The Minnesota Wild will be without their star player for the majority of the final playoff push as it was reported today that Kirill Kaprizov suffered a lower body injury during Wednesday’s win in Winnipeg.
Kaprizov had been on a tear recently for the Wild, scoring 11 goals in 14 games before Wednesday night’s tilt. With him out, Minnesota will be looking for a team effort to carry the load and fill the void in the lineup. In 63 games this season, Kirill has tallied 39 goals and 34 assists for 73 points, while the next highest scorer on the team is Mats Zuccarello with 58. With Kaprizov’s recent success seemingly going hand in hand with Minnesota’s climb up the standings, the injury comes at a very disappointing time for both the team and the player.
In the playoff race, the Wild are currently just a half-game behind Dallas for the lead in the Central Division. They’ve also got the defending Stanley Cup Champion Avalanche to deal with, as Colorado is just five points behind them with three games in hand. It’ll certainly hurt the team to be without Kaprizov for this long, but thankfully, the goaltending has been outstanding recently for the Wild. Both Marc-Andre Fleury and Filip Gustavsson have been terrific in the crease since the All-Star game and will hope to keep it up as their star player gets healthy before the postseason.
It’ll be a true test of the character and determination of this team to continue winning games without Kirill in the lineup. If they can make it happen, they’ll be entering the playoffs with a scary amount of momentum.
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