It’s not easy being the road team the day after the NHL’s Christmas break. Not being permitted to practice since last playing in San Jose five nights earlier, Wild players reconvened at the airport Tuesday morning for a day trip to Winnipeg with surely heavy legs from Christmas ham and eggnog.
Games against the Jets are usually mean and feisty, so it also had to be worrisome that the Wild would be without three of their bigger, most physical players — injured Marcus Foligno and Brandon Duhaime and ill-stricken Jake Middleton. One of their grittier players Mason Shaw was also serving the first of a two-game suspension.
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Yet in their first game against three divisional opponents, the Wild played a flawless road game against an albeit injury-riddled team just north of them in the standings to take two points and fork over zero to the Jets in a precision-like 4-1 win at Canada Life Centre.
“We did a lot of good things,” coach Dean Evason, who worked the bench despite missing the morning skate because he’s under the weather, said during his postgame scrum. “We got pucks out, we got pucks in. We didn’t mess around. Not a lot of turnovers. Just a real … almost a perfect game for coming off a break. And simplifying. We didn’t make anything complicated tonight. It was not necessarily the game plan, but the execution was fantastic.”
Mats Zuccarello and Jared Spurgeon were both sensational, highlighted by a goal and assist each. Sam Steel assisted on both of those goals with Zuccarello also serving up the sweetest, picture-perfect pass for a goal from Freddy Gaudreau, who also had an assist. Oh, and Minnesota’s own and former University of Minnesota three-time captain Sammy Walker scored his first NHL goal into an empty net to cinch the methodical effort by him and his teammates, including recalled Adam Beckman, who arguably played his best NHL game (two shots, three others attempted in 12 minutes of ice time) of the eight he has played to date.
ICYMI: Full @mnwild postgame show after a 4-1 win @NHLJets featuring Jared Spurgeon and Dean Evason as heard @KFAN1003:https://t.co/cJW3lGurO8@DallasStars on Thursday starting at 6:45 p.m. https://t.co/k8VgdjiGVo pic.twitter.com/fXkqpy4GsH
— Minnesota Wild @PONDcast (@PONDcast) December 28, 2022
“We were all over them,” Walker told Bally Sports North. “Our speed and hunting pucks and disciplined in the D-zone, we came ready to play today.”
So especially did goalie Filip Gustavsson, who looked a little shaky early but settled in once he got his timing down after four days of not facing pucks in practice. He continued to play games but more importantly, win games so the Wild keep feeling comfortable letting him spell 38-year-old No. 1 goalie Marc-Andre Fleury when necessary.
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Coming out of a break like this is usually when the Wild would automatically turn to Fleury. But the mere fact Gustavsson got the call Tuesday night shows how much he’s gaining the coaches’ confidence despite losing his last start in San Jose last Thursday.
For good reason, too.
“Gus,” who made 31 saves, is 7-1 with a .936 save percentage in his past eight starts since Nov 19. And in that span, he leads the NHL with a 1.74 goals-against average.
“It’s always hard,” Gustavsson said. “Four-day break is always a long time because you want to face shots all the time to keep the feeling in the hands and brain.”
But Gustavsson lauded the defensive play in front of him and said point blank that the “guys really showed up here” starting with a big kill early not long after Spurgeon and Zuccarello scored 63 seconds apart.
Spurgeon’s goal off Ryan Hartman’s setup came 13 seconds after Adam Lowry slid a shot off a short-handed breakaway through the crease. Zuccarello’s 16th goal came off Kirill Kaprizov’s drop pass after Steel forced a turnover at the Wild blue line.
Kaprizov drop pass to Zuccarello for a work of art and a two-goal Wild lead! 🤌 pic.twitter.com/xn4c9yuOPM
— Sportsnet (@Sportsnet) December 28, 2022
Later, after Pierre-Luc Dubois trimmed Minnesota’s lead to 2-1, Zuccarello emerged from the penalty box in the second period, skated past Neal Pionk and sent a perfect saucer pass over the legs of a sliding Kyle Capobianco right onto a driving Gaudreau’s stick blade at the backdoor for Gaudreau’s fifth goal in seven games.
Frederik Gaudreau crashes the back post and finishes Zuccarello's gorgeous dish, Wild lead by 2!pic.twitter.com/G0sOQh4s7K
— Hockey Daily 365 l NHL Highlights (@HockeyDaily365) December 28, 2022
“He sees everything,” Gaudreau said of Zuccarello, who has nine goals and 19 points in his past 13 games. “He’s patient. If the play’s not there, he’s going to keep it an extra second. Not everybody does that.”
The Wild won for the 13th time in the past 17 games and improved to 11-4 in their past 15 meetings with the Jets.
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Middleton was unable to make the trip because he’s sick. It’s unknown yet if he’ll be able to practice Wednesday, but veteran Alex Goligoski was paired with Spurgeon and played a strong game. Spurgeon was stellar as usual, especially defensively where he made several big defensive plays, including tying up star Kyle Connor in the second period to help preserve a two-goal lead.
WHAT. A. SEQUENCE. 🚨
The pic.twitter.com/zkf8u9aoBH
— Bally Sports North (@BallySportsNOR) December 28, 2022
“He’s just everything,” Evason said, grinning and almost drooling. “How can you say anything without being positive about Spurge? His play is one thing, but … in between whistles and timeouts, he goes up and down the bench. Coaches don’t have to say a thing and that’s so exciting when your leader is not only saying the right things but he’s doing the right things and dictating to the group, ‘This is how we play.’ And then he goes out and executes, and you can’t do anything but follow. His game has been all around … great.”
The Wild host the Dallas Stars on Thursday night, then head to St. Louis for a New Year’s Eve showdown with the Blues.
They sure got off to an impressive start in their first game out of the break, especially with Foligno suddenly sidelined with a lower-body injury.
Evason didn’t know the exact timeline for Foligno, but the coach said, “It won’t be anytime too soon.”
It’s not expected to be long-term, but that’s relative and we have all seen that for whatever reason the Jordan Greenway-Joel Eriksson Ek-Marcus Foligno line isn’t nearly as effective when one member is off the line.
The good news is Hartman, other than an undisciplined slashing minor in the first period that led to Winnipeg’s lone goal 10 seconds after the power play expired, was solid next to Greenway and Eriksson Ek. The line had the puck a lot, played in the offensive zone and got out of its own end cleanly.
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The GREEF Line has only played 11 times together this season totaling 111 minutes of five-on-five play. Its offense hasn’t been where it should be, but its defense has been elite. Five-on-five goals have been 2-2 with it deployed.
Before Tuesday, the five-on-five goals with Greenway and Eriksson Ek on the ice without Foligno was 1-1, but their expected goals generation is much worse and their defense has been shoddy at best in those 33 minutes.
Comparatively, last season in 430 five-on-five minutes together as a line, their offensive creation was solid with lots of net-front chances and their defense was elite.
But in 88 minutes without Foligno, the expected goal generation from Greenway and Eriksson Ek was below average. They had less shots from the slot and net front, and while their defense was still good, it was not at the same levels.
But fortunately for the Wild, Hartman is back in the lineup and should be able to fill in for Foligno adequately, especially if Walker continues to play as well as he has in four games next to Gaudreau and Matt Boldy.
— The Athletic’s Shayna Goldman contributed to this story.
Heat maps via HockeyViz
(Top photo of Frederick Gaudreau, Matt Boldy and Samuel Walker: James Carey Lauder / USA Today)