Wild winger Mats Zuccarello, at age 38, sparks Wild: ‘You play as a kid’

Mats Zuccarello missed the daily routine.

Not the goals or the glory or the gratification.

While the Wild forward sat out the first month of the season to heal an injury, he skated on his own. When the team left for a road trip, Zuccarello stayed at home. During the games in St. Paul, he dressed the part — pulling on the gear he wears under his hockey equipment — only to watch what was happening on the ice without him.

“You don’t really feel a part of the team,” he said. ‘So, I think that’s the hardest part.”

Zuccarello missed the grind and, boy, were the Wild grinding.

They had too few wins and too many losses, a gloomy outlook that suggested their struggles were less circumstantial and more conclusive.

That changed when Zuccarello returned.

But the Wild didn’t just benefit from Zuccarello’s chemistry with superstar Kirill Kaprizov or the balance his addition prompted in the lineup.

They got back the life of the locker room, Zuccarello’s perspective and personality bringing a well-timed levity to the Wild’s tale of two seasons.

“When you’re at your best is when you have fun. You play as a kid,” Zuccarello said. “You gotta keep that all the way through. I get it. It’s hard, especially when you’re younger. ‘Oh, it’s a business.’ But once you get older, you’ve kind of been through it all.

“So, just laugh through it. No one likes to lose, but the only way to turn it around is to have fun.”

Zuccarello didn’t feel pressure to save the Wild from their slump, but he did want to help.

“It’s not [Connor] McDavid coming back,” Zuccarello said, “but if I can give a little spark.”

His first assist was more electrifying than that, Zuccarello and Kaprizov combining for a give-and-go against the Islanders that saw Zuccarello return Kaprizov’s no-look pass for a slam-dunk shot.

Zuccarello was awarded the team’s player of the game hat, after he got his teammates clapping in unison to his pregame lineup read.

“I’m going to have to be a little more patient before everything clicks,” Zuccarello said days later, but his connection with Kaprizov comes off telepathic.

Since Kaprizov started with the Wild in 2021, he and Zuccarello have factored in the same goal 183 times to become one of the most potent duos in the NHL alongside the likes of Edmonton’s McDavid and Leon Draisaitl, Colorado’s Nathan MacKinnon and Cale Makar, and Tampa Bay’s Nikita Kucherov and Brayden Point.

“If something goes wrong or something like that, I can ask him, and he gives me a good couple words … ‘Hey, just relax and do your stuff.’ Something like that,” Kaprizov said. “But sometimes without him, I just start a little bit think not [the] way I should be thinking, frustrating, or something like that. But he just gives good mentality.”

While Kaprizov was negotiating his record-breaking, eight-year, $136 million contract that’ll kick in next season, Zuccarello offered to be a sounding board if Kaprizov needed one, and the two did chat.

“I said, ‘Don’t listen to me,’” Zuccarello said. “‘Don’t listen to anyone. This has gotta be your own decision and [what] you feel like you can live with.’ Obviously, it’s a good position to be in. But at the end of the day, just calm down and think about yourself and what does Kirill want.”

Kaprizov hopes Zuccarello will play beyond this season, the last on his two-year, $8.25 million deal.

“I don’t know,” Zuccarello quipped. “He took all my money.”

He could get to 1,000 games with another season, but he’s unsure about his future.

“If I feel like I’m good enough, I want to play a year or two more if I feel like I can contribute,” said Zuccarello, a longtime New York Ranger before getting traded to Dallas and signing with the Wild in 2019. “If I feel like I’m just dead weight, then it’s time for me to hang them up. So, I’ll see.

“I want to see if I still got it or if I still have the hunger. Right now I do, but I don’t feel like I’m good enough right now. But I gotta give myself a little bit more time to think about this, and it’s a family decision as well.

“I know they’re supportive, and they just do whatever I do. But at the same time, we got another daughter coming in February. So, it’s going to be three of them. Then maybe I have to play a couple more years,” Zuccarello said before chuckling.

Based on his performance thus far, Zuccarello’s decision looks like a no-brainer.

“He can play more I think,” Kaprizov said.

Time will tell if Zuccarello agrees.