The Minnesota Wild hosted the Winnipeg Jets for their third preseason game and first at home. While they didn’t field their full NHL roster yet, they included some big names for their hometown fans. Kirill Kaprizov, Ryan Hartman, Mats Zuccarello, Joel Eriksson Ek, Yakov Trenin, Brock Faber, Jake Middleton, and Marc-André Fleury made preseason debuts for the Wild.
Things started off strong for the Wild, as their star, Kaprizov, scored on the power play to give them an early lead. The Jets would answer back, however, also on the power play to tie things up before the first ended in a 1-1 tie. In the second period, the scoring took off for the Wild, as they scored seven goals to the Jets’ one and came out on top 8-2 to end the second. In the third, the Wild finally calmed down on the scoring, but the Jets climbed back. Ultimately, the Wild were able to keep them at bay, and they walked away with an 8-5 win. In this article, we’ll take a look at how the Wild did it, starting with their offensive production.
Wild’s Offense Producing
The Wild’s scoring leader, Kaprizov, did what he does best and scored not once but twice on the power play. His performance was equaled by Joel Eriksson Ek, who also scored twice. The only difference was that Eriksson Ek’s were at even strength, plus he had three assists for a five-point night. Mats Zuccarello and Liam Ohgren also added single goals of their own to keep their team’s strong offensive production going, as did Ben Jones, who added the first of two shorthanded goals.
While all of these goals were equally impressive, Marat Khusnutdinov stands out the most as not only was his the second shorthanded goal of the game but his pure effort to follow through. He got the puck on a breakaway, but the Jets defenseman caught up to him, and in the defenseman’s efforts to stop Khusnutdinov, he got a penalty. However, Khusnutdinov didn’t stop and continued to the net, where he beat Connor Hellebuyck and put the Wild up 8-2.
There was plenty of scoring for the Wild, but they wouldn’t have been able to put up all those goals without the strong performance of their netminder, Fleury. He struggled a little in the game’s final minutes but still made some great saves and helped his team earn the 8-5 win.
Wild’s Special Teams Improved
The Wild have put the lessons they’ve learned in training camp to good use, especially against the Jets. They stuck to their systems, and when something didn’t work, they adjusted just like they’re supposed to. This involved both their penalty kill and power play. Their power play was successful right off the bat because they didn’t waste time making unnecessary passes. When Kaprizov got the puck, he ripped a quick, hard shot, and it worked.
In the past, the Wild hesitated to try new things and change their play, especially on special teams. While not much has changed, they’ve adjusted their positions and passing, producing results. While they weren’t perfect on either the power play or penalty kill, they scored on both, which gave them the lead throughout the game.
They have a few issues to fix on both the penalty kill and power play, but it looks like they’ve improved over last season. One area they need to be careful of that caught them last season, too, was their tendency to take too many penalties, and they did the same against the Jets. Thankfully, their penalty kill was up to the task for the most part and killed off four of the six they took, but they can’t do that every night, or it will bite them.
Luckily, the Wild’s penalty kill also provided two shorthanded goals, which would be great to see during the regular season. Again, this is just the preseason, so teams will change once the regular season rolls around. However, so far, things look promising.
Wild Utilizing What They’ve Learned
It’s already been said in this article once, but the Wild are applying what they’ve worked on in training camp. They’re staying in position, and while there are mistakes here and there, as there always are, they’ve fixed them immediately. They don’t panic when things don’t go their way, and they keep their heads down and play their game. They worked hard in the corners, had strong performances in their board battles, and had hard, crisp passes, all things they’ve worked diligently on in training camp.
They could’ve easily let up when the goals kept going in, but they continued to work hard and hone their game. This may have been a preseason game, but the Wild played like there were points on the line, and if this team can take their game up another notch, which it looks like they can, they will be an exciting team to watch. After the game, head coach John Hynes spoke with the media and talked about the complete game.
Related: Wild’s John Hynes Demands Intensity & Change in Training Camp
“Yeah, it was good. We’ve talked to the players a lot about getting to their individual identities first and foremost and then getting to the team identity, but I think tonight, being the third game and going into the second week of training camp, you could see that the five-man units worked together. There’s a lot of things we liked from the five-on-five game, kind of cohesion how we want to play as a five-man unit. There were times that we got exposed in certain areas, which is good, that we can fix, and we want to continue to build our special teams, and both of those units were good tonight,” said Hynes.
Wild Stay Home
The Wild will remain at home for their next preseason game, which takes place against the Dallas Stars on Sunday, Sept 29th, at 5 pm CT. It is a nice early start for those kids who have school the next morning and will be able to watch their team play. Hopefully, they can keep this strong play going as more veterans will likely be put into the lineup, and they can add another win to their preseason.
