Kaprizov’s offensive burst has him in rare Wild, NHL company
Kirill Kaprizov had the most goals ever in a Wild season when he climbed to 47 last year, but that record could be in jeopardy.
After his natural hat trick ignited the Wild to a 3-2 overtime rally against the Blue Jackets on Sunday afternoon at Xcel Energy Center, the winger is closing in on 40 goals and on track to hit 50 if he keeps up this pace.
"It's fun to have him on your side and not to face him," goaltender Marc-Andre Fleury said.
Kaprizov is up to 37 goals after his three-tally tear, a performance that underscored how prolific a scorer he already is only two-plus seasons into his Wild/NHL tenure.
He's only the fourth player in team history to register at least 20 even-strength goals in multiple seasons, his 16 power-play markers are a new franchise record after Brian Rolston had 15 in 2005-06, and the 25-year-old winger is already tied for sixth on the Wild's career goals list; he's even with Eric Staal at 111. Andrew Brunette is fifth with 119.
Currently, Kaprizov's 37 goals are fifth best in the NHL. He trails only Edmonton's Connor McDavid (48), Boston's David Pastrnak (42), Buffalo's Tage Thompson (40) and Colorado's Mikko Rantanen (38).
"Especially when it's really spread out, one goal here, two goals there, it doesn't feel like you're scoring a lot," Kaprizov said in Russian through an interpreter. "At the end of the day, I want to get points any way possible, making my teammates better. So, I don't really think about it.
"I just try to play my game every single day."
Discipline on display
The Wild put the Blue Jackets on the power play only twice, the fifth consecutive game they've been dinged with two penalties or less.
Not only are the Wild limiting their trips to the box, but their penalty kill continues to roll: The Wild have denied 26 consecutive power plays, a run that began during the second period of their 3-2 loss at Arizona on Feb. 6. Their streak of 11 consecutive games without giving up a power-play goal is the best in the NHL this season.
"It's just complete recognition by them obviously, by the players," coach Dean Evason said. "You can talk and we can do whatever to try to get their attention to certain areas, but they have to buy in and obviously they've done that — not because we've asked them to do that, because they know that that's what we have to do to give ourselves an opportunity to have success."
Significant assists
Matt Boldy's assist on Kaprizov's second goal was his 40th point of the season, making him the third player in Wild history to reach that benchmark before the age of 22; Marian Gaborik and Pierre-Marc Bouchard are the others.
As for Calen Addison's helper on the game-winning goal in overtime, that moved him past Kaprizov and Boldy for the most assists in a season by a Wild rookie (25).
Addison's 28 points overall are tied with Kurtis Foster for second in single-season scoring among Wild rookie defensemen and only two back of Filip Kuba's record.
Blue line shuffle
Jon Merrill subbed in for Dakota Mermis after Merrill missed the previous two games because of illness.
The Wild were still without Jonas Brodin, who is on injured reserve because of a nagging lower-body injury that requires rest.
Brodin hasn't skated for a while, Evason said, but the defenseman will go on the team's upcoming road trip to Vancouver and Calgary.
"We're going to make sure that it's healed right up before we put him back in," Evason said.
