3 Takeaways From Wild's 3-0 Win Over the Canadiens – Hockey Writers – Minnesota Wild

The Minnesota Wild were back at home on Thursday evening, Nov. 14, against the Montreal Canadiens after having three games on the road last week. They had a quick back-and-forth on Thursday, Nov. 7, against the San Jose Sharks and on Friday, Nov. 8, against the Anaheim Ducks. They then fly to Chicago to face the Chicago Blackhawks again on Sunday, Nov. 10 to complete the road trip. They went 2-1-0 on their road trip, and their loss came against the Blackhawks.

They were looking to redeem themselves after that disappointing loss and were without one of their top defenders in Jonas Brodin who is listed as day-to-day with an upper body injury. The Wild managed to pull out the win despite losing two other players in the game. It wasn't a great game but they kept their heads down and did things even though they were facing difficulties. We will start this article by looking at the injuries they have faced.

Wild Injuries

The Wild aren't prone to injuries, but this season, they've been fortunate to have minor injuries here and there. Joel Eriksson Ek missed two games with a broken nose but probably wouldn't have missed any time if the doctors had allowed it. The lone major injury thus far has been Jared Spurgeon, who missed six games early in the season due to an injury that hasn't fully healed from last season.

Fast forward to this season and Wild fans will likely feel a bit of deja vu as Brodin hits the roster. For those who may not remember, he was plagued by injuries last season and missed 20 games. Right now, Brodin is on the day-to-day roster, and hopefully he'll be back much sooner than last season, but it was clear that they missed him against the Canadiens, and he wasn't the only one.

They didn't even score in the first half before losing not only Mats Zuccarello, who took a shot from Brock Faber in the groin area, but also Eriksson Ek. It was not clear how Eriksson Ek's injury happened, but something went wrong as he did not return to the game.

The Wild struggled to find their game until they were down to 10 players, but they continued to play their style and finally got a goal. That first goal gave them the momentum they needed to keep playing strong and pull out a win despite being down to the top two.

Wild's Boldy and Rossi Go Up

Usually, in times of struggle, teams lean on their leadership, and while Kirill Kaprizov, Marcus Foligno, and Jared Spurgeon all contributed, it was Matt Boldy and Marco Rossi who got them on the board. These two players have been solid for most of this short season so far, and when teammates Zuccarello and Eriksson Ek were ruled out, they stepped up.

Boldy has been getting strong chances in almost every game he has played this season, and it paid off against the Canadiens. He started the whole game with the puck and sent it to Kaprizov, who eventually got it to Marcus Johansson. He saw an open Boldy and sent him a pass, Boldy took the shot and put it away to give his team a 1-0 lead. That momentum carried them through the period into third, when it was Rossi's turn to shine.

Rossi, like Boldy, has been excellent this season, and although he hasn't been a scoring machine, he has been racking up the points quite a bit. While it's usually Kaprizov or Eriksson Ek running the power play, Rossi got things done. He took a pass from Jared Spurgeon and sent it over the goalkeeper's glove to give them the two goals they needed.

Kaprizov provided an assist on the Boldy goal, but didn't finish the night. He would go on to score the final goal of the game in an empty net. He's been on fire lately when it comes to scoring goals, and it doesn't look like that's going to stop anytime soon. The Wild will be counting on that if these injuries are bad for Zuccarello and Eriksson Ek.

Wild's Lines Fix

With all that happening and Boldy and Rossi stepping up to lead the pack, it's worth noting how well the team has prepared as a whole. It's rare for two players to go down in a game, let alone your second main player. The Wild were prepared to be without Brodin, or as prepared as they could have been but with the loss of Zuccarello and then Eriksson Ek, no one would blame them for being a little out of sorts.

However, the team did what they do best this season and adapted. They made mistakes, but that's to be expected when you're playing with only 10 players. The lines performed very well despite not playing much together during the season, and no game-changing mistakes were made.

Head coach John Hynes has done a great job of preparing this team to play almost anything, and despite being down two of their strongest players, they didn't look tired. With the exception of injured players, every Wild player was on the ice for at least 10 minutes during the game. That doesn't seem like a lot, but the fourth line usually doesn't see much ice time, but it was worth it now.

Everyone on the bench struggled and did everything they could to help secure the win, which is exactly what a team needs to do in this situation. If it was last season, everyone would have expected the team to fall apart, but they have put themselves in a new mindset, and it worked.

Wild Face Stars

The Wild managed to get past the Canadiens, who have struggled this season. They will now face an even bigger test when they face the Dallas Stars at home on Saturday evening, Nov. 16. Without Zuccarello, Eriksson Ek, and Brodin, they will have to find an even better way to play than this. In Canada.

Related: 3 Unsung Heroes of Minnesota Wild Through 15 Games

The Stars are always a tough task for the Wild, and this will be no different. Since there was no post game review regarding Eriksson Ek or Zuccarello, perhaps, one or both will return against the Stars. I hope everyone will be on top of their game against the Stars, maybe they will come out on top.