Written by Dane Mizutani at TwinCities.com
First-year Wild coach Bruce Boudreau plans to use backup goaltender Darcy Kuemper more this season than former coaches Mike Yeo and John Torchetti used him last season.
It’s clear Kuemper is going to have to show Boudreau a little more over his next couple of showings, though.
On a night in which Zach Parise netted the 300th goal of his career, any thoughts of celebration were spoiled as the Wild fell 6-3 in an ugly loss to the New York Islanders on Sunday night at the Barclays Center.
Though Parise was the best player on the ice during his milestone performance, he couldn’t make up for a rough night for a number of Wild players, starting with Kuemper.
“Not to throw him under the bus,” Boudreau said. “I mean, we plan on playing him a few more games than we’ve played him in the past. So sometimes we need that superb goaltending job.”
It wasn’t so superb against the Islanders.
After Parise scored No. 300 on a pretty wrist shot to give the Wild an early lead, the Islanders flipped a switch, making sure the celebration wouldn’t last long. They scored three goals in a little more than three minutes to turn a one-goal deficit into a two-goal lead.
Islanders captain John Tavares got the scoring started, followed by goals from Calvin de Haan and Johnny Boychuk. Kuemper had no chance on the goal from Tavares, though the same couldn’t be said about the later goals.
While Boudreau said “nobody” would’ve stopped the Tavares goal, he thought the second and third goals were “stoppable pucks” for Kuemper.
“It puts us behind the eight-ball,” Boudreau said.
Still, as Boudreau mentioned, goaltending wasn’t the only problem.
While Kuemper struggled to see pucks through traffic, fourth-line wingers Teemu Pulkinnen and Chris Stewart both finished minus-3, as the Islanders poured it on late.
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