Wild Make SNEAKY Perfect Signing...

The Wild have the best record in the West, and their blue line just got hit twice in three days. Captain Jared Spurgeon is week to week, and Brock Faber just cleared the step that gets him back on the ice. Plus, they recalled a 23-year-old who was on waivers one month ago. I'll tell you what all of this means for tonight and for the next two or so weeks, and at the end, the one number that tells you whether this team is fine. I'm going to start with the good news and be careful with it, because Michael Russo says Faber's return to play protocol has been cleared. There is no timetable just yet, but he can start skating in a few days time. And remember what this was. It was a skull fracture in the last preseason game, surgery two days later, and he started the season on the injury reserve. He's missed every single one of the Wild's 14 games so far. So this is a major, major step and it's not a return date. Skating first, then contact, then game. Bill Guerin said the Wild would follow the doctors lead and that is still the plan thus far and here's what the Wild are waiting on last season in the regular season Brock Faber played 24 minutes and 40 seconds a game which was in the 90th percentile in the league he also blocked 1.9 shots a game which was 96th percentile and scored 15 goals on seven expected last year's Faber was a top pair defenseman who did everything he could that was the role that was open as of right now, and it just got bigger. Tuesday night in Utah, Spurgeon went down in the second period after blocking multiple shots. The Wild still won 3-1 in their third straight, but they lose their captain doing it. And today, Michael Russo said it plainly, Spurgeon is week to week right now. The team hasn't named the injury just yet, and ESPN's list still has him as day to day. So the safe read is Russo's week to week, not a game count, and not a date which is absolutely brutal and this is the part that matters on five on five Quinn Hughes and Spurgeon have played 131 minutes together the Wild have outscored teams seven to two in those minutes and have taken 58.9 of the shot attempts that is the best pair the Minnesota Wild have so the question isn't it who fills in it's who plays next to Quinn Hughes and the two defensemen aren't the whole list the Wild team has been playing without a lot majority of its roster for about a month. Goalie Philip Gustafson is on the LTIR after hip surgery. Marcus Foligno is on the injury reserve with a lower body injury. Nick Foligno on the injury reserve with an upper body. Faber is on the injury reserve with a skull surgery. And now Spurgeon. And if you think about that, it's a starting goalie, two veteran forwards, a top pairing defenseman, and a captain. If you told a Wild fan this in September, they would have taken 12th in the West and been pretty happy. But instead, they are first. 9, 3, and 2. 20 points in 14 games. The Mammoth are next, in the central with 16 points. The Stars and Avalanche both have 15. That's a 4 point gap to the Mammoth with one more game played. It's a cushion, but it's not a wall just yet. Because the way a cushion disappears is a bad 2 weeks. And this is the schedule for a bad 2 weeks upcoming. Quick thing, if this was useful, if you liked this video, be sure to hit like and help us be the best channel on Digest Sports. Here's why I'm not panicking. This team is winning with the injuries. Mike Russo wrote on Monday, it's an impressive start with a West leading 18 points, 9 of 13 games on the road, and a lot of injuries, including the likes of Brock Faber and Spurgeon for multiple games. The top line has been an engine. Kirill Kaprizov, Joel Eriksson Ek, and Matt Boldy lead the NHL with a 72% expected goal share, and Boldy leads the league with 115 shot attempts. Kaprizov is second with 103, and Eriksson Ek leads the league with 30 high danger shots. And Kaprizov has 14 goals in 14 games. Since 1996-97, only three players have scored more through their first 14 games of a season. Simone Gagne with 16, Austin Matthews with 15, and Leon Draisaitl with 15. And behind them, Jesper Wallstedt. He's 8-2-2. That's eight of the Wild's nine wins with a 199 goals against average and a .922 save percentage. So the front and the goalie are carrying it. The blue line is where the risk really is right now, and that's a whole story for the next two weeks. Which brings us up to Carson Lambos, as he was recalled by the Minnesota Wild today after the announcement of Jared Spurgeon. He's 23, he's a first-round pick. The Wild will put him on waivers on September 