The Minnesota Wild got a sample of life without Mats Zuccarello in October. It left a bitter aftertaste.
But as they get into the heart of their December schedule, which has Minnesota at home for seven of its next eight games, they will have to find ways to work around the veteran forward’s absence once again.
At Thursday’s morning skate, before the Wild hosted Dallas, head coach John Hynes confirmed that Zuccarello is out for the foreseeable future with an upper body injury.
After taking a hard open-ice check from Seattle defenseman Vince Dunn in the opening period of the Wild’s 4-1 win over the Kraken, Zuccarello left the game and did not return.
With Zuccarello out of the lineup for all of October, Minnesota won three of its first dozen games. The Wild placed him on injured reserve on Thursday, and Hynes said the timeline is “more than day-to-day” for Zuccarello, who has two goals and 10 assists in 15 games thus far.
“Usually on some certain injuries you have to wait a few days to get a grasp of what it’s gonna be,” Hynes said. “But I would say that it’s definitely not day-to-day.”
Zuccarello is far from the only injury the Wild are dealing with as they return to Minnesota following a four-game western road trip. They also placed defenseman Jake Middleton in injured reserve Thursday, after he also left the Seattle game early with an upper body injury.
They have been without forwards Vinnie Hinostroza and Marcus Foligno since Thanksgiving, and top-line forward Marco Rossi, who has been out for the past month, just returned to practice on Thursday.
“This was his first team skate. I don’t have a timeline on him yet though,” Hynes said of Rossi.
With Zuccarello out, the team loses a productive leader on the ice and in the locker room, and his chemistry with star forward Kirill Kaprizov is the engine that drives much of the Wild’s offense.
Repeating a mantra he has had to deliver too many times already this season, Hynes said the absence means others will need to step up.
“When certain guys come out of the lineup, obviously you miss what they bring. But I think that the guys that are in the lineup have to be able to play to their strengths,” Hynes said. “I think if you can play a strong structured game and you play the way that we want to play, then I think we have enough capable guys that can have good chemistry together and be really effective players.”
When healthy, the Wild’s top line has usually been Rossi at center between Kaprizov and Zuccarello. With two-thirds of them unavailable, Hynes constructed an all-Russian top line with rookie Danila Yurov centering Kaprizov and veteran Vladimir Tarasenko.
To fill the Zuccarello and Middleton roster spots, the Wild on Thursday recalled forward Nicolas Aubé-Kubel and defenseman Matt Kiersted from Iowa of the AHL.
Gus’ two in row
As hot as the start has been for rookie goalie Jesper Wallstedt, Hynes took a pause from the “every other game” rotation on Thursday versus Dallas and started Filip Gustavsson in goal. Gustavsson had backstopped the Monday win in Seattle with 24 saves.
The two goalies had rotated for the previous 14 games. With the Wild playing three games in the coming four days, the coach decided to mix things up.
“I thought (Gustavsson) played well against Seattle. Then we have a travel day and the day off, then get Wally back, practice a little bit today, we’ve got a back-to-back coming up so both guys are going to get in,” Hynes said. “We just felt like it was going to be their rotation, but in certain circumstances would change that. But we’re going to need both guys tonight and over the weekend.”
Gustavsson entered the Dallas game with a 8-8-3 record, while Wallstedt is off to a 8-1-2 start.
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