Sweden preview: Wild hope trip helps them get back on track
There’s no doubt the Minnesota Wild are having fun and bonding this week in Sweden for the NHL Global Series, but they’ve made their goal to win and get their game back on track crystal clear.
“Who said that we’re here to have fun?” Wild star winger Kirill Kaprizov told the media Wednesday in Sweden.
“No matter where you’re going, if it was Sweden or another city, it’s the same thing,” captain Jared Spurgeon said after Sunday’s loss at home to Dallas. “We gotta work our way out of it. No one is feeling sorry for us here.
"It’s a long season (and) this group in here has got to be the ones that come together and get us out of it.”
The Wild (5-8-2) have lost three in a row and nine out of their past 12 games, a tough stretch that has slid them down to sixth in the Central Division.
The Wild won’t have the chance to get the bad taste out of their mouth — Sunday’s 8-3 loss to the Stars inside Xcel Energy Center in their first divisional matchup of the season — until Saturday and Sunday against the Ottawa Senators and Toronto Maple Leafs at 10 a.m. and 7 a.m. Central time, respectively, inside Avicii Arena.
"It's gonna be awesome,” Jonas Brodin said. “I think it’s gonna be really good. It's a nice arena too and they have a smaller arena next to it — so it's a really good set up.”
Neither team will be an easy win, but fortunately for the Wild, neither is off to an ideal start. The Maple Leafs are 8-5-2 and sit fourth in the Atlantic Division, an underwhelming start for a team that has such lofty expectations, while the Senators are last in the Atlantic at 6-7.
However, both teams have offensive firepower. Toronto has the likes of forwards Auston Matthews, Mitch Marner, William Nylander, John Tavares and defenseman Morgan Rielly, while Ottawa features Tim Stutzle, Claude Giroux, Brady Tkachuk and Vladimir Tarasenko with blueliners Jakob Chychrun and Jake Sanderson.
So, with just three games in 13 days, the Wild need to be on their game because this week's importance can't be overemphasized. Not only for the Wild to practice special teams, but to get their game in a good spot and to not return back home empty handed.
“It’s supposed to be a good experience — but we’re there to get four points,” head coach Dean Evason said Monday after practice. “That’s our goal.
"We’ll have some fun, obviously, we’ll take in a different country and culture and all that good stuff. But when the puck’s dropped, we’re pretty desperate for wins right now.”
Quote worthy
With four Swedes on the roster and Jesper Wallstedt on the trip, the Wild's non-Swedish players are set up well with essentially five tour guides (Brodin, Wallstedt, Joel Eriksson Ek, Filip Gustavsson and Marcus Johansson) excited to show of their country.
Brodin, who has been asked "what to do and eat" by some of his teammates the past few weeks, on Thursday’s off day: “I haven't really planned anything…Maybe take them to lunch to get the Swedish food and show them around a little bit. The whole city is pretty cool to see, too.
“Maybe take some guys there and maybe have some Swedish fika, too, coffee and a cinnamon bun or something. There's some cool stuff to do."
Gustavsson: "Very, very excited (to) go to Stockholm, show some culture, show some food…(and) just see my family coming down for the week and seeing them in the middle of the season is usually very rare. It's a lot to look forward (to).
Eriksson Ek: "Different culture, all the differences, from food to how we live overseas. It's just going to be fun to show all of them where we come from.”
