All was not perfect inside the visitors’ locker room in downtown Nashville on Wednesday morning, as the Wild held their final pregame skate before the NHL’s three-week break for the Olympics.
Veteran defenseman Jonas Brodin is not expected back on the ice until sometime in early March as he recovers from a lower body injury. The subsequent surgery to fix it caused him to miss the final 10 pre-break games and his chance to skate for Sweden in the Winter Games in Italy.
Two more Wild players – forward Marcus Foligno and goalie Jesper Wallstedt – missed the trip to Tennessee, staying back in Minnesota to rest as they dealt with an illness that also kept both out of Monday’s home win over Montreal.
On a more optimistic note, defenseman Daemon Hunt was back in the lineup, good to go, after missing much of the win over the Canadiens following a first-period puck to the throat.
Wild coach John Hynes, for his part, wasn’t looking past the Predators, who had split a pair of overtime games with the Wild in St. Paul earlier in the season. During the break, he tasked his players to think ahead to March and April, and the push to position themselves for what they envision as a playoff run of significance.
“We’ve talked with the guys I’d say maybe 10 games ago about having a good stretch and putting ourselves into a good position leading into the break,” Hynes said to the reporters at Bridgestone Arena. “But then also setting ourselves up coming out of the break with, whatever, 25 games left, that we’ve taken care of business. I think we’ve stayed focused and done a good job. We’ve won some games and got a lot of points in that stretch.”
The Wild faced off in Nashville having gone 7-1-1 in their previous nine games, and were buoyed by the recent return of veteran defenseman Zach Bogosian, who has missed 33 games this season, at three different times, due to injury. Bogosian played more than 16 minutes versus the Canadiens, and he was clearly happy to be back on the ice.
“I mean any time you get hurt as much as I have this year on unfortunate bounces, yeah it’s frustrating,” Bogosian admitted. “The guys supported me along the way and kept me positive. My family did the same thing, so it was a great support system for me. Just unfortunate but just work hard to get back.”
While Hynes has complimented the contributions on the blue line from younger players like Hunt and David Jiricek, he admitted that having a veteran presence like Bogosian available makes a difference in the every night lineup.
“He’s a big part of our team. He brings a big, strong, hard player to play against. He’s got a good veteran presence. He’s well respected within our team,” Hynes said of Bogosian, who has a goal and three assists in 24 games. “You respect the way he plays the game. He can help you when you have to defend hard, and his skating is an asset for him. He plays the game at a good pace, which allows him to defend well, but also break pucks out and be able to join the rush. So it’s good to have him back.”
Bogosian, 35, was the NHL’s third overall pick in the 2008 draft by the Atlanta Thrashers, who relocated to Winnipeg in 2011. He and Vancouver forward Evander Kane are the only players still active in the NHL who played in Atlanta during the league’s second of two failed attempts at a franchise there.
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