Kirill Kaprizov<\/a>\u00a0said. \u201cHe’s always, he was unreal last year too. His playoffs and all season was really good. This year I think he has more confidence, and when you need a save from your goalie, he does it all the time. Sometimes like it’s almost an empty net against him and it\u2019s just a quick strike and he saves it.\u00a0<\/p>\n\u201cHe\u2019s unbelievable.\u201d<\/p>\n
Fifteen games in, Minnesota (9-3-3) sits atop the Central Division and Western Conference entering Saturday.\u00a0Wallstedt, for his efforts, leads goalies in games played (13), starts (13) and time on ice (784:28), is second in wins (8-2-3 record), and ranks 10th in both goals-against average (2.14) and save percentage (.916).\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cHe’s just very consistent,\u201d Wild coach John Hynes said. \u201cI think he’s playing a consistent, solid game. He sees traffic well. He’s in his net well. I think he reads the plays very good. And when he has that mindset and he’s playing that style of game, it’s really consistent for him.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was a great experience for him even last year in the playoffs where the intensity of the games and the intensity of the series were important, but he’s really learned how to manage himself from game to game, energy wise and mentally. That’s been a big step for him.\u201d<\/p>\n
The last one, perhaps, has already been cleared: becoming an undisputed No. 1 goaltender.<\/p>\n
One, potentially, that\u2019ll have kids back home in Sweden staying up late to catch on TV.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t think I\u2019ve thought that long yet,\u201d Wallstedt said. \u201cI know I have friends and family and neighbors and kids back home that, every time I come home, they\u2019re excited to see me and chat. I know they\u2019re back home there. I appreciate everyone that watches me and wants to be like me, but I think it\u2019s a far line of sight to get all the way back there right now.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s making sure I\u2019m taking care of the every day and winning games.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s my main objective.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Wallstedt has continued that run this season. With Gustavsson sidelined with a lower-body injury and no projected timetable…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":953041,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[433],"tags":[49,48,448,82],"class_list":["post-953040","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nhl","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-nhl","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/953040","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=953040"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/953040\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/953041"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=953040"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=953040"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=953040"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}