As St. Patrick’s Day approaches, the luck of the Irish is not the only good fortune on people’s minds.
Take the Minnesota Wild, for example. They are hoping for something different: puck luck.
Puck luck describes when a bounce or a deflection goes exactly your way. It’s when the hockey gods reward a player and a team for displaying all of the right habits.
It’s also something that Wild coach John Hynes is thinking about as his team prepares to face off against the St. Louis Blues on Saturday night in Saint Paul, Minn.
“The way we’ve decided to look at it is, ‘OK, the puck’s not going into the net easy for us,'” Hynes said. “But are we generating chances? Are we getting outplayed and then not getting any offense? No, that’s not the case.
“We’re playing some really good hockey, but we’re not getting the bounces. We’re not getting any puck luck.”
The Wild will try to break out of their scoring funk against the Blues, who also are eager for a bounce-back performance. St. Louis is winless in its past two games after losing 2-1 in overtime against the Los Angeles Kings on March 8 and falling short 5-3 against the Pittsburgh Penguins on Thursday night.
Blues forward Zachary Bolduc said he and his teammates know it is crucial to try to collect points in each game as the regular season winds down. St. Louis is one of several clubs that is in the mix for a wild-card playoff berth but currently sits on the outside looking in.
“Every game is important for us,” Bolduc said. “I think our mentality was good (in our last game). We didn’t give up.”
Robert Thomas leads the Blues with 52 points (17 goals, 35 assists) in 54 games. Jordan Kyrou has tallied 50 points (24 G, 26 A) in 66 games, and Dylan Holloway is third with 48 points (21 G, 27 A) in 66 games.
Matt Boldy is the Wild’s top scorer with 55 points (21 G, 34 A) in 66 games. Marco Rossi is close behind with 53 points (21 G, 32 A) in 66 games, and the injured Kirill Kaprizov has 52 points (23 G, 29 A) over 37 games.
The Blues could turn to Jordan Binnington or Joel Hofer in net. Binnington is 20-21-4 with a 2.83 goals-against average and an .897 save percentage in 46 games, and Hofer is 11-7-3 with a 2.87 GAA and a .900 save percentage in 25 games.
Minnesota’s choices in net include Filip Gustavsson and Marc-Andre Fleury. Gustavsson is 25-14-4 with a 2.57 GAA and a .915 save percentage in 44 games, and Fleury is 12-8-1 with a 2.72 GAA and a .904 save percentage in 22 games.
This is the fourth and final matchup of the regular season between the Central Division teams. Minnesota has won each of the first three games by a combined score of 14-7.
In the most recent matchup Jan. 7, the Wild surged for a 6-4 win at home. Marcus Johansson and Jacob Middleton each recorded a goal and an assist for the Wild, and Thomas and Kyrou were two of four players to score for the Blues.
–Field Level Media
