ST. PAUL, Minn — The Minnesota Wild went into the holiday break with back-to-back home losses, this time a 3-2 overtime defeat to the Nashville Predators Tuesday night at Grand Casino Arena.
Minnesota played well enough at five-on-five for the most part, allowing just three high-danger chances all night, according to Natural Stat Trick. However, two Predators’ power-play goals and Steven Stamkos’ game-winner 53 seconds into overtime were the difference.
This is the first time the Wild have dropped back-to-back home games since Oct. 28-30.
“It sucks,” defenseman Brock Faber said. “It’s a tough pill to swallow. But you’ve got to flush it. I think we’ve played a lot of hockey in not that long of a time period. So it’ll be good to get some time off and reset and not think about hockey for a couple of days. And when we get back from this short little break, it’s go time again. We’ve got to keep building.”
The Wild were on a 17-2-2 stretch before losing to the Colorado Avalanche Sunday and Nashville Tuesday. They’re still third in the NHL, racking up 50 points heading into the holiday break for the first time in franchise history. They are six points behind the Stars for second in the Central. Minnesota returns to action Saturday against the Winnipeg Jets to open a seven-game road trip.
“We’re in a good spot, and we just have to keep winning after the break now, and we’re going to be fine,” goalie Filip Gustavsson said.
Faber and Joel Eriksson Ek scored for the Wild. Gustavsson stopped 26 of 29 shots. Juuse Saros was terrific for the Predators with 30 saves.
“Obviously that’s a fantastic team over there,” Stamkos said of the Wild. “We knew coming in it was going to be a tough game, and they had some stretches where they hemmed us in our zone a little bit, but (Saros) was huge tonight, and special teams was big.”
The O’Reilly showcase
Ryan O’Reilly showed why he’ll be a coveted trade target for many teams, including the Wild. The veteran center is such a complete player, and he was a factor all over the ice, including in the faceoff circle (where Minnesota often struggles). He tied the game for the Predators late in the first period on the first of their two power-play goals by beating a couple Wild PKers to a rebound in front and then beating Filip Gustavsson.
O’Reilly, 34, has one year left on his contract after this one at $4.5 million AAV and no trade protection. Though it’s likely general manager Barry Trotz will give the 2019 Conn Smythe winner the respect to choose potential destinations if they decide to move him. Wild president of hockey operations and GM Bill Guerin said after the Quinn Hughes blockbuster that they still have enough assets to make another move: “We can do stuff.”
While Guerin said he was happy with his team’s center depth, especially with Danila Yurov’s emergence, it feels like that’s the position they’re most likely to address.
The special teams factor
The Wild held a 9-0 edge in high-danger chances at five-on-five through two periods, according to Natural Stat Trick, but the game was still tied 2-2. Why? Special teams. The Predators scored their first two goals on power plays late in the first period. The first one by O’Reilly was a great hustle play in front by the veteran center, who got between Matt Boldy and Jonas Brodin in front. The Roman Josi point shot on the second is one Gustavsson probably would want back.
“Well, the first one, I got the first one and it goes over and I just stretch too much and he puts it back where I was coming from,” Gustavsson said. “Then the second one is kind of walking down. I just don’t read the shot good enough to stop it.”
The Wild have now allowed five power-play goals in the last 10 opportunities, which is a stark contrast to how the unit had played the past month. The splits for the Wild in home vs. road penalty kill are jaw-dropping: they now sit dead last in the league in home PK at 67.9 percent, but they’re tied for first in road PK at 87.5 percent.
“There’s no difference. It’s just, you know, maybe a coincidence? I don’t know,” Faber said. “We definitely have to clean things up.”
Mats Zuccarello and Michael McCarron got into a testy exchange that led to matching penalties. (Matt Blewett / Imagn Images)
Odds and ends
• As much as special teams was a difference Tuesday, coach John Hynes lamented how many “prime-time” scoring chances the Wild passed up. There were a few times, like Ryan Hartman’s two-on-one with Kirill Kaprizov, where they tried to make the extra pass when it wasn’t necessary.
“Like walking right down the slot wide open and deferred at least three or four times,” Hynes said. “I mean, we were imploring them to shoot the puck as the game continued to go on. You look at the goals we scored, right? The first one we check up, delay strong-side, stack screen, back of the net. Six-on-five goal on the delayed penalty. Stack screen, trigger, back of the net. Then I thought we had some looks at times, but today it seemed like we wanted to play a little bit of a prettier game from an offensive perspective, and probably cost us some goals if you look at some of the opportunities that we could have had.”
• Very rarely do you see Mats Zuccarello as ticked off as he was after his run-in with Michael McCarron in the second period. McCarron was going to get called for slashing on the play, then he went up to Zuccarello after the whistle and shoved him a few times. Zuccarello responded with a pretty emphatic slash on McCarron’s stick. It ended up as matching minor penalties, but McCarron could have been called for embellishing, acting as if Zuccarello got him on the hand.
• The Faber goal in the first period showed off why Hughes is such a special playmaker and how the two can work so well together. Hughes took the puck at the blue line and darted in before spinning and passing back to Faber for the one-timer.
“He communicates really well, and he always feels like he’s in a good spot to get the puck,” Faber said. “There’s a few things that I want to clean up on my end. You know, it’s obviously different. I’ve never played with an offensive defenseman of that caliber. So we’re going to keep getting better, and obviously I’m just going to try and support him as best I can.”
• Zach Bogosian returned to the lineup, giving the Wild pretty much their full group for the first time in a long time. Bogosian slotted into the third pair with Jake Middleton.