Minnesota Wild Making It Through All the Injuries

It’s still very early in the NHL season, but the Minnesota Wild have already been dealt their fair share of injuries, including two that occurred before the regular season started. Those were Filip Gustavsson, who is of course recovering from offseason hip surgery, and then Brock Faber, who is recovering from a skull fracture he received during the preseason when a puck hit him in the head near his ear. 

Once the season started, the Wild had more injuries happen; both Zach Bogosian and Olli Määttä missed a game each with different injuries, while both Marcus and Nick Foligno have missed four games each. The Folignos are on injured reserve, as is the latest injury, Nico Sturm, who, like Faber, was hit near the ear with a puck, but the length of time he’ll be out had not been stated at the time of this article. 

The final injuries were Jared Spurgeon and Määttä, who didn’t play in the last game. With all of these injuries, we’ll take a look at how the Wild can survive and keep heading in the right direction, starting with their young players. 

Wild’s Youth Steps Up

The Wild have been pretty fortunate with their young talent that comes up when injuries arise. Some players, of course, don’t work out, but for the most part, everyone has filled their roles, from Tyler Pitlick, Rieger Lorenz, David Špaček, and more. Some players don’t have a lot of time to show what they can do because the injured player returns right away, but they make an impression regardless. 

Lorenz especially has been showcasing his talents and what he can do. He’s fit in well with the lineup, and he has a lot of confidence in his game. It’s likely that once the Wild get a fully healthy roster, they’ll send Lorenz back to the Iowa Wild in the American Hockey League because he still has some growing to do, but he’s done quite well in his time with the NHL. However, the Wild will make sure to utilize his presence in the lineup until he has to go back. 

The other newer players to the lineup have been noticeable but not as much as Lorenz. Pitlick has only had the chance to play two games, but he showed his physicality with 11 hits and three shots on goal through about 15 minutes of ice time.  

Špaček has made his impact on the defense already with just four games played and four hits plus five blocked shots. While the Wild want all of their players healthy, if they have to go through injuries, having young players ready to step into the NHL role makes it easier to get through.

Wild’s Line Combinations Working

While the new players are working out in their respective spots, the new line combinations are working as well. Due to the injuries, the Wild had to make adjustments, which meant the top line is now Kirill Kaprizov, Joel Eriksson Ek, and Matt Boldy. So far it has worked great, but they do like to spread the talent throughout the lineup, so it’ll be interesting to see how long they keep this combination going. 

Maxim Shabanov has found great chemistry with Kaprizov, but he’s shown his ability to adapt as he’s also found connection with Ryan Hartman and whoever he’s paired with, like his other Russian teammates as well. Like their young counterparts, the Wild’s full-time roster has adjusted to the voids in the lineup and gotten along well with whoever they’re paired with. 

A lot of times, when one or more players are missing from the lineup, it can be hard for the rest of the team to play without them. Lucky for the Wild they haven’t had much of that problem, if they have any more injuries to their lineup that may change, as every team can only take so many injuries, but so far they’ve managed well. 

Wild Need to Stay Focused

It may sound very simple and something they should do all the time, but the Wild have to stay focused on their game and what is working for them rather than all the injuries that keep happening. If they can stay focused on what’s working for them, they’ll be able to keep making it work in their favor. 

They can’t do anything about the injuries, as the majority of them are out of their control, but if they allow it to get in their heads, they’ll have issues. They’ve been able to keep their special teams going in the right direction, and even when they’ve had some struggles, it’s been short-term, and they haven’t allowed it to interfere too much. 

If the Wild have any more injuries to their lineup, it’ll start to be pretty demanding on the full-time guys. They’ll be stretched a bit thin covering for all the openings, but maybe they’ll start to get more players back healthy rather than more going down with injury. Several of their players are going to miss some time but players like Spurgeon and Määttä will optimistically be out a shorter period of time. Hopefully the Wild can keep up the strong play despite all the injuries and keep getting wins.