Bill Guerin meets with the captains about the Wild’s poor start: ‘We are in this together’ – The Athletic

ST. PAUL, Minn. — It’s early, and things often can get too magnified when you slump early compared to, say, January or February.

But prior to the weekend, Wild president of hockey operations and general manager Bill Guerin blared the alarms on a brutal start to the Minnesota Wild season that has now seen them open with three wins in their first 10 games and losses 24 hours apart to the Utah Mammoth and San Jose Sharks to open a six-game homestand.

As coach John Hynes was holding individual meetings with a host of underperforming players, Guerin had separate conversations with the three players who wear letters on their sweaters. He met face-to-face with Kirill Kaprizov and had phone conversations with captain Jared Spurgeon and now-injured Marcus Foligno.

“It’s early, but you can’t ignore it,” Guerin told The Athletic during a sitdown interview before Saturday’s 6-2 loss to the Mammoth. “You can’t say, ‘Oh, we have 70-something games left.’ It doesn’t work like that. If you fall too far behind or if you’re not solid at the beginning, you can really put yourself in a bad spot for the playoffs. So it is serious. I’m concerned because it’s very fixable. I’m concerned because we’re not playing for our identity.”

Now, Guerin said all this before the puck dropped.

Imagine what he would have said after Utah jumped out to a 3-0 lead within the first five minutes. Imagine what he must have been feeling when San Jose, the worst defensive team in the NHL, took a pair of two-goal leads Sunday night before Minnesota scored three in the third and fell 6-5 in overtime.

“We have not played consistently enough,” Guerin said calmly. “The coaches can only give the players so much. They have to be willing, too. They have to carry it out. They have to do it. So we’ve had some good talks with a couple guys over the last few days and just trying to see, hey, trying to help him, trying to see what we can do to help them along.”

That was the common theme from Guerin and Hynes during separate conversations with The Athletic. Their meetings with players weren’t screaming fits or “get your act together” demands. Sure, they want players to feel a sense of urgency during this shocking start to the season, but Hynes and Guerin were trying to offer support and find out how they can help individual players and this team start playing up to what they feel is its capability.

From Guerin’s point of view, he was also trying to gather intelligence from Spurgeon, Foligno and Kaprizov to ascertain what they feel the problems are.

“We can’t sit here and try to figure it out without talking to them,” Guerin said. “We need their help in order to help them. The way this thing is done, we are in a partnership with these guys. Hey, listen: Everybody knows who’s in charge. Everybody knows who the coach is. Everybody knows the players and the hierarchy. But we are in this together more than ever. It used to just be like, ‘Do it like this or else.’ We’re in a different age now, so part of our job is to be there to help these guys.

“And to me, it’s not like about stats. That will come. It’s the way you’re playing. You can’t put the cart before the horse. Players need to play to their strengths, their competitive nature, bringing that to a high level, doing the right things for the team, all that stuff. When you do all that stuff, then you start producing, then you start winning. But we haven’t done that consistently enough. But the thing is that we all know that it’s in there and we have to get going.”

Guerin wouldn’t divulge what he learned from the Wild leaders, saying, “The only thing I could share with you is they are with us. They are equally concerned and want to work it out and want to figure it out and get back to it. The one thing I know is I could sit up here and criticize a lot of things, but I never question how much this team cares and how much they want it, how much they really want to get better.”

What’s concerning, though — especially against young, fast teams like the past three losses to the New Jersey Devils, the Mammoth and the Sharks — is that the Wild’s vets look a step or two behind the fresh legs of the Logan Cooleys, Dylan Guenthers and Macklin Celebrinis of the NHL while Wild youngsters like David Jiricek and Zeev Buium keep making major mistakes as they try to work out the kinks here rather than Iowa.

But it’s hardly just them.

Kaprizov, for example, has been a turnover machine this season. On Sunday, he gave away the puck twice for San Jose goals and another turnover in the third period led to a Jake Middleton penalty that turned into a Sharks power-play goal.

And he’s not alone. The Wild keep making eye-popping mistakes, and it’s the reason their goals against per game (3.9) ranks 30th in the NHL.

“I think sometimes we just give too much space (to) the other team and we should be play more with the puck and a little more offense and play more with the puck and hold more puck and just enjoy the hockey,” Kaprizov said Sunday night. “Just give-and-go, stuff like this. Sometimes we try make some plays and it’s not there, turnover, and sometimes we just try too simple, just put in zone, and just go for it, you know? I mean like sometimes we can just play some hockey.”

Kaprizov wants to win so badly and wants to help this team win so badly that he’s forcing plays and is often not on the same page as his linemates. It’s why his chemistry with injured Mats Zuccarello has always been so special. They almost share a brain. But that want to win and want to score has been detrimental at times this season.

