The Minnesota Wild are suddenly dealing with a plethora of injury woes, and the latest name to be added to their lis of walking wounded is star forward Kirill Kaprizov.
During Minnesota's recent game against the Winnipeg Jets, Kaprizov took a series of cross checks to the back from Jets defenseman Brenden Dillion that somehow went unpenalized; Dillon was retaliating against Kaprizov for a reverse hit.
Kaprizov joins the likes of Filip Gustavsson, Mats Zuccarello, Vinni Lettieri, Sam Hentges, and Jonas Brodin on the list of players who are unavailable to suit up. Their absences didn't help the Wild at Xcel Energy Center last night, as they lost to the rival Calgary Flames by a 3-1 final score.
"For sure they're leaders on our team," center Joel Eriksson Ek said. "But we can't really focus on that. We have to focus on what we have and play our best to win games."
Kaprizov, who was enjoying a six game point streak prior to his injury, has been a point per game player this season with 34 points in 34 games played.
"You can't hang your head in this league," winger Pat Maroon said. "There's going to be ebbs and flows in this league a lot. There's going to be ups and downs. There's going to be times where you think you should have won a game, but you lose. There's times where you win a game that you should have lost.
"Can't hang our heads now. We're still in the playoff hunt. There's still a lot of hockey to be played."
"We're not faltering at all in our belief of what we have going here," defenseman Jake Middleton said.
The shorthanded Wild are getting back into action tomorrow night at home when they host the Tampa Bay Lightning, who are coming off a loss to the Jets.
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