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Wild’s Kaprizov, Boldy lead solid effort: Takeaways vs. Kings

PressNewsAgency
By PressNewsAgency
Wild’s Kaprizov, Boldy lead solid effort: Takeaways vs. Kings

LOS ANGELES — In their penultimate game of the season Monday, the Minnesota Wild beat a team above them in the Western Conference standings for a change with an all-around solid effort at Crypto.com Arena.

Kirill Kaprizov scored a goal and assist, Matt Boldy and Ryan Hartman scored the other goals and Filip Gustavsson — in his last start of his 2023-24 campaign — made 23 saves as the Wild defeated the Kings, 3-1, in their final road game. Blake Lizotte ruined Gustavsson’s shutout bid with 5:24 to go.

Marco Rossi played his best game in some time with a pair of assists, including one where he fought off a check before Kaprizov intentionally banked his 45th goal off the back of Cam Talbot’s head from behind the goal line.

The Wild finished their final road trip of the season with a 3-2-1 record and ended the season 19-18-4 on the road.

The team spent the night in California and will fly back to Minnesota on Tuesday morning before practicing Wednesday in preparation for Thursday’s last game of the season against the Seattle Kraken.

A few more notes:

  • The Wild finished the season with nine wins in 31 games against the nine teams ahead of them in the West. They had lost 12 of their last 13 games against those teams before Monday’s victory.
  • The Wild went 4 for 4 on the penalty kill.
  • Freddy Gaudreau, who missed two games after the birth of his first child, Felix, joined the Wild in L.A. and played against the Kings. He skated on the fourth line with Jake Lucchini and Mason Shaw. Mats Zuccarello missed his third game in a row for similar family reasons. Coach John Hynes hadn’t talked to Zuccarello, but even though he hasn’t played or practiced since last Tuesday’s game in Colorado, he anticipates that Zuccarello will play in Thursday’s finale against Seattle.
  • Marc-Andre Fleury, who hasn’t finalized his decision yet whether to retire or re-sign with the Wild, will start Thursday’s finale.

Boldy plays with jam

On the day Hynes said during a Q&A in The Athletic that for Boldy to become a true star he needs to add a power game to his repertoire, Boldy did just that against the Kings. Boldy entered the game with 32 hits this season. On his first shift, when Mikey Anderson tried to step up on him at the blue line, Boldy floored him, then later checked him hard into the glass and followed up with a two-handed slash. Boldy showed from the outset he came to play with fire. As Hynes said, “He has the ability to make skill plays, but for him to continue to be on track, to be a dominant player, to be dominant in the playoffs, where…I understand he has not been, I think that with his power game, playing a big power forward combined with his skills, he could be a real force to be reckoned with.” Boldy’s goal was a beauty, his 29th of the season after solid plays by Brock Faber and Rossi. If he scores Thursday, he’ll register the 12th 30-goal season in Wild history and his second in a row.

Faber-Ohgren impress, coincidentally, in L.A.

It was two summers ago that the Wild traded Kevin Fiala to the Kings for Faber and a first-round pick that they turned into Liam Ohgren. Both players were in Monday’s lineup and both players impressed. One game after a solid effort in San Jose, Faber was outstanding on both sides of the puck. Just look at the special rush up the ice he executed on the sequence above en route to Boldy’s goal for a 1-0 lead. And one game after scoring his first career goal (a game-winner) and his first career multi-point game in San Jose, Ohgren again flashed his skill and smarts in L.A. During one shift in the first period, he stole two pucks for two counterattacks, was alert enough on the first to wait for Marcus Johansson to get onside before entering the zone and won a puck battle behind the net.

Wild go 11 forwards, seven defensemen again

With the Wild getting little secondary scoring, Hynes has gone with 11 forwards and seven defensemen a number of times of late. One big reason is to get Kaprizov and Boldy more ice time, especially when they have more than one day off on the horizon like they do Tuesday and Wednesday. But the benefit of sitting Adam Beckman and Vinni Lettieri on this night was to allow rookies Ohgren and Marat Khusnutdinov to play almost every shift with either Kaprizov and Boldy on their wing. It’s been a point of contention by Wild fans ever since Khusnutdinov debuted that he has had to play many games next to underachieving Johansson and Gaudreau. That was hardly the case Monday against the Kings.

Said Hynes, “You’re trying to evaluate these guys too a little bit, but also giving Kirill a couple extra shifts, Boldy a couple extra shifts, you’re putting two really good players on the ice a little bit more than they normally would. And I think playing with Ohgren and Khusnutdinov helps them, too, and now you can see those two players play with that style or that level of a player and I think it gives you a little bit more of an evaluation of them, too, and how they think the game, how they play in most situations. And both have played very well with Boldy and with Kaprizov.”

Three stars

1. Kirill Kaprizov, Wild: The star set the tone early with oodles of scoring chances. He then assisted on Hartman’s goal in the second after Joel Eriksson Ek picked Anze Kopitar’s pocket, executed one heck of a backcheck to crush Fiala and ruin a Kings’ scoring chance early in the third, and made it 3-0 by slyly banking a shot in off Talbot.

2. Filip Gustavsson, Wild: After allowing nine goals in his previous two starts, Gustavsson rebounded with a strong effort. His best save came early in the third to preserve a 2-0 lead with a robbery on Alex Laferriere.

3. Matt Boldy, Wild: Played the type of hard game the Wild want to see consistently in the future and was rewarded with a goal.

Quotes of the night

“We played well. From the start to the end, pretty complete game. Some nice goals, some good defensive plays, some good blocks, a little bit of everything.” — Boldy

“After the Colorado game, I think reality set in a little bit. The Vegas game was what it was, but we addressed it. And the response the last two games and just the environment around the room and the focus and level to play is what it needs to be regardless of the situation. We talked about handling it the right way. We don’t like the situation that we’re in, but the only thing we can control is how we go about it. And the guys did a really good job tonight.” — Hynes

“Smart. I mean, really smart move. It’s really tough to defend. I mean, the goalie can’t defend it really. The only way to defend it is if it bounces the right way for the goalie, but smart.” — Hynes on Kaprizov’s bank shot off Talbot’s mask

“It’s been a long year. It’s been a lot of ups and downs. Some very tough nights. Some very good nights. The consistency just hasn’t been there this year. This game, it’s a good way to finish it off.” — Gustavsson

“I don’t know. He just go in the middle. I just stop. I feel I don’t do nothing. I just stop. That’s it. I ask after if he’s OK.” — Kaprizov on his big backcheck that dumped his former teammate, Fiala

“When you don’t make playoffs … you don’t care. I want to be in playoffs. I (get) a lot of points. Now you should be more happy. And now just OK, nothing crazy.” — Kaprizov, basically saying he doesn’t care about his 45 goals and 95 points because his season ends Thursday.

Required reading

(Photo: Kirby Lee / USA Today)



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