Throughout the season, Wild players have talked about how cohesive their team is and how players have one another's backs. Trade-deadline acquisitions like defenseman Jake Middleton, forward Nicolas Deslauriers and goalie Marc-Andre Fleury have echoed those sentiments, noting the tight and welcoming locker room atmosphere.
Wild's camaraderie on full display in Evander Kane vs. Kirill Kaprizov battle
Ryan Hartman, who would be fined on Wednesday, saluted his teammates for sticking up for one another after Kirill Kaprizov and Edmonton's Evander Kane mixed it up.
April 14, 2022 at 12:13PM
That camaraderie was on full display Tuesday night at Xcel Energy Center midway through the third period of the Wild's 5-1 win over the Edmonton Oilers.
Wild center Ryan Hartman stood up for linemate Kirill Kaprizov, who mixed it up with Oilers forward Evander Kane during a melee that resulted in both Hartman and Kane earning 10-minute misconduct penalties and Hartman being fined a day later for a gesture directed at Kane.
The fracas actually started with Kaprizov, the Wild's franchise player, standing up for linemate Mats Zuccarello, who received a quick slash to the leg from Oilers winger Kailer Yamamoto and delivered one right back. Kaprizov confronted Yamamoto, and the two exchanged cross-checks.
Kane, a 6-2, 210-pound forward, took offense and engaged the 5-10, 202-pound Kaprizov, and the two traded shoves. That's when all heck broke loose, much to the delight of the sold-out crowd of 19,035.
Zuccarello, Hartman, Jonas Brodin and Dmitry Kulikov immediately joined the fray, while the Oilers were left with only Yamamoto standing up for Kane, a veteran with 1,040 career penalty minutes. Hartman and Kane were separated for a bit, but once Hartman got free from a headlock, he leaped back into the scrum to take another shot at Kane.
"He gave Kirill a shot from behind in a very vulnerable spot,'' Hartman said. "It goes to show, we had five guys in there. They didn't have one guy in there to help him. I don't think any of their guys are gonna defend them.''
Kane saw it differently.
"It took all five guys, and they couldn't bring me down,'' he said. "I definitely would have liked to get loose, put it that way. … Yeah, these little guys, they wanna act tough, but they wait for the linesman to come in. There's your quote, guys.''
As Hartman and Kane were separated and escorted away by officials, they continued to yell at each other, and Hartman gave Kane a one-fingered salute. Hartman knew he would be fined, but said it was "well worth it.'' On Wednesday, the NHL's Department of Player Safety dinged him $4,250, the most allowed under the collective bargaining agreement, for unsportsmanlike conduct.
After the game, Wild coach Dean Evason was proud of how his team responded.
"It doesn't surprise us at all. Freddy [Chabot, goalie coach] did the postgame talk, and he says there's five of our guys in there throwing punches and only one of them. That's the right thing. I don't care if it's Kirill Kaprizov or not. It's a Minnesota Wild player, and our guys were in there defending each other. That's what our group does.''
The Wild have been the surprise of the league as their high-scoring winger makes a shambles of team scoring records.
