ST. PAUL, Minn. — Don’t tell John Hynes the playoffs are a pipedream.
In a courageous decision Sunday afternoon that proves just how desperate a position the Minnesota Wild find themselves in, the Wild coach pulled goaltender Marc-Andre Fleury in overtime for an extra attacker to get a four-on-three upper hand on one of the teams they’re chasing for a playoff spot — his former team, the Nashville Predators.
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Had the Predators gained possession of the puck with Fleury on the bench and scored into the net he left vacant, the Wild would have lost the 1 point they had already put in the bank in the standings. Instead, roughly 20 seconds later, Matt Boldy tattooed a one-timer off Mats Zuccarello’s seeing-eye feed for his second career overtime winner and a dramatic 4-3 victory to leapfrog three teams in the standings to move into the ninth spot in the West.
“We’re here to win, right?” Hynes said, sarcastically, as he entered the media room for his postgame press conference.
Hynes informed Fleury and other players he’d potentially deploy in overtime that he might unveil the rarely seen overtime tactic if the circumstance called for it. It was obvious something was going on because every time the Wild gained possession in overtime, Fleury peculiarly inched toward his blue line.
But Hynes planned to let three-on-three overtime play out for a while and make the decision only if he could get his rotations perfectly tuned up with the Wild having full possession.
A look at the Wild pulling Fleury for an extra forward attacker + scoring the game-winner. What a finish. pic.twitter.com/1Xk96AMcBk
— Shayna (@hayyyshayyy) March 10, 2024
Finally, all the stars aligned.
Kirill Kaprizov and Joel Eriksson Ek were on the ice. The Wild gained possession and Kaprizov started to skate the puck up ice with Brock Faber heading to the bench to change for Zuccarello. Kaprizov skated to the blue line, but with Ryan Hartman smacking his stick wildly on the bench wall from inside to get Kaprizov’s attention, Kaprizov finally curled back to reset as Fleury bee-lined to the bench for Boldy.
“It’s not something that you do all the time,” Hynes said. “But I think in our position, we want to be aggressive, we want to get 2 points. We believe in our group and want to continue to fight to play meaningful games down the stretch and let the chips fall where they may. So I think in the situation we’re in, 1 point, no point, it’s not going to do us any good. We’ve got to get 2 points.”
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Unfortunately, the Wild surrendered a point to Nashville when Ryan O’Reilly tied the score on a power play with 2:02 remaining in regulation. As Hynes was saying, the Wild know they’re in a dire position and are in danger of missing the playoffs for only the second time in the past 12 years.
They now have 69 points in 65 games. Nashville, in the top wild-card position, has 78 points in 66 games. Vegas, which just loaded up at the trade deadline by acquiring Tomáš Hertl, Noah Hanifin and Anthony Mantha, has 75 points in 64 games.
So if the Wild were to win their remaining 17 games, they’d have 103 points. The Predators are on pace for 96.9, the Golden Knights on pace for 96 and the Wild on pace for 87.
This is why 1 point is no longer good enough for the Wild. If the Preds and Golden Knights keep their pace, the Wild can only afford to lose 5 or 6 points the rest of the season.
Predators coach Andrew Brunette called it a “great call” by Hynes and play between Zuccarello and Boldy.
“That was obviously a really smart move by them,” added O’Reilly. “They need points. … It was a gutsy play by them.”
What’s funny is few Wild players even knew that a team that pulls its goalie in overtime other than on a delayed penalty would lose the point they gained in the standings if they were scored upon.
“No, I did not know that,” Boldy said when told by a reporter.
He laughed: “Good thing we scored.”
Fleury, who has played in the NHL for 20 years, didn’t even know the rule. He said Hynes just told him after regulation that “we need 2 points, so keep your head up once we have control a little bit later in the (overtime).”
“Nobody’s going to quit, right?” Fleury said. “We all want to battle to make a push. Obviously, we know we’re behind, but ain’t going to quit. We’ll keep battling every night and try to get some points and see where it takes us.”
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Hilariously, when Marcus Foligno heard on the bench after 60 minutes that the Wild may pull Fleury for an extra attacker, “to be completely honest,” he said, “I thought that we were drawing up in case we got a power play. So that’s how out of the loop I was.
“But it makes total sense. Yeah, it’s a risk you play, but I think we’re very confident with those four guys, that’s for sure. I think Zuccy, Kirill, Ekker, Bolds … they’re dangerous. We need all the points. Risky moves you gotta make in this time.”
“But, yeah,” Foligno said, “no idea about that rule.”
It was one heck of a way to cap the 1,000th Wild game (regular season, preseason and playoffs) in Xcel Energy Center history and will provide a lasting memory for the 500th regular-season win in history by the Wild at Xcel Energy Center.
As Fleury said, “I’ll remember this one. I think it was such a great feeling, great ending to the game.”
What a savvy call by John Hynes! 🧠 https://t.co/3LVYOJev8K pic.twitter.com/q7YBCZoiPs
— NHL (@NHL) March 10, 2024
Only teams in desperate need of points in the very late juncture of seasons have even attempted such a scenario since the NHL added a point in the standings for teams that lose past regulation back in 1999-00. So you can see why the Preds were caught off guard.
If the Wild get to overtime again in these next 17 games, you can bet the next team wouldn’t be as surprised by the strategy.
The last team to win in overtime when they pulled a goalie without a delayed penalty was the L.A. Kings in October 2017 over the Bruins. The Kings did so only because they got an offensive-zone faceoff with nine-tenths of a second left and knew they weren’t in danger of giving up an empty-net goal. Tyler Toffoli scored with Jonathan Quick on the bench.
But this?
This was unique.
While the NHL was unable to confirm how many times a team pulled its goalie for an extra attacker in overtime that was not due to a delayed penalty, they did track down two instances of teams losing their overtime point due to the opposition scoring an empty-net goal.
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That was in March 2003 when Los Angeles lost an overtime point by pulling its goalie against Columbus and April 2000 when Vancouver lost an overtime point when it pulled its goalie and was scored on by Edmonton.
What a moment for the crowd of 18,800 to see and why they erupted when Boldy buried his 24th goal of the season.
“Honestly, I was a little zoned out,” Boldy said. “To do that and then to have it work and come through, it was kind of just excitement with the teammates more than anything.”
(Photo: Stacy Bengs / Associated Press)