After a surprising start, the Minnesota Wild have had some bad times in their considerable fall back to Earth. Kyle Brodziak’s 22-goal season has been one of the best bright spots, but he convincingly showed that he’s more than just a nice goal scorer on Tuesday.
Brodziak took a skate to the face from his own teammate Darroll Powe - Michael Russo passes along video that indicates it landed somewhere around his left cheek or nose - yet he returned in the same first period with a visor, according to the Minnesota Wild.
Sure, true hardcores might penalize Brodziak for what Russo calls a "[Dany] Heatley visor,” but it’s still a testament to true hockey toughness that he barely missed a beat in a game that’s meaningless for the Wild. (In fact, the heating-up Minnesota team is only hurting its chances of getting a better draft pick with each win.)