A whirlwind 24 hours for John Hynes results in first win with Wild: ‘They made it easy on the coach’
ST. PAUL, Minn. — A perfect penalty kill. Matt Boldy scoring a ginormous goal. Filip Gustavsson as sharp as we’ve seen him since opening night. A fast, hard-working team with zero passengers and a conscious decision to play clean and tight away from the puck and especially in their own zone.
All of that stuff we haven’t seen from this team in weeks led to a Wild victory for a change by a 3-1 score over the rival St. Louis Blues .
One day after Dean Evason and Bob Woods paid the price for a roster full of underachievers, the John Hynes era got off with a bang Tuesday night when the Wild delivered the career coach his first NHL victory since, coincidentally, beating the Wild on April 13 in Minnesota’s regular-season finale last season and Hynes’ second-to-final game as Nashville Predators coach.
It was more importantly the Wild’s first win since Nov. 7 to snap a seven-game winless streak that had to have players wanting to throw their gloves and sticks in the air like they won the Stanley Cup ... or, ahem, a first-round playoff series.
“It’s really a pleasure to coach them,” Hynes said. “We wanted to come away with an identity that we can build off of, and I thought today the guys battled, we played a fast game with the puck, without the puck we were skating and checking. I thought the penalty kill came up big. It was nice to see those guys, and I know there was a little bit of a struggle there, but to get that big kill at the end.”
The kill “at the end” Hynes was referring to came after Boldy, who has been a lost soul this season, accidentally high-sticked former teammate Oskar Sundqvist in the forehead for a double minor with the Wild holding a 2-1 lead 7:55 into the final stanza.
Boldy sat in the box, put his head down and felt “a lot of anxiety. ... But all the credit to Gus and our penalty kill stepping up big.”
It was about time the Wild’s PK bailed out one of their own, and in this case, somebody who needed it more than anybody on the roster. The league’s worst PK held the Blues’ 6 for 65 power play to two shots in the four minutes with forwards like Joel Eriksson Ek getting in passing lanes and defensemen like Jared Spurgeon and Jake Middleton dropping to the ice to sacrifice their bodies.
It was obvious at the start the Wild came to play. Brock Faber took a minor 22 seconds into the contest, but Eriksson Ek’s team-leading 11th goal less than three minutes in came off a momentum-generating kill. Gustavsson, who won his third game in 12 starts, made a couple big stops, the type of saves we haven’t seen often from him on the kill this season.
The Wild gained a boost from those kills and it was Boldy who was the most appreciative when he made amends for his penalty in the third with 2:52 to go. Jonas Brodin hit him with a perfect headman pass for a breakaway. Boldy had ages to pick his spot and targeted it perfectly for a much-needed first goal since Oct. 14 and his first in 11 games since returning from an upper-body injury.
Matt Boldy made sure to capitalize on this breakaway. pic.twitter.com/SglrhDoVIg— NHL November 29, 2023
It was the dam breaker that president and general manager Bill Guerin said earlier in the day that Boldy so needed.
“Put money aside, put contracts aside, this is a 22-year-old kid, and we’re asking a lot out of him,” Guerin said during Hynes’ introductory news conference. “He knows he’s struggling more than anybody else, more than any experts out there. And I guarantee you the experts that are out there have never been through something like this.
“This is weighing on him like a ton of bricks. And it’s our job to help him get out of it. We’re not there to beat him up and point fingers at him or anything. We’ve got to help him out of it.”
Tuesday hopefully was the start.
“The way that Matt played tonight, he (had) an impact on the game in a lot of positive ways,” Hynes said.
It’s not just Boldy who felt the sweet relief of scoring.
Freddy Gaudreau, whose entire career had been championed by Evason since their days together in Milwaukee, scored his first goal and point of the season when he sniped a beauty past a very sharp Jordan Binnington in the first period.
That broke a 1-1 tie and turned into the winner.
!! ! #MNwild pic.twitter.com/69UyxAGcww— Bally Sports North November 29, 2023
Gaudreau admitted the last 24 hours weighed on him personally.
“I owe (Evason) a lot and (Bob Woods), too,” Gaudreau said. “They’re unbelievable people, great coaches and I feel very grateful for everything, every moment I’ve had with them. It’s hard when you haven’t been playing close to what you can play, it’s hard to see that it’s the coaches that they’re getting out first. Unfortunately, that’s the business we’re in, but it was hard, I’m not going to lie.”
Hynes had the Wild humming. They looked like a different team even though it was the very same players that had been dressed by Evason.
There were a few tactical changes, but Hynes didn’t want to throw too much at his new team on a game day without even getting on the ice with his new team yet. That’ll happen with his first practice at TRIA Rink on Wednesday morning.
Hynes was aided by 23 saves from Gustavsson, who said he didn’t have to do much but was being humble. He robbed Robert Thomas twice in the third period and got a piece of Torey Krug ’s shot on the second of Boldy’s minors with the blocker to keep the score at 2-1.
The Wild completely dominated the second period, outshooting the Blues 17-5 but were unable to extend their lead to two when Marco Rossi set Mats Zuccarello up for a gift. But the veteran, who is the first Wild player to open the season with points in 10 straight home games, shanked the shot intended for a gaping net with the heel of his stick.
But it still never felt like the Wild would seize their slim lead.
“Having the opportunity to go to battle with them today, you can just see that there’s (a) lot of areas of the game where it’s a really good group,” Hynes said. “Whether it’s the hard areas of the game — the faceoffs, puck battles, net-front battles, hard on pucks, like, they’re there. And then you see there’s a lot of skill and talent in the lineup. I think if we can just continue to build off that and (be) more connected, ... I think we can be faster than we were tonight.”
For a coach who was barely off owner Craig Leipold’s private jet after arriving late Monday on the coldest night of the winter so far, for a guy who got lost finding his way down to the event level before the game and needed assistance from a helpful usher, Tuesday was a gratifying day for Hynes.
He was honored to be back behind an NHL bench. He missed it.
But he also needed to get his bearings, especially when the assistants kept telling him to put 46 “here” and 14 “in this situation” and 25 and 7 against “this line.”
Hynes finally said, “I need names.”
“Probably the hardest thing really is just getting a feel for the lines, the guys, but more importantly, just who to use in certain situations,” Hynes said. “Line after a power play, penalty kill rotations, it’s all the finer points just on the bench management. But when the guys play like they played, it’s easy because you don’t have to worry about it too much.
“It was a pleasure to coach the guys the way that they played tonight. It’s nice to get the win, but they made it easy on the coach tonight.”
This is one game. All is not cured, and the Wild know that. But as Blues Stanley Cup-winning coach Craig Berube said, the Wild “got a new lease on life” with a new coach.
They played with energy, with the type of hunger and attitude that had missing all season.
The team heads to Nashville after Wednesday’s practice for Hynes’ first game in his old barn against his old team on Thursday. The Wild have a lot more work to do to climb back into the playoff race.
But Tuesday was a start, for the Wild and especially Boldy.
“We haven’t been happy about the way we’ve been playing and the losses piling on top of each other,” Boldy said. “We had a motivated group tonight. Everything came together. I thought everyone played really well. All four lines, no passengers and got the job done finally.”
(Photo: Nick Wosika / Icon Sportswire via )
