Move over, Santa Claus. The most anticipated December flight to Minnesota occurred on Saturday night, not originating from the North Pole, but from Vancouver, Canada. Yes, Christmas came early for the Minnesota Wild with love from Billy Claus? Santa Guerin? Whatever. Wild GM, Bill Guerin delivered elite defenseman, Quinn Hughes to all of the good boys and girls in Wild Nation.
On Sunday evening in St. Paul, Hughes made his Wild debut against a tough Boston Bruins team at the Grand Casino Arena in frigid St. Paul. In all honesty, I hadn’t been this excited for a sports event in Minnesota since Michael Jordan (aka, the undisputed GOAT) took on the T-Wolves back in the 90’s. There was a definite buzz in the concourse as a sprinkling of new Wild Hughes jerseys made their way through the swarm of fans.
Signs welcoming Hughes to “Quinnesota” were all over the arena, particularly in the hands of kids hoping for a puck or a selfie with the newest member of the Wild Blue Line. The crowd roared as Hughes stepped onto the ice for warmups, of which Hughes said postgame that it was a special moment to hear the crowd welcoming him to Minnesota.
Obviously bringing Hughes to Minnesota is by far the biggest trade in Wild history. Of course, the Wild had been doing pretty well before Quinnesota was a thing. Kirill Kaprizov, Mats Zuccarello, Matt Boldy, Brock Faber and the hottest pair of goalies in the NHL of Jesper Wallstedt and Filip Gustavsson, had the Wild surging since November. Offense, defense, special teams and goaltending were on-fire. The Bruins in no way presented a threat to the Wild as they steamrolled the B’s to a 6-2 victory.
Kaprizov had two goals and an assist, the new guy Hughes, added one of his own, Ryan Hartman and a goal and two assists, Boldy had a goal and an assist, and Captain Spurgeon had a goal of his own. Brock Faber, Hughes’ linemate had two assists in the game. Gus Bus stopped 29 shots and even the last goal that the Bruins scored was with under a second left in regulation. It was complete domination by the Wild over a Bruins team that came in on a four-game winning streak.
The Wild now stand at 19-9-5 and just four points behind second-place Dallas. They’ve been playing great hockey, even while having to deal with a few injuries. Zuccarello, for example is out with an upper body injury suffered in the recent game against the Stars, as is defenseman, Jake Middleton. Both players will miss the next three games as they’re on the Injured Reserve list.
Both of Kaprizov’s goals were beauties; his first on a rebound off the end board from a Matt Boldy shot tipped wide, which Kaprizov flicked into the net as he skated past Bruins tendie, Jeremy Swayman. The second Kaprizov goal came as he came off the bench during a delayed penalty on the Bruins and gathered a feed from Ryan Hartman near the blue line and fired it home. Hartman’s goal came after he and Faber skated through three Bruins defenders and had wide-open ice to score yet again.
It was a special night in St. Paul for Hughes, for the Wild and everyone in the State of Hockey. The expectations have never been higher and as Herb Brooks once told Team USA back in 1980, “this is our time.” Go Wild!!
The Morning Skate 