Minnesota Gophers coach Bob Motzko likes to say that in college hockey, you get three kicks of the garbage can per season. At the NHL level, Wild coach John Hynes said, you don’t get three.

If Kaprizov has surgery this week for a lower-body injury that has been ailing him since December, he would miss six weeks, per sources.

I just think we need a little bit more there,” John Hynes said prior to the game in Chicago, noting that he had spoken to both players on Sunday morning to let them know of the lineup changes.

Kaprizov said that he wouldn't be limited by the injury when he initially returned, indicating he was in full health. "Just something happened," Kaprizov said to The Athletic. "I

PAUL - The Minnesota Wild will be without their star forward Kirill Kaprizov for a good stretch of time. He missed practice on Tuesday after playing in the last three games. He had two assists in those three games but was feeling uncomfortable,

"We're choosing to lose," coach John Hynes said after the Wild's woes at home continued with a 5-4 loss to the Flames.

On their seventh try, they finally eluded Blackhawks goalie Petr Mrazek 5 minutes, 43 seconds into the first period when Spurgeon sent the puck past Mrazek’s blocker after a 4-on-2 rush for the Wild. Marco Rossi factored into the play to pick up an assist on the Wild’s past four goals, tying a team record for the second time this season.

Minnesota Wild star Kirill Kaprizov will be out a minimum of four weeks after the surgery. Follow this tracker for the latest NHL news.

Minnesota Wild coach John Hynes expressed his frustration regarding the referee's explanation following a controversial no-call on Connor McDavid's elbow to Marcus Johansson on Wednesday.

Progressing from concussion

In some frank postgame words for his team, John Hynes sought more pushback from his players. “Winning simple is hard. You’ve gotta choose your hard, right? And right now we’re not choosing ...

Wild general manager Bill Guerin announced on Tuesday that Kaprizov is being shut down for the time being to have surgery and repair the lower body injury that has allowed the team’s top scorer to play in just three games since Christmas.