If there is a fine line between a drought and a true slump, two of the Minnesota Wild’s most prominent and consistent forwards have been walking that tightrope recently.
Matt Boldy and Marco Rossi entered Wednesday’s late game with Seattle tied for the team lead in goals among active skaters with 21 each.
That stat sounds good, but the fact that Boldy had gone 11 games without a goal and Rossi had gone 10, prior to facing the Kraken, underscores how much tighter things become in March, and how different the Wild are as a team with currently-injured players like Kirill Kaprizov (who last scored a goal before Christmas, but still leads the team with 23) and Joel Eriksson Ek on the line chart.
Wild coach John Hynes, sticking with his mantra that it’s important to never get too high or too low, nonetheless had praise for Boldy on Wednesday while the team was stretching its legs at TRIA Rink, saying that the lanky kid from Massachusetts makes contributions that don’t always show up on the stat sheet.
“What he’s going through, he of all people wants to be able to produce. But being a player and also understanding as a key player on a team, you have to do multiple things to help a team win,” Hynes said. “In his position, goal scoring and point production is certainly one of those things. Sometimes you can’t control that.”
The stories of superstitions in NHL locker rooms, and the lengths some players will go to in order to spark themselves on the ice, are legendary. Sometimes its as simple as putting your gear on in a different order, or eating a different pregame meal, or taking a different route when driving to the rink.
But at least one Wild player thinks all those efforts are pointless, and hard work is the key to breaking out of a slump.
“I think the more you think about it, the more power you give a superstition. The less you think about it, the better,” said Wild forward Devin Shore. “Any player will go through that. You try to simplify things as much as you can. Stick to your process, stick to the things that aren’t results-driven. Because a lot of the time, the puck ending up in the back of the net is just a byproduct of doing the right things.”
Shore, whose lone goal so far this season came in a Jan. 30 win at Montreal, feels that keeping the same traditions and work habits is the key to long-term success.
“As hard as it is, you just focus on doing the right things and have fun with it,” he said. “We’re playing meaningful hockey in the spring, and it’s the best league in the world. So there’s a lot to enjoy.”
Foligno, Johansson out
Wild forward Marcus Foligno skated on Wednesday but missed a second consecutive game with an upper body injury. Marcus Johansson did not participate in the team’s morning skate and was not on the ice for warmups, officially scratched due to illness.
Taking Johansson’s spot in the lineup was forward Liam Ohgren, who was recalled from Iowa on Tuesday under emergency conditions. Wednesday’s game was the 24th of the season at the NHL level for Ohgren, who had a goal and three assists in his previous 23.
Hynes classified Foligno as day to day. Injured defenseman Jonas Brodin skated in practice again on Wednesday and could return to the Minnesota lineup as soon as their Saturday home game with Buffalo.
Kaprizov and Eriksson Ek have not yet resumed skating. Hynes classified them as “progressing off ice.”
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