Wild head coach Dean Evason has made it clear that there will be lots of changes being made before the Wild face Rangers tonight
ST. PAUL - There is no doubt there has been some frustration that has been building for the Wild heading into tonight's game against the New York Rangers.
Unfortunately for the Wild, it doesn't get any easier as the Rangers are one of the top teams in the league with a 8-2-0 record. Even without their starting goaltender Igor Shesterkin and top defenseman Adam Fox, the Rangers are still a good team and will be a tough matchup for the Wild. Johnathan Quick will start for the Rangers and has been great to start the year.
The former Los Angeles Kings goaltender has a 2-0-0 record with one shutout, a .982 save percentage, and a 0.41 GAA in 2 starts this season.
When there's frustration, change usually follows and Wild head coach Dean Evason has made a lot of changes coming into tonight's contest. Starting with the lines.
"We're not having success, right? We aren't starting properly," Evason said. "You've got to make some changes you can't be nice all the time.
When you're not having success you can't just continually stay with what you're doing. You've got to try to do something to shake things up. We aren't scoring goals, we aren't defending, so we've got to get some different looks."
During the Wild's last game, Evason switched up the lines after the first period in attempt to spark the group. Ryan Hartman and Mats Zuccarello were split up on two different lines while Marco Rossi and Matt Boldy were moved up to play with Kirill Kaprizov. That line scored and will be in tact again tonight.
Marcus Johansson will play with Hartman and Zuccarello tonight while Joel Eriksson Ek will center Marcus Foligno and Pat Maroon. The fourth line will stay the same with Connor Dewar playing center with Brandon Duhaime and Vinni Lettieri.
The defense pairs will get a minor tuneup with Daemon Hunt sliding in to replace Jon Merrill. Hunt will play with Dakota Mermis, Jonas Brodin with Brock Faber, and Jake Middleton with Calen Addison.
Not only are the lines juggled up but both the power play and penalty kill will have different looks. The Wild took Zuccarello off the top unit along with Addison, who ran the point. Rossi and Johansson will replace Zuccarello and Addison. So the Wild will run a five forward number one power play unit. Lettieri, Hartman, Zuccarello, Addison, and Maroon will run the second unit with Foligno rotating in with Maroon.
"The power play isn't having success either," Evason said on the thought process of going with five forwards on a power play. "You'll see some different people on the penalty kill too."
Both Boldy and Lettieri will get some penalty kill minutes along with Dewar, Duhaime, Eriksson Ek, and Foligno in hopes to fix what is currently the league's worst penalty kill.
Lastly, Evason was on the ice for morning skate today along with other players who usually aren't on the ice for morning skate as the Wild keep those pretty optional. Tons of changes have been made for tonight's game in hopes to turn around the Wild's 3-5-2 record. Now it's just a matter to time before we see if they work.