ST. PAUL, Minn. \u2014 The Minnesota Wild had an optional practice Thursday after Wednesday\u2019s off day. There weren\u2019t many regulars on the ice, and there certainly was no Joel Eriksson Ek or Jonas Brodin.<\/p>\n
Coach John Hynes said Eriksson Ek and Brodin haven\u2019t skated since suffering their injuries. We\u2019ll see if Eriksson Ek is there for Friday\u2019s full practice. As of the morning of Game 1, team sources said Eriksson Ek was hoping to try to play Saturday, but that was hardly set in stone. Hynes said Thursday that practicing on Friday wouldn\u2019t necessarily determine whether the Swedish center plays in the game.<\/p>\n
Brodin, team sources said, will remain out for a while.<\/p>\n
Eriksson Ek was hurt in Game 6 of the first round against the Dallas Stars, while Brodin was injured in Game 5.<\/p>\n
Thursday, during meetings at their practice facility, the Wild showed players metrics that show they\u2019ve been pretty even with the Avalanche at five-on-five, maybe even better. There\u2019s obviously going to be a focus on special teams ahead of Game 3, either in meetings Friday or on the ice for practice, but there\u2019s been a relatively upbeat mood considering they\u2019re trailing 2-0.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s a lot of belief,\u201d winger Yakov Trenin said. \u201cNo panic. We lost two in a row against Dallas and came back and won three. So it\u2019s positive.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s far from over,\u201d defenseman Daemon Hunt said. \u201cWe\u2019re down two games, but everyone has to win four. We\u2019ve got so much belief in here.\u201d<\/p>\n
The schedule works in the Wild\u2019s favor with the three days between games, both by possibly getting players like Eriksson Ek healthy and by giving them a mental and physical reset.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think you can really draw in the series we just came from,\u201d Hynes said. \u201cWe lost two games in a row \u2026 and won three straight. We had injuries in Dallas. We\u2019ve got injuries in this series. So I think even the group now, in that series that we went through with Dallas, there\u2019s a lot of valuable, valuable things we can draw on. How do we respond after we lost the double-overtime game? How did we respond when we lost two? What lessons did we extract? How did we approach it? What\u2019s the method that we had? And I think that mindset in those experiences, it\u2019s no different for us now.\u201d<\/p>\n
Lining up<\/p>\n
Hynes said he has not made a decision on his Game 3 starter in net, or at least he wasn\u2019t ready to reveal it.<\/p>\n
The Wild made the switch from Jesper Wallstedt, who gave up eight goals in Game 1, to Filip Gustavsson in Game 2, and Gustavsson gave up goals on the first two shots in a 5-1 loss. It would make sense for the Wild to go back to Wallstedt for Game 3, and he didn\u2019t skate on Thursday with a lot of the scratches while Gustavsson did, which could be an indication.<\/p>\n
Zach Bogosian, who missed Tuesday\u2019s game with a lingering lower-body injury, is making progress, and the team is \u201coptimistic\u201d he\u2019ll be back for Game 3, Hynes said.<\/p>\n
Among the players who skated Thursday were Danila Yurov, Nico Sturm, Trenin, Hunt, Jeff Petry, plus regular scratches like Hunter Haight, Ben Jones, Robby Fabbri, Bobby Brink and Matt Kiersted.<\/p>\n
In the Hunt<\/p>\n
Hunt has played pretty well in his first two career playoff games, with his skating helping against a fast Avalanche team. Hunt was a plus-1 in each of the past two games, averaging 13 minutes and 39 seconds of ice time.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think definitely getting thrown into the fire a bit,\u201d Hunt said. \u201cI think skating, the way I think the game, I think I did fine. I think as the second game progressed, I got better. Just move my feet more, getting up on the rush more. I\u2019m just trying to help the team win.\u201d<\/p>\n
With the Jake Middleton-Jared Spurgeon second pair struggling, the Wild could decide to switch up their pairs for Game 3. Middleton has been on for nine of the Avalanche\u2019s 14 goals, Spurgeon for eight. Hunt did get a chance with Brock Faber on the penalty kill in Game 2.<\/p>\n
Could Hunt get paired with Spurgeon and perhaps Middleton move down beside Bogosian?<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m up for whatever,\u201d Hunt said. \u201cMe and (Spurgeon) have been good together when we\u2019ve played together, but it\u2019s not up to me. Whoever I\u2019m paired with is good.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cHis skating has been a factor,\u201d Hynes said. \u201cHis ability to handle a line rush. He\u2019s hard to close plays. He\u2019s strong at the net front. And from an offensive perspective, he\u2019s the guy that he has the ability to join the rush and support the rush because of his skating.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"ST. PAUL, Minn. \u2014 The Minnesota Wild had an optional practice Thursday after Wednesday\u2019s off day. There weren\u2019t…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":629878,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[66],"tags":[1223,4828,385,99],"class_list":["post-629877","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nhl","tag-colorado-avalanche","tag-minnesota-wild","tag-nhl","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/629877","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=629877"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/629877\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/629878"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=629877"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=629877"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=629877"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}