The end of the season for the Minnesota Wild hasn’t been perfect. There’ve been a few losses, some goalie bobbles, and some weird penalties taken. But overall, the vibes have been great since the trade deadline and have only gotten better heading into the playoffs.
Besties for the Resties
One aspect of team sports that is often pooh-poohed is that a good locker room is actually a good thing, contributing to success and helping during the bad times. The fact that the team gets along and has fun together helps with on-ice cohesion while also pulling them through when they’re down, going into the third period, or losing a game that they should’ve won.
Several Wild players were spotted at Maynards Restaurant on Lake Minnetonka, and, in a harkening back to the “should Matt Boldy golf competitively in the off-season” debacle a few summers ago, many fans wanted their heads for enjoying some patio sunshine and a few cold beers.
Instead of policing their time off the ice, let’s be glad that the guys want to get to know each other. Cohesion off the ice leads to cohesion on the ice.
Big Sexy, the Gigantic Actor
Michael McCarron has been called Big Mac since landing in Minnesota, but I prefer Big Sexy, his nickname from his time with the Nashville Predators.
Before the Wild traded for him, McCarron was probably most well-known to Wild fans as the giant player who sold the idea that Mats Zuccarello had slashed him in the hand so well that he actually drew a penalty on the play, pretended to go down the tunnel, and then went right back out to play. At the time, it was infuriating, but it’s hilarious now that Big Sexy and Zuccy play on the same team.
Brink Was Made for Greatness
Bobby Brink‘s name fit in well with the Philadelphia Flyers. The team had Brink, Oliver Bonk, Alex Bump, and Denver Barkey all on the roster. It felt more like onomatopoeic comic book sound effects than a roster. Brink! Bonk! Bump! Barkey!
Unfortunately, Brink doesn’t seem to have any close name buddies on the Wild. But besides just being back in his hometown, Brink brings a secret weapon to the table: his middle name.
Brink has parents who not only love hockey but also can divine the future and knew that saddling him with the full name of one of the best hockey players of all time would be a blessing, not a curse.
Brothers Don’t Shake Hands, Brothers Gotta Hug!
For the first time ever, the Foligno brothers are playing on the same team. As one online commentator noted, the team now has the Bald Brother and the Super Handsome Brother.
No matter what, that’s the feel-good story of the end of this season for the league. And they’ve already scored together, and they’ve fought together.
Here’s the brothers hugging to celebrate Marcus’s goal:
Here they are fighting together, with Nick holding a guy back while Marcus punches him:
And here they are talking s— together:
Say what you want about the skills of either of these guys, but they bring a lot to the table, including leadership experience and an old-school tough guy mentality.
The Swedish Two-Goalie Solution
Some people say that if you have two goalies, you don’t have any goalies. While that probably hits so hard, it doesn’t make sense when you get down to brass tacks. The relationship between the goalies will determine the goalie situation more than anything else. Some teams have a true starting goalie along with a backup to pick up the slack. As long as both goalies know and understand their roles, it can be effective.
However, this arrangement can lead to unintended consequences down the line. Remember when the Wild traded the backup, Kaapo Kahkonen, and then picked up Marc-Andre Fleury?
Cam Talbot went from being the top goalie to being the backup to a legend. He couldn’t put aside his feelings of being slighted and ended up getting traded. In good news for the Wild, they traded him for Filip Gustavsson, who has worked out great for Minnesota.
Fast-forward to our current Swedish goalie tandem, and the fact that they function closer to a rotating tandem has been one of the team’s biggest strengths. Gustavsson understands that Jesper Wallstedt is seen as the next franchise goalie, while Wallstedt understands that Gustavsson is older and more experienced.
They both have bad spurts, but they don’t both have bad spurts at the same time. Not only do they have each other to depend on, but they also both came up under the tutelage of future Hall-of-Fame goalie Fluery, who has experienced anything and everything possible as an NHL goalie.
But Can the Wild Make It Past the First Round?
This is the question that everyone has, but no one can actually answer it.
As hard as it is and as much as Minnesota fans have suffered through first-round losses, the only way to get to the end is through the slog. There are stats pointing to good things for us in the playoffs, and others showing potential weaknesses.
But ultimately, the power of friendship is something the team will need as they battle through the hardest post-season of any sport and make their (hopefully deep) run to the Cup.