By Tom Schreier -
Gustav Nyquist stood inches inside the blueline before Ryan Hartman scored what looked like the game-winning goal with 1:16 left in the third.
The officials reviewed it. Nyquist had skated offside. No goal.
Never mind that 40-year-old Marc-Andre Fleury had stepped in for Filip Gustavsson as he battled illness after the second intermission. Or that the Minnesota Wild had held the Vegas Golden Knights, who had 25 shots in the first 40 minutes, without a shot on net until there was 6:15 left in the game.
Forget that the malfeasant Hartman has looked reformed. He was composed after the officials didn’t call Nicolas Hague for cross-checking him in the face. His delay-of-game penalty felt out of character. Hartman almost deserved that goal.
Still, we shouldn’t see this as anything more than the Wild coming close to stealing another game from Vegas. The Golden Knights had a better Corsi, Fenwick, and more high-danger scoring chances in Game 4.
It was the same story on Tuesday night. The Golden Knights had better Corsi (65 to 43), Fenwick (40 to 26), and high-danger scoring chances (10 to 5). Again, the Wild nearly escaped with an overtime victory. They lost 4-3 in Game 4 and 3-2 in Game 5.
Nobody will blame you if you woke up with a headache, feeling like you had a night out in Sin City. The Wild are doing the same thing a different way, but it still makes your head throb.
They were up 2-1 on the St. Louis Blues and Dallas Stars. However, John Hynes is getting everything he can from his team, unlike Dean Evason against Craig Berube’s Blues. Marcus Foligno took a lousy penalty after Hartman’s delay of game, but Foligno and Hartman haven’t spiraled like they did against Dallas two years ago.
Still, you’ve seen this before, and you know the odds. Teams that win Game 5 after being tied 2-2 go on to win 80% of the time. MoneyPuck gives the Wild a 16.1% chance of advancing. The sportsbooks favor Vegas to end the series on Thursday night.
The Wild have put forth a valiant effort this year. They’ve nearly stolen two games in a row. However, even nearly full strength and with Kirill Kaprizov and Matt Boldy playing their best, Minnesota isn’t as good as the Golden Knights. It’s almost impossible for a cap-strapped team like the Wild to compete in the playoffs.
Unfortunately, that won’t quell the headache. It’s fair to ask what Minnesota’s development plan was for Jesper Wallstedt, its star goalie prospect, who was in their plans until he wasn’t. It would be nice to have him spell Gustavsson or back up the 40-year-old Fleury.
We may never know why the Wild won’t commit to Marco Rossi, although it’s probably because he was small and Bill Guerin prefers large players. We don’t know if Guerin will come to the same conclusion on Zeev Buium, who’s 6-foot-0, 186 lbs., or if Danila Yurov’s game will translate once he arrives from Russia.
The Wild will have a normal cap situation next year. Therefore, we should expect them to contend. However, they’ll need to sign Kaprizov to a large extension and will have a talent shortage if their three blue-chip prospects, Wallstedt, Buium, and Yurov, don’t pan out. If they want to move Rossi, it will be hard to trade him for a larger, equally talented center without taking away from an area of need.
However, those are tomorrow’s problems. You can sleep them off. The Wild can still steal Games 6 and 7. It’s unlikely, but they’ve shown us it’s not impossible. Until then, don’t think about how they traded a second-round pick for Nyquist.
It was an honest mistake, but it won’t help with the headache.
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