Wild, in trouble from the start, endure a 7-1 loss to Oilers

Sarah McLellan, Star Tribune on Dec 12, 2024

Published in Hockey

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ST. PAUL, Minn. — The Wild might have the early MVP favorite, but the Oilers have a candidate, too.

Leon Draisaitl upstaged Kirill Kaprizov and his teammates, leading Edmonton to a 7-1 blitz on Thursday night at Xcel Energy Center for the Wild’s most lopsided loss of the season, and it was worse than the final score.

The Wild were shorthanded almost immediately, losing Jake Middleton during the first minute and playing the rest of the game down a defenseman.

Middleton left with an upper-body injury after only 37 seconds, a shift that included blocking a shot from Evan Bouchard. At plus-22, Middleton is first in the league in plus-minus and his 76 shot blocks pace the Wild, who dropped to third in the NHL at 19-6-4.

Already, the Wild are missing another top defender in Jonas Brodin, although he and Mats Zuccarello have resumed skating while on the mend from injuries.

Joel Eriksson Ek, who was hurt last week, hasn’t joined them on the ice, and those absences stung in a matchup like this against the skilled Oilers.

Draisaitl racked up four points, including his league-leading 21st goal, and Edmonton skewed the Wild’s beleaguered penalty kill and power play for three goals.

Coach John Hynes cautioned against taking penalties to ice a dangerous Oilers power play, but the Wild were in the box early and often: Matt Boldy was whistled for a third straight game, his first of two penalties, and Edmonton capitalized just five seconds into the power play when McDavid set up Draisaitl for a redirect that clipped Zach Hyman en route to the net at 6 minutes, 59 seconds of the first period.

Draisaitl was behind the next goal, too, holding off the Wild’s Marcus Johansson as he cruised around the net before passing off to Kasperi Kapanen for a one-timer past goalie Filip Gustavsson at 15:40.

The Wild did answer back before the period adjourned, with Frederick Gaudreau tipping in a Brock Faber shot on the power play (1 for 3) with 1:11 to go, but the Oilers dominated the second.

Just 1:55 into the period, they burned the Wild power play off the rush, with Connor Brown burying the odd-man break for the second short-handed goal against the Wild.

While Marcus Foligno was serving a delay-of-game penalty for lifting the puck over the boards, Ryan Nugent-Hopkins backhanded in a Draisaitl rebound with two seconds left on Edmonton’s power play at 12:56.

Then with 4:06 to go in the second, Draisaitl put a bow on his performance by whiffing on a shot but still connecting enough to have the puck sail by Gustavsson.

This was Draisaitl’s fourth consecutive multipoint game, and his 42 points are just one shy of Kaprizov. Connor McDavid isn’t too far behind at 40 after his two-assist effort. Kaprizov went pointless for the second time in three games.

The five goals against Gustavsson, who exited after two periods with 21 saves, were the most he’d surrendered since getting tagged for six in a 7-5 loss at Philadelphia on Oct. 26.

Marc-Andre Fleury made six stops in relief, getting beat by a Troy Stecher shot that grazed Marco Rossi 6:55 into the third period and a Derek Ryan deflection with 2:34 to go, while Oilers backup Calvin Pickard totaled 28 saves.

As for the penalty kill, the Wild went 2 for 4 to continue their rut: They’ve been scored on for three straight games, and the goals have been costly. The Wild fell, 4-1, at Los Angeles last Saturday, and the game-winning goal that night came on the power play. More recently, Tuesday, the Wild blew two third-period leads against Utah on two power-play goals and needed a shootout to finally prevail, 5-4.

Overall, the unit ranks among the worst in the NHL after finishing third from the bottom last season at 74.5%.