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What the Wild proved in October: Depth, road warriors and Kaprizov playing like 'the best player in the league'

31 October 2024Last Update :
What the Wild proved in October: Depth, road warriors and Kaprizov playing like 'the best player in the league'

PITTSBURGH — Way back on Oct. 13, when Joel Eriksson Ek didn’t travel with the Minnesota Wild to face the Winnipeg Jets and captain Jared Spurgeon woke up feeling wonky, there was an ominous feeling in the air.

The exhausted Wild ground out a point that night, the first game of a seven-game road trip, but after having blown a game 24 hours earlier — a shootout home loss to the Seattle Kraken — it just felt like, “Here we go again.”

Last season, the Wild lost Spurgeon in the final exhibition game and Matt Boldy, Freddy Gaudreau and Alex Goligoski before the season was three games old. It set the tone for a season full of injury problems that tested the limits of a cap-strapped, depth-deprived team. After a 5-10-4 start, they made a coaching change.

After that overtime loss in Winnipeg 18 days ago, players like Brock Faber, Jake Middleton and Filip Gustavsson all but vowed that history wouldn’t repeat itself, though. The Wild were a much more confident team and, after a difficult training camp, felt they were better equipped to deal with adversity.

And they’ve shown it. Following a 5-3 win Tuesday against the Pittsburgh Penguins, the Wild return to Minnesota for a three-game homestand with a 6-1-2 record, including a 5-1-1 road trip. They made a two-day pit stop in the Twin Cities after starting the trip 1-0-1 and went 4-1-0 the rest of the way.

“Love it. Love our start,” goalie Marc-Andre Fleury said after his triumphant final start of his 21-year career in Pittsburgh. “Love the way the guys compete and battle. It was definitely a stinger to miss the playoffs last year, and I feel everybody wants to put that behind us and move forward and do better.

“And the way they’ve been battling and confident and coming back in games and holding our leads in the games, I think those are things we’ve been good at. It’s been a lot of fun. Lot of fun winning games.”

As good as the Wild did on the road, every player, to a man, was eager to get on the chartered flight late Tuesday to see their families.

“I miss my son,” Gaudreau said.

“There’s a lot of people back home that would like us home, too,” said veteran Mats Zuccarello, whose team-leading fifth goal was the game winner Tuesday. “It’s been a good road trip for us, for sure. So, it’s good to go home with some points in the bag and a little bit of confidence.”

For the most part, the Wild have gotten solid goaltending, defended well and are starting to get point production from players beyond Kirill Kaprizov, Zuccarello, Boldy and Eriksson Ek so far.

Of course, this team goes the way Kaprizov goes, and he has been simply fabulous. Heading into Wednesday’s NHL action, Kaprizov was tied for the league lead with 18 points and had a league-leading seven multi-point games, including six in a row. He had 10 assists over a six-game assist streak. Of his 13 assists this season, 10 are primary assists. The Wild have outscored opponents 12-4 with him on the ice at five-on-five through nine games.

This is the fastest start of Kaprizov’s NHL career, and his passing right now is downright special.

“He’s really feeling it,” coach John Hynes said. “He’s playing the game the right way. He’s executing when he needs to execute. It’s fun to see. It’s fun to be able to coach a guy like that and just his passion for the game.

“The competitiveness, that stands out every night. But the ability to make plays and make plays you don’t think can happen is pretty special.”

Zuccarello rolls his eyes anytime he’s asked about his linemate, bosom buddy and protege.

“I honestly don’t understand why you guys are surprised,” he said. “He’s done this for five years and keeps doing it. It’s not like I’m going, ‘Wow.’ Every day, we’ve seen (this) for five years and still going. Pleasure to have him. I’ve said that since Day 1, for me, (he’s the) best player in the league. Working hard, playing for the team, blocking shots.”

Against the Penguins, Gaudreau scored the Wild third line’s third and fourth goals of the season. Jakub Lauko scored the fourth line’s first goal of the season.

