The Minnesota Wild will be without their best player for the seventh game in a row when they face off against the Colorado Avalanche on Thursday night in Saint Paul, Minn.

The Wild did a lot of roster manipulation to get David Jiricek onto the roster for his NHL debut. The right-shot former Columbus Blue Jackets defenseman was by far the Wild’s best and somehow wasn’t on for a goal against in 16 minutes.

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The Wild were still without Kirill Kaprizov ... Avalanche were the first to find the back of the net with a goal by Mikko Rantanen to take a 3-1 lead. Nathan MacKinnon and Jonathan Drouin assisted ...

The Avalanche struck first when the Wild defense was caught flat-footed and Josh Manson’s long lead pass found Logan O’Connor unattended at the blue line. The Colorado forward ripped a low shot past Gustavsson before even four minutes had ticked off in the game.

The Wild know they cannot replace Kirill Kaprizov with one single player ... 52 assists) in 42 games. Mikko Rantanen is next with 58 points (24 goals, 34 assists) in 42 games, and star defenseman ...

The Wild held two separate leads before falling to Connor McDavid and the Oilers, losing Marcus Johansson along the way.

This is the obvious one. Nathan MacKinnon leads the NHL with 68 points, seven more than Edmonton’s Leon Draisaitl in second place. Also of note, he’s first in points per game at 1.58, narrowly ahead of the Art Ross winner last season, Tampa Bay’s Nikita Kucherov at 1.57.

To mark the halfway point of the 2024-25 regular season, NHL.com is running its third installment of the Trophy Tracker series. Today, we look at the race for the Hart Trophy, given annually to the player adjudged to be the most valuable to his team in the NHL as selected in a poll by the Professional Hockey Writers Association.

Point scored a goal Thursday in a 4-1 win over Boston. It was his 600th NHL point. Point has 289 goals and 311 assists in 615 games. This season, he has 25 goals and 22 assists in 34 games, and he's on a four-game,

ST PAUL, Minn. — Nathan MacKinnon had a goal and his NHL-leading 53rd assist of the season to help the Colorado Avalanche rout the Minnesota Wild 6-1 on Thursday night. Mikko Rantanan and Logan O’Connor also each had a goal and an assist, Ross Colton, Parker Kelly and Artturi Lehkonen also scored, and Mackenzie Blackwood made 24 saves.

(AP Photo/Matt Krohn) Shortly after that, Nathan MacKinnon left a drop pass for Mikko Rantanen ... Minnesota was missing MVP candidate Kirill Kaprizov and its top three defensemen.