WILD WEDNESDAY - Boldy Buries the Biscuit on Baldy’s Ballsy Move
That’s a Rule?
The Wild need every single point they possibly can get, and they showed how desperate they are against the fourth and final matchup against Nashville on Sunday. The Wild were leading 3-2 late into the third period when Joel Eriksson Ek was called for a questionable hooking on Filip Forsberg with a little over two minutes to go in the third period. As Juuse Saros was heading to the bench to give the Predators a two-man advantage, Ryan O’Reilly found the back of the net on a wrist shot to force overtime.
While it is unfortunate the Wild allowed Nashville to get a point out of this game, coach John Hynes made a risky, but exciting decision that paid off. With just under a minute and a half left in OT, Hynes pulled Fleury to have four forwards out on the ice – Ek, Boldy, Karprizov and Zuccarello. After a few passes around the perimeter, Zuccarello passed across ice to Boldy for the beautiful slapshot goal.
This is incredibly risky because if Nashville had scored in the empty net, the Wild would have forfeited their point. If it had gone to a shootout, the Wild would have been able to keep the point regardless of the outcome, but the league discourages teams from doing this by adding the risk factor because the game is not normally played 3 on 3.
The last time a team did this was in 2017, when the LA Kings pulled their goalie with .9 seconds for an offensive zone faceoff. The Kings won the faceoff and Tyler Toffoli scored beating the buzzer. Since this is so rare to see in the NHL, many players did not even know this rule.
“Ahhh, that makes sense,” Fleury told Michael Russo in an interview. “Otherwise, since you have the point, you’d pull your goalie all the time.”
Boldy also did not know the rule and was shocked when told.
“...Good thing we scored,” Boldy said.
With the Wild currently six points behind LA and Vegas and seven points behind Nashville for the last two wildcard spots and only 16 games left, this was a respectable decision that took some serious guts.
“One point, no point, it’s not doing us any good,” Hynes told Russo. “Two points are what we need.”
A Stunner of a Presser
Marat Khustnutdinov has only been in Minnesota for a few days and is already talking to the press – in English! He had to ask his translator for help a few times, but it is impressive knowing that it took Kaprizov almost three years to hold a press conference in English.
Khusnutdinov’s presser was pretty funny because he can only convey so much in English, but it made it for some pretty good quotes.
“Good City. Twin City, right?” Khustnutdinov said when asked how he likes the city so far. I am not sure if he knows the difference between Minneapolis and St. Paul quite yet, but Twin City will do for now.
When he was asked about Kaprizov, he responded with “Good guy. Good Driver. Free Taxi.” I think we have a potential fan favorite on our hands.
He also mentioned how he was supposed to go to dinner with Kaprizov, but he accidentally slept through it.
“We had lunch and after lunch Kaprizov say go sleep, maybe one hour. I sleep four or five.” Khustnutdinov said.
Clearly, he is still adjusting to the time zone difference, but we may see him in the lineup for tomorrow night’s game against Anaheim, especially with Ek getting injured in last night’s game. There is no update on Ek, but he left the game in the third period after colliding with Nick Bjugstad along the boards.
It will be interesting to see where Khustnutdinov fits into the lineup depending on Ek’s status. The Hartman, Rossi and Zuccarello line has been playing really well, so Hynes probably won't break them up, meaning Khusnutdinov could find a spot on the third line or even the first line if Ek is out for any length of time.
Kraken Choked
After the Wild beat Arizona 4-1 last night, they climbed within four points of Vegas for the last playoff spot, but then the Kraken blew a two-goal lead against Vegas with less than ten minutes to go. Vegas tied the game with 17 seconds left to then win in overtime, sending the Wild back to six points out of a playoff spot. The Wild’s next three games are against Anaheim tomorrow night, St. Louis on Saturday and Anaheim again on Tuesday.
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