ST. PAUL, Minn. -- The Minnesota Wild will have a new look when they attempt to end a four-game losing streak Saturday.
Marco Rossi and Matt Boldy moved up to the top line, where they will join Kirill Kaprizov, while Ryan Hartman and Mats Zuccarello moved from the first line to the second line with Marcus Johansson.
"We're not having success, right?" coach Dean Evason said after practice Friday. "We're not starting properly. We're not having success. So, yeah, I mean, we've got to make some changes. You can't be nice all the time."
Entering their home game against the New York Rangers on Saturday (8 p.m. ET; BSNX, BSWI, MSG), the Wild are 0-3-1 in their past four games and have lost five of six, including a home-and-home against the New Jersey Devils on Sunday and Thursday.
In addition to the changes on the top two lines, Joel Eriksson Ek moved to third-line center with Marcus Foligno and Pat Maroon. The fourth line remains intact with forwards Brandon Duhaime and Vinni Lettieri, and center Connor Dewar.
Defenseman Daemon Hunt is also expected to play Saturday with the possibility of Jon Merrill or Calen Addison being a healthy scratch.
"What we've been doing hasn't been working, so shake up the lines and see what happens, that's a good thing," said Zuccarello, who has one assist in the past four games following a six-game point streak (two goals, seven assists) to start the season. "… Sometimes it's good to change things up.
"There's no excuse. We haven't been good enough in the last four in a row or whatever. We have to come together and get some wins."
The biggest factor in Minnesota's struggles has been its starts. The Wild have allowed the first goal in six of their 10 games, losing all but one (1-4-1).
"We'll be ready to start tomorrow," Evason said.
In addition to trailing in games, the Wild (3-5-2) have struggled on special teams. The power play went five consecutive games without a goal (0-for-17) and is 19th in the League at 15.8 percent (6-for-38).
New units were unveiled at practice Friday, including an all-forward top unit comprised of Eriksson Ek, Kaprizov, Boldy, Rossi, and Johansson at the point. Zuccarello and defenseman Calen Addison were demoted from the top unit to the second unit along with Lettieri and Hartman, and Foligno and Maroon rotating in.
The penalty kill, which ranks last in the NHL at 63.6 percent (21-for-33), has allowed 10 goals in the past six games in 22 attempts (54.5 kill percent). Minnesota is also allowing 4.20 goals per game, the second-worst in the League (San Jose Sharks, 4.40).
"When you're not having success, you can't continually stay with what you're doing," Evason said. "You've got to try to do something to shake things up. We're not scoring goals, we're not defending, so we've got to get some different looks."
Despite the early challenges, Zuccarello is confident the Wild can overcome them, beginning Saturday.
"We work hard every day," Zuccarello said. "This is the hardest working team I've been [on]. Just, sometimes when it goes bad, you just work too hard and you try to do too much, and I think everyone just [needs to] stick to your game and do your job and trust each other."
The Rangers (8-2-0) enter the game on a six-game winning streak. They will be without defenseman Adam Fox (long-term injured reserve, lower body) and forward Filip Chytil (IR, upper body), who each left a 2-1 win against the Carolina Hurricanes on Thursday.
"[In] tough times it's easy to point fingers and yell at each other, but we've got to stick together," Zuccarello said. "It's 10 games. If you miss the playoffs and stuff like that, we can be angry. But it's 10 games. We have 72 games to play. We need some positivity, trust each other, believe in each other and have that swag to make plays. It's a good league, if you don't make plays you don't win games. We have to get back to that."
