Shorthanded Wild Lose to Blue Jackets in Frustrating OT Loss

By Eric Strack |

Updated: Oct 15, 2017

A frustrating night would be an understatement for the Minnesota Wild, last night. But, like Russo mentions in his game recap, it didn’t have to be that way. The Wild had a 2-goal lead in the 3rd period. They had the lead most of the night. Their undermanned offense, missing Granlund, Parise, Coyle, and Neidereitter put 4 goals in the net. Newly acquired Tyler Ennis shelved 2 goals himself, one of which was assisted by childhood best friend Jared Spurgeon. 19-year-old Luke Kunin got his NHL debut.

But the defense, which is much healthier than the offense, let the team down. Suter was an uncharacteristic -4. Staal, who is usually solid defensively, played a big part in the tying and winning goals for Columbus.

Bruce Boudreau was expectedly unhappy about the lapses and the fact that this team has pissed games down its leg early this season.

“It is embarrassing,” Boudreau said when asked about his veterans. “I don’t understand why. I mean, a lot of it I’ve always believed is self-preparation. It wasn’t what Columbus was doing because I’ve seen Columbus play 10 times better than that. But the simple plays that you’re supposed to be making, managing the puck that you’re supposed to be doing, turning pucks over, I mean, I know we haven’t played a lot of games and all that stuff, but you can make excuses all day long.

Up Next: The early season NHL schedule hasn’t made sense for two years straight now. The Wild waited 5 days to play between the Hurricanes and Blackhawks games last week. Now they will wait 6 days, until Friday, to play again. They will then play 4 games in 6 days from Friday to the following Thursday.

The Wild will face Winnipeg on Friday as they try to rebound from a 1-1-2 start to a season where they are trying to compete for a Stanley Cup.

Here are some of the Wild highlights from Saturday (Courtesy of NHL.com):

Eric Staal started the scoring for the Wild:

Tyler Ennis netted his first two goals for the Wild including one that was assisted by childhood best friend, Jared Spurgeon:

Landon Ferraro put his first career Wild goal in-net:

Eric Strack
Minnesota Sports Fan @RealMNSportsFan
MinnesotaSportsFan.com

Sources: NHL.com, Michael Russo – The Athletic
Photo: StarTribune.com – AARON LAVINSKY