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The Johansson-Eriksson-Ek Boldy series delivers Wild's season-opening win: 3 takeaways

Posted on by Kennedy
The Johansson-Eriksson-Ek Boldy series delivers Wild's season-opening win: 3 takeaways

ST. PAUL, Minn. – On a night when the Minnesota Wild barely had their “A” game against the big, young, vibrant Columbus Blue Jackets, they found a way to play enough good hockey to get off to a 3-2 start to the season achieve win.

The second line of Marcus Johansson, Joel Eriksson Ek and Matt Boldy performed consistently well, combining for two goals in the first two periods, improving the Wild to 17-2-4 all-time in home openers (excluding one in regulation). defeat in the ranked season). their home opener in Finland in 2010).

They are now 10-1-1 in the 12 games played in their first game of the season at the Xcel Energy Center.

Filip Gustavsson made 31 saves, Boldy scored a goal and two assists, Eriksson Ek and Mats Zuccarello scored the other goals and Johansson had two assists on the night that former Wild coach Dean Evason debuted in his old stomping grounds as Columbus coach.

It was an emotional game as Columbus played its first regular season game since the deaths of star winger Johnny Gaudreau and his brother Matthew on Aug. 29. The Wild honored the Gaudreau brothers with a video tribute before the game and then held a 13-second moment of silence.

It was fitting that Boldy had such a strong game. Boldy, who attended Boston College, idolized Gaudreau as a BC star growing up outside of Boston and was honored to be on his line at the World Championships in the Czech Republic in May.

Boldy led the tournament in goalscoring for the United States and assisted Gaudreau's final goal – a shorthanded goal on May 19 against Kazakhstan.

The Johansson-Eriksson Ek-Boldy line was simply great throughout and together provided a highlight goal from Eriksson Ek.

The Wild now have an 8-0-2 point streak against the Blue Jackets.

They next host the Seattle Kraken on Saturday night before embarking on a 17-day, seven-game trip, including a rematch in Columbus next weekend.

“Gus Bus” looks good in its debut

The Wild plan to have three goaltenders for most of this season, although Jesper Wallstedt is expected to spend some time in Iowa and will be “reassigned” at times to add a player – in terms of roster and internationals – to their 23-man roster . This happened for the first time in the season opener, allowing the Wild to bring back defenseman Daemon Hunt, who was a scratch due to Declan Chisholm being ill.

But even though the Wild struggled at times in their own end and especially in the middle of the ice, Gustavsson was outstanding with 31 saves. Last season, Gustavsson made 41 saves in a season-opening 2-0 home win over the Florida Panthers.

This is a big year for Gustavsson, who is trying to bounce back after going 20-18-4 with a 3.06 goals-against average and .899 save percentage last season.

Two assists from week to week until the first goal

The Wild scared the crap out of fans early in the second week of training camp when they announced that Boldy had suffered a “week-to-week” lower-body injury that he sustained on the third day of training camp. “Week to week” during the second week of an 18-day camp would normally mean his return would reach a decent chunk of the season, but a half-hour later, Wild coach John Hynes made it clear that they expected Boldy to The season would be ready to begin.

Well, a week after the injury, Boldy was back on the ice, and although he didn't play a single preseason game, he was ready for the opener and managed a multi-point game. Hynes and Bill Guerin have hinted, subtly and not so subtly, that this could be the year we see a big breakout from a 23-year-old who has scored 60 goals and 132 points over the past two seasons combined.

So far, so good.

Wild power play comes to the fore

It wasn't the best game for the Wild, but they seemed to wake up after a Blue Jackets power-play goal for a 2-1 lead was canceled out in the second period when Hynes challenged James van Riemsdyk to interfere with Gustavsson. He did it.

The Wild finally got their own power play in the third period when Johansson converted a crosscheck penalty. The Wild's power play, which was first in the NHL in the preseason at 52.9 percent, scored a sensational goal for a 3-1 lead that became the winner when Zach Werenski scored a late power play goal.

Minnesota's top unit, which led the NHL in power plays in the offensive zone last season, was on the ice for 1:49 and fatigued the penalty kill enough to allow Zuccarello to win a race for the puck in a quick regroup.

Kirill Kaprizov met Boldy, who played a brilliant pass to Zuccarello, scoring his first goal of the season.

(Photo by Joel Eriksson Ek and Matt Boldy: Matt Krohn / Imagn Images)

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