Kirill Kaprizov’s start to the season hasn’t been what he or the Wild hoped for. (Matt Krohn / Imagn Images)

“Part of it is from caring,” Hynes said. “It’s from trying, it’s trying to make a difference, and it’s just when you go through little segments like we’re going through, I think that’s what happens. You look at Brock (Faber) the other night. He was trying to make a difference, and he was beating himself up. And it’s because they care. We all do. And it gets discouraging at times, right? But I think that what I liked was today, some of that discouragement turned into determination. And I think that’s what it needs to continue to do, and work for solutions to get our game where it’s going to give us the opportunity to win night in and night out, and find those solutions. We know that we can play really good hockey. We know we’re capable of better than what we’re doing.

“But I do like in tonight’s game, I did like the fight in the team and the ability to work for it.”

Hynes is trying to put players in better positions to find chemistry with linemates and be more themselves on the ice.

Spurgeon has been eating minutes because so much has been on his plate trying to shepherd along the teenage Buium. At even strength, Buium has been beyond a work in progress. Same thing with Middleton trying to play with Jiricek, who continues to make colossal mistakes every game in between so much of his good play.

So in an attempt to help Middleton and Spurgeon alike, Hynes played Middleton and Spurgeon together against the Sharks. That meant a Buium-Jiricek pair getting sheltered minutes. Jiricek logged just 8:52.

“We’ve asked a lot of Spurge,” Guerin said. “But I think that’s the beauty of Spurge. You know what, he cleans up a lot out there, no matter who he’s playing with. And if something was bothering him, I really wouldn’t know because he doesn’t let it show. But I think that’s why he’s such a great captain, it’s that he is there for everybody. He really is. He’s backing everybody up. He does it quietly, and he’s consistently there every single time.”

Similarly, with Faber beating himself up after a tough nine-game stretch to start the season, Hynes put Faber on the second power-play unit for the first time this season Sunday. The result was Faber playing a much better defensive game and getting his first three assists of the season, two on the power play.

“Brock beats the s— out of himself,” Guerin said. “He’s not fair to himself. The only thing with Brock is, I think Brock’s so uber-focused on playing defensive, right? That’s all he is really trying to do. Well, he has got a great offensive element to his game. And his biggest asset is the skating, right? So when he’s skating, that means he’s closing on guys. He’s taking away time and space. He’s also creating offense for us. So we just need him to skate. And when you skate, you don’t think. When you don’t think, you play hockey. If you’re overthinking, you’re screwed.

“He needs to know we’re not as hard on Brock as he is on himself. Brock’s harder on himself than anybody else.”

There were segments in the last two games where the Wild played very good hockey. But they’re still bleeding goals, making uncharacteristic mistakes and lost both games despite the pep talks from Guerin and Hynes, albeit getting a point in the standings Sunday night (against a team with two wins).

Nobody envisioned after finally getting out of cap hell that the Wild would sit 29th in the standings after 10 games.

There were 16 scouts in attendance at Sunday’s game. Now, was that sharks circling a Wild team that could be desperate, or were those scouts watching San Jose’s Alex Wennberg, who is reportedly on the trading block?

Whatever the answer is, there hasn’t been a significant trade in the NHL since Dakota Joshua was traded to the Toronto Maple Leafs in mid-July (unless last week’s Lukas Reichel deal to the Vancouver Canucks counts). It’s not easy to make a trade any time, let alone this time of year, to help a team out of the doldrums.

“It is just hard when it’s not even 10 games in,” Guerin said. “That’s not really a great runway for not just our team, but the other teams to really know what you have. So it doesn’t seem like everybody’s really willing to make deals now, me included, because I haven’t seen us play at our best yet so I don’t want to overreact. But this is, I guess historically, not a time where a lot of trades have been made.”

If no trade is on the horizon, the Wild will need to wait for reinforcements. Zuccarello, who underwent surgery during training camp, is the closest but probably a couple of weeks from debuting, Guerin said.

“It’ll help not just Kirill but the entire team,” Guerin said. “Zuccy is an important player for the team. He’s a smart guy. He also has got swagger and a high compete level, and I just think having another veteran presence in the room and lineup-wise, putting everybody where they need to be, will be huge. It’s hard to ask guys to play up.”

Guerin is hoping for better play from several players. One player he insists he’s been happy with is Vladimir Tarasenko, who has one goal and four assists in 10 games.

“I’ve been happy with him because there’s little details in his game that you know he knows how to play winning hockey,” Guerin said. “When we have a lead, his plays with the puck, he doesn’t take stupid chances. Like, defensively and where to be, where to be in the offensive zone so he can transition to D — all those little things I’ve been really happy with. Look, he’s still getting comfortable. I think as we go along, his production will improve, but I’ve been happy with him in that regard.”

The Wild locker room continues to search for answers. Players believe they’ll get out of this, but problems are compounding and losses are mounting.

“When things are tough like this, things don’t feel like they’re going your way any night,” Faber said. “It’s like everyone’s gripping the stick a little differently. We’ve got a group of guys that has the right intentions. Every single guy on this team wants to win. Every single guy on this team is sacrificing, doing whatever they can to win, and it’s just not working out. And sometimes when you’re playing that desperate, (you) don’t want to make a mistake. Sometimes that causes you to make mistakes. I think that’s definitely something to do with it.

“We got our point tonight. We’re gonna keep working.”