On Thursday, Wild defenseman Carson Lambos made his NHL debut in Columbus, logged 10 minutes of ice time and was honored by his teammates in the postgame locker room with the “redwood” hat given to the team’s player of the game.
By Friday afternoon, Lambos was headed back to Iowa, sent down by general manager Bill Guerin — a sure sign that good news was coming on the team’s health report.
So on Saturday, before the Wild hit the ice versus the Oilers, when the home team announced the activation of defensemen Jonas Brodin and Jake Middleton and forwards Vinnie Hinostroza and Mats Zuccarello from injured reserve, it was as good as getting early presents for a team heading into perhaps the most daunting 48 hours of the season to date.
It wasn’t all good news. The team also placed defenseman Zach Bogosian on injured reserve and defenseman Daemon Hunt remains unavailable, but after putting together a six-game winning streak while playing with a patched-together lineup, the extra available bodies were certainly welcomed.
On Friday, Wild coach John Hynes had a sense the bulk of the seven players missing when they beat the Blue Jackets would at least try to make a go of things versus Edmonton.
“Obviously we’ve had guys out, and those guys are really pushing and excited to try to be able to get back in,” Hynes said. “Credit to the guys who have been in the lineup when other guys have been out. We’ve played the way we need to play, and everyone’s contributed.”
Indeed, when warmups started Saturday afternoon, five of the seven players missing in Columbus on Thursday – Brodin, Middleton, Hinostroza, Zuccarello and forward Marcus Johansson – were on the ice, much to the delight of the crowd, which was already in a festive mood. Johansson, who had missed the previous two games with a lower body injury, tested Edmonton goalie Calvin Pickard less than 15 seconds into the game
The good health meant Ben Jones, who had played in 14 of 17 games in the past month, was also sent to Iowa, while Tyler Pitlick and Matt Kiersted — who played in Columbus — were healthy scratches Saturday. But Hynes said the ice time those extras logged in the Wild’s on-ice system while the team was an injury mess could pay important dividends later in the season, when more injuries invariably are part of the picture.
“If you get players back in your lineup, that mentality doesn’t change. You want it to make the team stronger,” Hynes said. “If we get some players back into the lineup, then is slots things differently. But the way we play and the commitment level we play with, that’s the difference between winning and losing.”
Briefly
For a dozen seasons, from their start as a NHL expansion team until 2013, the Wild and Oilers were division rivals, playing in the old Northwest Division with Colorado, Calgary and Vancouver. Most notably, this led to many late nights for Wild fans, with Minnesota serving as the only Central Time Zone team, and all of their divisional road games starting an hour or two later than normal. And despite Edmonton making a run to the Stanley Cup Final in that era, the Wild generally had the Oilers’ number on the ice. Entering Saturday’s game, Minnesota had 64 wins, and 31 road wins, all-time versus Edmonton, which is the most versus any NHL opponent.
Leave a Reply