Wild coach John Hynes says team's poor effort vs. Devils ‘will be addressed': 3 takeaways

New York Times

30-03-2025

ST. PAUL, Minn. — Give coach John Hynes credit for this: He didn't put lipstick on this ugly pig.
At this time of year, when the playoff race is tightening and your team is sinking, it's easy — and probably smartest — to flush awful efforts and damaging defeats because it's imperative to forget quickly and turn the page fast.
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But the Wild coach made clear over and over that Saturday's extremely disappointing, 5-2, loss to the New Jersey Devils will be addressed during the Wild's only third non-optional practice since the 4 Nations Face-Off.
The Wild have bemoaned 'scheduled losses' a handful of times during this grind of a season.
Well, Saturday should have been a 'scheduled win.'
It was the Devils who played the night before at 7 p.m., north of the border in Winnipeg. It was the Devils — after playing and traveling — who were faced with a 5 p.m. puck drop at Xcel Energy Center after arriving in the Twin Cities after 1 a.m.
And yet it was the Devils who took a 1-0 lead 29 seconds into Saturday's game, a 2-0 lead before the six-minute mark and allowed only four shots in the first half of the first period. It was the Devils who had the better legs, especially center Nico Hischier (hat trick, 14 of 20 in the faceoff circle), and were the better team for 60 minutes, save for a few pockets where Jacob Markstrom kept the Wild's feeble offensive attack from striking.
HATS FOR HISCHIER!! 🧢🧢🧢
Hat Trick Challenge presented by @AstraZenecaUS pic.twitter.com/s95Hyz1pLq
— NHL (@NHL) March 30, 2025
'I just thought from the drop of the puck, mentally and physically, we weren't where we needed to be, and it lasted throughout the game,' Hynes said. 'I'm not gonna mince words on it, but we weren't mentally ready to play. The focus, the details, the game, the competitive level that's required to win wasn't there. We beat ourselves in so many different ways tonight, so it'll be addressed, and we'll be ready for Monday.'
The Wild will rematch the Devils on Monday night in Newark at the start of a three-game road trip. If the Wild expect to rebound, they'll need a better performance from goalie Filip Gustavsson and their defense. The Wild, who have defended well for a month, were uncharacteristically a mess in their own zone. They were running around and lost coverage. Offensively, they had trouble breaking the puck out and gave up too many odd-man rushes.
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Maybe the biggest example came late in the second period when Brock Faber refrained from taking a shot through traffic and instead skated himself to the half boards and threw an errant pass across the middle of the slot that was intercepted for a three-on-one. The only reason why the Devils didn't extend a 2-1 lead to 3-1 right there is that Jared Spurgeon tied up Timo Meier and Jesper Bratt's shot hit Meier in the crease.
Timo Meier Stops A Jesper Bratt Goal#NJDevils #MNWild #NHL pic.twitter.com/0cSQsC1gTB
— Devils Joint (@DevilsJointX) March 29, 2025
There were countless plays like that from countless players.
'We got guys in positions that need to understand you gotta be smarter,' said Marcus Foligno, who scored a goal, an assist and got into a scrap for a Gordie Howe hat trick. 'We can't make little mistakes (when) right now, guys are at their best opponent-wise. We need to be perfect in all scenarios and when we're not, it's going to be outcomes like this.'
After facing the Devils, the Wild visit the Rangers and Islanders.
The Wild are now tied with the St. Louis Blues with 87 points. The Wild are only in the top wild-card spot because the Blues have played one more game. But it's the Blues that have won nine in a row, including a big win in Colorado on Saturday. It's the Wild who are sliding in the standings and have dropped three of their past four and two of three during their most recent disappointing homestand.
'Listen, this league is hard to win in, and as I said tonight, I didn't think that we were focused with the details you need to play with to give yourself a chance to win,' Hynes said. 'That combined with the competitive level that's required to win. When both of those aren't there, then obviously something's amiss. And that's why when I say we'll address it, we will address it, and we'll make sure that those things will be addressed prior to the game on Monday.'
