“Nothing really happened,” he said. “I tweaked it and I went and got it taped up and came back and tried to come out for another shift. I don’t know if it made it worse. It definitely extended the time out for a couple of days, for sure.”
Fortunately for Hartman, he feels back to 100 percent and was in the lineup for Friday’s home game against the Arizona Coyotes. Wild coach Dean Evason penciled Hartman in to skate between Zach Parise and Kevin Fiala.
“We just feel that that’s his spot,” Evason said. “He’s earned that spot. We really like him there. We love his compete and his battle level. He’s taken a step forward for us, for sure.”
Before suffering the lower-body injury last week, Hartman was thriving as the man in the middle. He’s hoping to pick up where he left off.
“I’m excited to get going,” Hartman said. “I played a little bit with Kevin (during their time with the Nashville Predators). We played on the same line maybe a couple of games and had a couple of goals together. We have a lot of chemistry together. As for Zach, I was playing with him before I got hurt there, and we were doing a lot of good things as well. We’re going to be a good line and hard to play against as well.”
Though the past week or so has tested Hartman’s patience, he’s glad he waited for his injury to completely heal before returning to the lineup.
“You don’t want to set yourself back another week,” he said. “You want to make sure it was at 100 percent. I was back into the swing of things and it’s felt good over the last couple of days. It just wasn’t 100 until the last day or so.”
Talbot starts
With rookie goaltender Kaapo Kahkonen playing so well of late, some think the Wild should ride him in net until the wheels fall off. Thus, some will question the decision to start fellow goaltender Cam Talbot for Friday’s game.
“Do we feel we had to get him in there? No. Do we feel we wanted to get him in there? Yes,” Evason said. “We think he’s deserved to play.”
That’s beside the point.
As solid as Talbot has been this season with a 4-4-1 record, 2.88 goals-against average and .906 save percentage, Kahkonen has been even better with an 11-4-0 record, 2.19 goals-against average and .922 save percentage.
“It’s a great problem to have to make a decision of who we want to put in there,” Evason said. “We feel whoever we decide, we think we made the right choice.”
Johansson close
While the Wild got Hartman back for Friday’s game, they still are without center Marcus Johansson. He hasn’t played since suffering an upper-body injury in a Feb. 18 win over the Anaheim Ducks.
“He’s skated the last couple of days,” Evason said. “He skated with the taxi guys (on Thursday) and with the group (on Friday). He’ll just keep progressing. As far as a timeline, I don’t know.”
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March 13, 2021 at 05:27AM
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Ryan Hartman steps back in as man in middle for Wild - Grand Forks Herald
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