ST PAUL, Minn. — A few hours distance did nothing to change Wild head coach Dean's Evason's opinion about the hit that sent his star forward to the locker room in Boston Thursday night.
Kiril Kaprizov went in hard and awkwardly after being boarded by the Bruins' Trent Frederic, causing him to miss the third period of a tight game Minnesota managed to pull out 3-2.
The question now, is how much time will the high-flying Russian miss? Evason confirmed for reporters after Friday's practice that Kaprizov had X-rays on his upper body, is being looked at by team doctors and will miss Saturday's game against the Washington Capitols... possibly more.
"I’d like to reiterate… we certainly didn’t like the hit, thought it was an unnecessary hit on a vulnerable player," Evason said with a grim look on his face. "I hope the league looks after it. I mean, they have before, they’ve looked after plays that weren’t hockey plays. We don’t believe that was a hockey play. The puck is sitting there, they can grab the puck, instead they chose to finish a guy that was in a vulnerable position with his back to us, and we’ve lost a great player in our league because of it."
The questionable hit by Frederic was one of three minor penalties taken by the Bruins winger, along with two fighting majors after the Wild's Dmitri Kulikov and Nick Foligno each tried to respond to the questionable shot on Kaprizov.
If Evason knows something about the nature of Kaprizov's injury he did not share it with reporters, but said the fact he won't lace up Saturday is an indication the injury is significant.
"If Kiril misses a game, that’s not good, right? You’ve got a guy that’s as gritty and determined as he is, loves the game, if he can’t play we’re not optimistic at all," Evason stated. "The nice thing is, we’ve got a week (after the Captiols game) to heal up… it’s serious enough he’s not going to play tomorrow, so hopefully it’s not even more serious than that and he misses more time than that."
It has been a rough patch for the Wild, who before last night had not won a game since Dec. 9 and were in free fall in the Western Conference Central Division. In first place just weeks ago, Minnesota is now in fourth with Nashville, St. Louis and Colorado surging. Injuries are a big part of the spiral: Kaprizov joins defenseman Jared Spurgeon, center Joel Eriksson Ek, forward Nick Bjugstad and number one goaltender Cam Talbot on the list of injured player. Two other forwards, Jordan Greenway and Brandon Duhaime, are on the COVID list.
But Evason, assistant captain Matt Dumba and up-and-coming forward Connor Dewar all emphasized that no one is feeling sorry for them, and the Wild aren't feeling sorry for themselves. Every team in the NHL deals with injury and COVID woes, and opponents won't skate less hard against them because of their lineup struggles.
"In hockey, I’ve always found when you have kind of a depleted lineup, that’s when you find out a lot about your team," said Dewar, himself called up to fill a lineup slot opened due to injury. "And I’ve always found my team has found a way to win."
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