Minnesota Wild notes: Jared Spurgeon's scary injury, Zeev Buium's arrival
The Wild's disappointing loss to the Calgary Flames on Friday night included a scary moment for their captain and longest-tenured player.
Veteran defenseman Jared Spurgeon took a puck to the throat early in the second period and lost his breath, which caused him to panic a little bit and get light-headed. He was looking around and asking for help, and the nearest player was Calgary's Yegor Sharangovich.
'Yeah, it was sort of serious,' Sharangovich said, via The Athletic's Michael Russo. "I was not understanding what he was saying to me. I thinks it's my English. … I feel bad because I should help him. He (held) me and the referee helped him after."
Eventually, a ref did assist Spurgeon in getting to the bench, where the Wild's athletic trainers grabbed him and took him to get evaluated.
Spurgeon missed the rest of the second period. He was able to return in the third period but did not end up finishing the game. Head coach John Hynes said Spurgeon was doing better after the game, and the Wild hope he's good to go for Saturday's game against the Canucks.
"It's always scary" when a player takes a puck to that area, Marcus Foligno said.
Had the Wild won on Friday, they would've clinched a playoff berth. Now they've still got a bit of work to do over their last two games.
The Wild will get a boost in their regular season finale with the expected debut of defenseman Zeev Buium, their top prospect whose historic collegiate career just ended with Denver's double-overtime loss to Western Michigan in the national semifinals on Thursday.
Buium is heading to Minnesota on Saturday. He'll likely practice with the team for the first time on Monday and will be set up for his NHL debut in Tuesday's game against the Ducks at Xcel Energy Center.
Buium played an absurd 51:41 during the Pioneers' loss to WMU. He's a special talent who scored 98 points in 83 games in two seasons with Denver, the most by a defenseman under 20 years old in the last 45 years.
The 12th overall pick in the 2024 NHL draft, Buium is a 19-year-old with a chance to be a franchise-altering player for the Wild moving forward. He also has a chance to be a legitimate difference-maker in the playoffs this year, even though he'll have just one regular season game under his belt.
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