The Wraparound: Wild can’t afford to lose temper vs. Blues

The Wraparound is your daily look at the 2022 NHL Stanley Cup Playoffs. We’ll break down the NHL playoff games today with the all-important television information.

• Catch up on the second night of the 2022 Stanley Cup Playoffs with the NHL Rink Wrap, from a small upset to a big blowout and triple overtime.

• The NHL handed out a set of fines, with Jared Spurgeon avoiding a suspension despite an ugly, dangerous cross-check to Pavel Buchnevich‘s lower body. Doesn’t seem like the best message for the league to send, unless they want players to think, “We can get away with a lot.”

• Maple Leafs forward Kyle Clifford didn’t get away with his boarding hit, however, as he received a one-game suspension. It’s more than fair to wonder if Clifford should’ve even been in Toronto’s Game 1 lineup in the first place.

Following a full set of Game 1 action, the Wild aren’t the only higher seed who lost home-ice advantage (in their case, falling to the Blues). Of the teams who lost their first playoff home games, the Wild might be most disturbed because of how they fell, though.

It’s something the Wild really need to be careful about as they host the Blues in Game 2 (9:30 p.m. ET – ESPN).

Beyond getting shut out 4-0 by the Blues, multiple Wild players lost their cool. Frankly, Jared Spurgeon and the Wild are lucky that he was merely fined for doing this to Pavel Buchnevich.

For some added context, Spurgeon is a very underrated defenseman, and part of his brilliance is his knack for staying out of the box. Expect to see Spurgeon on multiple Lady Byng ballots after being a go-to defenseman and only logging 10 penalty minutes.

Wild head coach Dean Evason thinks that Spurgeon losing his cool shows just how out-of-sorts the team was in that