By Tony Abbott -
Two games into the season, and it's important to take a deep breath and remember that, good or bad, we can't overindex on anything we've seen so far. It's easy to get caught up in the hype of a small sample size and let it deceive you.
That happened last season, when Matt Boldy put together not two, but 20 games where he absolutely went off. With 11 goals and 22 points through 20 games, it looked like Boldy was going to live up to Bill Guerin's 50/50 prediction. Then the slump hit, and he notched just seven goals and 23 points through the Wild's next 35 games. It looked like he'd made 'The Leap,' but it wound up being just an illusion.
It's going to take a lot longer than two games, or even a month, for us to be certain that Boldy is taking 'The Leap.' But damn, if Boldy is truly going to get to that next level this year, it's going to look a lot like what we've seen through his first two games.
Boldy's doing a lot of things that we've seen from him before. His power moves and supreme puckhandling are still there. The two goals were pretty comfortably in Boldy's arsenal before -- a redirection goal from the inner slot against the St. Louis Blues and slamming in loose change around the net against the Columbus Blue Jackets.
Combined with an excellent shot, those are the skills that put Boldy on track for around 30 goals and 70 points per year. But the Wild need Boldy to elevate his game to advance deeper into the playoffs. And who could blame Boldy if he saw Kaprizov's salary become his, but with a "1" in front of it, and feel some extra motivation to close that gap?
Over the first two games, it doesn't appear that Boldy has built on his skill set, but rather his mindset. Boldy can run circles around defenders with his supernatural puck protection abilities and somehow make it look ordinary. He doesn't look content with that, not in these two games. Instead, Boldy seems on a mission to use his absurd puck-handling to flat-out embarrass players on every shift.
It almost looks like he's pushing the boundaries of his game, like a top prospect feeling out what they can and can't get away with in the NHL. On that highlight reel above, you can see Boldy leading the rush for Minnesota midway through the second period. Typically, we see Boldy try to go around defenders with a power skating move or find some space to stickhandle through defenders. What we don't often see is him trying to dangle through a defender one-on-one.
But what the heck? Boldy tries a fancy move to get through Mathieu Joseph, and while he doesn't stick the landing, the attempt earns the Wild a power play. You know someone's feeling themselves when they fail at something, and something good happens anyway.
And of course, some of those attempts at those little extra flourishes to toy with defenders work out perfectly.
Minus the fancy stick work, this play might not look particularly impressive. It was a 5-on-3, and the ultimate result is that Boldy makes a fairly unobstructed pass to Kaprizov, who has all the open net in the world to fire at. Easy peasy.
But 21 seconds earlier, we saw Kaprizov take a shot from basically the same spot on the ice, and from a similar pass from Zeev Buium. However, Buium was firmly on Kaprizov's side of the ice, giving Elvis Merzlikins no reason to move laterally. Because of this, the goalie stays tight to the post and just barely makes the save on Kaprizov.
Watch that goal again, and focus not on Boldy's puckhandling, but what it does to Merzlikins. When your eyes are on Boldy's hands, it looks like he's toying with Ivan Provorov for fun. He's not. He's problem-solving in real time.
Yes, he's trying to take Provorov out of the play and, in particular, his passing lane to Kaprizov. But by going to the middle of the ice, he's drawing Merzlikins to the middle of the net. 21 seconds ago, he had sealed Kaprizov's side of the net tight. This time, Kaprizov has so much room that a blindfolded Ryan Reaves could've scored.
We even saw this new M.O. in the preseason, when Boldy did a spin-o-rama at the blue line to collect a Kaprizov pass on the breakaway to score. Sure, it's the preseason, but that's still against NHL stalwarts Neal Pionk, Logan Stanley, and Connor Hellebuyck. While Boldy normally makes the spectacular look ordinary, he's just looking spectacular so far.
That small change aside, how can we be sure that this hot start won't fade into memory with another midseason slump? We won't know for quite a while, but it is comforting that Boldy is picking up where he left off last season. That midseason slump started reversing just before the 4 Nations Faceoff break, when Boldy had a three-point game that carried over into a strong showing for Team USA. From then until the end of the regular season, he scored nine goals and 28 points in 27 games.
When combined with his playoff breakout (five goals, seven points) and his start this season, that gives Boldy an impressive 16 goals and 41 points over his last 35 games. Those are 82-game paces of 38 goals and 96 points. He's got to do that over an 82-game season, of course, but the proof of concept is there.
Speaking of "there," the two other forwards out there on the ice with him also offer hope of a full breakout season. Kaprizov and Marco Rossi have been dominant at 5-on-5 through two games, controlling 69.9% of the expected goal share, per Evolving-Hockey. Rossi, in particular, has spent 50.2% of his even-strength time in the offensive zone, sixth in the league according to NHL EDGE. The trio is holding onto the puck, and they're not letting go, which will always lead to points for a line that talented.
Knowing Kaprizov and Rossi are on the ice may also be a part of why we see Boldy being confident enough to try injecting some extra flash into his game. Between Kaprizov's all-world skill and Rossi's nose for the net, the reward for hitting those tight windows is higher than it would be with even solid offensive performers like Mats Zuccarello and Joel Eriksson Ek. And if it doesn't work, he's skating with a pair of strong two-way forwards who can minimize any risks.
Everything is in place for a breakout year. The ability has always been there. Boldy's linemates are incredibly skilled and enjoying phenomenal chemistry. And now, Boldy's playing with a level of swagger we haven't quite seen in the past. He's got 80 more games like this to piece together, but if they're anything like the two we've seen, this is going to be the year we see Boldy go from a star to a superstar.
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