Stop us if you've heard this one before - the Minnesota Wild were eliminated in the first round of the Stanley Cup Playoffs yet again, meaning that they've not advanced past Round 1 since taking down the St. Louis Blues in 2015.
Fans of the Wild are understandably frustrated at the lack of progress that the franchise has made, and one particular aspect that's given them as well as management even more frustration is the play of forward Matt Boldy, who was nowhere to be found in Round 1.
“Not good enough,” he said. “I don’t think I played well. That’s my opinion. It just wasn’t what it needed to be, and obviously it sucks.”
“It’s another thing to learn from,” he said. “I don’t want to let it happen again.”
What's even more inexplicable about his lack of production during the postseason is that Boldy had just come off a career high of 31 goals and 32 assists during the regular season.
According to general manager Bill Guerin, Boldy needs to make adjustments to his game in order to better adapt to the physical toll that the postseason is - as well as the kind of dirty goals that are always key to moving on.
“He’s got to change certain things in his game,” Guerin said. “It is a different game in the playoffs. It’s just different. I think a lot of people get frustrated with that in hockey. I think it’s something that makes hockey great. That it is a whole different ballgame (in the playoffs).”
“You look at the goals that are scored,” Guerin said. “There’s not a lot of pretty goals.”
Boldy knows that there's far more expected of him in important times of the year. He'll have to prove it next season.
