A little over a week into the 56-game sprint and the Wild get there first action on XCEL Energy Center Ice, since March 3, 2020 when they beat Nashville 3-1. Tonight's opponent, the Sharks, bringing with them a couple of familiar faces in Devan Dubnyk and Ryan Donato.
Dubnyk has had just one start for the Sharks thus far and is 0-1 giving up five goals to the Blues on Monday night in St. Louis. Donato has one goal through the Sharks first four games and has a -3 rating in the plas/minus category.
San Jose has won two and lost two, but are coming off a 2-1 shootout victory Wednesday against the Blues. Martin Jones has both Shark victories and is expected to start one of the two games her in Minnesota.
Dubnyk and his family were a huge part of the Wild and the community during his five plus years as the Wild goalie. He arrived in January of 2015 and immediately took the reigns as the Wild starting goalie. He almost single handedly catapulted the Wild out of their mid-season funk and on to a playoff berth. Dubs appeared in 39 games for the Wild that season winning 27, with a stellar 1.78 GAA to go along with his .936 save percentage.
That season also was the last time the Wild won a playoff series as they beat St. Louis in the first round, before being swept by the eventual Stanley Cup winning Black Hawks.
Dubnyk went on to post four straight Wild seasons of 30+ victories, including his career high 40 wins in the 2016-17 season.
It is a shame that there will be no fans in the XCEL to give Dubs his well deserved ovation and recognition for his Wild career that was filled with many highlights despite the lack of playoff success.
For the Wild, they had a successful California trip going 3-1-0 in LA and Anaheim. All four games were one goal games which will more than likely be the norm for the Wild as they try to figure out their own offense piecing together line combinations, while their defense and goaltending remain solid.
Nick Bonino scores his first Wild goal on Wednesday and more importantly it was the first powerplay goal of the season for Minnesota. Much has been talked about with the lack of production on the man advantage through the first four games. That in large part can be attributed to the lack of a center on the top unit. Not being able to win the faceoff to start the powerplay has often limited the zone time. Once they are set up there is good quick puck movement, however most of the shot attempts are from out high with second chances nearly non-existent.
Joel Eriksson Ek has been very strong and quite honestly needs to move to one of the top lines despite his line's excellent chemistry and solid start to the season. Eriksson Ek has been cast in the checking role however he has skills and the former first round pick is maturing into a very good NHL center. At this time JEE is the top center on the team and should in my opinion ascend to that role.
Dean Evason's adjustments to the defense pairs having Jared Spurgeon playing with Jonas Brodin on the top pair and moving Ryan Suter to play with Matt Dumba has worked out very well. These pairings have been discussed here many times over the past several seasons and have been tried before and all past coaching staffs have reverted back to Suter/Spurgeon, Brodin/Dumba pairings.
Evason has not done that and the results have been pretty good thus far. Suter's minutes have been cut with this move, which makes him so much more effective. The days of Suter and his 30 minutes a night are no longer thecase for the 36 year old. Suter has looked fresher especially in the third periods of the first four games and the calming influence he brings to Dumba's game is important to Matt's success as he looks to rebound from his down 2019-20 season.
Brodin has long been the Wild's most consistent defenseman while Spurgeon is the barometer of the Wild, as former head coach, Bruce Boudreau used to call him. Together Brodin and Spurgeon form a tremendous tandem up and down the ice.
Cam Talbot has shown that he is capable of making the saves the Wild need him to make, not looking spectacular but doing his job, while Kaapo Kahkonen got his first action on Wednesday and for the most part was solid, outside of a brief period midway through the game.
Kevin Fiala is still searching for his first points of the season which if you have watched the Wild's first four games comes as a real surprise. I believe that ends tonight and with a multiple point effort for the Wild's top scorer of a year ago.
It's always Hockey Day in The State of Hockey!