Wild's Matt Boldy stays unrattled in big moments: Slew-foot, cross-check, hit to head

AtlanticBruinsCanadiensLightningMaple LeafsPanthersRed WingsSabresSenatorsMetropolitanBlue JacketsCapitalsDevilsFlyersHurricanesIslandersPenguinsRangersCentralAvalancheBlackhawksBluesJetsMammothPredatorsStarsWildPacificCanucksDucksFlamesGolden KnightsKingsKrakenOilersSharksScores & ScheduleStandingsPodcastsFantasyNHL OddsNHL PicksNHL playoff predictionsBracketStanley Cup tiersNHL Draft rankingRed Light NewsletterNHL Playoffs Matt Boldy scored the game-winning goal in overtime to lift the Wild to a 3-2 victory over the Stars in Game 4, tying the series 2-2. Ellen Schmidt / Getty Images Share articleST. PAUL, Minn. — It was after the 2023 Minnesota Wild-Dallas Stars series when Bill Guerin publicly and very, very privately told Matt Boldy in a Bill Guerin sort of way, after his disappointing showing for the second postseason in a row, that if Boldy wanted to make an impact in the nastier, tighter-checking, hard-to-score Stanley Cup playoffs, he needed to stop being so perimeter, begin battling in the trenches and unearth much more “FU” in his game. Well, after a tremendous playoff series last year against the Vegas Golden Knights, the biggest thing we’ve learned about Boldy in four games of this hard-nosed clash with the Stars is that you can slew-foot him, give him a blow to the back of the head and pretend it was accidental and cross-check the you know what out of him, and Boldy will just get up and still go to the hard areas. “Getting frustrated and complaining and whining and stuff like that does no good,” Boldy said Saturday night, a half hour after hearing thousands of Wild fans chant his name during an on-ice interview, after scoring his first career playoff overtime winner. “Another thing I think I’ve learned through these last two years at 4 Nations and the Olympics, these Jack Eichels, Auston Matthews and these guys that dominate our league and are so effective, they’re stone-cold. Nothing gets to them. “Frustration is all what you make it. I think that’s the biggest thing. So the more you can kind of stay calm and let your game speak and do what’s best for the team, good things happen.” In a hold-your-breath overtime, as the Stars were desperately trying to get to the dressing room to recoup for a second straight double-overtime game at Grand Casino Arena, Boldy ignored the couple of cross-checks he received from ginormous defenseman Tyler Myers, then sneaked to the front of the net as Myers followed that up by getting preoccupied with Joel Eriksson Ek during another good ol’ fashioned mugging. The problem was that Myers had no clue Boldy had slithered to the net and was waiting to receive Jared Spurgeon’s perfectly placed shot for a redirection beauty with 29 seconds left to draw the Wild even at two wins apiece in this best-of-seven classic between two terrific, evenly matched teams. Boldy’s goal was the Wild’s first home playoff overtime goal since Mikael Granlund’s diving winner in Game 3 against the Colorado Avalanche in 2014. The Wild went on to win that series in seven games, but the eruption that night when Granlund scored in the same end zone and vicinity as Boldy sounded awfully similar Saturday. During his postgame interview, it looked like nobody left the arena despite the Timberwolves’ playoff game having already tipped off over the river. Fans chanted, “BOLDY! BOLDY! BOLDY!” loudly, and he took it all in. Not long earlier, when Jake Oettinger had robbed him in front of the net on an Eriksson Ek setup, Boldy sat on one knee and stared into the crowd. Same thing, a few shifts before his winner, when, out of instinct, he kicked a Brock Faber rebound past Oettinger for the Wild’s second overturned goal of the evening. But instead of cowering, of giving up, the Wild’s $7 million bargain of a superstar kept getting up, kept going to the net, kept wanting to be the hero. “It goes to the start of the season to the Olympics to now,” said Marcus Foligno, who kept the series’ deficit from getting to 3-1 with a potentially season-saving tying goal with 5:20 left in regulation. “Just a big, big, big-time player. I think we all saw it when he came into the league, and now he’s just flourished into it.” What Foligno loves about Boldy is that, as coach John Hynes said a few days ago, he’s not “soft skill.” “Bolds is 6-4, 6-5 on skates,” Foligno said. “I just think that’s