LOS ANGELES — The Wild’s best player was headed for an early exit — with Drew Doughty tauntingly waving goodbye — and coach Dean Evason was incensed.
Evason had watched Kirill Kaprizov take several cross-checks to the back from Doughty behind the net. Then the Russian superstar had enough. Kaprizov turned around and delivered a high stick/cross-check toward Doughty’s face. He was given a five-minute major and match penalty, which was an automatic ejection and a one-game suspension pending a review from the Department of Player Safety.
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It’s unlikely Kaprizov will be suspended, especially with replays showing he actually hit Doughty with his glove. But the damage had been done as the Wild got shut out for the second straight game, 1-0, to the Kings. Once Kaprizov was booted, there went the best chance to spark the struggling offense.
“He’s getting cross-checked and mauled — he’s frustrated, right?” said a ticked-off Evason. “We’re all frustrated because it’s not taken care of. There’s rules and obviously we feel that there should be more penalties called on a player of his stature who has the puck all the time. It’s not happening.”
Here's the full play for those asking: pic.twitter.com/7GrBhP0vLa
— Sportsnet (@Sportsnet) November 9, 2022
Nothing is happening offensively for the Wild, who have gone 123 minutes and eight seconds without a goal. It’s literally been a week, dating back to Matt Boldy’s third-period tally against the Canadiens Nov. 1. In Thursday’s 4-0 loss to the Kraken, Evason chalked it up to a lack of energy from the team. Four days (and two full off days later), Evason offered a different culprit.
“Power plays — how about a couple of power plays for our team?” Evason said. “I mean, one power play. Are you kidding me? And it was a token power play. It’s unbelievable. We don’t want to whine. But it’s a joke that we have one power play, and it’s for their guy holding our guy at the penalty box. So thank you. We got mauled at the end. We’re trying to score. We’re trying to get in and the whistle is gone. There’s no more calls …
“We’re trying to go through the neutral zone at the end and we’re just getting grabbed and held and bear-hugged. It’s ridiculous. Like, come on, we’ve got to have some balance to what we’re doing. You can’t go through a game like that and have one power play. There’s no way. No way.”
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When you’re pleading for more power plays, it’s also an indictment of your five-on-five offense, which has been sorely lacking for the Wild. Teams are figuring out that if you shut down Kaprizov and stay out of the box, you’re likely going to have a good night against Minnesota. It’s something several scouts and analysts brought up when it came to their concerns about Minnesota. As NHL Network’s Mike Rupp put it, “Now if Kirill is taking on the top matchup, it’s almost like the batting order — who is protecting him?” Recently, it’s been nobody.
The last two games? The Wild have 3.12 expected goals on 44 shots, according to Natural Stat Trick.
They’ve created just 12 high-danger chances in that span. At five-on-five, they were outchanced by the Kings 30-12 (11-5 in high danger). Had it not been for another outstanding performance by Marc-Andre Fleury and a herculean effort by the penalty kill, this game would have been over a lot earlier.
What’s missing from the Wild’s offense?
“I don’t know — I wish we knew,” said Mats Zuccarello. “It’s tough. We’ve got to find a way to score goals. We’ve got some looks, that’s for sure. I feel like we’re working hard, battling hard, playing good PK, working our ass off. We can’t really score right now. That’s part of the game, you’ve got to score goals to win.”
Yes, you do. Zuccarello had another tough game, including taking two penalties in the first period. The Wild need a lot more from their forward group, with some subpar games from quite a few of them lately. Sure, there have been injuries, as Jordan Greenway just returned to the lineup and Marcus Foligno could be back by Friday’s Seattle game.
But this can’t just be the Kaprizov Show offensively.
“I think it’s just simple hockey,” said captain Jared Spurgeon. “Throwing pucks to the net and getting bodies there. All it takes is one.”
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Teams are going to continue to be hard on Kaprizov. They’re going to game plan for him, they’re going to be physical with him. And what’s struck the Wild is how Kaprizov is drawing fewer penalties than he did last year (43, fifth-best in the league, with 1.67 drawn per 60 minutes as 10th best). This season, Kaprizov is tied with about 40 other players for 57th place with five drawn penalties (the same as Mason Shaw). It’s not exactly superstar treatment.
“It’s tough, right? He’s clearly one of the best players in the league,” Evason said. “He has the puck all the time, and last year we looked it up, his ability to draw penalties in the league was top five in the league, something like that. I guarantee you he’s way down. He has the puck all the time. He’s getting so much attention. He has it. He’s spinning back and forth, and there’s no calls.”
Said Spurgeon: “There’s times when he’s getting extra shots. He’s a top player and he’s hard to get off the puck. There’s times he’s getting slashed and stuff and he doesn’t seem to be getting calls. For him, I know that he works through it.”
After Kaprizov’s penalty, the Wild were motivated to kill off that five-minute major for him and they did. They blocked six shots in that stretch, including three by Spurgeon, who made a diving clear as the man advantage ended. Evason had wanted his team to play a grittier game, getting back to their identity, and the group responded with 22 blocked shots.
It looked like the Wild were headed for overtime, but the Kings finally broke through with around six minutes left in regulation. Gabriel Vilardi got a quick shot off from the slot and it beat past Fleury. The play looked a lot like drills the Wild did in practice on Monday. They were rimming the puck around the boards, winning a battle on the wall, and exiting the zone. This time, Doughty made a great pinch and got the puck off Greenway’s stick. A quick pass from Anze Kopitar to the slot and — boom — it was in the net.
“The play happened quick — I didn’t see the guy’s release and then it was in the net,” Fleury said. “I was behind the play a bit.”
Does the Wild’s lack of offense change Fleury’s approach? The margin for error is much slimmer.
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“In my mind, I want to stop them all,” Fleury said. “It doesn’t matter what the score is. Obviously, I wish I could have stopped that one and maybe dragged this one into OT, right?”
The Wild are expected to have Filip Gustavsson in net for Wednesday’s back half of the back-to-back against the Ducks. Perhaps prospect Adam Beckman will get in the lineup and boost their offense. There’s a good chance Kaprizov is in the lineup, pending the review of his match penalty. Doughty’s rivalry with Kaprizov started last year when the Kings defenseman called him “overpaid.” Doughty admitted he was being hard on Kaprizov in their battle before the penalty.
“I don’t think he hit me with his glove,” Doughty told Forum Report. “I’m not positive, I didn’t see a replay, but it felt like a stick. I mean, the intent I’m pretty sure was with the stick. I played him hard right before he did it, so he was frustrated, and it happens.”
(Photo of the Wild’s Kirill Kaprizov attempting to break through two Los Angeles Kings defensemen: Jayne Kamin-Oncea / USA Today)
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