Minnesota Wild Look to Shake Off Homestand Blues with Road Trip
It’s that time of year when the cold and snow and gloom have even the most die-hard Minnesotans considering getting out of town for a long weekend. For the suddenly-vulnerable Minnesota Wild, a little getaway might be the best course of action, after a homestand they would just as soon forget.
Practically everything went wrong for Minnesota on Thursday, as the Winnipeg Jets won 6-2 for their seventh consecutive victory in the Wild’s home rink. The loss marked the end of a disappointing homestand, where the Wild posted a 0-2-1 record in a trio of home games.
Disappointing Homestand Raises Concerns
“We are a top-five team in the league and we have a three-game homestand after having an exceptional road trip to start the new year and we didn’t perform well for our fans. One out of six points that’s disappointing, I think that’s the most disappointing part,” Wild defenseman Jake Middleton said. “We’ve faced adversity the whole season thus far and we haven’t hit the panic button yet, which is kudos to us as a team. It sucks that it happened at home, but you are going to go through ups and downs throughout the year and we’re going through that right now.”
The Wild are not fully healthy, with two veteran defensemen and second line center Joel Eriksson Ek missing. And it would be understandable if there’s a sense of fighting through the next 10 games before February’s three-week Olympic break. According to NHL statistics, the Wild have been one of the least-penalized teams this season, but they put the Jets on the power play seven times, and Winnipeg scored on four of them.
Minnesota Wild head coach John Hynes watches their game against the Winnipeg Jets during the third period of an NHL hockey game, Thursday, Jan. 15, 2025, in St. Paul, Minn. (AP Photo/Craig Lassig)
Coach Hynes Focuses on Trends, Not Venue
For coach John Hynes the venue matters less than the trends, and right now they are of some concern. “You can talk about home and road, to me it’s much more of a short-term focus. I’m not necessarily looking at the homestand. It’s three different games played here and we didn’t get the results that we want,” he said. “But I also think there’s some things you have to extract from this as we go on the road to be able to play. Like I said, it’s disappointing. No one feels it more than the players I think, like, they care.”
Just how much they care was underscored by one of the seven penalties. When Quinn Hughes was thwarted on a second period breakaway, and tripped over Winnipeg goalie Connor Hellebuyck on the play, forward Nico Sturm made his frustrations clear from the bench, landing in the box with an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty. Winnipeg scored on the ensuing man advantage to go up 5-1, drawing a rain of boos from the audience.
Sturm offered a postgame mea culpa. “By that point in the game, kind of frustration got the better of us,” Sturm said. “Obviously I apologized for the penalty, or the words that I said to ref. I respect the refs in this league as well. So, I apologize for that. I was just frustrated.”
It sounds like the words of a team that is still on very, very solid playoff footing despite the mini swoon – but they could maybe use a few days out of town. The Wild head out on the road for their next three, visiting Buffalo, Toronto and Montreal – not exactly havens from the snow and cold of Minnesota.
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