{"id":289901,"date":"2025-11-07T19:31:12","date_gmt":"2025-11-07T19:31:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/289901\/"},"modified":"2025-11-07T19:31:12","modified_gmt":"2025-11-07T19:31:12","slug":"mn-wild-superstar-sidekick-expected-to-return","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/289901\/","title":{"rendered":"MN Wild Superstar Sidekick Expected to Return"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<img width=\"788\" height=\"444\" src=\"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/NHL-Minnesota-Wild-at-Vancouver-Canucks-25918162-scaled-e1762536679522.jpg\" class=\"attachment-medium size-medium tpd-force-16x9-aspect-ratio wp-post-image\" alt=\"NHL: Minnesota Wild at Vancouver Canucks\" decoding=\"sync\" loading=\"eager\"   fetchpriority=\"high\"\/>Credit: Bob Frid-Imagn Images\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n<p>The Minnesota Wild took their <a href=\"https:\/\/www.minnesotasportsfan.com\/minnesota-wild\/minnesota-wild-game-today\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">first loss in three games<\/a> out on Thursday night, out east a disappointing 4-3 miss against the Carolina Hurricanes. It was a weird game, tons of scoring early\u2026 then nothing for most of two periods. <\/p>\n<p>Last night\u2019s game went went into the second period, 3-2. Before one minute had even gone off the clock, however, it was already 4-3, thanks to three goals <a href=\"https:\/\/www.espn.com\/nhl\/playbyplay\/_\/gameId\/401802573\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">in a matter of 46 seconds<\/a>, to start the middle period.<\/p>\n<p>The last two goals of the evening came off of Boldy (<a href=\"https:\/\/www.espn.com\/nhl\/playbyplay\/_\/gameId\/401802573\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">at 00:37<\/a>), which tied it up at 3-3. Nine seconds later, Carolina took the lead back on Nikolaj Ehlers goal. It was the second of the night for both guys. And that\u2019s where it stayed for the rest of the contest, even as Minnesota fought its way back in the Shots on Goal department.<\/p>\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">beauty power play goal <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/oheyR8aRjY\" rel=\"nofollow\">pic.twitter.com\/oheyR8aRjY<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Minnesota Wild (@mnwild) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/mnwild\/status\/1986605455020290356?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">November 7, 2025<\/a> <\/p>\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Two goals in two games for Nikolaj \ud83d\udd25 <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/rPRN9hErrq\" rel=\"nofollow\">pic.twitter.com\/rPRN9hErrq<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Carolina Hurricanes (@Canes) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/Canes\/status\/1986607270537449893?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">November 7, 2025<\/a> <\/p>\n<p>At one point midway through the second period, the Wild were being outshot by the Canes 22-6. At that point the score was already 4-3. By the time the final horn sounded at the end of the third period, the score was the same but the SOG gap was down to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.espn.com\/nhl\/game\/_\/gameId\/401802573\/wild-hurricanes\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">27-24<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Minnesota Wild getting Mats Zuccarello back?<\/p>\n<p>Mats Zuccarello \u2014 who has missed the Wild\u2019s <a href=\"https:\/\/www.minnesotasportsfan.com\/minnesota-wild\/minnesota-wild-game-today\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">first 15 games<\/a> with a lower-body-injury \u2014 traveled with the team out east, but did not play on Thursday. The mysterious injury\/surgery was <a href=\"https:\/\/www.minnesotasportsfan.com\/minnesota-wild\/mats-zuccarello-surgery-lower-body-injury-timeline-revealed\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">sprung on media<\/a> and the fanbase prior to training camp, but it sounds like the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.hockey-reference.com\/players\/z\/zuccama01.html\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">38-year-old<\/a> is ready to get back on the ice.<\/p>\n<p>According to <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/RussoHockey\" rel=\"nofollow\">Michael Russo (The Athletic)<\/a>, Kirill Kaprizov\u2019s partner in crime is expected to make his 2025-26 debut Friday night, when Minnesota plays the second of a back-to-back in the Metro Division, this time in Elmont, NY against the 6-5-2 Islanders. He was activated late this morning.<\/p>\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Mats Zuccarello activated off season-opening non-roster IR: expected to debut tonight for <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/mnwild?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">#mnwild<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Michael Russo (@RussoHockey) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/RussoHockey\/status\/1986829019510149540?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">November 7, 2025<\/a> <\/p>\n<p>\u201cMats Zuccarello was with the Wild on this trip, as we reported earlier this week, and is likely to make his season debut Friday on Long Island against the Islanders. Zuccarello missed the first month of the season after having surgery on his lower-body injury.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/RussoHockey\" rel=\"nofollow\">Michael Russo \u2013 The Athletic<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Related: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.minnesotasportsfan.com\/minnesota-wild\/controversial-mn-wild-ot-win-predators\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">MN Wild Snag Insane OT Win in Controversial Fashion<\/a><\/p>\n<p>The Minnesota Wild need Mats Zuccarello\u2019s offense back, and the plan is for him to get back on a top line with Kirill Kaprizov. That should allow Matt Boldy to move off of his line for good, creating a much more balanced offensive attack up and down a lineup that\u2019s been very top heavy, in Zuccarello\u2019s absence.<\/p>\n<p>And they need help on that side of the ice desperately. The season is still early, but the MN Wild have occupied the bottom of the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.espn.com\/nhl\/standings\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Central Division standings<\/a> for most of the season, thus far. If Zuccy can\u2019t help change that in a big way, this is an organization that will have a lot of questions going into the NHL Trade Deadline later this season.<\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tMentioned in this article: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.minnesotasportsfan.com\/tag\/injury-updates\/\" rel=\"tag nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">injury updates<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.minnesotasportsfan.com\/tag\/mats-zuccarello\/\" rel=\"tag nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Mats Zuccarello<\/a> <\/p>\n<p class=\"categories\">More About: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.minnesotasportsfan.com\/category\/minnesota-wild\/\" rel=\"tag nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Minnesota Wild<\/a><\/p>\n<p style=\"margin: 1rem auto; padding: 1rem 0; border-top: 1px solid #e4e4e4; border-bottom: 1px solid #e4e4e4;\"><a class=\"google-preferred-source\" href=\"https:\/\/www.google.com\/preferences\/source?q=https:\/\/www.minnesotasportsfan.com\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\" aria-label=\"Add MinnesotaSportsFan as a preferred source on Google.\">Add MinnesotaSportsFan as a preferred source on Google.<img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/google_preferred_source_badge.png\" alt=\"Add MinnesotaSportsFan as a preferred source on Google.\" width=\"90\" height=\"28\" loading=\"lazy\" style=\"margin: 0 0 0 10px;\"\/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t<script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Credit: Bob Frid-Imagn Images The Minnesota Wild took their first loss in three games out on Thursday night,&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":289902,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5118],"tags":[5,2129,3707,161,38,5280,4,162],"class_list":{"0":"post-289901","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-minnesota-wild","8":"tag-hockey","9":"tag-injury-updates","10":"tag-mats-zuccarello","11":"tag-minnesota","12":"tag-minnesota-wild","13":"tag-minnesotawild","14":"tag-nhl","15":"tag-wild"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nhl\/115510082564963248","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/289901","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=289901"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/289901\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/289902"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=289901"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=289901"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=289901"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}