Joel Eriksson Ek had a sense since remaining spring that his younger teammate, Matt Boldy, would take a soar ahead this yr as an offensive playmaker.
Just one recreation has handed, however to this point Eriksson Ek’s prediction is having a look excellent.
Boldy tallied a function and two assists within the Wild’s season-opening, 3-2 win over the Columbus Blue Jackets on Thursday night time. The 23-year-old will glance to stick sizzling when the Wild host the Seattle Kraken on Saturday night time in Saint Paul, Minn.
“Simply gazing the top of remaining yr, you must truly inform what he is develop into and what he is turning into,” Eriksson Ek stated. “I believe he is — I do not need to pump his tires an excessive amount of, however I stated it sooner than — I believe he could be on the subject of 100 issues one day in his occupation.
“He is in order that good and so large and so robust. He loves hockey, too. So it is simply amusing to observe him and proportion the ice with him.”
Because the Wild glance to make it back-to-back wins, the Kraken hope to dance again from a 3-2 loss at house opposed to the St. Louis Blues of their season opener.
Vince Dunn and Eeli Tolvanen scored for Seattle within the season opener. A trio of Kraken gamers together with Jaden Schwartz, Chandler Stephenson and Brandon Montour every completed and not using a issues and a minus-2 score.
Kraken goaltender Philipp Grubauer is predicted to get a 2d get started in web after permitting 3 aims on 25 photographs opposed to St. Louis. The 32-year-old from Germany went 14-16-2 with a 2.85 goals-against reasonable and an .899 save proportion in 36 video games remaining season.
In 17 occupation video games opposed to the Wild, Grubauer is 9-7-0 with a 2.95 GAA and an .894 save proportion. He used to be sharp opposed to Minnesota remaining season, preventing 17 of 18 photographs in his most effective motion opposed to the workforce.
Seattle trainer Dan Bylsma plans to shuffle a few his strains heading into Recreation 2. Extremely touted middle Shane Wright will sign up for a line along Jordan Eberle and Jared McCann, and middle Matty Beniers will sign up for Tolvanen and Oliver Bjorkstrand.
Bylsma stated Wright excelled on his earlier line within the season opener however he sought after to take a look at other alignments, particularly early within the season, to look who clicked the most productive.
“I believe you will have to be comfy seeing adjustments occur someday, as smartly,” Bylsma stated. “It is not a completed product, and we are going to undergo some various things, accidents and whatnot. We need to in finding strains and mixtures that paintings without reference to eventualities.”
Wild goaltender Marc-Andre Fleury is predicted to make the primary get started of his twenty first season. The 39-year-old ranks 2d in NHL historical past with 561 victories, and he ranks fourth with 1,025 video games performed.
This shall be Fleury’s 9th occupation recreation opposed to Seattle. He’s 5-2-1 with a 2.11 GAA and a .930 save proportion in his first 8 conferences.
The Wild and Kraken confronted off opposed to one every other 3 times remaining season, with Minnesota successful two video games and Seattle successful one. The Wild outscored the Kraken 11-6 in the ones 3 video games.
–Box Stage Media
