Wild proving resilient through injuries, COVID-19, coach says

The Minnesota Wild's fast start was slowed by injuries and COVID-19 last week, but coach Dean Evason remains pleased with how they played in October.

"We're happy with the group that we have not only on the ice but off the ice," said Evason, whose team hosts the Ottawa Senators on Tuesday (8 p.m. ET; BSN, BSWI+, TSN5, RSD2, ESPN+, NHL LIVE). "We feel that we've jelled together very quickly and hopefully that will set us up for the rest of the year."
The Wild (5-3-0) have made a smooth transition after the departures of forward Zach Parise and defenseman Ryan Suter, who became unrestricted free agents when the Wild bought out the final four seasons of each of their 13-year contracts July 14.
Minnesota won its first four games before a 5-2 loss to the Nashville Predators on Oct. 24 and was 5-1-0 after opening a three-game road trip with a 3-2 win at the Vancouver Canucks on Oct. 26.
But with forward Jordan Greenway (lower body) and defensemen Alex Goligoski (upper body) and Dmitry Kulikov (lower body) dealing with injuries and forward Mats Zuccarello, who leads Minnesota with seven points (three goals, four assists) and rookie forward Rem Pitlick in NHL COVID-19 protocol, the Wild lost the final two games of the trip to the Seattle Kraken (4-1 on Thursday) and Colorado Avalanche (4-1 on Saturday).
But Evason saw the Wild's potential before that.
"The first four games we really played what we think was to our identity," Evason said. "We think that our group has changed, our franchise has changed. Obviously, we made the movement forward from Suter and Parise and we've got a group that we think plays the game with pace, with speed, with energy, excitement and a grit level."
Evason discussed more about the Wild's start in a Q&A with NHL.com:
You mentioned moving on from Suter and Parise. They were two important players and leaders for the Wild for nine seasons. Who has stepped up to fill those roles?
"Obviously, those two guys were great players for this franchise and where it's come from and all of that, not only on the ice, but in the community. But it has certainly allowed our team to change our leadership role into our younger people. Obviously, we named (Marcus) Foligno and (Matt) Dumba as alternates, but we've got a lot of young leaders on our team in the (Joel) Eriksson Eks and the (Jonas) Brodins that have now stepped forward in a leadership role on our hockey club. So yeah, we've changed a little bit in that regard.
"We made the switch, obviously, (former captain Mikko) Koivu left last year, and Jared Spurgeon was named our captain and you couldn't find a better person than Jared Spurgeon to lead our hockey club."
Kirill Kaprizov, the winner of the Calder Trophy voted as the NHL rookie of the year last season, has six assists but has yet to score his first goal after he scored 27 last season. What have you thought of his game overall?
"You know what? He's had tremendous opportunities, tremendous chances. He just needs one to go in the net. What we've liked about his game is he has not fell into a not-try situation, like it's not a frustration. Yes, he's frustrated, I'm sure, not to score, but it's not showing in his determination to do other things on the ice. He's not cheating the game, so if he continues to do that, he'll obviously score."
Kevin Fiala has scored three points (one goal, two assists) in his first eight games after scoring 40 (20 goals, 20 assists) in 50 games last season. Is he going through something similar to Kaprizov?
"Yeah, very similar. Kevin has taken on more of a different role for us this year, not a different role, but more of a role. He's killed some penalties. He's stepped up in situations now where we asked him to be a player not only on the offensive side but the defensive side as well. He's still got some growing to do in those areas, but we've seen improvement from last year, for sure."
Cam Talbot (5-2-0, 2.55 goals-against average, .912 save percentage) has played seven of the eight games with backup Kaapo Kahkonen playing only the loss to Nashville on Oct. 24 (five goals, 29 shots). Are you happy with your goaltending so far?
"Cam's been our rock. He has been since the day he got here. If you could put a letter on a goaltender, he would have one for us. He is definitely a leader on our hockey club and he's just a calming effect. He is just a very professional personal, goes about his business. His work ethic is tremendous. We've been leaning on him a lot and, unfortunately for Kahkonen, he hasn't gotten in as much he could to get in more of a rhythm. With the spacing of our games, we've been able to go with Cam, but we feel very confident in Kahkonen as well."
What have you thought of rookie forward Brandon Duhaime, who has scored three points (one goal, two assists) and is averaging 10:10 of ice time through his first eight NHL games?
"Very, very happy with his development. The Iowa (American Hockey League) guys, (coach) Tim Army was raving about him last year and in the summer that this guy would have an opportunity to make our hockey club. And from Day One, there was no question, honestly, that he was going to make of our hockey club. His speed, his size (6-foot-2, 200 pounds), his determination, his physicality is exactly what we were looking for to fill a roster spot going forward."
You had to play without players who were in COVID-19 protocol at times last season. This isn't as extensive with Zuccarello and Pitlick out, but is this a reminder of this reality teams continue to deal with?
"I think our world is like that. We all want it to be over. We all want to lose the masks. We all want to just get back to our normal routines and going out into the community and stuff and that's great. But I think we have to still recognize that there is an element to this thing that's going to continue and we're all just trying to be as safe as we possibly can."