The Minnesota Wild hosted the Vegas Golden Knights in the second back-to-back game for both teams. The Wild were coming off a big win over the Philadelphia Flyers but announced shortly before the game that Jesper Wallstedt would be in the net for the first time this season. Marc-André Fleury was the backup, which meant Filip Gustavsson was out, and it turns out he was having a minor issue looked at, according to a post by Michael Russo of The Athletic.
Nothing else changed for the Wild regarding injuries, and they started the game off strong. However, the Golden Knights wouldn’t go away, and the game was very close until the end. Despite Kirill Kaprizov scoring two goals, the Wild couldn’t get past the Golden Knights, but overall, it wasn’t a bad game. In this article, we’ll look at a couple of strong points for the Wild and one downfall they have to fix. We’ll start with how the fresh faces on the roster have made an impact.
Wild’s Fresh Faces Make Impact
Jesper Wallstedt wasn’t the only player making his Wild season debut against the Golden Knights. The newly acquired Travis Dermott from the Edmonton Oilers debuted in a Wild jersey and fit in quite well. There weren’t any noticeable mistakes on his part, and he played well with whoever he was paired with as they rotated with the Wild electing to play 11 forwards and seven defensemen.
Dermott played a total of 7:47 and again didn’t make a huge impact, but he did have two shots on goal and one takeaway. It was not a bad first night in a Wild jersey for him, and it’ll be interesting to see how they plan to use him going forward.
While the Golden Knights scored three goals on Wallstedt, it wasn’t a horrible night for him either. He made 24 saves on 27 shots; without him, the game wouldn’t have been as close. The first goal he let in, he was screened, and his defense was struggling to help on the penalty kill. The second was one he’d want back for sure, as it looked like it just got over his blocker, and the third one was deflected, so there was nothing he could do.
Wallstedt played with confidence, and hopefully, despite the loss, he’ll shake this off and come back stronger if the Wild need him again, depending on what’s going on with Gustavsson. It’s important to remember that this was his first start of the season for the Wild, and it was an emergency. He’s a capable goaltender who will be strong once he’s up full-time and longer than one game.
Wild Being Aggressive
The Wild’s aggressiveness with and without the puck was noticeable almost immediately. When the Golden Knights had the puck in the defensive zone, the Wild were skating right at them, forcing them to move the puck quickly rather than having time to set anything up. It threw the Golden Knights off quite a bit, and even though the Wild did get scored on, the defense made a difference.
Outside of the defensive zone, the Wild’s forwards were being even more aggressive; as soon as their defense had control of the puck, two of the forwards would make a beeline out of the zone towards the Golden Knight’s blue line and wait for a pass to send them into the zone. They did get a few breakaways out of this new cherry-picking style, but unfortunately, none of them converted.
The Wild also continued sending a defenseman deep into the offensive zone when they could to try and create some offense. It wasn’t as present these last two games because of Jake Middleton’s injury, but Jon Merrill nearly had a scoring chance when he tried, and Declan Chisholm tried numerous times and again was nearly successful. They’ll need the defense to try this, eventually getting them goals.
Wild’s Penalty Kill Issues Continue
Despite bouncing back against the Philadelphia Flyers, where they killed off all three penalties they took, it only took seven seconds for the Golden Knights to score while the Wild were shorthanded. While they were aggressive on defense at 5-on-5, they still struggled to do so while on the penalty kill.
At the beginning of the season, they did decently at it, and against the Flyers, they did as well, but it was more difficult when they battled a team with similar skills. Luckily for the Wild, they only took one penalty, which wasn’t against Matt Boldy. He’d been called for penalties in four out of the last five games, and before that, he had gone nearly two weeks without a penalty.
Related: Wild’s Fleury Leads Way in 4-1 Win Over Flyers
If the Wild can’t get their penalty kill straightened out, they must try to stay out of the box as much as possible until they can. That is much easier said than done, but the Wild have done a good job of taking fewer penalties this season, and hopefully, they can continue that tendency.
Wild Face Panthers
The Wild will take on the Florida Panthers for the second time this season, with the first one going in the Wild’s favor on the road. They’ll be at home this time and looking to avenge this loss. It’ll be interesting to see what they do with their goaltending situation, which likely won’t be clarified until the day before the game. Hopefully, they’ll have Gustavsson back because he was doing so well; otherwise, they’ll need Fleury and Wallstedt to get them back on the winning track.
