For a moment, he looked more like a point guard than a hockey player, as if he were controlling the puck with calloused fingertips instead of a curved stick.
Kevin Fiala gathered the puck near mid-ice and cruised over the blue line. Predators defenseman Ryan Ellis flopped to block a shot that Fiala had only begun to choreograph.
The Wild's rising star deked and faked and noodled and finally pulled the puck back in like a kid reeling in his first sunfish. Then he flicked it into the top of the net, casually as placing a coffee mug on a shelf.
In basketball, they call such a move "breaking ankles." In hockey, it's more like busting blades. While setting a franchise record with his fifth consecutive multipoint game, Fiala continues to elevate his team the way he elevates his franchise-changing shots.
His goal was the team's second of the night as the Wild beat Nashville 3-1 at Xcel Energy Center to take another step in its sprint toward the playoffs.
"I saw him lay down and I tried to delay, delay, delay," Fiala said. "Then I shot it."
A hundred NHLers could make the shot; few would have the control and confidence to break down a defender and delay, delay, delay, while thousands screamed. Confidence remains the ultimate performance enhancer.
"It's incredible, it really is," interim coach Dean Evason said. "His hands, his vision. He's clearly feeling it."
