Before the first faceoff or the first whistle or the first puck fired with intent on Monday night at Xcel Energy Center, Minnesota Wild fans got a sign of hope for better days ahead.
Filip Gustavsson was the first player in the 1978-style North Stars throwback to take the ice for the home team, meaning that after four games unavailable, their top goalie was back in action.
The Wild also got Yakov Trenin back in the lineup at forward, following a five-game absence due to injury. While Trenin has struggled to find his groove this season, he scored in back-to-back games during the Wild’s West Coast swing earlier in December before an upper body ailment sidelined him.
And while he did not yet return to the lineup, top-line center Joel Eriksson Ek was the first one on the ice for the Wild’s morning skate at TRIA Rink, meaning that his lower body injury-mandated absence — since he left a Dec. 3 win over Vancouver — might be finally coming to an end sometime after the last Christmas cookies have been eaten.
While defenseman Jake Middleton is unlikely to return until sometime in 2025 because of an upper body injury, Wild coach John Hynes admitted on Monday morning that there is a feeling of a more regular roster coming back together just in time to battle their biggest slump of the season.
“It’s always nice to see, when the guys who have been injured for a while when they get back,” Hynes said. “I think for their sake, too. It’s a lot when you’re away from the team, and then you’re doing it all, the rehab and skating, on your own. So, I think usually when they progress back into this situation, they’ll be back in the near future.”
The better health comes as the Wild face a three-day break for Christmas, then a tough one-game trip to Dallas to face the Stars, who have had their number of late.
Coming off getting blanked 5-0 in Winnipeg on Saturday — their first scoreless game of the season — Hynes said they had gotten “off script” versus the Jets. The team had Sunday off but met before Monday’s practice to address some of the mess in Manitoba, and how to get back to doing what spurred them to one of the best starts in franchise history over the first two months.
“We addressed some of that this morning with them and just reiterated some of those exact things…with some examples of it,” Hynes said, noting that the successes in October and November began in September before the first preseason game. “That’s the benefit (of) having an intense training camp where you’re instilling your foundation and you’re getting off to a start. We know what it is.
“Now it’s about not focusing on what happened. We’ve got one target, our target tonight, Chicago. So we’ve got to make sure that we’re on target, and we’re gonna hit it.”
Following the Chicago game, the Wild are off Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday, then fly to Dallas the morning of their Friday night game with the Stars.
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