EDMONTON, Alberta – For years, Minnesota Wild coaches have focused on ways to stop NHL stars like Alex Ovechkin when they face Washington, or Sidney Crosby when they face Pittsburgh or Connor McDavid when they face the Oilers.

With the Wild off to an unexpected hot start, and forward Kirill Kaprizov etching his name onto the league’s unofficial “how are we going to stop this guy” list, it was perhaps uncharted territory to hear Edmonton coach Kris Knobluach asked about his plan to slow down Minnesota’s 97 (Kaprizov) just as the Wild would try to slow down number 97 in blue (McDavid).

“I expect they would have a line that they’d like to play against McDavid, especially if we load up,” Knoblauch said following Edmonton’s morning skate at Rogers Place. “Is Kaprizov on that line or is Kaprizov on a different line? That will affect what we do.”

Hockey games involve a pair of 20-man rosters facing one another, but just as one pitcher battles another on a baseball diamond, games like this one can be boiled down to how one team’s star does versus the other team’s star. Since Ovechkin’s drive to eclipse Wayne Gretzky’s goal-scoring record is on hold for four to six weeks while the Capitals’ star heals a broken leg bone, fans aren’t the only ones disappointed.

“Who’s playing Washington tonight? Colorado, I think there was something today that (Nathan) MacKinnon was disappointed that Ovechkin wasn’t going to be able to play,” Wild coach John Hynes said Thursday. “The top guys, in my experience, just their competitive level and I think their respect for each other and to be able to test themselves, I think that’s why the guys that are in the top of the league they’re extreme competitors. I think they respect each other, but the challenge of playing against each other, I think they like it.”

Other Wild players admitted that facing a star like McDavid, who helped the Oilers to within one win of the franchise’s sixth Stanley Cup last spring, is a kind of measuring stick in determining the sustainability of Minnesota’s strong start to the season.

“When you’ve got two hot players going, it makes for an exciting game,” Wild forward Marcus Foligno said. “Kirill’s been the driving force behind our team in everything. He does everything, so we hope our 97 does a little better than their 97.”

Shore’s re-start

With more than 400 NHL games on his resume, including 21 with Seattle last season, it was a re-start, not a start, for Devin Shore as he made his debut with the Wild on Thursday, taking the fourth-line spot that Ben Jones had during the win at St. Louis earlier in the week.

Having played for the Oilers for parts of three seasons, Shore said it was somehow fitting that he was back in Alberta oil country for his first game in red and green.

“The first one of the season, there’s always a bit of nerves. But I have done this for a long time, so hopefully I can lean on that experience and going in it will feel like any other game,” said Shore, who turned 30 a few weeks after he signed a free-agent contract with the Wild last summer. He said he enjoyed his time with the Oilers.

“A lot of really good friends over there and fond memories, so it will be fun to come back and compete against them,” Shore said.