seemed to be just one after the other,” Spurgeon said. “So back to work (Friday) and then we got two big ones on the weekend.”
(Photo: Brad Rempel / Imagn Images)
