With Jason Zucker going well, Bruce Boudreau elevated Zucker to the Mikko Koivu line and dropped Tyler Graovac to the fourth line in the Wild's 3-1 victory over the Jets on Wednesday night.
Koivu was impressed with the job Zucker and Mikael Granlund did on the forecheck, saying, "I think to key to that is it was not just one. They both went. … With their speed, it makes a difference."
On why he moved Zucker up, Boudreau said, "I've had a couple good talks with Zucks this week and I thought he was skating. I knew I was going to go down to three lines, so if he was skating and I was going to go down to three lines, I wanted him to play."
Zucker said: "It was nice to get that chance with those two guys. They're great players, and we had a bit of success tonight. I'm not sure what the plan is moving forward, but regardless of where I'm playing, I'm going to be ready to go and try to play the same way every night."
Russo's Rants: startribune.com/wild
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