If the Minnesota Wild end up catching and passing the Dallas Stars for home-ice advantage in the playoffs, they might need to send Patrick Kane a nice little gift. After all, that’s what he gave the Wild on Sunday by committing one of the most boneheaded penalties of the year thanks to how critical it might be to the playoff picture.
Minnesota barfed up a three goal lead to the Red Wings, stifling its own momentum and threatening to derail what is lining up to be a perfect chance to overthrow Dallas in the standings. With a big matchup against the Stars set for Thursday, the Wild need every point they can get but didn’t seem to be playing that way during the third period collapse.
Similarly, the Wings are on the edge of the Eastern Conference playoff picture as a Wild Card team, and desperately needed points on Sunday. That was pretty evident in the way they came storming back to erase a three goal deficit but you’d be hard pressed to have that same takeaway after Kane bailed the Wild out.
Wild can thank Patrick Kane for bailing them out of a potentially crippling loss
After nearly taking the lead late int he third, Detroit went on the penalty kill thanks to Kane tripping Quinn Hughes. It wasn’t just that he tripped Hughes, it’s how he did it that should infuriate Red Wings fans and delight the State of Hockey.
The trio happed as Kane was leaving the ice for a line change, and upon replay it was not only totally unneccesary but was borderline dirty.
Kane simply did not have to commit that penalty. It wasn’t as though Hughes was on a breakaway and the trip prevented a goal; it was just a dumb play by an otherwise smart hockey player.
The result was Minnesota going on the power play where, despite a sloppy start, Kirill Kaprizov scored his third goal of the game. It ended up being the difference between a win and a loss but could also be the difference between Detroit making or missing the playoffs. With just five games left, the Red Wings are two points and a tiebreaker behind the Senators for East’s final Wild Card spot, so that bizarre penalty by Kane could end up being bigger than just what happened on Sunday.
Of course, Wild fans aren’t going to feel bad for Kane. He made a career out of killing them on a regular occasion so it was nice to see such a hated rival bail the team out in such a big way. The win got Minnesota two crucial points whic closes the gap with Dallas to just one game. If the Flames can play spoiler on Tuesday and the Wild pick up a win over the Kraken, then Thusday’s game will be for control of the No. 2 seed and home-ice in a looming first round series.
It was an ugly win for the Wild but you don’t get any bonus points for style. Who knew it would be Patrick Kane that fans in Minnesota would be grateful.