ST. PAUL, Minn. — The biggest storyline Thursday was Quinn Hughes’ first game against Vancouver since the former Canucks captain was dealt to Minnesota in a mid-December blockbuster.
The game also brought Marco Rossi, Zeev Buium and Liam Öhgren back to the Twin Cities. But all coach John Hynes cared about was the slumping Wild looking more like themselves after a four-day reset, and specifically Matt Boldy and Kirill Kaprizov after recent dry spells.
Well, mission accomplished.
Both gave the Wild their first multiple 40-goal scorers in the same season in team history as Boldy scored his first two goals in eight games and Kaprizov his second goal in the past seven during a 5-2 victory over the Vancouver Canucks. The win clinched a playoff spot for Minnesota for a league-high 12th time since 2013.
“It’s the best time of year,” Kaprizov said.
Boldy’s 39th goal came five-hole after great forechecks by Joel Eriksson Ek and Marcus Johansson. His 40th, with the Wild trailing 2-1, came 23 seconds into the second period on a breakaway.
“You want to score and make a difference, especially the stretch where we weren’t at our best,” Boldy, who also had an assist and six shots, said. “Sometimes that’s how it is and you’ve got to fight your way through it. Those four days is a mental reset and get your body right, and stuff like that, I think, is huge for our group and we made the most of it.”
Kaprizov’s goal — the eventual winner — came off a beautiful give-and-go with Mats Zuccarello. It was the fourth time Kaprizov hit the 40-goal mark, tying him with Nikita Kucherov for third-most by an active player born outside North America. He acknowledged it has been fun, having a little back and forth with Boldy.
“We both play power play and together sometimes same line,” Kaprizov, who also had an assist and five shots, said. “And I think it’s pretty good when two guys score so many goals and just help each other. One guy want to score and the other guy want to score again. You know, it’s good.”
Ryan Hartman scored two goals, Hughes was plus-4 and set a Wild defenseman record with his 46th assist, and Filip Gustavsson made 30 saves for his 100th win with the Wild.
“It’s funny how that works out,” Gustavsson said. “You get a small opportunity and then it goes well. What is it, three years later, and a lot of fun along the way. One hundred wins — that’s a lot of wins.”
Hynes was happy with the Wild’s mindset all game, and he felt the four days off was especially good for Boldy.
“I thought Bolds was working through it,” Hynes said. “And I thought tonight you saw kind of the pop and the little bit quicker, sharper in the way that he can play.”
The Wild leave for Ottawa on Friday for back-to-back games against the Senators and Detroit Red Wings.
Hughes loves it in Minny
One of the big questions heading into what could be an eventful offseason for the Wild is whether Hughes will end up extending his contract in Minnesota. The 2024 Norris Trophy winner is due to be a free agent after next season.
Early returns are encouraging.
“I’ve loved it,” Hughes said Thursday morning. “It’s a great group of guys, all the coaching staff, obviously I’m tight with (president of hockey operations and general manager Bill Guerin), and I just think it’s a good place to play and really enjoyed it. And I felt the month of January was really good for me to kind of get acclimated and obviously everything that happened in February was unbelievable. But you get acclimated, then you leave and then you’re trying to get reacclimated. So, that’s kind of what I’m dealing with right now. But really enjoying it. Kind of just obviously looking forward to play playoff hockey here but obviously got to focus on the next eight as well.”
Hughes has been a game-changer for the Wild, a workhorse on the blue line. He’s averaging a career-high 27:47 per game. Hughes has also logged 30 or more minutes in eight of his 42 games in Minnesota.
But Hughes feels he can handle it.
“I feel physically fine,” Hughes said. “I just think the challenging part this year has been just the schedule being every other day and it’s like it’s another game, another game, another game. I think that’s more mental than physical. Then obviously just being in Vancouver for three months then here for a month and then gone for a month and back here. I think that’s the other part.”
The past few weeks have been up and down for Hughes, like the rest of the team, which has seemed to have lost its mojo a bit since the Olympic break. Hughes is minus-3 in his past nine games after his plus-4 Thursday.
How has Hughes felt about his game?
