Wild Check-In: Rossi Shines with Boldy & Zuccarello

They faced the Devils for the second time in less than a week, and unfortunately, both times, they found a way to make a comeback but couldn’t complete either of them. The second time, they looked more alive and possibly had discovered their spark, which proved true when they took on the Rangers a couple of days later. 

It seemed like a switch was flipped, and all of a sudden, the Wild were playing like everyone expected them to. They focused on their game, and while they still weren’t there 100 percent, it was much better than it had been. No one player was responsible for their win, but a number of them stepped up. 

Wild’s Rookie Tackles the Top

The Wild’s week was pretty rough, but there is one player who shined brightly all week, even in the losses, and that was one of their rookies, Marco Rossi. He has played with so much confidence offensively, and he’s even found ways to contribute defensively. Not many Wild players scored in the last week, but he led the way with two goals plus an assist for three points. Regarding defense, he blocked two shots and was even with two takeaways and two giveaways each. 

He wasn’t alone at the top, however; Mats Zuccarello and freshly returned from injury Matt Boldy also had three points each. Zuccarello scored one goal and assisted on two others to register his points, while Boldy’s were all assists. Right behind the top three were two more players who had two points each, Kirill Kaprizov and Jonas Brodin. 

Kaprizov found a little bit of his scoring touch with one goal and one assist, while Brodin had two assists. Brodin did struggle a bit defensively to start the week, but by the time the Rangers game came around, he looked nearly himself once again. 

Wild Need More 

The number one thing the Wild have to improve on is their penalty kill. They did start to see some success towards the end of the week, and while they continue to fix that, they have several players they need more production from. These aren’t players that are known for high levels of offense, but they’ve proven they can score in the past. 

The first two players are linemates on the fourth line, Brandon Duhaime and Connor Dewar, and their nicknames are “Dewey 1” and “Dewey 2”. Duhaime struggled to score last season due to a high number of injuries, but each time he returned to the lineup, he made an impact. They need him to do that now while staying healthy. Dewar has come close multiple times this season and produced some, but again, they could use more from him offensively. 

The final player on this list was recently a healthy scratch, but when he does return to the lineup, they will be expecting more from him. That player is defenseman Jon Merrill, who had trouble adjusting to start this season. He appeared to always be in the wrong place at the wrong time but did show some offense this past week against the Devils. Hopefully, he can start playing more robust defense the next time he’s in the lineup, or he may find himself on the bench more often. 

Wild’s Week Ahead 

The Wild’s next week will be spent on the road with three games split amongst the New York Islanders, the Rangers for the second time, and the Buffalo Sabres. The Rangers and Sabres will be back-to-back, and this will also be the last whole week of games before they head to Sweden for the Global Series. 

The Wild’s defense has to improve as they face Noah Dobson, Bo Horvat, Artemi Panarin, Chris Kreider, Mika Zibanejad, Jeff Skinner, Casey Mittelstadt, and Tage Thompson in the next few games. These players are the top scorers on their team, and they will be hard to stop if the Wild’s defense hasn’t improved. 

The Wild’s offense did better this past week, but they’ll face some challenges to get past the goaltending of Semyon Varlamov or Ilya Sorokin, Jonathan Quick, and Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen or Devon Levi. They will likely see Quick in for the Rangers as Igor Shesterkin is currently injured, and his timeline to return is unknown. 

If the Wild can play as they did in the latter half of their win over the Rangers, they will have a high chance to succeed this week. They need to build off their recent success on the penalty kill and get their power play working. If they can do those things, plus find a way to keep their energy high, they’ll win some more games.