The Minnesota Wild will be without their best player for the seventh game in a row when they face off against the Colorado Avalanche on Thursday night in Saint Paul, Minn.
The Wild know they cannot replace Kirill Kaprizov with one single player. It takes a team effort, and so far they have been providing exactly that in Kaprizov’s absence.
Minnesota is 5-1-0 since Kaprizov went down with a lower-body injury. They will look to maintain their success against Colorado, which arrives in Minnesota on short rest.
“You can go one of two ways when you hit adversity, and we’re choosing to rise to the occasion,” Wild defenseman Zach Bogosian said. “That’s what we need to do.”
Kaprizov remains the Wild’s No. 1 scorer by far with 50 points (23 goals, 27 assists) in 34 games. Marco Rossi is next with 37 points (15 goals, 22 assists) in 41 games.
Colorado is led by Nathan MacKinnon, who has a whopping 66 points (14 goals, 52 assists) in 42 games. Mikko Rantanen is next with 58 points (24 goals, 34 assists) in 42 games, and star defenseman Cale Makar ranks third with 49 points (13 goals, 36 assists) in 42 games.
The Avalanche will try to regroup after losing 3-1 against the Chicago Blackhawks on Wednesday night. Before that, Colorado had gone 7-0-1 in its previous eight games.
“I don’t hate our game,” Colorado coach Jared Bednar said Wednesday night. “I didn’t love portions of it, especially the ones that hurt us on the defensive side. Sometimes, you just don’t shoot well and the goalie comes up with a good night. It can happen.”
The Avalanche likely will turn to Mackenzie Blackwood in net after he received the day off Wednesday in Chicago. Blackwood is 13-10-4 with a 2.58 goals-against average and .917 save percentage this season.
In four career games against the Wild, Blackwood is 0-3-1 with a 3.69 GAA and .888 save percentage.
Minnesota could go back to Filip Gustavsson in net one game after he was pulled in the second period because of a bumpy performance. For the season, Gustavsson is 18-6-3 with a 2.31 goals-against average and .922 save percentage.
Gustavsson is 1-5-1 with a 3.91 GAA and an .893 save percentage in seven career games against the Avalanche.
If Wild coach John Hynes opts to rest Gustavsson, he could turn to Marc-Andre Fleury, who is 8-3-1 with a 2.67 GAA and .903 save percentage.
The 40-year-old Fleury has faced Colorado 32 times in his career. He is 16-12-3 with a 2.53 GAA and a .915 save percentage in those contests.
In addition to playing without Kaprizov, the Wild will face another challenge on Thursday with defenseman Brock Faber expected to be out of the lineup. Faber sustained an upper-body injury in a 6-4 victory Tuesday night against the St. Louis Blues.
The recent return of fellow defenseman Jake Middleton should help to soften the blow of Faber’s injury. Middleton scored a goal Tuesday in his first game back from an upper-body injury that had sidelined him since Dec. 12.
“Everyone’s feeling good,” Middleton said. “Confidence, we talk about that a lot. If we could buy it, we’d all be tremendous. But we’ve earned it up to now, halfway through the year, and we’re feeling good about it.”
–Field Level Media
