Case in point: Sunday’s goal in Vegas. He was on a two-on-one with Freddy Gaudreau. Hartman appeared to look over to Gaudreau as if to pass, but then he fired a great wrist shot and beat goalie Adin Hill glove-side.

The buzz continued when Jakub Lauko followed him, and it got notably louder when Kirill Kaprizov joined the party ... As an example, Hynes in recent days has praised veteran forward Ryan Hartman, who had a mind-boggling run of zero points in an 18-game ...

Without Kirill Kaprizov, Jonas Brodin and Jared Spurgeon, Minnesota played a smart, poised and gutsy game, pulling away in the third for a 3-1 victory at Ball Arena.

The Wild needed that one. Still missing Kirill Kaprizov and a few other key players due to injuries, Minnesota went into Denver and beat the Colorado Avalanche 3-1 on Monday afternoon, snapping a three-game losing streak in the process.

Kaprizov (lower body) will be back in the lineup versus Utah on Thursday, Michael Russo of The Athletic reports. Kaprizov will return to the lineup for the first time since Dec. 23 against Chicago, a stretch of 12 games on long-term injured reserve.

Star Centre Connor McDavid slapped two goals through the net for the Oilers and hurt a Wild team that was still without left winger Kirill Kaprizov. Minnesota had goals from Matt Boldy, Ryan Hartman and Marco Rossi, but could not overcome the Oilers offense.

The Wild fell 4-1 in Vegas, but Gustavsson's play was encouraging. Bill Guerin had an update on Kirill Kaprizov's return.

Vasily Podkolzin scored the tiebreaking goal early in the third period, Connor McDavid had two goals and an assist, and the Edmonton Oilers beat the Minnesota Wild 5-3 for their seventh win in eight games.

The Minnesota Wild placed their top-scoring contributor on LTIR on Friday in Kirill Kaprizov because of an aggravated lower-body injury. Minnesota has been one of the NHL's biggest surprises in ...

And the clearest signal that Kaprizov and Spurgeon would be back is that the Wild reassigned defenseman David Jiricek two hours after practice. If you did the salary cap math, it really was the only option to get below the cap ceiling once Kaprizov is activated from LTIR.

Hynes addressed injury concerns involving several key players, including Kirill Kaprizov, Brock Faber, and Jared Spurgeon. ***Click the video box above to hear full comments from John Hynes ...

Some of the issues that looked fixed two days ago in a decisive win against the Dallas Stars were again troubling for the Colorado Avalanche in a loss to the Minnesota Wild.