By Tony Abbott -
If you're a Minnesota Wild fan who hit the snooze button on the start of the season, let's catch you up: The Wild are tied with the San Jose Sharks for 13th in the Western Conference because they can't score.
Their scoring is bad. Real bad. They have 20 5-on-5 goals in 15 games, tied with the Seattle Kraken (in 13 games) as worst in the NHL. Marco Rossi and Matt Boldy are the only players with more than two 5-on-5 goals, and they have three apiece.
When you can't score at 5-on-5 -- the Wild have played over 80% of their games at even strength -- you have to be nails on defense and aces on special teams.
The Wild aren't either, or at least, not for long enough. Minnesota's usually impenetrable defense is 22nd in the NHL at 5-on-5, allowing 2.66 goals per hour, and that's despite their goalies performing well against 3.08 expected goals per hour. The Wild are an abysmal 3-5-2 in games where they've scored one power play goal or fewer.
So, yeah, bring on Mats Zuccarello, who will be making his season debut tonight.
Zuccarello might not be quite the 5-on-5 presence he once was, but he should help Minnesota greatly nonetheless. His 1.76 points per hour at 5-on-5 isn't game-breaking, but it still ranked third on the team last year, and he offers more than offense. He's an important leadership-type guy, he's responsible defensively, and perhaps most importantly, he might get Kaprizov's mojo flowing again.
That's weird to say for a player on pace for a 44-goal, 104-point season, but Kaprizov has been catching some strays since becoming the Wild's $136-million man. It might be slightly overblown, but there are legitimate holes in his game that coincide with the team's struggles. His 5-on-5 scoring is shockingly low (1.72 points per hour), and he's been mistake-prone.
Enter Zuccarello, whose bond with Kaprizov is so wholesome that it could be featured on the hit FOX sitcom "Shovin' Buddies." Being from Norway, Zuccarello's Russian isn't the best, but it's clear that they've always spoken the same language on the ice. Their favorite thing in the world to do is thread cross-ice passes through defenders, and they're extremely good at it. It's made them as telekinetic as any duo the NHL has seen since the Sedin Twins.
It might not actually be true that Kaprizov needs Zuccarello on the ice with him to reach his full potential. When the Wild load their top line up with Kaprizov joining Boldy, Kaprizov enjoys a slightly higher goals for (57.8% vs. 57.1%) and expected goals for (58.1% vs. 53.8%) than he does with Zuccarello over the course of his career. The Wild don't necessarily need Zuccarello to "save" Kaprizov, but he is clearly entirely necessary for them to function.
Forget a second punch, the Wild are looking hard for a first one. In splitting up Minnesota's top line, John Hynes has been trying to find a way to spread the wealth through the lineup. The problem is that it only works when there are enough top-six players to go around for both Kaprizov and Boldy to succeed. If we've found out anything over these past 15 games, it's that the Wild simply don't have that without Zuccarello.
Marcus Johansson and Rossi have been skating with Kaprizov over the past several games, which has concentrated the wealth differently at the top of the lineup. Johansson's strength is his elite puck-carrying ability, and Kaprizov is already great at it. You understand the impulse to put the two together, because Johansson is the only winger not named "Boldy" that's doing any damage at 5-on-5. Still, the two of them together are a hat on a hat.
It also leaves a dearth of puck-carriers throughout the bottom nine. Boldy can enter the zone, but he's at his best when he can be a secondary option to carry the puck. That's not Joel Eriksson Ek's game, nor is it Vladimir Tarasenko's. Right now, Tarasenko's spot is the ideal place for Johansson to go. Zuccarello lets Minnesota do just that, and that historically hasn't given them much of a drop-off from when they load their top line.
We should also see Zuccarello help build on what's already been a strength for the Wild: Their power play.
For the first time... ever??? the Wild have a deadly power play that is effective on both units. Tarasenko's been solid on the top unit, but Zuccarello's chemistry with Kaprizov should give it slightly more zip.
Don't be sad for Tarasenko, though. He'll be on a second unit that's producing, thanks to Johansson (three goals, five points on the man advantage), Rossi (five points), and Zeev Buium (six points). It's an embarrassment of riches for a team known to give run to the likes of Freddy Gaudreau, Declan Chisholm, and Gustav Nyquist in recent years.
Is that going to be enough to fix the Wild's scoring woes and rescue them from the Central Division cellar? It's hard to say. Zuccarello is 38 years old, and we may have already seen Father Time claim an aging Wild leader in Jared Spurgeon. But after this start to the season, any life raft is welcome.
Even if it's not enough to propel them to the postseason, this should at least inject a little bit of excitement into some of the most sluggish Wild games in recent memory.
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