ST. PAUL, Minn – The goal was a microcosm of the stunningly bad start to the Wild’s season.
They had already fought back twice to tie it against the defending Cup champions. AvalancheThey held their own in the second period. Then came superstar Nathan MacKinnonSending an innocent dump-in toward the net. The puck was dribbling towards the goalie with a simple flick of the wrist. Filip Gustavsson.
Ninety-nine times out of 100, that’s either a save/cover-up, or gets steered to the side. It should be, at the very least.
Nope. The puck trickled through Gustavsson’s pads and onto the stick of Mikko RantanenIt was scored by, who also put it in the empty net. It was a hard-fought goal that secured the Avs a 6-3 victory at Xcel Energy Center.
There are many reasons why you might want to Wild are 0-3, but the main one is they’re approaching a goaltending crisis. You shouldn’t have to score a touchdown to win in the NHL, and it’s games like Monday, where Minnesota played well enough to get a point, that can be especially deflating.
“It’s super frustrating,” Gustavsson said. “You can see how the guys are fighting. They score goals, they score. It all just happens (behind) you. It just goes (behind you) for Marc-Andre Fleury and me.
