2 weeks Ago
ST. PAUL, Minn. — The still-baby-faced captain may be 26 days from celebrating the 14th anniversary of his NHL debut on his 35th birthday.
He may be eight months removed from hip and back surgeries. And he may have been back in the Wild ’s lineup for only five days after missing six games and 2 1/2 weeks after some sort of issue stemming from those surgeries. Advertisement But Sunday night against the Toronto Maple Leafs , Jared Spurgeon showed us that rumors he has lost a step or two are highly, highly inaccurate.
When the Wild needed a speedy backcheck in overtime to save the day and stop a potential Max Domi breakaway, it wasn’t all-world skating defensemen Brock Faber or Jonas Brodin on the ice backing up forwards Matt Boldy and Marco Rossi . It was Spurgeon — 34 years young — looking like he had a rocket on his back as he chased down a puck at the Wild blue line. In one motion, Spurgeon turned and head-manned a pass to Rossi, who quickly gave the puck to Boldy for a two-on-zero breakaway, and Boldy deked and roofed his third career overtime winner.
“He’s still quick,” fellow defenseman Jake Middleton said of Spurgeon, who assisted on both Wild goals in a 2-1 victory to push their record to 8-1-2. BOLDY FOR THE WIN!!!! #MNWILD | #NHL pic.twitter.
com/s8PbjWtSI0 — FanDuel Sports Network North (@FanDuelSN_NOR) November 4, 2024 With Kirill Kaprizov getting most the credit for the Wild’s tremendous start — and for good reason — the Wild showed Sunday they don’t always need their best player to be at his very best. Kaprizov was held to one shot on goal and saw his seven-game multi-point streak and seven-game assist streak come to a halt. But Ryan Hartman scored in the first period, Boldy scored in overtime and the Wild defended hard and well, especially in the third period, to beat a dangerous team boasting Auston Matthews , William Nylander and Mitch Marner .
“It shows we can win these tight games, too, with only two goals and very solid defensively,” said Filip Gustavsson , who made 22 of his 27 saves in the first 40 minutes. “Kirill’s probably — or is — our best player, and if he doesn’t have a good night, (it’s good) that the rest of the team steps up for him.” Advertisement As coach John Hynes echoed, “It can’t be a one-trick pony.
And right now, I think the good thing is we’re finding different ways to do it.” The Wild were hemmed in in their zone for a lot of the second period, but they made some adjustments during the second intermission and kept a tired team that played the night before in St. Louis from generating any semblance of a threat in the third period and overtime.
It was a tight-checking, hard-fought game, and even though the Wild couldn’t score more than two against Anthony Stolarz during an outstanding outing, the Wild came in waves in the third period. It all started in their own zone. “What I really liked about the game is in the second we got a little bit disconnected and (they) gained momentum, but then we talked about some things (before) the third period and what I continually want to emphasize with the team is the ability to (say) in between periods, ‘Here’s what’s going on, here’s what we need to do,’” Hynes said.
“They’re attentive, they’re ready to execute, and I thought in the third period we played a much more connected game with our breakout structure, our ability to make plays, pop plays, good five-man support. “I really liked our third period, but probably more importantly I liked the fact that we can analyze what’s going on in the game and the players have the mindset to go back out, refocus and do what needs to be done.” There’s no doubt the heavy legs caught up with the Leafs in the third, but the Wild got solid play from the defense pairs of Middleton-Faber and especially Brodin-Spurgeon.
In 14 minutes of five-on-five ice time from Brodin and Spurgeon going mostly against Toronto’s top two lines, the Wild had a 13-0 shot advantage, a 1-0 goal advantage and a 24-2 shot-attempt advantage. The Leafs had five rush chances against Brodin and Spurgeon and didn’t even register a shot. #mnwild ’s Jonas Brodin & Jared Spurgeon tonight playing most of these minutes against: Knies-Matthews-Marner (≈5:30) Pacioretty-Tavares-Nyldander (≈6:30) 14:15 5v5 TOI 1-0 Goal advantage 13-0 Shot advantage 24-2 attempt advantage 98.
3% xG share (1.01 to 0.02) Utter domination.
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twitter.com/FwgTsICu63 — Brett Marshall (@B_Marsh92) November 4, 2024 “Our forwards are doing a great job of coming back and letting us stand up and making them chip, or even if we don’t have that gap, they’re coming back and making them make plays before they want to,” Spurgeon said. “So it’s a big, big thing we worked on in camp, and the forwards are doing a great job making it easy on us.
” Advertisement Middleton is also in a huge string of solid games after a tough start to his season. His wife, Natalie, was induced at 7 a.m.
Saturday and gave birth to their first child, a daughter named, Stevie, at 6:04 p.m. Mom and daughter are healthy, and the proud “Girl Dad” wasn’t about to miss the game.
Not with the Wild off to such a tremendous start this season. “Just riding the wave. It’s fun,” Middleton said.
“Showing up to work every day has been a blast.” He said, accompanied by a laugh, “I’m sure you guys are having more fun writing pieces like you are right now than some of the ones you’ve had to write in years past. But yeah, no, it’s a blessing.
Couple of (wins) here and just looking to keep it rolling.” Boldy picked up his third winning goal in the Wild’s past four wins, and it was a beauty. “Had a couple breakaways (this season) and shot and none of them have gone in, so I thought I’d change it up a little,” Boldy said.
“Just made a move and trusted it.” He also had trust that Spurgeon was going to outrace Domi to that loose puck because he and Rossi stayed back cherry-picking. “Even if (Domi) kept that puck, there’s no doubt that Spurge is catching him, just the type of guy he is, the type of player he is,” Boldy said.
“You know that play’s coming, just how smart he is, and (he) put it right on the tape.” The Wild lost the special teams battle for a second game in a row. They went 0-for-3 on the power play and gave up one power-play goal on two chances.
It was the first road power-play goal this season for shockingly the league’s worst power play. The Wild’s penalty kill ranks 31st at 65.2 percent, which may be concerning considering they have vowed to fix a penalty kill that finished 30th last year.
Hynes said he’s not worried. “I spent a lot of time (Saturday) going back through it because we have given up some goals on it, but more often than not, they’re individual,” Hynes said. “They’re mistakes that need to be better and I feel like coming into the year that this is going to be a process with the kill.
We spent a lot of time on it in training camp. We continue to spend a lot of time on it, but it all comes down to the discipline of details. We don’t have to get into every goal against but, to me, in the penalty kill in all situations, the structure is critical, because you only have four guys.
Advertisement “And I think right now sometimes what’s happened is we’ve made an individual mistake or a misread, and then all of a sudden, bang, you get five top offensive players and they’re scoring. I like what’s going on there. I know it needs to be better, but it is.
It is a process, and I feel good about what it is.” As long as the Wild keep winning, their penalty-kill woes will continue to be overshadowed and allow the coaching staff the time to cure these apparent individual mistakes without the outside noise that was deafening last year. And the Wild are showing no signs of not continuing to win.
After a 5-1-1 road trip, they’re now 2-0 on a three-game homestand that ends Tuesday night against the Los Angeles Kings . Then they embark on a three-game trip against three extremely beatable opponents — the San Jose Sharks , Anaheim Ducks and Chicago Blackhawks . Sunday, with the league-leading scorer, Kaprizov, having a rare scoreless game, the Wild still won against a high-scoring team.
“Good, hard-fought game,” Hartman said. “They’re a really good team. That was a good test, a measuring point to see where we’re at.
” (Photo: Brace Hemmelgarn / Imagn Images).
