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Wild’s Kirill Kaprizov knows he’s under a microscope. ‘It’s OK,’ he said. ‘I need to be better’

john shipley, pioneer press
·4 min read

When it was suggested to Kirill Kaprizov on Wednesday that he might be playing well early this season, the Wild’s star winger laughed.

“No,” he said. “I don’t think I’m playing well. I don’t feel like that.”

Despite 15 points in his first 17 games, a nice start for most NHL players, Kaprizov has come under a microscope. With just one even-strength goal in 17 games, he is noticeably not the force of nature who set a franchise record with 47 goals and 108 points in 2021-22.

And people are talking.

“It’s OK,” he said. “I need to be better.”

Kaprizov has, in fact, had similar starts since arriving from Russia for the abridged 2020 season. This is the third time in four seasons he has had five goals through 17 games. But has never been held to one even-strength goal or had fewer points at this point, and the team is losing.

The Wild will start Friday night’s game against Colorado at Xcel Energy Center with a 5-8-4 record. In 2021-22, Kaprizov was without a goal in the first eight games, the longest drought of his NHL career, but the Wild were 5-3-0 in that span, 15-6-1 through November.

That’s far from the case this season, which is in danger of spinning out of control before the calendar turns.

“Now, sometimes you make a mistake and you think, ‘Oh, no. Oh, no,’ ” Kaprizov said. “When you win games, it’s OK when you make mistakes. Your partners take up the slack; it’s the same for every guy on the team. When you have this, you can survive mistakes. Everyone can make mistakes.”

After an 8-3 home loss to Dallas before the team played two games last weekend in Sweden, Wild coach Dean Evason acknowledged that his team needs more from its “top guys.” But after a pair of overtime losses to Ottawa and Toronto in Stockholm, the coach was feeling better about the team’s play in general and Kaprizov in particular.

Although scoreless in a shootout loss to the Senators and an overtime loss to the Maple Leafs, Kaprizov was a plus player in each game, lowering his plus/minus to minus-8. “He’s working his ass off,” Evason said. “We’re not worried about Kirill Kaprizov.”

In the Toronto game, Kaprizov finished with four shots on goal, two hits and a plus-2. General manager Bill Guerin said he thought it was his best game of the season. Kaprizov, 26, said, “It was close.”

Evason said the coaching staff has worked to get Kaprizov going.

“Have we been firm with Kirill? Sure. Have we patted him on the back? Same as every other player — yeah,” the coach said. “You try to figure that out. Same as our group as far as our points. We’re not trying not to win games. Kirill’s not trying not to score. He’s trying to score each and every night.”

Last off the ice on Wednesday at TRIA Rink, Kaprizov was upbeat after signing autographs for young fans who were out of school for Thanksgiving break. Still, speaking mostly in English with occasional help from translator Ilya Kravtchouk, the team’s highest-paid player — $9 million annually through 2025-26 — acknowledged his frustration, and the turmoil it’s causing him on the ice.

“When you have good chances, usually you score on those chances,” he said. “Like, one-on-0, usually I can just make my shot and score a goal. Now, when you’re in your head, you think too much, like, ‘Maybe I do shot, maybe I stop and do this shot, or make a couple moves …’

“When you feel good, you just do it — it’s automatic, boom-boom. Now, sometimes I feel like I think too much. But it’s OK; it’s nothing crazy.”

He’s not, for instance, afraid to make a mistake. That’s not going to help him, or his team, get out of its slump, he said. What Kaprizov needs, he said, is to enjoy the game again. So far, 2023-24 hasn’t been a barrel of laughs.

“There needs to be a little bit more fun — in my eyes. Just have fun, play loose,” he said. “If I do that, the goals will come, the game will figure itself out.”

Start/finish

Kirill Kaprizov through 17 games in his four NHL seasons, plus how he finished the year:

Start (17) EV-PP +/- Season (G)
2020-21 5-11–16 4-1 +8 27-24–51 (55)
2021-22 5-12–17 4-1 0 47-61–108 (81)
2022-23 10-9–19 5-5 -6 40-35–75 (67)
2023-24 5-10–15 1-4 -8 N/A

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