Perhaps the worst part of the Wild’s playoff run last season, other than it coming to an end after just 11 games, was the fun opponents had when Minnesota had a man in the penalty box.
Of the 16 teams that made the NHL playoffs last spring, the Wild were 15th among them in terms of keeping teams off the scoreboard when down a man. For those who had watched Team USA win gold in the Olympics, with a penalty kill run by Wild coach John Hynes that had been perfect in Milan, it was puzzling at best.
So Hynes and company made the PK a training camp emphasis. And two games into a season in which the Wild are undefeated, it’s working. After going 4-for-4 in the season-opening 3-1 win in Nashville, the Wild penalty-killers were 3-for-3 in beating the Bruins on Saturday at home.
“Overall, I think it’s been pretty good,” Hynes said with some understatement, following the 4-1 dispatch of Boston, before his team heads out on a three-game roadie. He noted that the penalty kill stayed perfect in large part due to the work of goalie Jesper Wallstedt in certain situations.
A time-tested hockey truism is that your goaltender needs to be your best penalty-killer. Wallstedt is all that so far, and is seemingly having a blast doing it.
“I feel like we just have a good pressure constantly on them,” Wallstedt said, after improving to 2-0 with a 26-save effort. “I feel like we force their mistakes, or we force them to make good plays to hopefully spots where we know where they’re going to we can pressure on that.”
Hynes picked Wallstedt, then a rookie, as the teams playoff goalie because we now know that veteran Filip Gustavsson wasn’t fully healthy. With Gustavsson recovering from hip surgery still, the net was Wallstedt’s to take at the start of this season. And the coach sees the young Swede reading plays and anticipating where the next shot will come from when the opponent is a man up.
Minnesota Wild head coach John Hynes looks on during the second period of an NHL hockey game against the Ottawa Senators Saturday, Dec. 13, 2025, in St. Paul, Minn. (AP Photo/Matt Krohn)
“They had a couple looks that he made some big saves on. He’s kind of picking up where he left off as far as the penalty kill,” Hynes said in the postgame press conference. “He’s been very solid. Last year and obviously the first two games this year on the penalty kill, understanding the reads. A lot of it, too, is understanding if there is a breakdown where’s the shot going to come from and like our 5-on-5 game, we’re trying to get our penalty kill more predictable so if it’s an up and over and down, he knows if we get beat, this is the option I gotta be ready for.”
There’s no scenario where the Wild will go the next 82 games without giving up a PPG. But for now the training camp special teams work and the fun that’s being had in the crease are clicking for Minnesota.
“He’s been on top of his game,” Hynes said of Wallstedt, who has allowed two goals or fewer in his past eight regular season starts. “And he’s made big saves when he’s had to.”