ANAHEIM, Calif. — The moment Jonas Brodin went down Tuesday night, it didn’t look good.
There was the Minnesota Wild’s shutdown defender writhing in pain, his right leg having crumpled underneath him.
Immediately, his teammates banged their sticks on the boards by the bench and yelled. Most likely, it was to get the referee’s attention. But they probably were also a little ticked if they’d seen the full play, with the Anaheim Ducks’ Alex Killorn wrestling the Swede to the ice several seconds after the puck left the defenseman’s stick.
The good news, coach John Hynes said, is Brodin was able to get up on his own. Though to be fair, Brodin could only hobble to the bench and down the tunnel without putting pressure on his right leg.
“Hopefully, it’s nothing too serious,” Hynes said.
Looks like a leg injury for Brodin @RussoHockey @JoeSmithNHL #mnwild pic.twitter.com/l4j9cXkmLI
— Minny Hockey (@MinnyHockey) March 20, 2024
If Brodin’s injury is serious or season-ending, it could be a crushing blow for a surging Wild team that has climbed super close to a playoff spot. A 6-0-2 run has Minnesota just 3 points behind the Vegas Golden Knights for the second wild card with 13 games to go (and two head-to-head matchups).
If you had to rank Minnesota’s players by how irreplaceable they are, Brodin would be pretty high up there.
“Important is an understatement,” Freddy Gaudreau said. “He does everything on the ice. He’s probably one of my favorite players in the whole league, just because he’s always skating. It looks so easy; he makes good plays playing against the best players on the other team. They don’t seem to really like playing against him.”
Perhaps the Brodin injury looked a lot worse than it was. And the Wild have a four-day break between games, starting Sunday, which would allow Brodin some time to recover. But every game is so important down the stretch, with Minnesota facing the Los Angeles Kings on Wednesday (a team in third place in the Pacific) and then the St. Louis Blues on Saturday (a team 1 point behind the Wild).
And the Wild are already without top center Joel Eriksson Ek, who could return Saturday from his lower-body injury. It’s almost fitting that Minnesota is fighting for a playoff spot with key players out, because it’s been the story of its season.
Captain Jared Spurgeon has played just 16 games — his season ended with hip and back surgeries. The Wild were rolling and, by points percentage, were in a playoff spot Dec. 30 when they lost Filip Gustavsson and Kirill Kaprizov to injuries against the Winnipeg Jets. Then began a 1-7-1 funk they’re still trying to recover from. During that stretch, they also were missing Brodin, Mats Zuccarello and Marcus Foligno for at least part of it.
So if there’s any solace the Wild can take, and it’s a message Hynes is already sending, it’s that they’ve had experience overcoming injuries.
This has been a resilient group.
“We’ve had a nice eight-game stretch where we’ve won and got points in every game and continue to push our way,” Hynes said. “It’s similar to what we’ve done all year. We’ve been in this situation quite a bit, unfortunately, in a sense that we’ve had a lot of injuries at key times to certain players. But at the end of the day, it’s not who is out of your lineup; it’s who is in your lineup. We’ve got to make sure that whoever is in (Wednesday) night, we put the best game on the ice and give us a chance to win.”
If Brodin is indeed out Wednesday, which seems likely, the Wild would turn to either Dakota Mermis or veteran Alex Goligoski, who hasn’t played since Feb. 7. It’s not just taking a spot in the lineup, however. The only skater who plays more minutes than Brodin’s 23:46 time on ice is Brock Faber (25:09), and those are high-leverage shifts against top players and on the penalty kill.
The Wild had found a comfort zone with their blue line since the All-Star break, with Brodin and Zach Bogosian settling in as the second pair behind Faber and Jake Middleton. Declan Chisholm, a slick waiver pickup from Winnipeg, has been a good complement to Jon Merrill, who has played some of his best hockey recently (adding a goal Tuesday). Part of that, though, is how Hynes can use that pair, a lot of times in offensive-zone starts (56 percent).
The encouraging news for Minnesota is that it’s getting good goaltending, with Marc-Andre Fleury named one of the NHL’s top three stars of the week last week. Fleury, expected to start Wednesday against the Kings, is 8-2-1 in his past 11 games.
And Gustavsson has now put together back-to-back strong starts. In his first game in 10 days, he pitched a 27-save shutout against the Ducks in a 4-0 win Tuesday. It wasn’t just that Gustavsson did it; it was how. He was locked in during the first period, when he saw just one shot in the first 10 minutes. He fought through screens, something he has openly struggled with. “It felt like a normal game,” he said.
Gustavsson looked more like he did during last year’s breakout season.
“The thing I liked the most about it is he made some key saves at key times,” Hynes said. “But he fought through traffic. Even at the end, when they had some pushes, he was competitive in the blue paint, whether it was for second chances or screens. He was firm in the net, firm on the puck. He competed hard. It’s that type of goaltending we need from both guys.”
Kaprizov has been one of the league’s hottest players since he returned from injury on Jan. 13. Ryan Hartman is coming through more. Even rookie Marat Khusnutdinov picked up his first career point Tuesday (fittingly coming off a won faceoff) and looks more comfortable with each game. Hynes continues to push the right buttons, and his wholesale line juggling before the second period provided a spark.
Now Hynes will have to keep his team in the right mindset, if Brodin is out for an extended time, and find the ideal blue-line combos. This game had the look of a relatively boring blowout win, and the Wild got some help in the standings with the Blues and Golden Knights losing.
Then came early in the third when Brodin got tangled with Killorn.
“It looked like an unfortunate scrum, battle,” Hynes said.
The teammates available after the game all said they didn’t see the hit.
“I just saw the end,” Hartman said. “It’s not fun to see guys go down. I haven’t seen him yet but hope he’s all right.”
Now that’s an understatement.
(Photo: Sean M. Haffey / Getty Images)
