The Minnesota Wild mounted a furious comeback in the third period against the San Jose Sharks. Entering the period down 4-2, they scored three times (while allowing one) to force a tie after Joel Eriksson Ek tipped home a shot with just over two minutes to go. While they would fail to acquire the second point courtesy of Macklin Celebrini’s overtime winner, the Wild did grab a point as their wayward start to the season continued.
They are a team adrift in pretty much every aspect of the game as they struggle to score (29th with 2.70 goals scored per game) and defend (30th with 3.90 goals allowed per game). While they rank second in the league with a 32.5% success rate on the power play, they are 31st in killing penalties with a paltry 60.7% rate. They are in danger of going on tilt early in the season, and part of the problem has been the absence of one of their top forwards.
Mats Zuccarello has now missed 10 games, and it’s left a hole in their top-six that has yet to be filled. That has led to coach John Hynes employing a multitude of combinations in his lines as he tries to find the spark that will get the Wild back on track. According to Natural Stat Trick, twelve different trios have spent at least 10 minutes together at 5v5 so far this season. For a team that was more worried about their bottom-six heading into the season, it’s been an issue that they haven’t been able to find a combination that has been able to contribute consistently.
The 38-year-old might be in the twilight of his career, but he’s been an effective second-line winger during his tenure with the Wild. Last year he contributed 54 points (19 goals, 35 assists) while playing averaging 19:39 of ice time in 69 games. Minnesota has missed his consistency, and while they are slowly finding their 5v5 game after going almost four games without an even-strength goal, there is still a gaping hole with his absence.
As general manager Bill Guerin told The Athletic, Zuccarello’s absence hurts the entire team,
"Zuccy is an important player for the team. He’s a smart guy. He also has got swagger and a high compete level, and I just think having another veteran presence in the room and lineup-wise, putting everybody where they need to be, will be huge. It’s hard to ask guys to play up.”
The ability to slide other players down in the line-up is key for the Wild. At this stage in their career Marcus Johansson or Vlad Tarasenko are much more effective as third-line wingers than second. That would then push Yakov Trenin or Vinny Hinostroza down to the fourth line and Ben Jones or Tyler Pitlick to Iowa. The trickle down effect is real.
The biggest question will be if the Wild can hold on until Zuccarello is ready to return. He is roughly halfway through the estimated 7-8 week rehab time frame. According to Guerin, he is still "a few weeks away" from returning to the line-up. Another three weeks carries the season almost to Thanksgiving, the traditional marker when teams are labeled playoff contenders. It appears that Guerin is holding off on making any deals until then, so it’s on the current roster to figure out how to improve on the Wild’s 3-5-2 record.
Minnesota kicked off a vital five-game homestand with losses to Utah and San Jose. Four games loom, including a big divisional game on Tuesday against Winnipeg, followed by visits by Pittsburgh, Vancouver, and Nashville. It is vital that they emerge victorious in at least three of those games if they don’t want this season to slip away from them.There is still plenty of runway left in the season, but the Wild have to start picking up points if they want to still be in the race when Zucarello returns.