The Minnesota Wild head into the first week of the regular season with a couple of big questions hanging over them, and one of them could land right on the blue line.
Brock Faber is the name everyone is watching after he took a puck to the ear during the second period of the Wild’s final preseason game against the Dallas Stars on Friday, Sept. 25.
He skated off under his own power and finished the period, but he did not return for the third. That alone was enough to put the team on edge, and the silence that followed only added to it.
Head coach John Hynes didn’t have an update after the game, and Faber then missed the next two practices. According to Heather Rule of NHL.com, Hynes said after Sunday morning’s practice on Sept. 27 that Faber was home resting and giving it some time to make sure he’s okay.
Hynes said he would have an update on Tuesday, Sept. 29, when the team returns to practice after an off day on Monday, Sept. 28.
For a team that leans on Faber at both ends of the ice, this is the kind of preseason scare that can reshape an opening stretch in a hurry. He’s a key part of the top defensive pair, and the Wild are clearly hoping this is precautionary and short-lived so he can be available for Thursday, Oct. 1, when they open the season.
If Faber can’t go, the ripple effect on the defense will be immediate. The Wild would need someone to absorb those minutes and keep the structure intact, and the likely candidates to move up are Jared Spurgeon or Jonas Brodin. Faber had been working so well with Quinn Hughes that the Wild never really needed to test many other combinations, so a change there would force a chain reaction.
Spurgeon would probably be the first bump upward, at least initially. That could leave Brodin with Zach Bogosian or Olli Määttä, while the final pairing would likely involve whoever the Wild decide to bring up alongside Bogosian or Määttä. Last season, Faber and Hughes gave the Wild a steady top pair while the rest of the defense dealt with injury issues, so any absence from Faber would put even more pressure on the group to hold the line.
The other area under the microscope is special teams, which has long been one of the Wild’s more uncertain spots. The offseason additions of Blake Coleman, Määttä, and Maxim Shabanov were meant to help, but the unit still needs buy-in across the roster to really click.
There were some signs in the preseason, though the final test came with the caveat that the opening night lineup wasn’t fully on the ice. In Friday’s loss to Dallas, the NHL roster did show some penalty-kill success, but the power play didn’t cash in. The looks were there, and there was evidence of progress, but that only matters if it carries over once the games start counting.
That’s the real test for Minnesota now: consistency. The Wild can’t afford a penalty kill that shuts everything down one night and bleeds goals the next.
The same goes for the power play, which has to turn opportunities into actual damage. In a tight schedule, those swings can decide games fast.
The week ahead gives the Wild two chances to settle things down, starting on the road and then shifting home for the opener. Here’s the schedule for Sept. 28 through Oct. 5:
Thurs. Oct. 1 at Nashville Predators, 7:00 PM CT, Bridgestone Arena - first game of the regular season; will Faber play?
Sat. Oct. 3 vs. Boston Bruins, 7:00 PM CT, Grand Casino Arena - home opener; look to get a win on home ice.
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