Generally speaking, Gustav Nyquist prefers it when officials let play continue, and there are fewer whistles in a game. But if they had called offside on the ice late in Game 5 of the Minnesota Wild’s playoff series with Vegas, the veteran forward would be looked at much differently — or be an afterthought — today.
To recap, a potential Ryan Hartman go-ahead goal with 1:15 left in Game 5 was eventually negated after video review showed that Nyquist crossed the blue line maybe an inch ahead of the puck that Hartman was carrying. Instead of a likely win, which would have given Minnesota a 3-2 lead in the series, the Wild lost the game in overtime, and lost the series 48 hours later.
Speaking to reporters for the first time since the costly offside, Nyquist took ownership of the gaffe. He noted that with Vegas forward Ivan Barbashev in between him and Hartman on the play, his view of when the puck crossed the line was obstructed.
“Obviously, it’s an unfortunate play,” said Nyquist, who came to Minnesota for a second time at the trade deadline after starting the season in Nashville. “At the end of the day, it’s on me to stay onside there. And from my view, there’s a guy in between, and I can’t really see the puck. And I was a thousand percent sure it was over the line, obviously, and it wasn’t. So, obviously, that’s unfortunate.”
Nyquist added that if the linesman on the blue line had whistled him for offside initially, before Hartman cut to the net and scored to briefly give the Wild a 3-2 lead in the game, the play would soon have been forgotten among the bigger picture of the series.
“I’m not blaming the linesman, but if he calls it right away, the right call, which is a hard call to make, but the play blows dead, then no one’s talking about this,” Nyquist said. “It’s just like an offside like 20 other times during the game. But it’s unfortunate, obviously. That was a tough moment in the game, when you have a chance to go up one with a minute left in a big game there.”
Nyquist spent nine games with the Wild in 2023, then signed with Nashville where he had a career-best 75 points a year ago. But like so many others on the Predators, who missed the playoffs despite some big offseason acquisitions last summer, Nyquist’s numbers did not match expectations. After the trade to Minnesota, for which general manager Bill Guerin gave up a second round draft pick, he scored twice in 22 regular-season games and was held without a point in the playoffs.
Nyquist was not making excuses on Sunday.
“Frustrating season for me, with the way everything worked out in Nashville,” he said. “I think going into the season we had pretty high hopes of our own team there. We were supposed to have a good season, and obviously that didn’t happen. And I think that hit hard on a lot of those guys in Nashville. We set a high standard of ourselves.”
He played for Team Sweden in the 4 Nations Face-Off, and found himself back in a Wild jersey a short time later, but the offensive struggles continued. And like everyone in Minnesota, he felt the playoffs were a disappointment for a team that was healthy and had high expectations.
His skate being an inch offside at a critical time was just one small thing that ended up being costly.
“Small margins throughout the series. I thought it was a well-played series by us, tight series,” Nyquist said. “They played well, too. It’s a hard-fought series, and all six games are tight. And 50-50 games, to be honest with you, I think. In the end, we come up short and (it’s) disappointing.”
Nyquist will be 36 by the start of training camp in September, and is an unrestricted free agent, meaning he could sign anywhere over the summer.
“We’ll see what happens. Obviously, I love it here,” he said. “I think the guys are great, great group of guys. But you never know. We’ll see. July 1st, we’ll know more, obviously.”
If nothing else, another season in Minnesota would be a chance for him to give Wild fans a better memory of Nyquist’s time in St. Paul.
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