Whether it’s scoring a goal in the gold-medal game at the Olympics or preventing the Minnesota Wild from digging themselves into a 3-1 hole with an overtime winner, Boldy plays his best when the games matter most.
The Wild forward deposited a beautiful deflection past Jake Oettinger on Saturday night on a shot that was going a few feet wide of the net. Boldy’s heroics have Minnesota and the Dallas Stars now tied at two games a piece, when one misstep would’ve seen the Wild have the unenviable task of having to beat the Stars three times in row. Now it’s anyone’s series and Boldy is giving Minnesota reason to believe they can finally get beyond the first round.
Boldy is up to three goals in this series and eight in his past 10 playoff games overall. He played nearly 30 minutes Saturday and close to 35 in Game 3, while posting a whopping 21 shots on goal in the series overall. The Wild have every confidence in Boldy in the biggest games and biggest moments of their season and he’s rewarding them by being one of the top difference makers in a series full of incredibly talented players.
Still just 25 years of age, the best is likely only yet to come for Boldy. He registered 85 points this year but Boldy feels like he has even another level yet to get to. Would anyone be surprised if Boldy is a 50-goal scorer and 100-point player one day? If he does eventually hit those milestones, we may be looking back on the 2026 Stanley Cup Playoffs as Boldy’s coming out party.
Heiskanen deserves his flowers
There was a decent chance Miro Heiskanen wasn’t going to be ready to start his opening-round series against the Wild. The Stars defenceman missed the team’s final three regular-season games with an injury, casting his availability against the Wild in doubt.
Heiskanen has hit the ground running though so far in these playoffs and if he is limited in some capacity, he certainly isn’t showing it. He played nearly 24 minutes in Game 1 against the Wild, followed by more than 26 minutes in Game 2. Then came Games 3 and 4, which both had lengthy overtimes. Heiskanen combined 76:38 minutes of action over the two contests, blocking five shots in Game 3 and picking up a big goal on six shots in Game 4.
The Stars, led by Heiskanen, have done an excellent job of preventing pucks from getting to the net over the past two games against the Wild. Dallas has blocked a total of 51 shots over those contests and allowed just 31 shots in Game 3 specifically, which ended up being more than four and a half periods.
Heiskanen may not put up the points totals of a Cale Makar or Quinn Hughes, but he’s just as important to the Stars as those other two are to their respective teams. He controls the pace of play incredibly well and now has a point in every game of this series. It’s extremely hard to stand out with so many talented defencemen in the NHL today, though Heiskanen deserves to be in any conversation discussing the league’s best at the position.
The oldest goalie in the Stanley Cup playoffs just might be its best so far.
If there was one question coming into the postseason around the Carolina Hurricanes, it was goaltending. Frederik Andersen was coming off a season with a .874 save percentage and a goals-against average of more than three, easily the worst metrics of his career. The only other option was Brandon Bussi, who performed admirably as a rookie but only has 39 career games under his belt. The Canes chose the 36-year-old Andersen because of his experience to start the series and the bet has paid off.
Andersen was outstanding in an opening-round sweep of the Ottawa Senators, posting a .955 save percentage and allowing just five goals over the entire series. He’s also added nearly five goals saved above expected for good measure.
“Unbelievable,” Walker said. “It could have been a different series if he wasn’t playing the way he was. He stood on his head every night and made incredible saves when we needed them. He was the real difference in the series.”
Andersen has had his critics regarding his post-season play throughout his career. He’s always been solid between the pipes, but some would point to the fact that Andersen had a propensity to give up a leaky goal at an inopportune time. History nearly repeated itself in Game 2, when Dylan Cozens found the back of the net from a bad angle on Andersen. To his credit, though, Andersen shut the door from there and the Canes won that game in overtime and never looked back.
What’s most impressive about Andersen’s play so far is his workload. During the regular season Andersen never started more than two games in a row, so playing the way he did in four straight intense playoff games that included a lengthy overtime is an impressive feat. Now Andersen will get a chance to rest and recharge for Round 2 with the hopes of continuing to prove the naysayers wrong.
Hall was arguably the best player in the series
If you were trying to predict who would be the most impactful player in the Hurricanes/Senators series, you would probably have to go through more than a half dozen names or so before you got to Taylor Hall. The now 34-year-old is on his seventh team and the former Hart Trophy winner’s play has really dropped off from what it once was. Hall also doesn’t have a ton of playoff experience for someone with a lengthy career, playing in just 54 playoff games prior to this year’s post-season.
However, you could make an argument Hall was the best player on either team in this series. He finished with two goals, five assists, 14 shots and a plus-four rating in the four games. To put that in perspective, Hall only had six total points in 15 playoff games a year ago.
Hall also passed the eye test in this series, too. He was all over the ice and flying around, looking much closer to the elite talent he was in past years. The Canes forward also gave the team an emotional lift when they closed out the Senators in Game 4. After Brady Tkachuk drilled himinto the boards during the second period, Hall shook it off and opened the scoring shortly afterward while punctuating it with an emphatic celebration.
The Hurricanes and Senators played a very physical series and Game 4 was the wildest of the bunch. In prior seasons someone like Hall could get lost in that kind of atmosphere, but this time around he delivered in a big way for the Canes. Carolina will need him to continue at this level if they hope to go on a long run and finally get over the hump.
Don’t expect Crosby to go down quietly
You didn’t think Sidney Crosby was going to go out that easily, did you?
The Pittsburgh Penguins came through with a Game 4 win Saturday night, avoiding a sweep at the hands of the arch rival Philadelphia Flyers. Crosby led the way with a goal and set up Kris Letang with a beautiful soccer style assist.
Pittsburgh had looked mostly listless so far in this series. A younger Flyers squad was having their way with the Pens through three games, but Crosby’s best game of the series has at least given his team some life. So has the debut of Artus Silovs in this series. He stopped 28 of 30 shots in Game 4 to give Pittsburgh a spark. It isn’t like Stuart Skinner has been awful in these playoffs, but down 3-0, Dan Muse had little choice but to try something different and hope it could wake up his team.
It definitely did just that but there is still an improbable task at hand that the Pens will try to tackle one game at a time when they return home for Game 5.