Marcus Foligno and Yakov Trenin have been among the stingiest forwards in the NHL from a chances-against standpoint, and they really picked it up over the final four games of the trip with Gaudreau placed between them. Ryan Hartman is sidelined with an upper-body injury and Hynes saw something in Columbus with Marat Khusnutdinov between Foligno and Trenin that made him switch to Gaudreau in Florida.

“I thought his game was trending in the right direction, and we were trying to find a good combo,” Hynes said. “We were working with Trenny and Moose a little bit on their game, and then I just think Freddy, with the two big guys going through there, Freddy’s been great on breakouts. Good center support. I think he can bring the puck up to help get those guys up and out of the zone, and then I just think his smarts to play with those two guys helps his ability to score.

“But the thing I probably like the most about his game, even versus last year, there’s speed. I think his competitiveness in puck battles is there, and it seems like it’s been a good fit and that line has come up big the last couple nights.”

On the blue line, other than the game in Philadelphia, Jonas Brodin and Faber have been excellent.

Faber even got into his first career fight Tuesday when he got tangled with a frustrated Sidney Crosby. Once Faber got into it with one of the game’s all-time greats, he knew he’d probably have to fight somebody. Jack St. Ivany was that somebody, coming off the bench and beelining for Faber.

“(Crosby) thought I slew-footed him. I didn’t think I did,” Faber said. “Obviously, I don’t see myself as a dirty player, but again, we’re competitors. He’s a competitor, and he’s been one of the best players, if not the best, for a long time. That’s what happens when you go after guys like that. I didn’t mean to go after him, I don’t think he meant to come after me, but that was that. I obviously had to fight after that.”

Faber was wearing two chains heading into the fight. Those chains were ripped right off his neck during the fight.

“I can always replace a chain,” he said. “It’s not a big deal.”

Hynes was proud of the effort Tuesday night to fight back from two goals down. Often at the end of a long road trip, an early deficit can lead to a rout because players can’t muster the energy to fight back and essentially have one foot on the plane. But the Wild stormed back, in part buoyed by wanting to play well for Fleury. It was a good response after a disappointing loss in Philadelphia on Saturday.

“This is one of the hardest-working teams I’ve been on,” Zuccarello said. “I hate when people say you’re working hard but you’re never not working harder than everyone else. Everyone in this league works hard, but we work smart. We work for each other. Sometimes the puck goes in, you get some wins. Sometimes you deserve to win some games and you lose.

“It’s always good to get points in this league. It’s hard. So, yeah, just stay the course, stay humble.”

But there’s no denying this was one impressive road trip, considering how it started on that mid-October night in Winnipeg.

“You can’t predict you were going to go 5-1-1 (on the road trip), but I think there’s a lot to be said (about) the importance of training camp, the mindset, the feel, the motivation of the players, pushing them,” Hynes said. “They’ve all been very consistent. I think that’s one of the things when you go into Winnipeg and you play that type of game, you have a couple injuries, that was an opportunity for us to really rise to the occasion.

“We all said coming in this was going to be a big road trip for us. The guys really buckled in, played the right way and found ways to win games.”

There’s a lot of season left — 73 games to be exact. But so far, so good, with the team winning six of its first nine games a year after not getting its sixth victory until Game 20.

“You try and stay level-headed,” Faber said. “We’re obviously happy with this road trip, but we’re trying to find that consistency day in and day out, honestly. I think that was the struggle last year. A game like Philadelphia, that could have turned the whole road trip around. Obviously, we battled back (against the Penguins), and that’s huge for us.”

As successful as the road trip was, though, Faber said the Wild can’t wait to play at Xcel Energy Center “in front of those fans again.”

“Hopefully we can keep it going at home,” he said.

(Photo of Kirill Kaprizov: Douglas P. DeFelice / Getty Images)

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