The Minnesota Wild will look to even up their Western Conference semifinal series with the Colorado Avalanche on Monday night and the first three games have been a roller coaster. After dropping the first two in Denver, the Wild made it a 2-1 series with their 5-1 win over the Avs on Saturday night but nothing has been like the ride of John Hynes’s coaching decisions.
The latest came in Monday’s practice when Hynes confirmed the Wild will not have Joel Eriksson Ek in Game 4. But he also told reporters that there would be no changes to the lineup per Wild play-by-play announcer Joe O’Donnell.
The decision perhaps confirms that Hynes learned his lesson after overmanaging the lineup in the first three games of the series and has now chosen to use what’s working as the Wild look to tie things up on Monday night.
Wild trusting Game 3 blueprint to even series with the Avalanche
The Wild did not play their best over the first two games in Denver, but Hynes compounded the problem by subbing Jesper Wallstedt for Filip Gustavsson ahead of Game 2. The move was sold as Wallstedt getting fatigued during the playoff run after playing seven straight games, but it may have done more harm than good as Gustavsson allowed four goals on 22 shots in a 5-2 loss.
The change could have also been justified after Wallstedt gave up eight goals in a 9-6 loss in Game 1. But it was also overkill considering Wallstedt allowed 14 goals and had a .924 save percentage during the first-round series win over the Dallas Stars and Gustavsson had not played since a April 13 loss to the St. Louis Blues.
Even if it was damage control for a potential trade request by Gustavsson this summer, it was a classic case of overthinking and it carried into Game 3. Only this time, most of the moves that Hynes made worked to perfection.
Wallstedt was brilliant in his return to the net, stopping 35-of-36 shots to earn the win. The Wild also broke up Jake Middleton and Jared Spurgeon after the pair gave up numerous chances in the first two games and Jeff Petry was made a healthy scratch with the return of Zach Bogosian.
With Danila Yurov slotting in as the second line center in place of Eriksson Ek and a revamped power play unit that scored a pair of goals for the first time since a Game 1 win over the Stars on April 18. But the biggest thing the moves did was put the Wild’s stars in a position to succeed.
Kirill Kaprizov had a goal and a pair of assists in the win and Brock Faber also had a three-point night on the blue line playing next to Quinn Hughes, who had a goal and an assist. Matt Boldy didn’t score until an empty-net goal late but he also had five shots on goal after managing just one in the Game 2 loss in Denver.
Perhaps Hynes would rather have the “good problem” of finding a way for Eriksson Ek and Jonas Brodin to get back in the lineup as they recover from lower body injuries. But on Saturday night, it appeared that Hynes found a way for it to work and is now trusting his players to duplicate that effort in Game 4.
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