Wild felt they deserved better in loss to Oilers amid Marcus Johansson injury: 3 takeaways

By / / Sports / 7 minutes of reading


ST. PAUL, Minn. — In their previous home game, the Minnesota Wild had to face Nathan MacKinnon and Mikko Rantanen without their top three defensemen and lone superstar.

Wednesday night, how about Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl?

Yet the shame of Minnesota’s 5-3 home loss to the Edmonton Oilers is the Wild certainly played well enough to win yet let another slip away at Xcel Energy Center, where the Wild are 11-10-1 at home.

It was the second straight game the Wild were tied going into the third period and were unable to come away with the point. Sunday night in Las Vegas, the Wild cracked in the third. This time, coach John Hynes felt, the Wild deserved better.

“I feel disappointed for our team tonight because I thought that we had a real strong effort,” Hynes said. “I thought we played well enough to win the game. I think we had some real good chances. I really liked the way we played in the third period coming into a tie game, you know, different than the Vegas game.

“But unfortunately, we didn’t find a way to win it. But I got a lot of time and respect for the way our team played tonight. And that’s what makes the league hard. You can play well sometimes and not win.”

The Wild held 2-0 and 3-2 leads before Vasily Podkolzin’s centering pass caromed in off Wild defenseman Declan Chisholm’s skate early in the third period for the winning goal.

McDavid had two goals and an assist, including icing the game in the third when defenseman Jake Middleton did all he could to give McDavid no room.

“It was a bad bounce (in the offensive zone), and it was a bad bounce to the right player,” Hynes said. “And (McDavid) made a great play. We go two-on-one, long body, like you can’t play it any better. That’s why he’s an elite player, and he made a key play at a key time. So unfortunately for us, that’s how the game went. But I really like the mindset, the style of game, and we just didn’t find a way to get it done.”

The Wild got tallies from Matt Boldy, Marco Rossi and Ryan Hartman with Rossi becoming the fourth Austrian-born NHLer in history to reach 80 points (Thomas Vanek, 789; Michael Grabner, 276; Michael Raffl, 179).

Hartman snapped a 2-2 tie in the second period with his second goal in two games, but Ryan Nugent-Hopkins sent the game into the third period tied after redirecting a shot past Filip Gustavsson.

Gustavsson stopped 31 of 36 shots and has now allowed 19 goals in his past four starts. Calvin Pickard got off to a rough start but made 32 saves, including some robberies on Rossi and Joel Eriksson Ek.

“I thought that the whole game was basically an A-plus effort,” Middleton said. “When you’re looking at our last two games where we gave up leads in the third period, much different this game compared to the last game in Vegas, so obviously there’s no moral victories in this league, but we came out and we competed for 20.”

The Wild are 6-4 without Kirill Kaprizov and have dropped three of their past four games since winning four in a row. The Wild, 16-4-3 outside Minnesota, next hit the road for games in Nashville and Colorado starting Saturday night.

Mistakes ruin Wild’s first period

Considering what was missing from Minnesota’s lineup, the biggest shame of the first period is how the Wild destroyed a terrific first 16 minutes in about two.

But the Oilers — particularly McDavid and Draisaitl — can do that to you.

The Wild drew the first three power plays of the game and scored on two of them thanks to a couple of special plays by Boldy. First, he powered himself to the bottom of the right circle and ripped a shot past Pickard, then he left Darnell Nurse in his dust to set up Rossi for a 2-0 lead.

But 21 seconds later, Zach Hyman outmuscled Freddy Gaudreau at the Wild blue line and skated up Main Street all alone to accept Draisaitl’s pass for a quick-strike goal.

Then David Jiricek took a holding penalty, and 20 seconds later, McDavid, shockingly left completely alone by the Wild’s penalty kill, one-timed Nugent-Hopkins’ pass for the tying goal.

So that 2-0 Wild lead turned into a 2-2 tie in just 2:17.

Connor McDavid gets away with chicken wing

McDavid might be the best player on the planet and only trails Wayne Gretzky on the Oilers’ all-time scoring list (1,044 vs. 1,669), but he looked to get away with one late in the second period.

Marcus Johansson was caught by McDavid’s right elbow in the Oilers’ end as Johansson tried to get around him to get to a puck. It was subtle, but replays show McDavid jutted out his elbow ever so slightly as Johansson tried to get by.

Neither referee lifted his arm. At a minimum, in a 3-3 game, it should have been a two-minute minor. But with the injury, it very easily could have been a major.

“It’s horses—,” said Middleton, then asking if Marcus Foligno or Hartman did that, “what do you think happens? I understand the refs have a hard job, but that was chickens—. I don’t care that he’s the best player in the world.”

Eriksson Ek said he asked the refs what happened and was told Johansson hit himself with his own stick. Hynes animatedly showed referee Chris Lee that McDavid jutted out his elbow when Lee came to the bench.

Asked what Lee told him, “You know what? I don’t even want to go down that road because it would probably infuriate you more than it infuriates me right now, so I’m just going to bypass that. Similar to (Jiricek’s being boarded by Vegas’ Keegan Kolesar on Sunday), not a good answer. Let me put it that way.”

Johansson, who has a history of concussions, was down on the ice for a while trying to gather himself before heading down the tunnel to see the docs. He didn’t play in the third period and is going to be out with an upper-body injury, Hynes said.

Kirill Kaprizov, Brock Faber getting closer

The Wild had a welcome sight at Tuesday’s morning skate, with Kirill Kaprizov and Brock Faber participating in their first outing with the team since their injuries.

For Kaprizov, it’s been an especially long time (at least, for him) as he’s now been sidelined since the Christmas break with a lower-body injury. And though Kaprizov and Faber didn’t play Wednesday against the Oilers, it looks and feels like they’re close. Perhaps they can travel for this weekend’s trip.

“Usually you come back from the rehab skates and then into practice,” coach John Hynes said. “So that was a good first step for those guys.”

Jakub Lauko, still on long-term injured reserve, was also a participant in the skate, though he joined Faber and Kaprizov on the side for their drills. Captain Jared Spurgeon, who skated with the injured group before Tuesday’s practice, has “progressed significantly” Hynes said, and he could join a group practice “in the near future.”

Jonas Brodin (lower body) has not skated with the group yet since he and Faber (upper body) got injured Jan. 7 against the St. Louis Blues.

The Wild fell to 3-10-1 against Western Conference playoff teams but seem to always be inundated with injuries when they play the very best.

“Well, there’s just about five players missing to get on the other side of those things,” Middleton said. “And that’s not a knock on anyone in here because we’re still competing against these top teams and we are missing some weapons in our lineup. So I do, I think we are right there. We haven’t pulled away as of late, but we are right there.”

(Photo of Filip Gustavsson and Connor McDavid: Nick Wosika / Imagn Images)





Source link

About The Author

Avatar of Elizabeth Wilson
Elizabeth Wilson is a news writer for Texas-Express.com, where she covers lifestyle, books, sports, education, and tech. She has been with the company since 2018. In her free time, Elizabeth likes to read and watch sci-fi movies. She also enjoys playing board games with friends and family.

Start typing and press enter to search

Scroll to Top