ST. LOUIS — With a 1-1-1 record in the past three games and the offense sputtering, the Minnesota Wild are reuniting a top line that was one of the NHL’s best when it was together last season.
Coach John Hynes had top forwards Kirill Kaprizov, Joel Eriksson Ek and Matt Boldy together at practice Monday, and the trio is expected to skate together at five-on-five against the St. Louis Blues on Tuesday as the team opens a three-game road trip. The move comes with Eriksson Ek returning to practice Monday and Mats Zuccarello out long-term.
“It’s exciting,” said Boldy, who’s second on the Wild with 10 goals and 18 points this season and is one of only three Wild players — along with Kaprizov and Marco Rossi — to score a non-empty-net goals in the past four games. “It’s part of the long season. Guys are going to get hurt. Guys have to play with different guys.
“We’ve seen that the last few games with scrambling them up. So I’m excited to see some different looks and different combos and try to see if they work.”
Perfect dish from Kaprizov to set up Joel Eriksson Ek for the one-t 🍽️ pic.twitter.com/9x9t0rIDup
— B/R Open Ice (@BR_OpenIce) November 2, 2024
In 374 minutes and 10 seconds together at five-on-five last season over 63 games, the Kaprizov-Eriksson Ek-Boldy line outscored opponents 31-18, according to Evolving-Hockey. The analytics do show the line had a high shooting percentage. Shot attempts with the three on the ice together were 451-344. They had a 58.4 percent shot share (236-168) and a 62.7 percent expected goals share.
According to MoneyPuck, at five-on-five for lines with a minimum of 300 minutes, the trio had the league’s second-best expected goals share behind only the Edmonton Oilers line of Zach Hyman, Connor McDavid and Ryan Nugent-Hopkins. Kaprizov-Eriksson Ek-Boldy had the third-best expected goals for per 60 minutes, seventh-best expected goals against per 60 minutes and eighth-highest goal share of all forward lines.
The line also had the second-highest goals per 60 minutes (4.64) behind only the Detroit Red Wings’ Lucas Raymond, Dylan Larkin and Alex DeBrincat.
Power play goal for Minnesota!
Scored by Kirill Kaprizov with 00:09 remaining in the 2nd period.
Assisted by Joel Eriksson Ek and Matt Boldy.
San Jose: 2
Minnesota: 5#MINvsSJS #SJSharks #MNWild pic.twitter.com/7OgV8XhsFp— NHL Goals (@nhl_goal_bot) April 14, 2024
Why?
“We won puck battles,” Eriksson Ek said. “Getting those second, third, maybe sometimes fourth opportunities just from winning battles and creating those chances and keeping plays alive. Those two players are going to find plays every night. So just try to get them the puck as much as possible.”
Boldy concurred, saying, “I think just strong on pucks, getting second and third chances from winning battles and getting pucks back. That’s our biggest thing, and then skill takes over from there.”
Like Zuccarello, Eriksson Ek was injured in the first period of Thursday’s 3-0 win over Montreal. He missed Saturday’s game with a lower-body injury. The injury turned out to be a lot less severe than he originally thought, and it responded to treatment the past few days.
“They all played fast — they played really connected,” Hynes said of last year’s Kaprizov-Eriksson Ek-Boldy line. “They played direct. All three of them are skilled players, but I thought that coming up the ice, there were direct plays. There wasn’t a ton of east-west. If the play was there, they made it. But what made them really effective was just how tenacious they were in the offensive zone.”
Minnesota goal!
Scored by Joel Eriksson Ek with 00:50 remaining in the 1st period.
Assisted by Matt Boldy and Kirill Kaprizov.
Minnesota: 1
Vancouver: 2#VANvsMIN #MNWild #Canucks pic.twitter.com/Ro91idHEUi— NHL Goals (@nhl_goal_bot) February 19, 2024
This is what Hynes wants the Wild to get back, throughout the lineup. With Zuccarello hurt, Devin Shore and Ben Jones were recalled from AHL Iowa, and Shore looks like he’ll get the first look Tuesday in St. Louis on the fourth line with Jakub Lauko and Marat Khusnutdinov.
Rossi centered Marcus Johansson and Ryan Hartman, and Freddy Gaudreau centered Marcus Foligno and Yakov Trenin.
Hynes stopped practice once Monday animatedly imploring the team to play with purpose and stop being so loose in the offensive zone.
As good as the Wild have been defensively this season, with the fewest five-on-five goals allowed per game at 1.35, they are ranked 28th in the NHL in expected goals.
It’s because they’re getting so little depth scoring.
The one risk of loading up one line with his best scorers on the road is it’ll be easier for the Blues, Oilers and Calgary Flames to use their best checkers and defensemen against Kaprizov, Eriksson Ek and Boldy since they’ll have last change.
“I liked the chemistry of the lines today. I think there’s balance there,” Hynes said. “We talked about some things, about playing a bit faster today. Some of the things we worked on and some of our offensive zone stuff, that’s where you need guys to get in sync, work in rhythm, but then you’re going to need some other guys to score.”
Matt Boldy sets up Kirill Kaprizov who opens the scoring late in the second period‼️
📺: @ESPNPlus ➡️ https://t.co/FmPv8M6v1l pic.twitter.com/OEVRNz1HEw
— NHL (@NHL) March 30, 2024
Hynes also tinkered with his power-play units, which have been in a rut of late. After being top-five to start the season, the Wild have fallen to 13th.
Hartman replaced the injured Zuccarello on the top unit and Declan Chisholm replaced Brock Faber, who almost caused a shorthanded breakaway goal against Dallas with a sloppy defensive-zone drop pass. The second unit is now Johansson, Rossi, Gaudreau, Faber and fellow defenseman Jared Spurgeon.
“Just a little bit of a different look,” Hynes said. “With Zuccarello out, it changes the dynamic a little bit of the power play. Having a lefty up there (with Chisholm) may give Bolds a few more options. I also think a lefty up top might be easier to get some pucks over to the left side. The power play has been a little bit out of sync, and now we have some different guys that have been on and off it. That’s why we did it. Fabes is still running the top on the other unit.”
(Photo of Kirill Kaprizov, Matt Boldy and Joel Eriksson Ek: Matt Marton / USA Today)
