The Minnesota Wild (10-12-4) have had three full days off at home to get ready for tonight’s rematch against the Calgary Flames (11-14-4) after shutting out the Seattle Kraken on Dec. 10. The Wild picked apart the Flames just over a week ago in Calgary as part of a four-game winning streak brought on by a coaching change after dropping the previous seven in a row. Despite winning five of their last seven since John Hynes replaced Dean Evason, and both teams directly in front of them in the Central Division currently mired in four-game losing streaks, the Wild still find themselves seventh in the Division and four points outside of a playoff spot.
The Flames are in a similar position to the Wild in that they were expected to be in a better situation this season than they are currently experiencing. The Pacific Division now has four extremely strong teams since the Edmonton Oilers woke up and won their last eight in a row, so the Flames and their rollercoaster ride of a season are clinging to the hope of trying to sneak into the playoffs in a wildcard spot. That puts them in direct competition with the Wild for the same ticket to the postseason. Both teams are a bit banged up with the Flames missing goaltender Jacob Markstom and defenseman Chris Tanev, while the Wild are missing one of the best defensive defensemen in the NHL in Jonas Brodin.
Minnesota Wild Lines
The Wild’s lines have been in a state of flux for most of the season. Between the poor play, the injuries, and the coaching change, there has always been a reason to slide players around to try and improve upon whatever area is failing at that time. The current first line is truly a representation of the best the Wild have. Joel Eriksson Ek is scoring at an unbelievable pace this season as his 14 goals in 26 games would bring him to 44 goals over a full 82-game season. His current personal best is 26 goals. Matt Boldy is back with six goals and eight points in his last seven games and Kirill Kaprizov has still produced 24 points this season despite not looking like himself.
Kirill Kaprizov – Joel Eriksson Ek – Matt Boldy
Marcus Johansson – Marco Rossi – Mats Zuccarello
Marcus Foligno – Freddy Gaudreau – Pat Maroon
Brandon Duhaime – Connor Dewar – Ryan Hartman
Alex Goligoski – Jared Spurgeon
Jake Middleton – Brock Faber
Jon Merrill – Zach Bogosian
Filip Gustavsson – Marc-Andre Fleury
The rest of the offensive lines are no slouch either. The second line is an interesting combination of Mats Zuccarello, who has been obliterating any notions of age-related regression, Marco Rossi, who has been looking more and more like the top-six player he was drafted to be, and Marcus Johansson, the speedy winger that has not quite been as effective as he was last season. The bottom six offers a wealth of defense and penalty-killing abilites, but one has to wonder how much longer Johansson will be on the second line without any production before Ryan Hartman gets a bump up from that fourth line.
Related: Minnesota Wild Prospect Report: Stramel, Öhgren, & Wallstedt
The defense is where it starts to get scary for the Wild. It is utterly horrific to think about where this team would be if it wasn’t for the revelation that is Brock Faber. This is a young man who was looked at as a likely middle-pairing, defense-first defenseman and a strange target from the Los Angeles Kings in the Kevin Fiala trade. Right now he looks like a top Calder Trophy contender and a future number-one defenseman for the Wild for many years to come.
With Brodin out for a while with an injury, it will be up to Faber and Jared Spurgeon to hold down the back end. Jake Middleton has games where he can be very effective and Zach Bogosian has games where he shows why the Wild were willing to grab the veteran defender, but with the rest of the defense being comprised of some combination of Alex Goligoski, Jon Merrill, Dakota Mermis or Daemon Hunt, it could leave the Wild counting down the days until Brodin is back.
Next on the Dockett
The Wild’s schedule does not get any easier moving forward. In the next five games they will face the Vancouver Canucks and the Boston Bruins twice, two teams that look like true competitors this season and the kind of teams that the Wild have been unable to beat in their quest to regain relevancy this season. A sprinkling of the Pittsburgh Penguins and Montreal Canadiens in between those tough opponents should make for some more winnable games.
