Russo and Smith: Surging Wild hold breath over Kirill Kaprizov’s injury status

With the Wild looking fatigued from playing the night before and appearing on the ropes during large chunks of Wednesday night’s game in Winnipeg, Marc-Andre Fleury delivered his finest performance in a Wild uniform and Minnesota was able to gut out a 4-2 victory to extend its season-long point streak to 11 games.

But the big worry now: At what cost?

Kirill Kaprizov, the Wild’s engine and most relied-upon scorer, was injured about nine minutes into the third period when 6-foot-7 Jets defenseman Logan Stanley attempted to get into a puck battle with the Wild winger, skated into him and fell over on top of the superstar.

Kirill Kaprizov left tonight's game after a very strange collision with Logan Stanley midway through the third#mnwild | #GoJetsGo
— Hockey Daily 365 l NHL Highlights (@HockeyDaily365) March 9, 2023

Kaprizov folded to the ice and his legs awkwardly did the splits before Stanley’s weight landed on Kaprizov’s left leg. The pain was obvious in Kaprizov’s face immediately. He had trouble getting to his feet, then hobbled back to the defensive zone. What’s concerning is he soon would get the puck for a chance at a breakaway, couldn’t muster the ability to skate and abruptly skated slowly to the bench.

In Winnipeg, the visiting bench does not have a tunnel to the dressing room. After being looked at by head athletic trainer John Worley with action continuing, Kaprizov skated to the exit at the next stoppage, favoring his left leg before limping down the tunnel.

Coach Dean Evason had no update after the game, but a team source said Kaprizov had not had a full examination yet after the game and that would occur with the team’s medical staff during Thursday’s off day in Minnesota. The Wild continue their four-game trip Friday when they fly to San Jose after practice in St. Paul.

Evason said the encouraging part in his mind is that Kaprizov was at least able to skate off on his own.

“He stopped and I tried to finish my check on him,” Stanley said. “Then I just fell on top of him.”

Stanley said he lost his balance.

“I wasn’t expecting him to go down,” Stanley said. “It’s just an unfortunate play.”

Ryan Hartman fires one home on the odd man rush to quickly restore Minnesota's two goal lead!#mnwild
— InHale Sports (@InHaleSport) March 9, 2023

Kaprizov had assisted on Ryan Hartman’s winning goal for his team-leading 74th point in 65 games. He is one goal short of joining Connor McDavid, Leon Draisaitl and David Pastrnak as the only NHL players with 40-plus goals in the past two seasons.

The hopeful news if Kaprizov’s going to miss an extended period is the Wild are 9-0-2 in their past 11 games and have a 10-point cushion on the Calgary Flames, the first team outside a playoff spot in the West.

But make no mistake, Kaprizov is everything for a goal-starved team that was active at the recent trade deadline by adding Marcus Johansson, John Klingberg, Oskar Sundqvist and injured Gustav Nyquist with the objective of going on a playoff run.

The Wild rank 26th in the NHL with 2.75 goals per game and 31st with 106 five-on-five goals. Kaprizov has scored 39 of their 179 goals this season, or 21.8 percent, and ranks third in the NHL with 12 goals behind McDavid and Nathan MacKinnon (13 each) since the All-Star break.

Kaprizov has missed two games in his NHL career, one due to injury. So the good news is one of the grittiest superstars in the NHL has a high pain threshold. The bad news is this didn’t look good.

If Kaprizov is to miss games, the Wild have skilled Sam Steel in the press box and Brandon Duhaime working his way back from injury; however, the latter has not yet started skating since recently suffering an upper-body injury. The Wild can also dip into the minors for Marco Rossi, Adam Beckman and Sammy Walker.

But it’s very on brand for Minnesota sports to streak to the top of the division only to lose the one guy they can’t.

Fleury survives a flurry

The Wild have been getting exceptional goaltending from Filip Gustavsson, who has essentially seized the No. 1 job from Fleury in the past month. But make no qualms about it: Fleury stole two points from the Jets as he made a season-high 46 saves for his 15th season of at least 20 wins.

“Our goaltender won the hockey game for us,” Evason said of Fleury, who has won four in a row with a 1.23 goals-against average and .960 save percentage.

In a game in which the Wild had their franchise-record shutout streak snapped at 198 minutes, 33 seconds when Stanley scored 7:36 into the second period, Fleury was simply sensational with the Wild’s legs looking heavy and sluggish.

