Go ahead, Sinterklaas. The most anticipated December flight to Minnesota took place Saturday night and did not originate 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 provided elite defender, Quinn Hughes to all the good boys and girls in Wild Nation.
Sunday night in St. Paul, Hughes made his Wild debut against a tough Boston Bruins team at the Grand Casino Arena in frigid St. Paul. Honestly, I hadn’t been this excited about a sporting event in Minnesota since Michael Jordan (aka the undisputed GOAT) took on the T-Wolves in the ’90s. There was a definite buzz in the concourse as a number of new Wild Hughes jerseys made their way through the swarm of fans.
Signs welcoming Hughes to “Quinnesota” were scattered around the arena, especially in the hands of kids hoping for a puck or a selfie with the newest member of the Wild Blue Line. The crowd roared when Hughes stepped onto the ice for a warm-up, which Hughes said after the game was a special moment to hear the crowd welcome him to Minnesota.
Obviously, bringing Hughes to Minnesota is by far the biggest trade in Wild history. Of course, the Wild were already doing quite well before Quinnesota existed. Kirill Kaprizov, Mats Zuccarello, Matt Boldy, Brock Faber and the most popular pair of goalies in the NHL of Jesper Wallstedt And Philip Gustavssonhad the Wild rising since November. Offense, defense, special teams and goaltending were on fire. The Bruins were in no way a threat to the Wild as they rolled the B’s to a 6-2 win.
Kaprizov had two goals and an assist, the newcomer Hughes added one himself, Ryan Hartman and a goal and two assists, Boldy had a goal and an assist, and Captain Spurgeon had an own goal. Brock FaberHughes’ linemate had two assists in the game. Guus Bus stopped 29 shots and even the last goal the Bruins scored was with less than a second left in regulation. It was complete dominance by the Wild over a Bruins team that came in on a four-game winning streak.
The Wild are now 19-9-5 and just four points behind Dallas in second place. They are playing great hockey, even though they are dealing with a few injuries. For example, Zuccarello is out due to 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 are on the injured reserve list.
Both of Kaprizov’s goals were beauties; his first on a rebound off the endboard after a Matt Boldy shot went wide, which Kaprizov tapped into the net as he skated past Bruins tenderie, Jeremy Swayman. Kaprizov’s second goal came when he came off the bench during a delayed penalty on the Bruins and collected a feed from Ryan Hartman at the blue line and fired it home. Hartman’s goal came after he and Faber skated through three Bruins defensemen and were able to score again on wide-open ice.
It was a special night in St. Paul for Hughes, for the Wild and everyone in the State of Hockey. Expectations have never been higher and as Herb Brooks once told Team USA in 1980, “This is our time.” Go wild!!
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