John Hynes previews Wild @ Blackhawks

0:00You found the Minnesota Wild Podcast, presented by AcreShirt. Uh, Acque will not play tonight, so Fabri will go in. And what is Acque doing with it? He's got a lower body day to day. Come up in the game last game, I'm not sure if he's going to leave or not. Yeah. Yeah. So the Falinos, uh, in their Bickery on a daily basis, uh, how is Nick? He's been great. He's been great. Yeah. Yeah. It's, it's tough to get a conversation other than them, but it's been great. I mean, next come in, um, fits in really well with the guys. Obviously he's a good leader and, you know, former captain, obviously, but he's come in. He's played some good hockey for us. And I think he's fitting in, you know, fits in well with the guys. Obviously with his personality. And I think his experience has, so he's been a great addition for us. What you've seen for Oakley, he's up here a couple of years up close. And just how do you see him progress? And is this some of the best hockey that he's played? Yeah, I mean, Carill, you know, the thing that sticks out to me with Carill is just how he's

1:02in such a naturally talented player, but, uh, he's an extremely, extremely competitive guy, uh, for his good offensive players, he is. He cares about, uh, playing on both sides of the puck. And, uh, and he's a great teammate. Like he's a guy that, uh, I think he cares about the team, cares about winning. And, you know, it's nice when you have a player with that talent and, you know, an elite player in the league that has a team first mentality and, you know, was willing to play the game. That's required to play the win and that's on both sides of the puck. We know how important that is here. Your team, how do you guys adjust with that, especially about the middle with different guys? Yeah, it's always an adjustment. Obviously when, when you have a player like Eki that plays so many key minutes for us and plays a lot of different roles, not one player is going to, you know, take, take his role over, but you're going to need some to play center. Obviously, you're going to need someone to fill in for his spot on the power play. Uh, same thing on, on, on the penalty kill. So it's a little bit by committee. I think with the team we have in the depth we have, um, and always when we've had players out, it's, it's not taking over a player's responsibility.

2:05It's a shared responsibility. And I think we got the guys that can do it. Why do you think Gus and your team, um, have been so comfortable away from home. It just feels like he's been great on the road all year and it feels like your club has to. Yeah, I think it's, um, I mean, we have a good group. I don't really have an explanation of why, you know, like we said, home versus the road. I just think that overall, I think we've played some really solid hockey at home and on the road. Um, you know, Gus has been very consistent. Uh, you know, our team's been, been pretty consistent for the most part. So I'm looking forward to, you know, Gus and our team, you know, putting together a game today that, that gives us a good chance to win the game. How much do you guys encourage you to do with the third period of last game? Or I feel like he had a lot of zone time last half of the game. Yeah, I, you know, I felt like, uh, as I, as we said the other night too, I think that our start to the game was, you know, we were dictating the game. We weren't, we weren't reacting to what was going to go on. I liked that part of it. And you know, as you said, I thought we had some good offensive pressure. I do think that there's some things, uh, defensively, we can tighten up, which we addressed with our guys.

3:08But I would say that, you know, um, we were, we were on the inside. I thought our puck decisions were strong. I thought it set us up to be able to, to, to play offense, uh, for a lot of the game. I thought our checking pressure was good. So now we've got to combine that, I think with some things coming into our D zone, D zone, just things when we're really stingy to play against just some little details. Can be a little bit tighter for Nick. For Nick, Lena coming in, obviously he'd been pushing himself as a leader here as a captain to not be part of the leader substructure officially for you guys. Like how, can he help with that without, you know, going, you know, stepping on toes or anything? Yes. I, you know, we, I mean, we do have a, we do have a veteran group. Obviously Quinn Hughes is a former captain as well. And, and I think, uh, when you look at some of the players we've added, they're, you know, veteran guys have been leaders on, on a different team. I think that, you know, leadership, yes, it's, it's, it's a lot of times it's, it's recognized by a C or an A on your Jersey. But, you know, lots of times everyone can lead in their own way. And I think with, with our group next come in and done a good job, I think the players that have come into our team.

4:12If they have something to say, you know, they, they, they say it, I think our leadership structure with our players that are here is, is open. And they're receptive to, you know, whether it's information or thoughts from new guys. And, you know, part of being a leadership group, you know, isn't just the three guys that wear the letters. There's usually five to six to seven guys, you know, on a team, particularly on a team like ours, where, uh, everyone can be a leader in their own way. And some of it's by vocal, some of it's by, by their performance and how they play and how they go about their business. So I think leadership comes in, in different ways. For an extraordinary advantage in sports, you need a game plan. For an extraordinary advantage everywhere else, all you need is Acroshure. With a high tech human approach to insurance, cybersecurity and more, Acroshure helps you take care of what you care about. That makes winning easy. See what Acroshure's extraordinary advantage can do for you at Acroshure.com.