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Hartman Not Playing vs. Former Team |
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Ryan Hartman is the latest Wild skater to get the night off to assess the game from the press box. It comes after Hartman took some questionable penalties on the road trip and his overall game needs a hard reset.
Hartman is a player that brings an energy to every game, however when that is channeled in the wrong direction it can become detrimental to the team. We had to expect some regression from the career season that Ryan Hartman experienced last season when he scored 34 goals and 65 points largely playing with Kirill Kaprizov and Mats Zuccarello.
That trio began the season together but Hartman did not pick up where he left off, partially due to some injury issues combined with a lack of production. Hartman has most reently skated with Matt Boldy and Freddy Gaudreau, with limited success.
The penalties are more of a concern recently for Hartman who just needs to get his game back to where he is playing within the team structure. Hartman is a standup guy, and has taken this press box reset very professionally, even going as far as to say that if he were in Dean Evason's place, he would make the same decision.
That is great to hear from a key component to the Wild's overall team makeup and game plan. Hartman brings a lot of elements to the Wild, and not all of those are measured on the scoreboard. Having him assess the game from a different view point should serve both player and team well moving forward.
I am sure that the timing is not the greatest as Hartman faces one of his former teams in Philadelphia, but that was only a brief stint back in 2019 following the trade deadline deal that sent him to the Flyers from Nashville.
Brandon Duhaime will slot in on the line with Gaudrea and Boldy tonight in Hartman's place. Duhaime has been very noticeable since returning to the Wild lineup in early January, despite only having scored one goal over the nine games. Duhaime looks more like a veteran on the ice and his energy is always very high, but he has kept himself within the game structure and for that the production will follow.
Marc-Andre Fleury gets the net tonight which would most likely mean that Filip Gustavsson will draw in against Buffalo on Hockey Day in Minnesota, Saturday. Fleury had a rough go of it in Buffalo earlier this month so Gus going against the Sabres makes logical sense.
Philly has played much better than most experts had expected, and John Tortorella has them playing inspired hockey every night. They lack the scoring upper echelon players, but Travis Konecny has been simply brilliant equaling his career high 24 goals (accomplished 3 times) in just 43 games and his 49 points are just 11 shy of his career mark as well.
It's always Hockey Day in The State of Hockey!
Minnesota Wild Blogger • 
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