Could the Wild's season-long resilience help them upset Vegas? ‘We have nothing to lose'

New York Times

20-04-2025

SUMMERLIN, Nev. — Minnesota Wild owner Craig Leipold said it's 'very unusual' for him to address the team, regular season finale or not.
Leipold made an exception after Tuesday night's season-saving, heart-thumping overtime win over the Anaheim Ducks.
'I felt like I had to go down there,' he said. 'Games like that don't happen very often.'
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Joel Eriksson Ek's goal with 22 seconds left forced overtime and officially clinched the playoff spot, and Marc-Andre Fleury's relief appearance will forever live in Wild lore. As it turns out, if Eriksson Ek didn't score, the Wild would not have made the playoffs.
When it was Leipold's turn to talk postgame in the dressing room, one line stuck out to some players.
'If only people on the outside knew the kind of character we have on the inside,' Leipold told them.
The Wild, following their season-long theme of 'choose your hard,' didn't take the easy route here. It looked good when they were at the top of the league standings in mid-December, but an array of injuries (especially to top players Kirill Kaprizov and Eriksson Ek) threatened to derail their season. The team's ability to withstand the adversity helped them develop the confidence that they can handle anything.
'It's been up and down like crazy,' defenseman Jake Middleton said. 'There were times we thought the world was ending. There were times we thought we'd already won the league.'
Tampa Bay Lightning coach Jon Cooper has said that his championship teams had 'characters with character,' and that term could apply to this year's Wild, as Leipold brought up. Now that doesn't guarantee anything, but perhaps Minnesota gathered enough scar-tissue through its adversity and comebacks this season (they had seven comebacks wins from two-goal deficits) to give a boost going into this first round series against the Golden Knights, which starts Sunday night in Las Vegas.
The lack of resilience and mental toughness was an issue in the Wild missing the playoffs last season, as Marcus Foligno and other veterans brought up in their exit interviews. That hasn't been a problem this season, giving them hope they can end their decade-long streak of not getting out of the first round.
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'You're going to need character to get to the Stanley Cup finals,' Foligno said. 'There's no team that hasn't been tested to get there, and we feel like we're battle-tested. I think the way we're coming into the playoffs is special this time of year. That's something I'm looking at as a character team right now — that we've got good guys that care and are ready for a push for getting a Round 1 win.'
The Golden Knights are heavy favorites in this series for a reason, with the Pacific Division champions boasting 17 players who have won the Stanley Cup together. Like the Wild, they're heading into the playoffs healthy. The fact that Kaprizov and Eriksson Ek returned for the last couple weeks of the season should provide a big boost. And adding their top prospect, defenseman Zeev Buium, to the lineup for Game 1 should be an interesting new wrinkle.
Golden Knights GM Kelly McCrimmon remembered that when the Wild were in Vegas Dec. 15 , Kaprizov scored twice and was neck and neck with Leon Draisaitl for the NHL goal-scoring lead: 'I think the team we're preparing for is probably going to be a lot more like the team that we faced in the first half of the season,' McCrimmon said.
At least one wild-card team has advanced out of the first round in six of the nine years under the format, including four times in 2018-19. While no wild-card team has won the Stanley Cup, two have advanced to the final (the Florida Panthers in 2023 and the Nashville Predators in 2017).
The Wild held a lead in each of their last four playoff series, including going up 2-1 on Dallas two years ago. Minnesota feels like it has been playing playoff games for the last several weeks, as it had to fight for its spot down the stretch as the hard-charging Calgary Flames nearly caught them — and would have, had Eriksson Ek not scored to force overtime against the Ducks.
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'I think that's what makes us a dangerous team,' said Fleury, a three-time Cup champion. 'I think we're comfortable playing close games. We've done it for the past two months almost. And guys kept going, kept playing until the end. I feel like we always have a chance to win games, so that's fun.'
Zach Bogosian, who won the Stanley Cup with the Lightning in 2020, said handling adversity during the season helps teams in the playoffs because you need everyone to contribute in the postseason. And, the 'good' part about injuries is that they thrust players into different, and bigger, roles.
Matt Boldy stepped up in the final month with Kaprizov out, finishing the season with 10 game-winning goals — tied for third in the NHL. Foligno spent some time on the top line. Marcus Johansson played his best hockey in the final few weeks, including setting up the OT winner on Tuesday.
'We've got to find a different gear,' Mats Zuccarello said. 'We need everyone to play up to their standards, and maybe even more to be able to beat a team like that. We all believe in the group that we can do it, but we need everyone.'
There are a lot of on-the-ice factors that will play a big role in the series, not just good vibes of a resilient team. Vegas boasts one of the league's biggest, and best, blue lines, so getting to the inside will be critical for the Wild. Minnesota's struggles in the faceoff circle will be a challenge and something that must be remedied, coach John Hynes said. Vegas' second-ranked power play could give the Wild fits. Filip Gustavsson, one of the team's top players down the stretch, needs to win the goaltending battle against Adin Hill.
Wild vs. Golden Knights: 5 burning questions for the first-round playoff series
By ⁦@JoeSmithNHL⁩, ⁦@JesseGranger_⁩ and me https://t.co/Hbpk3xMwGZ
— Michael Russo (@RussoHockey) April 19, 2025
BetMGM has set the series odds for the Wild at +200, making them tied for the second-biggest underdogs in the first round with Montreal (vs Washington). The Devils have the longest odds, at + 230 to beat Carolina.
The pressure is clearly on Vegas, so Minnesota can approach it as if they're playing with house money.
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'We're coming in and it's just got to be a team that has no doubt, really,' Foligno said. 'We're playing against a really good Vegas team and we have nothing to lose. We just leave it all out there and at the end of the day, we've got to (put) our best hockey in a seven-game series and just be ready for it, be emotionally involved in these games and be smart, learn from past experiences.'
Foligno brought up the Wild's playoff series against Vegas in 2021, when Minnesota fell behind 3-1 and forced a Game 7. 'It was the same kind of matchup, where they were highly touted and we came in and pushed them to Game 7,' Foligno said.
'We've done it the hard way all year — and 20 seconds left in the season is when you do it the hard way,' Zuccarello said. 'That's been our season. So hopefully we can do it the hard way this series and get a win.'