“I think that it’s not easy being traded, especially when you’ve been somewhere for so long,” Hughes said. “But I felt like in January I was playing as good as I can. Felt like I played as good as I can at the Olympics. I think since I’ve been back … there’s the crazy high and there’s a little bit of a lull for a little bit there. Now you’re ramping up for playoffs, so your desperation has to be high. You have to be ready to go and I’m excited for that.”
Solid game for Hartman
Hartman, the likely No. 1 center come Game 1 of the playoffs, had one of his best games for the Wild.
He cemented himself at the net front en route to his 19th goal in the third period when he redirected Zuccarello’s shot, then scored his 20th goal on a 138-foot empty-netter a minute after missing one from about 180 feet.
“I was trying to hold my ground and get to the inside, and Zuccy, obviously, you know, sees me in front, makes a good, patient play to get a little bit of a shot through the legs of the forward there,” Hartman said of his first goal. “He was shooting for a stick, so I’m glad I was able to extend the lead, kind of give us a little insurance.”
Hartman, who also won 11 faceoffs, made amends for losing Tom Willander on a four-on-four, tying goal in the first period. The Wild had a 1-0 lead at that point with a power play for a chance to extend the lead. But Eriksson Ek tripped Öhgren 190 feet from his net, and the Canucks tied the score, then took the lead on the ensuing power play.
Return of Rossi, Buium and Öhgren
The Wild gave a combo video tribute for Buium, Rossi and Öhgren on Thursday. They all said it was “weird” being back, but they appreciated the fans’ support and what the Wild organization did for them after drafting them in the first round.
“It was crazy,” Buium said of his return. “I remember getting out there for warmups, to see the fans and people still in your jersey and your name in the stands. It gives you a little bit of a tingle. It was cool.”
Both Rossi and Öhgren are in top-six roles as forwards the Canucks are building around. With the loss, Vancouver clinched the 32nd spot in the standings and the best chance for the lottery, and the Wild are contenders.
“They’re a really good team,” Rossi said. “You can see, they’re a really hard forechecking team. They’re a really good, strong, well-coached team.”
The former Wild players saw this turnaround coming from the very difficult October.
“(Hynes) did a pretty good job on engraving certain things into our heads, so it’s kind of funny to kind of see what they were going to do and know what they were trying to do was working,” Buium said. “They’re a tough team to play against. I think everyone knows that. You’ve got Kirill and Zuccy and Hartzy on one line, then you have to go against Boldy, Ekky and JoJo. Then you got (Yakov Trenin) and you got (Marcus Foligno). They just don’t stop coming.”
Lineup shuffling
Hynes has been experimenting with his lineup the last several games because he wants players to be familiar with one another, instead of potentially playing together for the first time in the playoffs. But with Jared Spurgeon back in the lineup after missing Saturday’s game in Boston after sustaining a cut to his head, Hynes reunited the defense pairs he used since Hughes’ pickup.
After using Spurgeon on Hughes’ right the past five games, Hughes was back with Brock Faber and Spurgeon was back with Jonas Brodin.
Nick Foligno got the night off and Danila Yurov returned to the lineup after being scratched the previous two games. Now that the Wild have clinched a playoff berth, we’ll see if Hynes starts giving some players games off for some of the scratches recently: defensemen Daemon Hunt and Jeff Petry and forwards Nico Sturm and Robby Fabbri.
Hynes said they’ve “talked at length” as a staff about resting players and have a plan, but they want to get through at least this weekend first to see if they can continue to grow their game and pick up some points. So we’ll probably see the playoff-style lineup against the Senators and Red Wings on Saturday and Sunday. Hynes said they’ve talked to some players about what they want to do down the stretch. It’ll be interesting, for example, if the Wild decide to rest a few of their stars against their likely playoff opponent, the Stars, on Thursday in Dallas.
For what it’s worth, Yurov played well in his return to the lineup, with his line alongside Bobby Brink and Vladimir Tarasenko doing everything but score. Yurov won only two of his eight draws, and that’s something that’ll likely play into the playoff lineup; Nick Foligno has been good in the circle.