The way things are going, a goaltending battle that could have been a tough call for the Minnesota Wild might be, well, a breeze.
The Wild are now just one point short of clinching a spot in the playoffs after beating the Winnipeg Jets 1-0 on Monday. The bigger story might just be the emergence of a guy serenaded by Jets fans: Ilya Bryzgalov.
#nhljets fans chanting Bryzgalov's name. Which is interesting, since he plays for #mnwild
— Minnesota Wild (@mnwild) April 8, 2014
Bryzgalov: "I'm not painting any pictures out there." #mnwild. He loves the Ilya, Ilya "tradition" in WPG
— Michael Russo (@RussoHockey) April 8, 2014
(Don’t lie, you have to be at least half-excited to find out what kind of weird things he might say in the playoffs.)
Anyway, Bryzgalov continues to be a quick study in the Wild net, as he now has a two-game shutout streak going; the Russian-born netminder hasn’t allowed a goal in 142:15 of game time, according to the Minneapolis Star-Tribune’s Michael Russo.
The 33-year-old is 6-0-3 with three shutouts, a .929 save percentage and 1.67 GAA with the Wild. (Not bad for a guy who went 5-8-5 with shaky numbers during his time in Edmonton.)
While the Wild may very well be finding answers in net, the Jets’ goaltending questions seem to go even deeper. Michael Hutchinson didn’t light the world on fire in a loss, yet he did stop 16 out of 17 shots against Minnesota.
As far as the Jets’ splashier bit of drama goes, Evander Kane seemed to get back into the groove, receiving more than 19 minutes of ice time after Sunday’s healthy scratch. Will that silence all questions going into an uncertain offseason? Probably not.
Bryzgalov likely knows where Kane is coming from when it comes to ups and downs along with media drama, even if each player may paint that picture differently.
Related: Could this be it for Bryzgalov?