Brian Murphy: More redemption than vengeance as bloom comes off Wild's rose
As return engagements go, Kevin Fiala's latest drive-by of Xcel Energy Center delivered more redemption for him than vengeance against his former employer.
Oh, it was plenty fulfilling to bag the game-winning goal for the Kings Tuesday night against the Wild's stagnant penalty killers, a Grade A finish from the top of the left circle befitting a proven sniper. Rejection always makes a man hungry whether it was pure or purely financial.
Fiala's impending free agency in 2022 crunched Minnesota's already airtight payroll to dust before he was dealt to Los Angeles for Brock Faber, the Maple Grove defenseman who quickly became the local star Fiala never had time to become here.
Faber, however, was just another passenger on a busload of Wild floaters, whose lifeless effort irked their head coach enough to deliver some postgame zingers at the podium.
Fiala's power-play tally in the final two minutes of the second period greased the Kings' well-deserved 5-1 victory over the backpedaling Wild, whose stellar start to the season hasn't spackled the crumbling special teams foundation that sank them last year.
"I'd like to see some more from certain guys," said Minnesota coach John Hynes. "I thought there were some light players tonight."
More to come on Hynes' admonitions. Tuesday was all about the Kings.
The win elevated L.A. to 8-3-3, good for 19 points – one better than the Wild and Vegas, good enough for first place in the Pacific Division. Fiala's third goal among seven points in his last five games served notice that he will not be bowed by self-inflicted adversity.
His recent performance not only sealed but deep-sixed the barrel carrying whatever baggage remained from Fiala's awful week in late October, when he marched himself into coach Jim Hiller's doghouse after a series of missteps.
First, he was scratched for a loss to lowly San Jose after failing to show up to a morning team meeting. A broken iPhone led him to set an alarm on his iPad, which apparently didn't work.
Been there, done that says the rest of humanity.
That was after Fiala was benched during the third period of a game against Utah after he took two bad penalties to go with his five minors through five games. Offensive-zone infractions that will feather a bed in any head coach's detention room.
Still, Fiala in Los Angeles has burnished the playmaking bona fides he established in Minnesota, about a point-per-game producer that has made him the second-most dangerous forward for the Kings behind veteran star Anze Kopitar.
Those skills are what motivated Nashville to draft Fiala 11th overall in 2014 and made him attractive for former Wild general manager Paul Fenton to acquire him from the Predators for Mikael Granlund at the 2019 trade deadline.
On consecutive nights, Fiala daggered both of his former teams with goals and answered for his transgressions as L.A. won for the third time in four games.
"That's what you do, you take it like a man," said Hiller. "You only have one choice, which is to go out and earn the respect and the trust of your teammates back, and that's exactly what he's done."
Last season, Fiala led Los Angeles with five points in three games against the Wild, who face the Kings twice more in 2024-25.
Meanwhile, the Wild showed exactly what happens when they get too cute and overconfident. They are not built for freelancing five-on-five nor have they solved the power-play and penalty-killing misery that has defined the team in recent seasons.
Besides yielded Fiala's winner down a man, the Wild were 0-for-4 with the advantage, managing only a handful of measly shots and blowing several chances to extend a 1-0 lead on Zach Bogosian's seeing-eye goal seven minutes into the game.
"Obviously, the power play wasn't effective, particularly early, to possible increase the lead," Hynes lamented. "They get one power play, bang, it's in the back of the net.
"Once we got behind, we tried to skill our way back into the game. Lot of east west; not a lot of pucks delivered to the net."
And just like that, the bloom is off the rose as the Wild hit the road again for games at San Jose, Anaheim and Chicago. Regressing to the mean sounds about right for a club destined for another mad dash to a wild card berth.
