While the St. Louis Blues continue to play well, the Minnesota Wild are mired in their longest losing streak in eight seasons, and it led to a coaching change.
Eying a fourth straight road victory, the Blues try to hand the Wild their eight consecutive defeat on Tuesday night in Saint Paul, Minn.
The skid led the Wild to fire head coach Dean Evason on Monday after a 5-10-4 start to the season. Evason was 147-77-27 in his four-plus seasons in Minnesota. Assistant coach Bob Woods also was fired.
Later Monday, the Wild announced that John Hynes would be taking over for Evason. Hynes was fired by Nashville in May after parts of four seasons with the team, leading the Predators to the playoffs in three of those seasons.
Hynes also spent time as coach of the New Jersey Devils (2015-19) and has compiled a career record of 284-255-63 across eight NHL seasons.
Since opening the season at 3-4-1, St. Louis has won eight of 12. On Sunday, Pavel Buchnevich had a goal with two assists, Jake Neighbours scored twice and Robert Thomas added two more assists as the Blues won their season-high third straight road contest, 4-2 at Chicago.
“We want to play this way. … We tightened it up,” Blues coach Craig Berube said of Sunday’s performance after his team allowed 13 goals in splitting the previous two games.
St. Louis has totaled 16 goals while winning three of its past four contests. The Blues have scored 13 times over the past three games on the road.
“I thought we did a good job (Sunday) of supporting each other,” said Neighbours, who has recorded six of his eight points during the past five games.
“If you’re in the right spot at the right times you’re going to get looks. I think it’s important to stay with the structure.”
Buchnevich has seven goals with six assists in his past nine games. He’s posted nine goals with six assists in 13 career games against the Wild.
Meanwhile, St. Louis’ Jordan Binnington stopped 32 of 34 shots on Sunday after he allowed 14 goals in his previous three appearances. Binnington, though, owns a 5.21 goals-against average during his past three regular-season appearances versus Minnesota.
The Blues lost three of four against the Wild last season. However, Minnesota has just five wins in 19 games this season, and been outscored 28-13 during its current 0-5-2 rut — the franchise’s longest winless streak since an 0-6-2 slide from 2015-16.
“Seven in a row? That’s … unacceptable,” said Minnesota’s Pat Maroon, who has failed to register a point in seven consecutive games.
The Wild registered 38 shots on goal during Sunday’s 4-1 loss at Detroit, but was held to two or fewer goals for the fifth time in the past seven contests.
Minnesota’s Joel Eriksson Ek scored in his second straight game Sunday, and Mats Zuccarello earned an assist on that goal to extend his point streak to six games. Eriksson Ek had a goal with two assists during Minnesota’s 8-5 win at St. Louis in the teams’ most recent meeting March 15.
The Wild’s Filip Gustavsson (3.94 goals-against average) stopped 19 of 22 shots at Detroit in losing his fourth straight start. Meanwhile, teammate Marc-Andre Fleury, who, in addition to being embroiled in a mask controversy, has allowed 12 goals in his past two outings, and lost his past two starts.
Coming off back-to-back seasons with at least 40 goals, Wild star Kirill Kaprizov has just six in 19 games. He’s also been held without a point in his past three games versus St. Louis.
–Field Level Media
