Mired in a five-game winless drought, the Minnesota Wild are desperate for a victory.
The Wild will get a chance to snap their skid when they take on the Vancouver Canucks on Saturday evening in Saint Paul, Minn.
A sense of desperation is increasing in Minnesota, where the Wild are coming off a one-sided, 4-1 loss on home ice against the Pittsburgh Penguins on Thursday night. The Wild have not won since Oct. 20 against the New York Rangers, and they are 1-5-3 in their last nine games.
Wild coach John Hynes is running out of patience.
“We can talk about being fragile, but why don’t we get a little bit tougher?” Hynes said. “Why don’t we get a little bit harder and more consistent? And if you do that, then you’re going to give yourself a chance to win.”
The mood is far brighter for the Canucks, who are coming off a 4-3 win in the shootout round against the St. Louis Blues. Vancouver has won two of its past three games despite multiple instances of adversity, including its last game in which top forward Brock Boeser was injured on his first shift.
The Canucks played the rest of the game with 11 forwards, and Kiefer Sherwood finished with a hat trick.
“Next man up just makes us more dangerous,” Sherwood said. “We’re more hungry, right? (It’s) a good opportunity for some guys to step in, and we just stick together and play more united and as a team and try to hold the fort down until some of those guys can get back.
“Because obviously you can’t really replace them, but we continue to grind along as a team.”
The Wild said they need to play with a similar relentless style. Inconsistency has plagued Minnesota, which often has followed one strong period of play with a setback in the next period.
Wild forward Marcus Foligno said it was hard to explain the lack of consistency within games.
“I don’t have an answer for you,” Foligno said. “It’s a lot of looking for someone else to do it. Some lines, there’s just a lot of disconnect. …
“We’ve got to be better. We’ve got to be more around the puck.”
Sherwood leads the Canucks with nine goals in 12 games on the season. It has been a fantastic start for the 30-year-old, who set a career high with 19 goals in 78 games a season ago.
Kirill Kaprizov is the Wild’s leader with seven goals. Matt Boldy and Marcus Johansson are next with five goals apiece.
Canucks goaltender Thatcher Demko is likely to get his eighth start. He is 4-3-0 with a 2.18 goals-against average and a .926 save percentage this season, but he is 0-3-2 with a 3.40 GAA and a .900 save percentage in five career games against the Wild.
Minnesota likely will counter with goaltender Filip Gustavsson, who is 2-6-1 with a 3.37 GAA and an .892 save percentage in nine games. He has faced the Canucks 10 times in his career, and he is 5-3-1 with a 2.49 GAA and a .908 save percentage in those contests.