the type of player that you build teams around. He’s that guy. He doesn’t pout, doesn’t whine, and he just takes it and goes. And we saw him in the first period — he goes and hits a guy, too, and that just fires us up. Bolds plays a big-man’s game, and that’s what his whole career is going to be. And, I mean, there’s nothing better than doing it in high-stakes moments.” Foligno says that, like Kirill Kaprizov, Boldy continues to go to the hard places and doesn’t get rattled. “I think there’s nothing better,” Foligno said. “I think it’s really frustrating, over a seven-game series, when you can’t get to a superstar’s head. He’s a guy that wants to win, and what it comes down to, we have two guys, three guys — Quinn (Hughes), Fabes — guys that just want to be on the ice in big moments and want to propel us to win.” When Boldy redirected that Spurgeon shot, Jesper Wallstedt, who was sensational with 43 saves and pulled off a couple of robberies not long before Boldy’s winner, said he jumped so far off the ice, “I almost touched the roof.” “It felt like we were so close, so many times, and it finally went in,” he said. “I think I kind of blacked out a little bit.” That’s exactly what Boldy said at the Olympics two months ago. After assisting on Quinn Hughes’ overtime winner in the quarterfinal win over Sweden, Boldy scored the first goal of the gold medal game on a sensational breakaway goal in which he batted the puck to himself. But after Jack Hughes’ overtime winner, Boldy said he didn’t remember a single thing during the on-ice celebration. It’s these high-stakes games, such as playing in World Juniors, worlds and the Olympics, that allow a 25-year-old not to succumb to the high-pressure moments on big stages. “Helps a bunch,” he said as he sat in front of a backdrop with his Olympic teammate and best friend, Faber. “Mentally, for your confidence, it helps a lot, I think. But in terms of not letting the moment get too big or get the best of you, I think that has gone a long way for us. I think the standard that we have for our teammates and each other … is another big thing. I mean, I know what this guy’s capable of, and we’re not afraid to try to get the best out of each other, either. So when you have guys like that, and that goes through our whole locker room, holding guys accountable and making sure that energy level’s getting kind of pushed through and your best hockey’s being played, I think (that’s) a big part of our team.” That’s how the Wild didn’t allow the Game 3 double-overtime loss to ruin their season. They’ve put a lot of equity into this season, and while eight straight first-round exits is always a talking point until the Wild get past the first round again, Boldy insisted after Wednesday’s loss that there was no frustration inside that room. He got defiant after the game, saying the narrative needed to be nipped in the bud. So it’s not a shock that, one game later, Boldy came through with the big goal, four shots, another six attempted, three hits and a blocked shot. “The frustration within our room is nonexistent,” he maintained Saturday. “I would say … it wasn’t much of a difficult thing (for us) to get our rest the last couple days and come back with a good attitude and put the game that we put up there.” As Hynes said, Boldy’s personality is that of a player who can rise to the big moments when the heat turns up. “I think that’s what makes him special,” Hynes said. “But on the other side of it, he earns it — the way that he plays, the way that he competes, the way that he continues to grow. But you know, he is a guy that has the ‘it’ factor. When you need somebody to come through, or the intensity level of a game or a series or whatever it may be, I’ve seen him time and time again continue to play and come through in clutch situations.” Back in Massachusetts, Boldy didn’t envision his first playoff overtime winner would be on a goal mouth, fly-by redirection. “I was probably going back-in, toe-drag, through the legs in the driveway,” Boldy said. “But there’s no pictures on the scoresheet, so I was happy to see it go in. It was a great forecheck by Ekky and Kirill and a great shot by Jared, and I was just lucky enough to have it hit my stick and go in.” But that’s because he absorbed a couple of cross-checks and went to the hard area … with a lot of “FU” in his game. Spot the pattern. Connect the terms Find the hidden link between sports terms