The Minnesota Wild might be on a seven-game losing streak but tonight’s inter-divisional competition is the first in a new era after the team announced yesterday that they had relieved head coach Dean Evason and assistant coach Bob Woods from their positions. Jon Hynes becomes the newest bald man behind the bench as the franchise’s seventh head coach. With this final act of desperation, general manager Bill Guerin has thrown his only remaining hail mary for the season, as the team he has built that was expected to easily be in playoff contention is loaded with no-trade clauses and no cap space.
None of that matters to the St. Louis Blues who are currently clinging to a wild card position at fourth in the Central Divison after winning three of their last four games, albeit against some weaker opponents. The Blues find themselves in a strange position after a tough 2022-23 season where they were actively retooling their roster and missed the playoffs by a decent margin.
This season has been a different story as good goaltending and some star power have been able to win them just enough games to be competitive. Considering they have a 14-4-2 record against the Wild in the last five seasons, it will be a true test of whether the Wild are going to snap out of their plummet to the bottom of the NHL standings.
Minnesota Wild Lines
The Wild had their full roster available to them for a total of one game before having to recall Vinni Lettieri from the Iowa Wild after Ryan Hartman was suspended for two games for what the league called a dangerous trip on Alex DeBrincat. As of this writing, Marc-Andre Fleury’s status remains questionable as he has been ill for the last couple of games to the point where it was unknown if he would be able to be the backup against the Detroit Red Wings on Nov. 26.
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The following lines are my best guess at what they would look like based on what Evason has been doing all season, and it is unlikely Hynes flies in and makes too many changes before having a practice session available. I have put Fleury in the net hoping that he is feeling better, and perhaps a little angry, because the entire poor start to the season would be worth it if we get to see him finally engage Jordan Binnington in the goalie fight we were robbed of last season.
Kirill Kaprizov – Marco Rossi – Mats Zuccarello
Marcus Johansson – Joel Eriksson Ek – Matt Boldy
Marcus Foligno – Freddy Gaudreau – Pat Maroon
Brandon Duhaime – Connor Dewar – Vinni Lettieri
Jonas Brodin – Brock Faber
Jake Middleton – Jared Spurgeon
Alex Goligoski – Zach Bogosian
Marc-Andre Fleury – Filip Gustavsson
The big worry for the Wild has been the lack of production from those top two lines, specifically Kaprizov and Boldy scoring goals at five-on-five, but it is also hard to ignore the fact that they have been getting no supplemental scoring from their fourth line. It is not their role to go in and fill the back of the net, and they have had many games where the pair of Brandon Duhaime and Connor Dewar have been able to hold the offensive zone better than almost anyone else. Unfortunately, they still need to produce something and in 19 games, Duhaime has collected just four points and Dewar sits at only three. If your stars aren’t scoring, your depth isn’t scoring, and your defense isn’t scoring then you end up losing seven games in a row.
Next on the Dockett
The Wild will continue their bouncy schedule after tonight as they zip down to Nashville on Nov. 30 to take on Hynes’ previous team, the Predators, before returning to St. Paul to face another divisional foe in the Chicago Blackhawks on Dec. 3. The team will then depart on a four-game road trip to the western side of the continent meaning everyone gets to stay up extra late waiting for puck drop.
