What Went Wrong: Wild Lose Seven-Game Thriller to Golden Knights

The Minnesota Wild's series with the Vegas Golden Knights began with a 1-0 overtime win for the Wild in Game One. They lost the next three, but with their backs to the wall, they took Games Five and Six, getting a shutout in the latter, but when it came to the pivotal Game Seven, the Wild stayed in it as long as they could, but they couldn't stop the Knights' onslaught. The Wild's season came to an end, but look at their three wins. Two of them (Games One and Five) were in Vegas, two of them (Games One and Six) were shutout, and the Game Five win came despite being outshot by a near 3-1 disadvantage (40-14).

So the question changes from "What Went Wrong?" to "Did the better team win that series?" in an instant. Despite the assumed disparity between the Golden Knights and Wild, the Wild were not an easy out. The points were pretty spread out; eight players shared the points lead with three each, and three of the eight players--Joel Eriksson Ek, Zach Parise, and Kirill Kaprisov--had two goals each. Cam Talbot was a beast in net: 3-4 record, 2.45 GAA, .923 SV%, and two road shutouts. They even went toe-to-toe with the Knights in Game Seven. The only thing that went wrong: Minnesota ran out of gas.

One glaring issue for the team all season was their Power Play; it struggled all season until they finally started delivering in the tail end of the season. However, entering the playoffs, the PP started to struggle yet again, and it showed in the playoffs, going 2/11 with a percentage of 18.2. Only the Canadiens have fewer PP goals than Minnesota in this year's playoffs (none). Though their percentage was higher than Vegas' (2/15, 13.3%), so this really does have fans wondering if the better team actually won.

I do want to say this, though. Kirill Kaprisov. He's a monster! 27 goals, 24 assists, 51 points this season, nearly a point a game for this rookie. I've said on my Twitter many times, "Put his name on the Calder Trophy." Though I now believe that Kaprisov's name was put on that trophy back in March. This season saw him show out in ways we cannot imagine. And the funny thing is that the focus was all on Alexis Lafreniere, who was drafted #1 overall by the New York Rangers. But while Lafreniere was having trouble putting points together, Kaprisov stole the whole Calder race in no time flat.

The Wild will return to the Central Division next season, and while they will not have to deal with the Golden Knights so much, they will continue to battle with the Avalanche and Blues, as well as the Stars, Predators, Blackhawks, and Jets. The Wild are a near perennial playoff team and have been for the last few years, so I honestly expect that to continue. They have an amazing crop of players in Kaprisov, Eriksson Ek, Parise, as well as Ryan Hartman, Jared Spurgeon, Matt Dumba, and Jonas Brodin. Cam Talbot has proven to be a force in net this season, and there's no doubt that he'll be their #1 netminder, though Kaapo Kahkonen is very capable as well. It will be very interesting to see how the Wild respond to a good season that resulted in the team nearly eliminating a superpower in the Golden Knights. Honestly, much like the Predators and Panthers, this team should feel good and confident entering next season.

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