ANAHEIM, California – Play hockey long enough and, inevitably, you will see a former friend and teammate line up on the other blue line while the national anthem is being played, wearing a jersey that’s a different color from yours.
Most often that happens in high school, when a youth hockey teammate has relocated, or in college, when a former high school teammate chose a different school.
For five members of the Minnesota Wild, some of those “on-ice frenemies” moments are going to happen on the game’s biggest stage come February. And one day after the quartet of national rosters for the 4 Nations Face-Off were announced, at least a few Minnesota players are saying “bring it on.”
Most notably, Wild forward Matt Boldy and defensemen Brock Faber are savoring the idea of playing for Team USA and firing non-practice pucks at Team Sweden goalie Filip Gustavsson.
“I would love to score on him. That would be a lot of fun, a lot more fun than scoring on him in practice,” Faber said following the team’s Thursday skate at TRIA Rink before they boarded a plane bound for California. “We’re competitors and they’re the same way. They’re excited to represent their country, and we’re excited to represent ours. And it’s going to be a battle. It’s going to be best on best. And it’s so exciting.”
Gustavsson was one of three goalies named to the Swedish roster, alongside Linus Ullmark of the Ottawa Senators and Jacob Markstrom of the New Jersey Devils. Speaking with national reporters after the roster announcement, the red-hot Wild goalie said he expects tough competition in games, and for playing time among the trio of Swedish puck-stoppers.
“I’ve been privileged to be on the national team a few times now, and it’s always such an honor. Sweden is always producing good goalies, and I knew I had to play my best to be on this roster,” he said, admitting the three goalies will push each other for crease access. “I’ve just been trying to play my game all year. (Sweden) had some unfinished business last year at the World Championships. Hopefully we can really play good there in February.”
Manpower update
Minnesota Wild center Joel Eriksson Ek (14) goes down under pressure from Florida Panthers center Sam Bennett (9) and goaltender Sergei Bobrovsky (72) during the second period of an NHL hockey game, Tuesday, Oct. 22, 2024, in Sunrise, Fla. (AP Photo/Wilfredo Lee)
Led Zeppelin vocalist Robert Plant famously crooned about, “Goin’ to California with an aching in my heart.” On Thursday afternoon, the Minnesota Wild hopped on a California-bound plane with an aching pretty much everywhere else these days.
After a few days of vague answers regarding the health of missing defenseman Jonas Brodin, the Wild put all of their cards on the table on Wednesday, and it wasn’t a hand with very good odds. Brodin is out week to week with an upper-body injury, as are forwards Mats Zuccarello (lower body) and Joel Eriksson Ek (lower body) after the latter left the rink during overtime of Tuesday’s 3-2 win over Vancouver.
The Wild recalled forwards Travis Boyd and Reese Johnson from Iowa and both are expected along on the West Coast trip. Boyd has played two road games for the Wild since he was signed last summer. Johnson, another offseason signee, has 141 games for the Chicago Blackhawks on his NHL resume. Forward Jakub Lauko did make the trip after he missed the previous four games with a lower body ailment. The coach said this recent spate of injuries is the nature of the business in a high-contact league like the NHL.
“It’s a challenge. I think going into every year, all 32 teams are going to experience this at some point. I think the teams that have strong collective effort, play a real structured game, play a smart game, and you know, it gives yourself a chance to be able to win every night,” Hynes said. “The other thing is, we feel like in the offseason, this was something we had talked about. How do we get our depth stronger? We know that every team is going to get their depth tested. We wanted to get bigger, stronger, and more experienced, and we think we’ve done that.”
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