Why is the Kirill Kaprizov-Matt Boldy combo so dynamic, and what does it mean for the Wild?

New York Times

24-04-2025

ST. PAUL, Minn. — There are many reasons why the Minnesota Wild earned a split in the first two games in Las Vegas heading into Thursday's Game 3 against the Golden Knights at Xcel Energy Center.
Filip Gustavsson is standing tall. Marcus Foligno is setting records for hits. Ryan Hartman is elevating his game. Minnesota is shutting down the Golden Knights' top line, including Jack Eichel and Mark Stone.
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But the most encouraging development might be the dynamic one-two punch that Kirill Kaprizov and Matt Boldy have brought together on the top line. Kaprizov, the superstar winger, has been the team's best player for years, and might already be the franchise GOAT. But for the Wild to get past the first round — and beyond — they need Boldy to be a difference-maker, too. A Robin to Kaprizov's Batman, if you will. Kaprizov has five points (including two goals) in the first two games, while Boldy has four points (including three goals).
'They're two really good players,' coach John Hynes said. 'I think the mindset they're playing the game with is really what's important. They're playing north — direct. They're highly competitive on the puck. That's what makes those guys good. I think when you're highly talented guys like those two guys are, but they're committed to play the game that's required to win, then they're able to be big impacts.'
Matt Boldy is a big fan of this Kirill Kaprizov dish. 🤌 #StanleyCup
📺: @GoldenKnights vs. @mnwild Game 3 tomorrow at 9p ET on @SportsonMax, @Sportsnet and @TVASports 2 pic.twitter.com/dF533HIVzV
— NHL (@NHL) April 23, 2025
Boldy had a rough go in his first two playoff appearances, tallying just one goal (and four points) in 12 games in series against the St. Louis Blues (2022) and Dallas Stars (2023). But you could see an evolution with Boldy this season, as shown in his 4 Nations Face-Off run with Team USA. The Wild have always wanted him to go to the hard areas of the ice and to be determined on the puck, and that's exactly who Boldy was down the stretch. It's how Boldy can be a dominant player. He had 10 game-winning goals this season, including the OT goal in the season finale.
'You want to make a difference,' Boldy said. 'I think everyone on our team has that mentality to go out there and play their role and find a way to win. And I think for me, it's playing hard and strong on pucks and making plays and scoring goals. The more you embrace and accept it and kind of find that as a challenge, I think it helps.'
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With Boldy, Joel Eriksson Ek and Kaprizov, what's been striking is how they are all playing a direct, north-south game. They're all relentless on the forecheck, strong on puck retrievals. For every eye-popping pass Kaprizov has made, or breakaway Boldy has finished, their success is driven by how hard they are on the puck, and how difficult it is to take it away from them.
Kaprizov is one of the best in the league at that.
'He's a very dynamic player,' Vegas coach Bruce Cassidy said. 'What separates him is he's a second-, third-, fourth-effort guy. Not that other guys aren't. But as I've always said, it's a second-effort league. Very few guys roll through the door that have Mario Lemieux skills and size and all that. You need to be a second-effort guy, and he's all of that. The challenge with him is he's never out of a play.
'He's not a big guy and you might think you have him and, all of a sudden, there he goes. He's not taking no for an answer when it comes to attack mode.'
Kaprizov was a Hart Trophy frontrunner when he first got sidelined around Christmas. Neither he, nor the Wild, anticipated him missing approximately three months following surgery for his lower-body injury. But after returning in the final couple weeks of the regular season, Kaprizov is looking like the elite playmaker from early in the season. His 12 career playoff goals have now tied Marian Gaborik for second all time in Wild history, and he only trails Zach Parise (16). Kaprizov is the first Wild player to have three multi-goal playoff games.
We're 2 games into this series and Kirill Kaprizov has dropped two absolute DIMES to Matt Boldy 😮‍💨🥫 pic.twitter.com/We2BWqWx3w
— B/R Open Ice (@BR_OpenIce) April 23, 2025
'That's the Kirill we expect and know,' Mats Zuccarello said. I hope you guys are not surprised. We've seen this for so many years.'
Kaprizov smiled and downplayed his saucer pass to Boldy for Tuesday's breakaway goal, saying he was just trying to get it to him. 'It might be the best pass I've ever seen,' Boldy said. Kaprizov laughed when he was asked if he is the 'new 'Zuccy'' for Boldy, the setup man. 'Boldy is a good passer, too,' he said. Boldy was tasked with stepping up while Kaprizov was injured, and the Russian winger took notice of how Boldy played.
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'He played before in the season some good games,' Kaprizov said. 'And now especially, he wins battles, drove to the net. Holding pucks. Gives some chances to me and (Eriksson Ek). He plays great. It's just two games, guys, I don't like to talk much, especially when the series is going. Just keep playing.'
They don't hand out the Conn Smythe Trophy after two games, and there's a long way to go before the Wild can win this series. But it's certainly been the right move by Hynes to put Boldy and Kaprizov together, as opposed to splitting them up for scoring depth.
'The biggest thing with our line is just getting pucks back, forechecking hard, hanging on to pucks,' Boldy said. 'You can do that and you can stay in the zone and get second, third chances from getting pucks back off shots and retrievals and stuff. It's hard as a defender when you're up there versus guys like that. You end up being in the zone for a while. So when we're playing heavy and strong and then the skill takes over from there — but I think that's the foundation for us.'
The Golden Knights really haven't done a strict matchup line against Kaprizov and Boldy, spreading it out among a few lines during Games 1 and 2. They don't have the benefit of last change in the next two games in Minnesota, so that could prove more challenging. In the first two games, the Wild's top line had 62.4-percent expected goals share at five-on-five, and out-chanced opponents 22-8 (73.3 percent).
'They're just unpredictable,' Vegas defenseman Noah Hanifin said. 'They're real creative and make a lot of east-to-west plays. They have high-skill players who read off each other well. It's something we have to be better on them, and harder on them, because they drive a lot of their offense.'
'You're giving their best players easy offense,' Cassidy said. 'And in the playoffs, that's a bad formula.'
Boldy was impressed with how hard Eriksson Ek and Kaprizov worked to get healthy and back in the lineup after both missed significant time in the second half. 'It's hard mentally, physically, everything,' Boldy said. But if Kaprizov indicated he was feeling a little rusty in his first few games back, it definitely hasn't looked that way in the first two games of the series.
Especially that how-did-he-do-that pass on Tuesday night.
'He's a special player, obviously,' Boldy said. 'You see all the plays he makes, how hard he works. But for him to have the poise and to make that pass right on my tape, it was unbelievable.'