The Minnesota Wild beat the New Jersey Devils in a shootout 8 days ago on the eve of Thanksgiving and we’re thankful for those 2 points. The Devils tied the game at 2 with 1:07 remaining in regulation to secure a point & send the game into Overtime. The game required a shootout to decide a victor and Kevin Fiala provided the only goal to help the Wild get the extra point and start what is now a 4-game winning streak as they beat Winnipeg Jets, 7-1, the Tampa Bay Lightning, 4-2 & the Arizona Coyotes 5-2.
In the game against the Coyotes, F Jordan Greenway scored his 1st goal of the season off a tip in front of the net as he continues his resurgence to being an impact player for this team both physically & putting up points. He added 2 assists on Tuesday, too.
The Wild got F Mats Zuccarello back for the game but captain D Jared Spurgeon remains out but the Devils also had C Jack Hughes back after missing 17 games with a shoulder injury. He returned Tuesday in a 5-2 loss against the San Jose Sharks where he didn’t have a point for the first time this season (2 goals, 1 assist in 2 games to start the season).
You Don’t Know Jack
Jack Hughes also signed a new contract extension for 8 years & $64M. After only 2 shortened seasons and just 52 points (18 goals, 34 assists) in 117 games, some might wonder why the Devils would sign him to such a lucrative deal.
Well, he had 21 points (7G, 14A) in 61 games in 2019-20 with a -26 plus/minus stat. He improved to 31 points (11G, 20A) & a -3 plus/minus in 56 games last season. He was the 1st overall pick in the 2019 NHL Draft & went right to the NHL and there wasn’t much of a question if he’d go number 1, either.
Our take is he’s already looked like a supreme talent so Jersey thought why mess with a shorter contract or a bridge deal to get him to restricted free agency. The biggest question of that thinking is the salary cap consequences of jumping the gun on such a lucrative deal. The Devils have plenty of salary cap room and the Edmonton Oilers did the same thing with F Connor McDavid in 2017 although the contracts are a tad different with McDavid signing for $36M more when he was extended for 8-years & $100M.
The bottom line appears to be, take care of your superstars.
We were very excited to watch Mr. Hughes play tonight to see if he’s worth the price of admission.
Here’s how the teams lined up:
Minnesota Wild
Wild F Frédérick Gaudreau remains out due to Covid-19 protocols.
New Jersey Devils
Game Recap
The Wild almost got an early goal off the stick of Kevin Fiala* as he went in with speed and threw a backhand off the crossbar.
*See the Game Notes section at the bottom of the article.
The Minnesota Wild did get on the board first courtesy of a Lil’ Russian which has a double meaning as Kirill Kaprizov may have put a little Russian on the move to get past defenseman Ryan Graves then went backhand to forehand & quickly shot it past Devils G Mackenzie Blackwood.
We can’t see it on the replay. We didn’t see the actual play live, either,** but this play started after a change and a bad forecheck.
**Check the Game Notes at the bottom of the article.
New Jersey changed all forwards with D Mason Geertsen getting the puck at center ice. He was the 7th defenseman so he was probably playing forward. The Wild are in the midst of changing their forwards as well as you can see #16 Rem Pitlick at the bench.
Now you can see both Devils forwards are about parallel to each other and the puck was dumped down the right boards where Minnesota Wild G Kaapo Kähkönen came out to get it. You can also see Wild F Joel Eriksson Ek (#14) going for a change & he was replaced by goal-scorer, Kirill Kaprizov.
Now, watch the replay of the goal. Both Devils fore-checkers were going hard to the puck, skating past or not paying much attention to the defenseman. Kaapo sent the around the boards to a wide-open F Ryan Hartman at the right-half wall. The 3rd Devils, F Michael McLeod, was kind of covering Wild F Mats Zuccarello and decided to give Hartman time & space to find Kirill Kaprizov at the far boards by the New Jersey bench then…
Kirill just makes a magical all-around play. He takes the puck in the zone then turns to protect the puck and maybe makes Devils D Ryan Graves think he’s going to curl back around to find a teammate for a pass. Kirill expects Graves to try a physical play on him and as soon as he feels that, he turns back to go towards the corner again and now he has a step on him so he turns to go to the net.
He’s on his backhand but moves the puck to his forehand and has the option to try a quick shot or to try to make a move around the goalie as Devils D Dougie Hamilton (#7) is just watching the play. Kaprizov took the quick shot option and beat him just over the pad on the short side.
Ryan Graves found out how strong Kirill Kaprizov is on his skates. Kaprizov also did a great job protecting the puck from the Ryan Graves attempted pokecheck with his left leg.
What would have to change to stop this play?
- The fore-checkers need to communicate &/or read the play to decide who the F1 (Fore-checker #1) is so F2 (& F3) can then anticipate the next play & cover the optional passes.
- Put pressure on the puck. Don’t just let Hartman have all the time in the world to make a play.
- Graves doesn’t have to be so aggressive on Kirill Kaprizov. It was 1-on-2 so just defend & keep the player & the puck in front of you.
