The Minnesota Wild will try to get back on track Tuesday night when they visit the Nashville Predators.
Minnesota had not allowed a goal in 140:32 before giving up two in a span of 1:53 of the third period Sunday against the visiting San Jose Sharks, leading to a 3-2 shootout loss that kept the Wild from winning three in a row for the first time this season.
“We got what we asked for,” Wild coach Dean Evason said. “I don’t know any other way to describe it. It was a dumb loss. We played so east-west, so cute, not straightforward, all of the cliches. We didn’t deserve to win that hockey game.”
Evason didn’t single out any individuals, even saying there are several players who haven’t swayed from the structure the Wild need to play in order to be successful, but not enough have followed the script.
“There’s people in our lineup that play the right way, and lines and defense pairs that play the right way and they get rewarded for it,” Evason said. “And the guys that don’t, they don’t get rewarded for it, and they haven’t been, at least as of late, and certainly our power play is the head of that.”
Evason said some of his players are trying to use too much finesse rather than just simplify things, especially when Minnesota has the man advantage.
“Our power play has looked good every game because we hang onto (the puck) and we’re passing really nicely, but we’re not scoring any goals on it,” he said. “So that’s the start of it and we have to simplify if we want to have success as the Minnesota Wild.”
The Predators are coming off a 2-1 win against the visiting New York Rangers on Saturday, as they avoided a third consecutive defeat.
Juuso Parssinen made his NHL debut for Nashville and scored on his first shot on goal. Parssinen, a seventh-round pick in the 2019 NHL Draft who was recalled from AHL Milwaukee a few hours before his debut, impressed Predators coach John Hynes.
“He’s got great speed and pace to his game,” Hynes said of the 6-3, 212-pound 21-year-old Parssinen. “He’s got good size. He’s got the strength and the body to be able to play at this level.”
Predators forward Yakov Trenin is day-to-day with a lower-body injury. He was replaced on Saturday by Michael McCarron, who had two blocked shots and two takeaways in 9:50 of ice time.
The Wild are hoping right wing Brandon Duhaime can return against Nashville after missing the past five games with an upper-body injury.
Minnesota reassigned forward Joseph Cramarossa to AHL Iowa on Monday, opening the door for either Duhaime to return or Tyson Jost to draw back into the lineup after he was scratched the past two games.
Jordan Greenway, however, will not make the trip to Nashville as he attempts to recover from an upper-body injury that’s sidelined him the past three games and 10 of the past 11.
–Field Level Media