The holiday break can’t come fast enough for the Minnesota Wild.
With no firsthand experience to draw from, the guess here is Minnesota is typically a pretty great place to spend Christmas. When the winter weather does what it’s supposed to, you’ve got a snowy state with lots of outdoor activities to enjoy. To warm up, come inside, stir up a hot chocolate and watch the beloved Minnesota Vikings, one of the best teams in the NFL this year.
That said, even with the Vikings rolling, there will be a kink in the Christmas spirit this year if the Wild can’t soon get back on a winning track.
Until very recently, the Vikings were just one of two surprisingly good Minnesota sports teams this winter. On Dec. 11 — just over 10 days ago — the Wild woke up with the best points percentage in the NHL at .750. At the time, Minnesota winger Kirill Kaprizov had the highest points-per-game mark in the league at 1.59, and goalie Filip Gustavsson was tied with Connor Hellebuyck for the best save percentage in the league at .927.
Since then? Let’s just say the team has stopped being a north star.
On Saturday, the Wild were blanked 5-0 by Hellebuyck and the Jets in Winnipeg. The loss was Minnesota’s fourth straight and fifth in sixth outings. Perhaps most concerning is that the Wild have been outscored 13-2 in their past three games, and Minnesota has scored one goal or fewer in five of its past eight contests. Kaprizov has done all he can to keep the offence chugging, but the Russian wizard has begun to fall off the ridiculous Art Ross pace being set by division rival Nathan MacKinnon in Colorado. While Minny is still sitting pretty overall, six teams suddenly have a better points percentage than the Wild.
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Of course, some of the Wild’s struggles can be traced to the fact that Gustavsson — a legit Vezina candidate through 35 per cent of the season — has been sidelined for more than a week with a lower-body injury. Thus far, Marc-Andre Fleury and Jesper Wallstedt have not been able to fill the Swede’s big skates.
In fairness to the Wild, the injury bug has taken a significant chomp out of them this month, with centre Joel Eriksson Ek and defenceman Jacob Middleton also forced to the sidelines with Gustavsson.
Injuries to players of that calibre is going to take a toll.
Still, the holiday hockey scene will be pitiful in Minny if the Wild drop a fifth straight game to the lowly Blackhawks on Monday night. As noted, MacKinnon and the Avs are on the charge and now sit just two points back of Minnesota, albeit with the Wild holding two games in hand. If the Dallas Stars can ever string some wins together, the top four spots in the Central are going to get awful tight in a hurry.
The Wild clearly need a reset; a little break to help them heal up at least a bit and come back strong after Christmas. What they could really use before that, though, is a change-the-vibes victory heading into the break.
Weekend Takeaways
• Speaking of the Central, the Utah Hockey Club is making a strong push to stay relevant in that division and the overall Western Conference playoff picture. The HC did blow a 4-1 lead at home versus Anaheim on Sunday, so things don’t feel fantastic at the moment. However, the 5-4 shootout loss marked the eighth straight game Utah has picked up at least a point, and the Hockey Club is 9-2-3 since snapping a three-game losing skid in late November. Clayton Keller — who scored twice on Sunday — has been on fire during that stretch, with 19 points in 14 outings, just one more than the 18 put up by Dylan Guenther (9-9-18) and super sophomore Logan Cooley (5-13-18). Then there’s summertime acquisition Mikhail Sergachev, who’s got 14 points in 14 games from the back end during that timeline, including two versus the Ducks. With Utah down injured D-men Sean Durzi and John Marino, Sergachev is averaging 25:54 of ice per night, second-most in the entire NHL behind only Zach Werenski (26:26) of Columbus. There’s a lot to wrap your arms around if you’re a new NHL fan in Utah.
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• San Jose’s 3-2 overtime loss in Edmonton on Saturday was Macklin Celebrini’s first NHL game in Canada. Just as everything that happened in that contest was overshadowed by the 39 saves made by Sharks goalie Yaroslav Askarov, it feels like Celebrini’s stellar rookie season has flown a hair under the radar thanks to an injury that sidelined him for about a month, the attention being paid to super freshman Matvei Michkov in Philadelphia and, as mentioned, the fact he’s just now playing his first games in hockey-mad Canada. Celebrini — who, as the top pick in 2024, was billed more as a sparkling two-way guy than a true offensive force — picked up an assist in the loss to Edmonton to give him eight points in his past half-dozen games. Celebrini has 23 points in 24 contests, and his 0.96 points-per-game is the best mark among NHL freshmen this year. If he can manage to finish the year scoring at that pace, it’ll be the seventh-highest clip put up by a freshman since Alex Ovechkin and Sidney Crosby entered the league 20 years ago. Play like that will certainly gain Celebrini a share of the spotlight, and all eyes will definitely be on him Monday night when his second-ever NHL contest in Canada is played in his hometown of Vancouver.
The Week Ahead
• It’s a big 13-game slate Monday as we head into the three-day break, including some afternoon action. The Jets are in Toronto to visit the Leafs — who, don’t forget, were the only team to beat Winnipeg through the latter’s first 16 games of the season — while the other afternoon affair sees the Devils trying to add to the Rangers’ misery when they host their Hudson River rivals. The Capitals are in Boston on Monday night, and if Alex Ovechkin doesn’t return from his broken leg at that point, it seems like he’ll surely be back by Saturday night in Toronto.
• The World Junior Championship kicks off on Boxing Day in Ottawa. Canada will face always-feisty Finland to open its tournament.
• The holiday roster freeze will thaw Saturday morning and, with some of the action around the league before the hiatus, you wonder if there are some simmering talks that could come to a boil soon after deals are allowed again.
• Speaking of trades, one of the biggest ones we saw last season was Tomas Hertl going from the Sharks to the Golden Knights ahead of the deadline. On Friday, the Czech centre — who suited up for 712 games with the Sharks — will play in San Jose for the first time as a member of the Golden Knights.
Red and White Power Rankings
1. Winnipeg Jets (24-10-1) After blanking the Wild on Saturday night, Connor Hellebuyck leads the NHL with four shutouts this season.
2. Edmonton Oilers (21-11-2) Zach Hyman has now scored in six straight contests after finding the net in Sunday’s win over Ottawa. He’s got 10 goals in nine December games, two more than anybody else in the league during the month.
3. Toronto Maple Leafs (21-11-2) The Islanders downed the Leafs on Saturday, but Toronto almost immediately gets two more cracks at them on New Year’s Eve and in their first game of 2025.
4. Ottawa Senators (18-14-2) Not only did Ottawa’s six-game winning streak get snapped in Edmonton on Sunday night, but Linus Ullmark played just 20 minutes before exiting the game. Coach Travis Green said post-game that the goalie’s back had tightened up. Obviously, this triggers at least mild concern in Sens corners, given how good both the team and Ullmark have been lately.
5. Vancouver Canucks (16-10-7) After Saturday’s overtime loss to the Senators, only eight teams in the league have a worse points percentage on home ice than Vancouver’s .472 mark. None of the teams below the Canucks on that list are playoff squads.
6. Calgary Flames (16-11-7) Matt Coronato scored and picked up an apple in Saturday’s win over the Blackhawks. The 22-year-old has seven points in his past six outings.
7. Montreal Canadiens (14-16-3) Patrik Laine has played nine games this year, and his eight power-play goals — including one in Saturday’s breezy 5-1 win over Detroit — is more than everyone in the league, save Brayden Point (11). What a crazy-good fit he’s been so far for Montreal.
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