The Minnesota Wild knocked another three games off their schedule this past week and while they came out with a record of 2-1, they had their fair share of struggles. The Wild snuck past the New Jersey Devils in overtime but fell in a shootout a couple of nights later to the Philadelphia Flyers. Finally, to wrap up the week they started out with a little trouble against the Chicago Blackhawks but put everything together and got the win.
While the Wild had some close calls in terms of winning, they did keep up their offense despite still missing Kirill Kaprizov. The news that he is still injured has become somewhat of a broken record but the Wild’s ability to score goals without him continues to amaze. However, while they did have several successful goal scorers this past week, they had some players who couldn’t muster any offense and one whose defense faltered as well.
Wild’s Boldy Leads Again
Luckily for the Wild, in the absence of Kaprizov another player has stepped in to fill those skates, and that player is Matt Boldy. He’s shown to be a capable goal scorer in the past but this season he’s been more hesitant until Kaprizov was out of the lineup. Once the pressure fell on the rest of the roster to score, Boldy forced himself to show his talents once again. He didn’t wait long as he scored in the very next game after Kaprizov was injured.
In the eight games since Kaprizov has been out, Boldy has scored eight goals and four assists for 12 points. This past week he recorded three of those goals with two coming in their loss to the Flyers for his 15th multi-point game of the season. Following Boldy, the Wild had four players tied with two points each and they were Frédérick Gaudreau, Ryan Hartman, Oskar Sundqvist, and Joel Eriksson Ek.
Related: Wild’s Boldy Highlights Week, Addison & Dumba Falter
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Gaudreau, Hartman, and Sundqvist all had one goal and one assist each while Eriksson Ek boosted his passing game with two assists. Gaudreau and Hartman have both had up-and-down seasons but have found ways to score when needed. Sundqvist is new to the team and while it took a few games for him to get adjusted, he has recently discovered his scoring stride as well. It’s great the Wild are getting such widespread production and they’ll need it to continue.
Wild’s Problematic Players
Brandon Duhaime made a splash in his return from injury with a goal back on March 19 against the Washington Capitals after missing the previous seven games. However, after that goal, he hasn’t been able to record a point since. This past week he played in all three games but couldn’t get back on the scoring track despite having five shots on goal. Thankfully despite his offensive game slacking, he did pick up defensively with six hits and two blocked shots.
Where Duhaime picked up defensively, his teammate and defenseman, Calen Addison, lacked. He’s been struggling for a while now and only played against the Blackhawks this week as he was a healthy scratch in the three games prior. In that single game, Addison didn’t block any shots or register any hits, and he also missed out on recording any points. He did manage a single takeaway and a single shot on goal for the only bright spot in his game.
The final player who’s needed to figure out their game offensively for a while now is Matt Dumba. Everyone knows he hasn’t been the same player since his injury back in the 2018-19 season and this season especially he’s struggled to score goals. This last week in three games where he averaged 23 minutes a game, he couldn’t convert any of his five shots on goal to points. He kept up his end defensively with two blocked shots and two hits but the Wild could use some extra offense from him as well as Duhaime and Addison.
Wild’s Week Ahead
The Wild will play another three games this coming week against the Seattle Kraken, Colorado Avalanche, and Vegas Golden Knights. They’ll start off their week at home to face the Kraken and then head on the road for their final trip out west for the regular season to take on the Avalanche and Golden Knights.
They’ll have to keep Vince Dunn, Jared McCann, Jordan Eberle, Nathan MacKinnon, Mikko Rantanen, Cale Makar, Jack Eichel, Chandler Stephenson, and Jonathan Marchessault off the scoreboard. The Wild’s strong offense will also have to find a way to beat the goaltending of Philipp Grubauer or Martin Jones, Alexandar Georgiev, and finally Laurent Brossoit, Logan Thompson, or Jonathan Quick.
The season is winding down quickly and the Wild will have to keep their offense going, but they can’t forget about their defense either. Every point is crucial and they could possibly gain some distance in the playoff race if they can come out of this week with three more wins.
