Analysis: Wild can’t take advantage with full complement of forwards

The Wild finally had all their forwards back in the lineup.

Maybe next game they will get to leverage that balance to their benefit.

They couldn’t against Florida, not when both teams were sent to the penalty box 14 times for a clunky power-play symposium that ended with the back-to-back defending Stanley Cup champion Panthers prevailing 4-3 in overtime Saturday night, Jan. 24, at Grand Casino Arena on a — go figure — odd-man, 2-on-1 goal from Brad Marchand.

“I know it was tough on some guys,” Wild coach John Hynes said, “just as far as ice time or getting in a rhythm or getting normal shifts. … But overall, I thought we did a pretty good job of handling it.”

All the Wild’s goals were when they were had one more player than Florida or one less.

Kirill Kaprizov and Joel Eriksson Ek scored on the power play, with Hynes reuniting the No. 1 unit upon Matt Boldy’s return from injury, and they had plenty of reps to get in a groove: The Wild had six power plays, but they gave up just as much as they got; Florida also went 2-for-6 with the man advantage. Each side was also penalized for a fight between Jake Middleton and A.J. Greer.

“It felt like I was in the game,” said goaltender Filip Gustavsson, whose 30 saves were split among 5-on-5, 4-on-5 and even 5-on-4. “Probably for the players that just they play once in a while and they get cold, it’s a little weird playing games like this.”

The staples on special teams were busy, with Kaprizov skating 25 minutes, Boldy getting to 22 and Brock Faber maxing out at 27. Quinn Hughes led the way with 31:16, which included a mind-boggling 4:14 shift for the defenseman after a 5-on-5 stint extended into a Wild power play.

Meanwhile, Vinnie Hinostroza took six shifts, Yakov Trenin logged less than 10 minutes, and almost half of Nico Sturm’s action in his first game against his former team since winning the Stanley Cup with the Panthers last year was on the penalty kill.

“In a game with that much special teams, it’s gonna be hard to get that zone time and 5-on-5,” Eriksson Ek said. “I think we are a really good team playing 5-on-5, too.”

Eriksson Ek’s line sure is.

He, Boldy and Johansson have been scored on only three times at 5-on-5 and four overall, an impressive feat considering nearly 40% of each player’s workload has been against elite competition, according to PuckIQ. All three were injured recently, with Eriksson Ek and Johansson returning one game before Boldy did.

But Boldy was impactful against Florida.

Aside from assisting on Kaprizov’s power-play goal, the winger capitalized on the penalty kill, intercepting Marchand for a breakaway in the third period that netted his third shorthanded goal of the season. That’s tied for the third most in the NHL during Boldy’s first season as a full-time penalty killer.

“He reads the play very well,” said Eriksson Ek, a longtime PKer. “Good with the stick, and just I think some of those pucks that he knocks down just shows his hand-eye coordination.”

Boldy missed four games because of a lingering lower-body injury, and he said he will be fine for the upcoming Olympics.

“Dealt with it for a little and then just got to a point where it felt a little more nagging than I would’ve liked,” explained Boldy, who was picked for Team USA in addition to Faber and Hughes. “But to be able to take care of it and get it to feeling good again was important.”

“Kinda something I had before, and that time it was a bit worse,” he said, “and knew this time it hopefully wasn’t going to be that long. But you never know.”

Defensemen Jonas Brodin and Zach Bogosian are still injured for the Wild, and Brodin’s recovery from surgery on a lower-body injury will force him to miss the Olympics after he was named to Sweden’s roster alongside Eriksson Ek, Gustavsson and rookie goalie Jesper Wallstedt.

So, the Wild’s manpower is in flux … in the game and for the season.