24th, and he's back because the defense is hurt. Now, one big thing. Recall is not the same as playing. We have to watch the pairs at warm-ups tonight, see how Hines sees it, and sees how this progresses over the next couple of games. Now looking at the schedule, because it really isn't going to be that kind to the Minnesota Wilds, tonight's the Islanders at home, then Sunday in Washington, November 3rd in Philadelphia, San Jose and Tampa at home back-to-back on November 6th and 7th, then Montreal on November 10th, I'll be at that game, and Toronto on November 12th. That's 7 games in 15 days, 4 of them on the road, Faber is skating, not playing, Spurgeon is week-to-week for that whole stretch. One thing to watch is the defense, the six of them, the Wild can actually address. Hughes, Brodtin, Määttä, Kierstead, and Bogosian, and now also Carson Lambos. Every one of them is going to be asked to play a bigger role than they were handed in September. That's how this team is going to get through this stretch, not with one hero, with six guys doing just a little bit more. So what do you do to watch tonight against the Islanders? You gotta watch the first pairing. Hughes is going to be there, very likely will be Bogosian, could be Oli Määttä, they're the two veterans here Matt Kierstead and Zach Bogosian are in the mix and Carson Lambos is a new name that I'm going to be very intrigued to see if he or when he does get into a game second you gotta look at the minutes if Hughes plays more than usual, Desai and Hines doesn't trust the pairs behind him so that will give us a really good read on if Carson Lambos will get into a game if the pairings will change so watch the ice time on the numbers this game and of course number three the goalie if Wallstedt's in net again tonight the Wilds gonna lean on a guy the 1.99 goals against average he's been better than the blue line in front of him has you know any right to expect if all four of those go well and nobody is writing a story tomorrow about the wilds blue line and if they don't you'll see that story fast one more thing that we have in this video when i was putting this video together and it happened the iowa wild just added Arthur Kaliev on a professional tryout he's 25 years old the kings picked him in the 33rd overall pick in the second round of the 2019 draft. And last season, he scored 40 goals in the AHL with the Belleville Senators and was top five in the league in points. Now, a tryout is not a contract just yet. They did sign him to a PTO, but Iowa gets to look at him. And if he proves he's worth the deal or a real deal in the contract, and yes, there's off-ice noise around the name, which is part of the way that the tryout will make the right decision. If you haven't heard the term professional tryout, PTO, you know, is the short way to put it. The team can cut him loose at any point, and so can he. There's no risk on it whatsoever, so this is only a positive for the Wild right now. And Iowa makes sense, because the Hockey News wrote this summer that Iowa was a team where he could sign and pick up where he left off, that Minnesota could use him to mentor a thin prospect pool in the farm system. So the question is pretty simple. Does a 40-goal AHL season turn into goals when someone on the Minnesota big club is watching? But here's really why I care. The Wild have two forwards on injury reserve, Marcus and Nick Foligno, and if Kaliyev scores in Iowa, there's a good goal-scoring winger one call away, and the Wild didn't give up a thing to find out. The risk is tiny. A tryout costs a roster spot in Iowa, not a contract in Minnesota, and the upside is a 40 goal scorer for a team that already leads the West and is going to need depth goal scoring. So keep your eye on Iowa, because if this works, the Wild blue line isn't the only thing that's going to try and get deeper and a team that's already first in the West suddenly has more ways to win without its injured players. So here is where I land. The Wild are 9-3-2 in the top of the West, and they earn that with a lot of players hurt. Faber's being cleared and really good news, but it's also weeks of work away just yet. If Hughes can carry this group through the Islanders and the road trip, the team is fine. If not, we find out the next two weeks if Kaliyev is lighting it up in Iowa. Will the Wild have a second answer waiting? And that would make a stretch a lot less scary for this team. Do you think that the Wild hold the top spot in the West without Spurgeon and Faber for the next couple of weeks? Let me know below. That's it. I'll see you after the game.