- Hamilton could protect his net, too. If he cuts off Kaprizov’s path, he takes away an option for Kaprizov and his goalie can just concentrate on a shot.
–––––
2:20 later, F Rem Pitlick was gifted a loose puck off the stick of Ryan Graves and he went right to the net, forced Blackwood to commit then showed the patience to wait for an easier shot & still roofed it for his 5th goal of the season.
Mr. Pitlick is making everyone wonder what Nashville was thinking trying to get him through waivers during training camp. #OOPS!!!
Assists went to Kaapo Kähkönen & Ryan Hartman on the Kaprizov goal and Victor Rask on the Pitlick G!
Oh, and there was this incredible save by Minnesota Wild G Kaapo Kähkônen:
Kaapo Kähkönen save of the year oh my GOD #mnwild pic.twitter.com/Hi9icwu5IQ
— Spoked Z (@SpokedZ) December 3, 2021
The Wild outshot them 13-10.
The Wild took a 3-0 lead on Kaprizov’s 2nd of the night when his tough angle shot bounced off the toe of Devils G Blackwood’s right pad then went off D Damon Severson’s helmet & into the net.
The Devils responded with 2 goals in 5 minutes to make it a 1-goal game on a Ryan Graves blast from the left point and a Tomas Tatar mini-breakaway but…
the Minnesota Wild then responded just under 3 minutes later to go up by 2 again when Kaprizov fed Ryan Hartman for a shot from the top of the left faceoff circle that was saved but Dmitry Kulikov was right there to knock the rebound in immediately.
The Wild outshot them 13-10 again in the 2nd.
The 3rd period was relatively non-eventful other than a Ryan Hartman, Andreas Johnsson fight that turned into roughing penalties and an unsportsmanlike penalty to Johnsson for voluntarily taking his helmet off before they were going to tussle. He must not have known that rule because you could see him asking the official after he was put in the box.
Ryan Hartman did score his 13th goal of the season on a nice move and an even nicer shot that beat Mackenzie Blackwood far side and off the post and in.
And…there were also some more great scoring chances from Kevin Fiala. Sooner or later, those are going to start going in. There were also some more great chances and plays from Kirill Kaprizov.
Game Notes
*Kevin Fiala now has 3 goals & 12 assists in 23 games. That doesn’t sound that great but this is why you sometimes have to dig deeper to see how a player is doing. If you’ve been watching him play, he’s right there. He’s getting chances but just not capitalizing on them. If you haven’t been watching him, you can look at the stats but we think you always have to look at multiple stats and multiple groupings of stats, or split stats.
We like looking at monthly splits because it tells you whether or not a player is producing over a fewer number of games.
As you can see, he struggled in the season’s opening month with just 3 points (1 goal, 2 assists) in 8 games. He had 24 shots over those 8 games including one game with no shots on goal. That’s 3 shots per game. That’s alright but it also makes you wonder if he’s losing the aggressiveness goal-scorers need to have to stay out of slumps. A lot of players stop shooting when they get in a slump because they start to let the lizard brain affect their confidence.
So…if you move on to November, you see Kevin Fiala was pretty darn good as he had 12 points (2 goals & 10 assists) in 14 games. He also had 50 shots on goal over those 14 games which comes out to 3.6 shots per game. That’s good to see because it shows he hasn’t lost much confidence in his shot or in his ability to score.
There’s another report on the NHL website that shows shots by type (above) and a miscellaneous report (below) that shows shots that missed the net, 34 total so he’s attempted 113 shots on goal (79 + 34) which comes to 4.9 shots attempted per game. You like that from your goal scorers because you can’t score if you don’t shoot the puck & the more you shoot, the more chances you have to score. Crazy, huh?
You can also look at a player’s game logs to see his whole season but it’s almost too much at once. The nice thing about it is you can see if they are producing consistently throughout any number of games. Kevin Fiala has 13 games where he hasn’t registered a point. That means his 15 points have come in just 10 games.
He also has 2 games where he hasn’t registered a shot on goal.
Trust in Kevin Fiala. He’s doing everything he can to score. He’s shooting. He’s playing on both ends of the ice and he’s not showing frustration. Expect the flood gates to open to see a bunch of pucks going in the net for #22.
**First off, one thing that’s wrong with replays is they rarely show the whole play. They show the play about 10 seconds before it begins and almost every goal starts way before that. Do they have different camera angles to catch how the play develops? Apparently not but the replays are also made very quickly for the TV analysts so they can be shown seconds later.
Do the teams get different camera angles when they go over the game film? They don’t really need it on this play as they saw it develop from the bench but if you’re trying to coach and develop your players, it’d be nice to have that available.
🏒–– CP ––🏒
Next up:
The Minnesota Wild will take on the Toronto Maple Leafs on Saturday night at 6pm on Bally Sports North.
This is another one of those measuring-stick games. Can the Wild play with the Leafs? We’re going to find out and it’s going to be fun to watch!
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AND…as always…