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With the Wild desperate for points, Hynes and the coaching staff are clearly riding Gustavsson to the finish. Marc-Andre Fleury has played three times since the 4 Nations Face-Off and Gustavsson is getting the majority of the starts, including Thursday's win against the Washington Capitals and Saturday's against the Devils, even though his second child — a boy named Jage — was born Wednesday.
'Before last game, I was at hospital till 12 o'clock at night, went home, slept a little bit,' Gustavsson said.
Gustavsson made no excuses (like fatigue) after Saturday's loss, but he wasn't his sharpest. He gave up a month's worth of rebounds and seemed to have no control over where those rebounds were going.
On New Jersey's first goal, he served up Bratt's rebound off a two-on-one right onto Nico Hischier's stick for the captain's first of three goals. New Jersey's second goal, Brian Dumoulin's shot from between the circles, hit him on the upper right of his chest and ended up in the left corner for essentially an open-net goal for Paul Cotter.
Paul Cotter finds the back of the net from a tough angle for another quick Devils goal, 2-0 Jersey!#NJDevils pic.twitter.com/ydKHrqq5Vq
— Hockey Daily 365 l NHL Highlights & News (@HockeyDaily365) March 29, 2025
He was hardly helped by his teammates, but in the third, Hischier gave New Jersey an immediate 3-1 lead when his shot from just over the blue line deflected off Jared Spurgeon's stick, then his shin pad before fluttering by Gustavsson.
Ryan Hartman cut the deficit to 3-2, but when Matt Boldy took an offensive-zone slashing minor with 6:08 left, Hischier banked a power-play goal in off Gustavsson's skate. He'd then give up another to Tomas Tatar.
'They played last night, and we should be the harder team straight off the gate and they come out and score two quicks, and that's something we can't allow, especially when we're playing very tight games and have those low scoring games usually,' Gustavsson said. 'So have to address that.'
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Added Foligno, 'We can't do that at this time, especially in the playoffs. I think we won five faceoffs in a row for the first time and we couldn't break out. So, it's frustrating when you do that. We gotta be better.'
Foligno, the Wild's sparkplug in so many ways, impacted Saturday's game in multiple ways.
First, with the Wild trailing 2-0, he redirected Spurgeon's point shot for his 11th goal to cut the deficit in half after Jonas Brodin took a hit from Nolan Foote to save possession along the half wall.
MOOOOOOOOSE 🫎#EasyToCelebrate x @budlight pic.twitter.com/7oLb84ByZ1
— Minnesota Wild (@mnwild) March 29, 2025
Then, Foligno drew a cross-checking minor with four seconds left in the first period and was incensed when referee Brian Pochmara also dinged him with an embellishment.
Then, in the second period, Foligno finished his check hard on Dumoulin. Teammate Johnathan Kovacevic, who was the one who cross-checked Foligno in the first, challenged Foligno to a fight. Foligno just came back from five games out of the lineup stemming from an injury caused in a fight, so you could tell Foligno was unable to go.
He didn't try to grab for Kovacevic and immediately went down once they locked up. But Foligno got up quickly and began firing up the crowd. He also drew a power play during the sequence, but the Wild were unable to tie the score at 2.
Marcus Foligno is fired up pic.twitter.com/0d2ApabrS6
— Spoked Z (@SpokedZ) March 29, 2025
Foligno later assisted on Hartman's goal.
'These games bring out the best of me,' Foligno said. 'I think that's just what we need as a team. It sucks when you lose in an effort like that. But I gotta keep bringing this. This is something we need to keep doing and we need that emotion in the game.'
The Wild got a head start on the trade deadline by trading a 2026 second-round pick to the Nashville Predators for veteran Gus Nyquist.
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It was a decent bet because Nyquist was good in his short stint with the Wild in 2023, scored 75 points last season and is known to be a smart, skillful, fast player.
But the Wild were also discounting the fact that the 35-year-old looked like he lost a step this season in Nashville and was in the middle of a miserable season.
Well, nothing has changed in Minnesota.
In 14 games back with the Wild, he has no goals on 19 shots and three assists. He has just nine goals this season — four into an empty net and one five-on-five goal since Oct. 28. He has no goals since Jan. 25.
He has so far played wing on the first, second and third line and has yet to create offensive chemistry with any linemates.