Wild coach John Hynes wasn’t happy with the Wild’s first training camp scrimmage on Thursday, and general manager Bill Guerin echoed that assessment after watching the first day of camp at TRIA Rink.
“Day 2,” Guerin said Thursday, “has got to be better.”
It was.
With the first preseason game set for Saturday in Winnipeg (7 p.m., KOOL-FM 107.9), camp has three practice groups comprising 55 players, and the Group B won a tight scrimmage 2-1 on goals by former Gophers forward Sammy Walker and veteran Joel Eriksson Ek, who was centering Matt Boldy and Marcus Johansson. Prospect Ryan O’Rourke scored for Group C.
“I thought they were focused, and they did a good job,” Hynes said. “And you could clearly see that they were engaged in it today.”
That was better than Thursday, Hynes said, when the A and B squads went through a scrimmage that ended in a 3-0 win for the B’s.
“We talked about it this morning, just that I felt that the practices yesterday were very good — tempo, the intensity, the competitiveness — but the scrimmage wasn’t,” Hynes said after Friday’s practices. “It was a little bit not what we wanted.”
Using what he called “quick pointers,” Hynes told his team what he wanted to see: quick transition, north play, quick closes on defense, net front presence on offense — even better changes, faster off the ice and at the right time.
“I thought the scrimmage today was night and day from yesterday,” Hynes said.
An abundance of caution
Veterans Jared Spurgeon, Marcus Foligno and Jonas Brodin were withheld from scrimmaging for a second straight day. All have gone through practices, but the Wild are being careful about scrimmaging.
Spurgeon (hip, back) and Foligno (core) are returning from season-ending surgeries.
“The practices were pretty intense, and they got through that,” Hynes said. “We wanted to see how their body feels before we threw them in. … (We) just wanted to see how they get through these first couple days. They were full-go in everything except the scrimmage.”
Brodin, who missed 20 games last season, mostly because of a broken arm, was hurt during summer hockey.
“Nothing major,” Hynes said. “He’s practiced full and everything. It was just don’t risk it in the scrimmage. He’s done well in practice, so I think the way that they’ve all responded so far, we will see after today, but they’re going to continue, I think full go.”
Earn it
After his Swedish Hockey League team was bounced from the playoffs last spring, prospect Liam Ohgren flew to the U.S., played four games for AHL Iowa and then made his NHL debut for the Wild.
Ohgren, 20, made a good first impression on the team that drafted him 19th overall in the 2022 amateur draft, earning a goal and assist in four games, and has a real chance to make the NHL roster out of training camp.
“I am here to take a spot,” Ohgren said. “I’m working hard every day to take that spot.”
It won’t be handed to him. The Wild have a few unsettled roles on the bottom two offensive lines, and acquired forwards this offseason with more NHL experience than Ohgren in Jakub Lauko (trade) and Brendan Glaunce (free agency), and Ohgren has competition from AHL prospects such as Walker and Caeden Bankier.
“Liam’s done a nice job. There’s some other players that have caught our eye, too,” Hynes said. “As we move through camp, we’ll see who gets the opportunities. But our plan is to give him a good opportunity to play with some different types of players and some different styles of players, and see what he does with them.”
Briefly
The Wild will hold another three practices on Saturday morning, starting the group that will travel to Winnipeg to play the Jets in their first preseason game tomorrow night. After a day off on Sunday, it might be a smaller group that convenes at TRIA Rink Monday. “Possibly,” Hynes said. “I think we’ll see how tomorrow goes, and then we’ve got Sunday to re-evaluate some things and see where it goes from there.”
