DENVER – In his renowned 40-plus years as the head football coach at Minnesota Duluth, Jim Malosky demanded that the Bulldogs home games start at 1:30 p.m. on Saturdays, no later. While the stadium that now bears his name was equipped with lights and absolutely could have hosted games in the evenings, Malosky felt that waiting around all day made his players listless, and getting the game started earlier was a better route to victory. Even before Monday afternoon’s victory in Colorado, Minnesota Wild coach John Hynes echoed some of the same thoughts before his team played one of just nine contests that face off before 5 p.m. local time this season. “I think they’re great. You kind of get up and you play,” Hynes said. “I think the guys kind of like them. It’s important that you don’t have that full day of waiting, which is a little bit different routine. But in my experience, a lot of times the players and coaches enjoy it because you get up and get right at it.” The Wild are now 3-1-1 in early starts following the Martin Luther King Jr. Day afternoon game in Colorado, a 3-1 win for Minnesota. Jiricek growing up quickly After a goal in Nashville and an assist to set up the game-winner in Colorado, newcomer David Jiricek is showing some of the attributes that Wild general manager Bill Guerin was willing to pay a relatively high price for back in December. While his skating and some defensive aspects of Jiricek’s game are works in progress, Hynes praised what he has seen from the hulking blueliner in the six games he has played while filling in for veterans to return on the back end. “It’s been nice to see. I think you can see his offensive instincts and his offensive abilities, and it’s nice for a player coming into a new organization getting a little bit of a stint here playing that he’s able to show what he can do and get rewarded for it,” Hynes said. “I think there’s other components to his game that we need to help him with and he needs to work at, but certainly like the direction that he’s going.” Wild defenseman Jake Middleton was, per his nature, more blunt with his assessment of his newest blue-line teammate. “Smart plays, making great reads on the offensive blue line, chipping in on offense,” Middleton said. “He’s going to be a special player. Good pickup.” Jiricek, a former top-six draft pick of the Columbus Blue Jackets, came to Minnesota via a trade in December, and was recalled due to manpower shortages on the Wild’s back end. Manpower update Meeting with the media prior to warmups on Monday, Hynes offered no real news — good or bad — on the potential return to the lineup of forwards Kirill Kaprizov and Marcus Johansson, and defensemen Jared Spurgeon and Jonas Brodin, all of whom stayed back in Minnesota while the Wild traveled to Nashville and Colorado. “It’s tough to say now. They’re continuing to progress, but (I’ll) probably have more of an answer Wednesday when we get back to practice and go from there,” Hynes said. “There’s no one I’ve been told is definitely in, but they’re all progressing. We do have a full team practice again on Wednesday and I think that will probably tell quite a bit about who’s ready and who might not be.” Kaprizov remains the team’s leading scorer despite being out of the lineup with a lower-body injury since playing and scoring in a win over Chicago on Dec. 23. Related Articles Minnesota Wild | No late letdown this time, as Wild pull away from Avalanche in the third Minnesota Wild | In Nashville, hero to villain to hero again for Wild’s Yakov Trenin Minnesota Wild | Another early lead fades in Nashville as Wild lose third in a row Minnesota Wild | Tennessee-Minnesota connections abound when Wild and Predators meet Minnesota Wild | Wild like the way things are trending as Faber, Lauko return for Nashville trip