“The more you get, the better you feel, the more relaxed,” said Fleury, 38, who is 12 wins from passing Patrick Roy’s 551 for second all time. “Tonight was fun.”

Marc-Andre Fleury is putting on a show tonight in Winnipeg #mnwild
— Spoked Z (@SpokedZ) March 9, 2023

Fleury went through a rough patch, going 3-5-2 with a 3.37 goals-against average and .895 save percentage, before returning to form.

Gustavsson will almost assuredly see the bulk of the upcoming starts as long as he continues playing well, but it will be important for the Wild to have two trusted goalies down the stretch, especially with another set of back-to-backs coming up Saturday in San Jose and Sunday in Arizona.

“Filip has been amazing for us,” Fleury said. “He’s been rock solid back there. He’s top-two in the league (with Vezina Trophy front-runner Linus Ullmark) in pretty much all the stats, so it’s been fun to watch.”

‘Moose’ is loose

Marcus Foligno feels he’s been due for good fortune.

The veteran winger has been banged up during stretches this season, most recently a knee injury (from a shot block) and then missing a game due to a hip flexor issue. After racking up a career-high 23 goals last season, he’s been limited to just six in 51 games this year. He went through an 18-game goal drought. But after returning Saturday in Calgary, it seemed like there was a load off his shoulders.

And now Foligno has got two goals in his last three, including an impressive wrist shot on a first-period goal Wednesday. It showed confidence, and health.

Marcus Foligno snipes Sundqvist's nifty dish past Hellebuyck to break the ice for Minnesota!#mnwild
— InHale Sports (@InHaleSport) March 9, 2023

“I do feel better about my game,” he said. “If I can get going for the playoffs, that’s good, too. I’m looking at the long goal, and the goal is to come when it really matters. There’s (17) games (left) and I want to build up.”

The Foligno, Sundqvist and Freddy Gaudreau line boasts plenty of size. But if they can contribute offensively, too, that could go a long way. Foligno was asked whether he could truly play his power-forward game with his injuries this year.

“It’s been different,” Foligno said. “Being a leader, too, it’s challenging because you’re trying to stay on the team and push through. And when you’re out of the lineup, it’s tough to be effective all the time or have a voice. I want to be 100 percent. It’s not possible all the time, but you’ve got to do things to work around it.”

Foligno, who drew a penalty, also assisted on Gaudreau’s first goal since Jan. 24 to snap a 22-game drought.

Top-flight top pair

The Wild are typically in trouble when Jonas Brodin is out of the lineup.

The smooth-skating Swede is one of their top defensemen. He matches up with the best players in the world. Until last month, the Wild had a .654 points percentage with Brodin and just .525 without him the past three seasons.

But in the past eight games without Brodin — who has been sidelined with a nagging lower-body injury — the Wild have thrived. They are 6-0-2 with just eight goals allowed.

A big reason has been the top pair of Jake Middleton and Jared Spurgeon, who have been dominant. One example was how Middleton broke up a Jets three-on-one in the first period Wednesday. But their numbers over the last 11 games speak for themselves. They’ve allowed zero goals against in 200 minutes. At five-on-five in that stretch, they’ve got a 9-0 goal advantage while maintaining a 50.13 Corsi For percentage and 57.8 percent expected goals for percentage, according to Natural Stat Trick.

Whiteboard worthy

It was after the morning skate Tuesday, and Mason Shaw was milling around the dressing room.

He pointed to the whiteboard on the wall, where usually the numbers of players are written in black for those who are requested to speak by media.

“You’re going to put 15 up there,” he quipped.

Fifteen, of course, is Shaw’s number. There aren’t many nights when Shaw is a player of the game. It’s not to diminish his contributions, as Shaw is a key penalty killer and energizer on the fourth line. His chemistry with roommate and linemate Connor Dewar is important. But Shaw is not the first player thought of for interview requests.

“I’ve got to do something first,” he said.

On Wednesday, Shaw did. He was entrusted with key ice time at the end of the game. First, Shaw made a great play after a Fleury save on Nikolaj Ehlers to snag the puck with his glove and clear it. Then, with the Jets still having an extra attacker, Shaw blocked a Kyle Connor shot. Shaw was rewarded with an empty-net goal, his first in 28 games (since Dec. 7), on a Mats Zuccarello setup.

(Photo: Darcy Finley / NHLI via Getty Images)