John Hynes previews Wild vs Flyers

0:00The Minnesota Wild Podcast is presented exclusively by Acresho. We'll start with the lineup, any changes for your squad after that big win. No, just Wally will go on that. I'll see the status of Brink after this skate. If he's good to go, then he'll be in. If he's not, then we'll have one fight, one change. That hit that he took, looked bad. So obviously we're still dealing with some effects. Yeah, he felt a lot better today, but I just, he's going to try it to skate and see how he feels. Perfect. I'm currently, what is the last Wally start? I don't know, I don't know. I'm sure he'll feel good about himself. Yeah, very good. I think he, you know, it was nice that he was a big, big huge factor in the game, obviously, and played Wally. And as we said, I think all year long, he and Gus have been a great tandem for us, and with the amount of games and coming down the stretch to have the luxury of two guys playing really well for you. You don't keep those guys fresh, and whether it's Wally or Gus in the net, we feel like they give us a chance every night.

1:00What the depth you have right now, coach, how much motivation is that for everybody on your roster, and know that they don't play their very best there down the stretch there are players that are really good players that aren't aligning? Yeah, there's certainly that, and that's, I think, healthy competition. I think that's also one of the benefits of being on a good team. That's a deep team that, I think, just knowing that and feeling that. I think drives healthy internal competition, and I think the guys played a real solid game. I think we played pretty solid here coming out of the break, and I thought last game was very good. But we do have a lot of hockey, so whether it's going to be performance related or just giving guys the night off to get other guys in, and get everyone involved in the game is something we're going to have to do as well. But I certainly do like that you have some of that internal competition, because I think it drives individuals, and that in turn drives your team performance. Your special teams have been so good lately. How do you prevent them from sagging when they get like a 5 on 3 like they did the other day and don't score around it?

2:04Because that can be such a momentum drain when you have that opportunity. You didn't seem to affect them at all. No, it didn't. I think with the power play in a 5 on 3, I think he made two huge saves. I mean, I think Carl could have three goals on that. So I think when you generate the looks and whether you just miss or goalie makes a big save, I think that's important. I think a lot of times on a power play is if there are no chances or you don't gain possession or you don't execute. I thought we executed it just didn't go into that. So I thought in that circumstance that was one of the reasons why I think we just continued. Those guys even just continue to come through. Sometimes you have great looks and they don't go in. But I think that's probably on any power play that determining factors sometimes a sag versus maybe even more determination. Carl, it seems like you don't bring one off the pipe and two minutes later it will be an intro for him being the net. Yeah, exactly. That's what he can do. He's at the top of his game last game. So you can see the amount of chances and opportunities he had. To me, it was more he just played a power game.

3:05He played fast and hard and extremely competitive. Even the goalie scored is a second effort. It started with a track and a hunt on a forecheck with him in Vladi. So that's more the game that when he does that, he's truly elite. What does it take to tell you about the flyers which you see from the last game when you've experienced learning? Well, I think they're a hard working team. I think they've made some adjustments. I think to some of their systems from earlier in the year. So I think they're always, you know, toxic good coach. I think they're well coached. They work extremely hard. Vladi is good in that. So it's going to be a hard fought. You know, I think a highly competitive fast in your face type of game. What are you trying to shore up? Or you got 17-year-olds in the way you see them? What do you want to have a cops between now and the end to hit your stride going into the playoffs? I think there's quite a few things. But I would say an overall arching theme is trying to ice the game that, you know, we feel gives us the best chance to win. And then I think certain parts of your game tighten things up defensively. Face-off, detail, face-off intensity.

4:05Continue to get our special teams dialed in at a high, high level. And then just getting consistency with how hard and structured we want to be able to play. The movement you're off made on this goal. I don't want to show how much confidence he's having. With the offset, the offset is offensively brilliant. You can even get a senior. Yeah, I think it's, you know, obviously a great goal. And, you know, I think there's lots of things that go into that too. Right? Vlad, he makes a great wallplay. Bobby pushes the pace and backs the D off. And then that allowed your off to come up with a ton of speed. And, you know, we talk him being a, you know, a strong 200-foot center. And I think you can see when he has some open ice, he has speed. It was actually a great goal, obviously, with his move and things like that. So it's good. You can see that, you know, with Danilla, you know, he's one of the few young guys we have on the team that's playing regularly. And I think we continue to see different elements of his game get better and better over the course of the year. Hey, starting out Marcus, we can start skating. I don't know. I don't know exactly when he's going to start skating.

5:06I know he's doing a lot of, his progress is the same. So I would still, you know, keep him in that week to week category with the anticipation that he will be back before the end of the day. The best place to go for all your Minnesota Wild Audio needs is the official Minnesota Wild Pondcast presented by ACRISHOR. Everything Minnesota Wild related, including highlights, press conferences, players, coaches, general managers, and more, it's available on the official Minnesota Wild Pondcast presented by ACRISHOR. It's all just a click away at wild.com slash pondcast.