The result for Buium was much the same as for his new team: Not bad. But not good enough.
Tomas Hertl gave Vegas a 1-0 lead in the first period with a bad-angle shot over Wild goalie Filip Gustavsson’s shoulder.
The Wild responded with the kind of play they need to create and take advantage of often. Ryan Hartman carried the puck over the blue line, wisely dished to Kaprizov along the right wall, and Kaprizov made one of his quintessential skill-and-savvy plays, faking a slap shot and sliding the puck across the ice to Boldy, who buried the puck to tie the score.
Despite typically physical play from Vegas, neither team drew a penalty until the second period, when Wild center Joel Eriksson Ek was called for high-sticking.
About five seconds later, Pavel Dorofeyev buried a slick pass from Shea Theodore to make it 2-1.
Going into the third period of a road playoff opener down one goal could have been considered promising, but Vegas scored early in the third to make it 3-1, on Brett Howden’s fast-break goal with 17:32 remaining.