The Wild lost 2-1 in its preseason opener at Winnipeg, but coach Mike Yeo was pleased with a number of performances
Wild lines were:
Jason Zucker-Charlie Coyle-Nino Niederreiter
Michael Keranen-Tyler Graovac-Jordan Schroeder
Stephane Veilleux-Cody Almond-Brett Bulmer
Curt Gogol-Brett Sutter-Kurtis Gabriel
Defense pairs were:
Keith Ballard-Christian Folin
Gustav Olofsson-Stu Bickel
Justin Falk-Jon Blum
The Wild lost 2-1 Monday night in a preseason-opening loss at Winnipeg.
Center Tyler Graovac scored the Wild's lone goal on a 6-on-5 with 13.6 seconds left. Jason Zucker and Christian Folin set up the goal.
The big storyline for the game from a Minnesota perspective was that Niklas Backstrom, making his first start since Jan. 30 and his first start since abdominal and hip surgeries, stopped all 12 shots he faced in 30-plus minutes.
His best save came on a first-period power play with he stone-cold robbed Mathieu Perreault with the glove from point-blank.
"Great performance for him," coach Mike Yeo said. "That was a great start. Huge save on the PK there early. I thought he looked really good."
Backstrom, 36, said, "It's fun to play. It's been a long road. Five months since my last surgery. Just to be able to play this early in camp, that's a first step. There's still a lot of work I need to do to get where I want to be, to where I need to be.
"It's fun to see where you are and what you need to work on. Still a ways to go."
Backstrom says he still doesn't feel 100 percent, both in the cage and physically. But it's early in camp, there hasn't been a lot of practice and he's coming off some operations.
"You have to take small steps," he said.
On the game, Yeo liked Folin, Jason Zucker, Nino Niederreiter, Stu Bickel. "We had some guys that had some strong games. Olli (Gustav Olofsson), for a young kid, first game, I thought it was pretty impressive the way he showed himself tonight too."
Zucker had a real strong game. He's coming off two surgeries and hadn't played since February.
He took an awkward hit in the second period but brushed off the pain. He did block a shot with his left foot and had ice on it after the game.
But he didn't lose his speed, was setting up plays all game and he didn't shy from contact. In fact, he initiated a lot, including his first shift.
"I thought all game long he was competing hard, he was going to the hard areas, his speed was a factor in generating some chances. We were using him a lot. We were trying him out on the PK, we were using him on the power play and he showed well," Yeo said.
Zucker said, "It was a start. There were some things I definitely need to work on. I need to get back in some battles a little more. Speed wise and skating, I thought I was fine there. First game, just build off of that."
On his first shift, as I mentioned above, he won two battles to set up a scoring chance.
"That was a lot showing myself that I can do it again after that long of a time soon," Zucker said. "That's something that I need to do to be on this team."
Speaking of which, Stu Bickel got into two fights, and has been often mentioned, the Wild lacks physicality from the back end. So the door is open for Bickel to make the Wild as a third-pair guy or seventh defenseman.
"I was happy with his game," Yeo said. "The fact that he's making a statement, saying I want to be here, I think he's smart enough to realize that if there's maybe an opportunity to be on our team, it might not be on the second power-play unit (laughs). It might be by bringing something special to the equation and he was ready to show that tonight. On top of that, I thought his game was solid too."
Bickel said he felt the Jets were taking liberties and running around early in the game, so he got into the scraps.
"That's something I'm perfectly willing to do," the former Gopher said. "It's not the only side of my game. If I feel like liberties [are being] taken against us, I'm not going to take a step back. That's a natural part of my game. That's the way I've always played. That's the way I'll continue to play."
On the game, Yeo said, "It looked like it was Game 1 of the exhibition season. All in all, about what you'd expect."
Folin was solid after the first period. Yeo said, "I thought first period was sort of very average. I liked that he picked his game up a lot. I thought he got stronger in his own zone. I thought he got more assertive through the neutral zone as far as his gap control, playing a little tighter, creating some turnovers. He showed me a little bit more in the offensive side than I realized he had. I knew he had a big shot, but as far as vision, the play at the end of the game, the play to Zuck when crashing the net, these are heads-up plays. I didn't know that he had that in him."
Justin Fontaine missed the game with a sore groin, so the only regulars from last year to play were Keith Ballard, Charlie Coyle and Niederreiter, who had five shots. Coyle hit two posts.
Yeo gave Coyle, Niederreiter and Zucker first-line minutes and played all three on the power play and penalty kill.
"It's good for them," Yeo said. "You use these games to try to figure out and answer some questions as far as who's going to make your team. Some of it's rewarding guys and giving guys an experience, but for [Coyle, Niederreiter and Zucker], it's about getting them ready. It's an opportunity to build a little confidence. You want them playing big minutes."
Yeo really liked Coyle's game in the third period. Before that, he didn't like Coyle's game defensively in his own zone. He felt he wasn't "as quick and assertive as I'd probably like." But Yeo went on to say that in fairness to Coyle, he played no center the first four days in camp, so there was a little natural hesitation and he was thinking instead of reacting. But as the game went on, Yeo said, his skating was real strong and his power game emerged.
The power play went 0 for 6. As I've mentioned, the Wild will begin special teams work this week.
"It looked like we hadn't worked on it a while lot. And obviously we haven't, so we have to get on that for sure," Yeo said.
There are five exhibition games left. The next one is in Pittsburgh on Thursday. That should be Matt Dumba's exhibition debut. Yeo said he didn't play tonight because of the way the special teams breakdown, uh, broke down and the way it breaks down in the next five games. He said he's very happy with Dumba's camp as well as other guys competing with him.
Olofsson was real good tonight.
He said he had butterflies in the first period, but once he got into the game, his mind took over.
"Overall, it was a lot of fun," the 2013 second-round pick said. "Totally different than what I've been used to. From now on, just adapt and try to play a higher pace."
Lots of questions on this guy, but I do like Michael Keranen, the Finnish star free-agent pickup who recently signed with HIFK, the Nik Backstrom co-owned team. Very skilled, very smart, but he needs to get stronger.
So, 15 preseason periods left.
Good sign tonight that Nik Backstrom looked so good.
Jason Zucker helped himself tonight. Stu Bickel helped himself tonight. Christian Folin helped himself tonight.
The group that played tonight has the day off Tuesday. There will be a 10:30 a.m. practice for everyone else. There should be cuts, too.
Hey, don’t believe me? This team has indicted itself with harsh words as the seasons progressed.
