The Golden Knights’ biggest stars are nowhere to be found
Among the most surprising storylines to start the 2025 Stanley Cup Playoffs has been the play of the Minnesota Wild.
On Friday’s episode of Daily Faceoff LIVE, Tyler Yaremchuk and Frank Seravalli discussed the Wild’s early series lead over the Vegas Golden Knights.
Tyler Yaremchuk: Let’s kick things off with last night’s action, and maybe no win more surprising than the one in Minnesota. The Wild took a 2-1 series lead over the Golden Knights with a 5-2 win. We talked a lot about a whole bunch of different things that were going to be ‘X’ factors in this series or paths to victory for the Wild, and one of them was Filip Gustavsson. He had a rollercoaster regular season where he looked elite for two separate stretches and pretty average in the middle. He has a .922 save percentage in this series, and that save he made last night with 90 seconds to go was a massive one as well, coming right before the empty netter. Gustavsson has been incredible in this series. The Wild have stunned the Golden Knights through three games.
Frank Seravalli: It’s been basically the total opposite of what we may have expected. We weren’t really sure what to make of the Wild heading into this series, thinking that when Kirill Kaprizov, Joel Eriksson Ek, and the Wild’s defense core is healthy, this is a good team and a tough out. But, to think that we’d get to Game 3 and beyond of this series and not hear a peep from Jack Eichel and the Golden Knights’ top stars, that’s the key difference. Yes, Gustavsson has been unbelievable, but Kaprizov has produced every night. Matt Boldy has produced every night. The top-end guys for the Wild have been head and shoulders better than the Golden Knights, and that’s been very surprising so far through the first three games. It’s not just that the Wild are leading, but the way in which it’s happened. Then, think about the back end. Shea Theodore has been single-handedly responsible for significant chunks of pucks entering the Golden Knights’ net. How often should we expect something like that to happen? I think it feels like the Golden Knights took this team for granted, thinking that they’re going to wade into the playoffs or dip their toe into the water ahead of what could be a long run. They were a popular and trendy Stanley Cup pick. Either that, or they just weren’t ready to play because the Wild have punched them squarely in the face.
You can watch the full segment and the rest of the episode here: