Wild's Jon Merrill returns after offseason injury, 'excited to be playing hockey games again'

MONTREAL — Jon Merrill was with the Wild all through training camp, getting on the ice like everyone else for practice.

But not until Saturday did he finally join the team in a game, making his season debut in Boston to officially put an offseason shoulder injury behind him.

"I'm just happy to be out there with the guys," Merrill said. "Anytime my number's called, I'm ready to go out there and do a job for this team. So, just really excited to be playing hockey games again."

Merrill was on the mend after getting hurt representing the United States at the World Championship in May. In his first game of the tournament, the defenseman said he got tangled up with a player from Great Britain and fell awkwardly.

"Not what you hoped for, but that's part of the game," Merrill said. "Injuries happen. You just have to do your job, and luckily we've got great training staff and strength guys here and they did a good job getting me back."

This is Merrill's second season with the Wild. He played in a career-high 69 games in 2021-22 while also establishing a personal best in points with 20, and he signed a three-year, $3.6 million contract extension in January.

"I definitely want to be a player on this team that's looked to a little bit more and have a little bit more of a voice in the room," he said. "So it's definitely something I'm trying to do this year."

The Wild rolled out another new lineup against the Canadiens, the sixth different look they've used in six games.

Frederick Gaudreau centered Kirill Kaprizov and Mats Zuccarello on the top line, and longtime linemates Marcus Foligno and Joel Eriksson Ek were broken up; Foligno skated with Marco Rossi and Matt Boldy (the same line the Wild deployed when Rossi and Boldy made their NHL debuts last season), while Eriksson Ek was alongside Brandon Duhaime and Ryan Hartman.

Connor Dewar, Sam Steel and Tyson Jost filled out the fourth line.

Eriksson Ek and Foligno were on the ice together for two of Boston's goals on Saturday in the Wild's 4-3 overtime loss, their first game after an abbreviated reunion of the "GREEF" line.

Jordan Greenway played less than three minutes in his season debut Thursday vs. Vancouver before leaving with an upper-body injury that'll sideline him for at least the rest of this road trip.

"Having Greener out is difficult," Foligno said. "We're realizing how big of an impact he has for our team. I think there's a little bit more stability when he's in the lineup."

As for the defense, that also was revised.

Jonas Brodin worked with Calen Addison, while Merrill teamed up with Matt Dumba; Jake Middleton and captain Jared Spurgeon were the other duo.

"As coaches, you have to try to tweak some stuff," coach Dean Evason said. "We're trying to find chemistry within this group, and I know we've talked a lot about Ek and Moose and Greeny and that line. Well, that was last year. We're trying to find chemistry for the '22-23 Minnesota Wild. That's what we're doing.

"If we started off not losing a hockey game, then we probably wouldn't have changed lines. But we haven't. We struggled in a lot of areas, so it's an opportunity to tweak some stuff and hopefully what we're thinking will translate into success."

Through the first five games, the Wild blocked 66 shots, the third fewest in the NHL entering play on Tuesday.

"It's part of the game now," Evason said. "Would we like if there's an outside shot to let our goaltender see it? Sure. But if you're putting yourself in a spot where you haven't boxed a guy out or you haven't done your job to keep people away from the net, then if you're caught in that spot, you gotta get in front it."