Link first, then some text, then some thoughts.
https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/6710114/2025/10/12/minnesota-wild-observations/
Items include Zeev, faceoffs, riding Gus, Boldy and Kirill, Hartman excelling, and specialty teams.
The second line’s a problem
"Zuccarello’s injury is as big a problem as we thought it was going to be.
Foligno is a great player in a certain role, but when he was cast in the top-six to start the season after not playing a shift there in the preseason, you knew the Wild were grasping at something after Johansson, Ohgren and Yurov didn’t earn the spot.
The Foligno-Eriksson Ek-Vladimir Tarasenko line has no points and just nine shots at five-on-five. Tarasenko, the one-time star, has been MIA.
While they weren’t as analytically bad as they were measured in St. Louis, and they didn’t give much at all Saturday, there’s still hardly a memorable scoring chance generated by the trio."
The solution seems simple to me. Hartman and Tarasenko together. Let Moose and Ek just play defense with Trenin or Ohgren and let the offense flow naturally instead of tlhaving them feel like they need to provide it.
If you are talking about Tarasenko crashing the net for your line to have success, you got the wrooooong line combo, brother.
As far as Hartman's other wing, I'd cycle through the options, starting with Yurov. The offense hasn't been there, but the defensive awareness has been. Johansson, Ohgren, hell, Hinostroza. You do well? You get another game there. Not so much? On to the next forward.
I expect Ohgren will be the guy sent out to acquire some assistance if it comes to that.
5 comments
so much is being made from ONE loss.
I did not watch last nights game. October hockey is like a box of chocolate. No one knows what you get until they play the game. October hockey is the reason the NHL will be only playing a few preseason games moving forward. October is preseason.
Way too many people taking what happens in the NFL and applying to a sport that plays 82 games or 162 games. Every game DOES NOT MATTER.
Yeah. Get Foligno off that line.
I think they should try Hartman-Ek-Tarasenko. If that doesn’t work, bump Ek down to 3C to play with Foligno and Trenin and then have 2nd line be Yurov/Ohgren-Hartman-Tarasenko.
Just like last year, I’m just having trouble putting together a 2nd line that I like that doesn’t involve splitting up Boldy and Kap. I think that’s the solution at some point, but for now keep them together and let them get 3 goals a night and build up that confidence.
Isn’t it like 3 games in?
I mean, I thought Tarasenko looked decent last night. I think Folingo is way too slow to be on that line.
They all looked completely out of sorts last night. It was like keystone cops. None of the lines were connecting. 5 on 3 and we can’t score? And then that PK where they kept passing it to themselves and not getting out of the zone. WTF?! They were all exhausted. Bad decisions all night from veterans and youngsters alike. And all the goals that went in on Gus were just bad.
It’s one game. It’s a game we should’ve won. I’m blaming my neighbor who said Columbus would probably win just because it was the home opener. Maybe Columbus is better than we thought and the Blues are worse than we thought. Maybe we just had a really bad night. This is where coaching comes in – if it’s not fixed, well, that’ll be on Hines and Guerin.