Zulgad: Can John Hynes continue to work his magic with Wild as injuries mount?
Already without three key skaters, the Wild lost one of its top blue liners, Jake Middleton, for an extended period on Thursday night when he blocked a shot with his hand.
The Minnesota Wild spent the first 28 games of the season proving they were a much different team than the slow-starting group of a year ago that missed the playoffs. The Wild still has issues — a substandard penalty kill being among the biggest — but they have managed to hold a place near the top of the NHL standings.
Coach John Hynes instilled a consistent and professional approach that left no room for the “woe is me” excuses this franchise seemed to have used for so long. But the Wild’s ability not to fall back into hold habits is about to be tested.
That’s because less than a minute into Thursday’s game — the Wild’s 29th of the season — the team lost defenseman Jake Middleton after a shot by Edmonton defenseman Evan Bouchard hit him in the hand. Middleton is about as tough as they come and when it was announced he would not return, you knew it was bad news.
The official word came Friday when the Wild placed Middleton on long-term injured reserve, meaning he has to miss 10 games or 24 days. The Athletic reported he suffered a broken finger in his right hand in a 7-1 loss to the Oilers at Xcel Energy Center.
This would be a major subtraction if the Wild already wasn’t dealing with injury issues to several key players. Unfortunately, they are. Defenseman Jonas Brodin (upper body), center Joel Eriksson Ek (lower body) and winger Mats Zuccarello (lower body) have missed eight, four and 12 games, respectively. Brodin and Zuccarello have returned to practice, while Eriksson Ek’s status remains uncertain.
Eriksson Ek was centering the Wild’s top line before he was injured, Zuccarello was a winger with Kirill Kaprizov on the No. 1 line when he was hit by a puck in the midsection and Brodin is as steady as it gets on the blue line.
It shouldn’t have been surprising that Connor McDavid, Leon Draisaitl and Co., skated circles around a Wild team that was without the center (Eriksson Ek) and defenseman (Brodin) that cause McDavid, in particular, the most problems.
Middleton, 28, has been outstanding at both ends of the ice this season. Playing with Brock Faber on the top defensive pairing of late, Middleton entered Thursday leading the NHL with a plus-22 rating. He led the Wild in blocked shots (75) and was fourth in hits (42). Middleton’s five goals are the most among Wild defenseman and his 13 points are second to Faber.
Ideally, the Wild’s focus Friday should have been on how to expunge their feeble performance from the night before. It was easily the Wild’s worst game of the season and put even more scrutiny on a penalty kill that gave up two more goals and is now 30th in the NHL at 70.4 percent. The Wild’s success also has been built on a 12-2-3 road record, but they are only 7-4-1 at the X and still have four games remaining on this homestand.
Improving in those areas remains important, but the loss of Middleton will make that more difficult. The Wild took a step to address their shorthanded blue line on Friday by claiming Travis Dermott off waivers from the Edmonton Oilers. The 27-year-old is a lefthanded shot and had no points and was a minus-3 in 10 games for Edmonton this season.
He has 16 goals and 62 points in 339 games over eight seasons with Toronto, Vancouver, Arizona (now Utah) and Edmonton.
It’s unclear whether Dermott will play Saturday afternoon against the Flyers, or whether the recently recalled Cameron Crotty will make his Wild debut after playing in 18 games for Iowa this season.
Neither would come close to replacing Middleton’s production, but the extra body would be welcomed by the five defenseman who played huge minutes on Thursday after Middleton’s departure.
Faber, already the Wild’s leader in minutes at 24:47, played 31:49. Jared Spurgeon was averaging 20:34 but logged 26:19 and Declan Chisholm went from 16:46 to 20:25. The biggest problem might have been that the bottom pairing of Zach Bogosian and Jon Merrill played 18:46 (up from an average of 15:48) and 19:24 (up from 13:41), respectively.
Hynes already has been getting praise for the job he’s done, but this will be his biggest test - especially if Brodin remains out during this homestand. One thing Hynes has done is kept his team on an even keel, something that will be more important than ever. The fact his demeanor rarely changes has helped his players remain steady. That demeanor wasn’t changing on Friday.
“I think these are the challenges that you face,” Hynes told reporters after practice. “When you win, are you going to get too high on the hog and then your game starts to slip? We haven’t seen that. When we’ve lost, we haven’t really not come back with a strong game and find a way to win that.
“Now when you get injuries, ‘OK, this is the situation we’re in. How are we going to make it work?’ I think when you have that belief and you have the focus and the mindset, it starts with that. And I think when you have a strong structure and identity and how you want to play, that gives you the best chance to be able to get through different situations.”
If Hynes’ gets the Wild through this situation, he should be handed the Jack Adams Trophy because he will be the NHL’s coach of the year.