In their past four games and six of the last seven, the Wild have given up the first goal.
“It’s a lot of games,” Kaprizov said. “It’s 3-0 [then] 2-0 today. Yeah, it’s hard.”
The Wild’s situation is becoming more concerning.
Marcus Foligno didn’t play due to an upper-body injury, the severity of which was unclear, as Hynes was waiting on the results of the veteran winger’s X-ray.
Foligno is pointless on the season, and Hynes recently planned to meet with Foligno to try to help him rediscover his game. But he’s a tough presence to replace, especially with the experience that’s already missing up front with Mats Zuccarello and Nico Sturm still on the mend from their respective surgeries.
With Foligno out, the Wild scrambled their lineup, most notably reuniting captain Jared Spurgeon and Jake Middleton on defense and putting Buium and David Jiricek together. The power play also got a makeover, with Spurgeon taking over for Buium on the first unit; Buium and Brock Faber ran the point on the second unit, and the change led to Faber’s first two points of the season since he assisted on both power play goals; Faber also factored into Eriksson Ek’s tying goal, his three-point game tying his career high.