ST. PAUL, Minn. — There’s a great Twin Cities jazz and blues band called Davina and the Vagabonds, and quite frankly, Marcus Johansson could join if he played the trumpet, sax or standup bass.
Davina Lozier has the piano and vocals covered.
The only difference between Johansson and an actual vagabond is he has a job. But the big, fast, skilled, smart veteran winger is tired of wandering from city to city and franchise to franchise to do that job after playing for seven teams (including the Wild twice) since 2017.
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“I’m very comfortable here,” Johansson said after the Wild followed their busted 14-game point streak 24 hours earlier with a bounceback 5-3 victory over the team that traded Johansson back to Minnesota on Feb. 28, the Washington Capitals. “I do hope I can find a home here.”
Matt Boldy sure hopes so, too, and may even help pay for the mortgage after racking up another lucrative bonus in what’s turned into a profitable season.
Last season, it was Boldy’s arrival in January that spurred Kevin Fiala to a sensational second half. This season, it has been Fiala’s departure that left Boldy looking like a man alone on an island until Johansson was reacquired for a 2024 third-round pick three weeks ago.
They think the same way, which is offensively and creatively.
After hitting the 20-goal mark in the first period, @MattBoldy12 added two more to finish off the @Enterprise hat trick! 🙌 pic.twitter.com/PjyJ8kF1WY
— NHL (@NHL) March 19, 2023
Boldy, who signed a seven-year, $49 million extension in January, looks like the Boldy of last season since Johansson has come on the scene. That continued Sunday when he registered his second-career hat trick on six shots with Johansson picking up the primary assist on the first two goals, including one 50 seconds into the game that was Boldy’s 20th goal to trigger a $212,500 “A” bonus in his entry-level contract.
“He’s a nice player. That’s why they pay him 49 sheets,” said fourth-line bruiser Ryan Reaves, who scored his third goal in the past four games. “He hit a nice bonus today. I’m sure there’s a team dinner coming pretty soon.”
Boldy and Johansson, along with unsung center Joel Eriksson Ek in the middle, have stepped up royally since Kirill Kaprizov was injured on March 8 in Winnipeg. The Wild are 3-1-1 in their superstar’s absence.
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In the five games without Kaprizov, Boldy has five goals and nine points, Johansson two goals and seven points and Eriksson Ek one goal and five points.
“It’s no secret that he’s our best player, our best offensive forward, and the way he scores and produces for us, it’s off the charts,” Boldy said of Kaprizov. “So to have him go down stinks but guys have to step up. I think it’s every man in this room that’s done it. We’ve played awesome these last few games and we’re excited to have him back (later this season).”
Boldy isn’t kidding. Dating to the game when Kaprizov got injured, the Wild have scored 28 goals in the past six games. That is the same number the team had in the 14 preceding games.
Ryan Reaves scores against the Washington Capitals to make it 3-1 #MINvsWSH #mnwild #ALLCAPS pic.twitter.com/xjGBUK6ls9
— nopClips (@nopClips) March 19, 2023
“The team has stepped up,” coach Dean Evason said. “Not just a few guys. Everybody. Everybody has. I don’t think they sat in there and said, ‘Guys we have to score now.’ They’ve always tried to score, but with his absence, they all know that there’s a little extra push that’s needed to be had because literally, he’s playing half the game so there’s opportunities for people to and people have been able to step up.”
The Wild, after losing for the first time in regulation since Feb. 15 the day before against the Bruins, got reinforcements back against the Capitals with the return of injured Jonas Brodin and Brandon Duhaime and ill-stricken Jake Middleton. Injured Marcus Foligno is expected to return in New Jersey or Philadelphia this week, meaning Sammy Walker may return to Iowa. Calen Addison and Jon Merrill, who had taken four minor penalties in the previous four games, were scratched.
Middleton was terrific in his usual role next to Jared Spurgeon. As Evason cracked, Brodin was Brodin and “could’ve missed three years and still skated like that.”
And all Duhaime did in his first game since getting concussed in a fight eight games ago was score the eventual winner on a gorgeous goal.
Welcome back Brandon Duhaime! Roofs the backhander to make it a 4-1 #mnwild lead, what a goal pic.twitter.com/A0YGHB3r3K
— Alex Micheletti (@AlexMicheletti) March 19, 2023
“Eyes closed, backhand. A good bounce,” Duhaime said, self-deprecatingly.
For Boldy, he had 10 shot attempts. After giving the Wild an early lead, he made it 2-0 by one-timing Johansson’s feed off a three-on-two after absorbing an Alex Ovechkin check in the defensive zone. In the third, he scored his 22nd goal off a breakaway not long after getting denied by Charlie Lindgren on a breakaway, then missing the gaping net on the rebound.
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What was he thinking?
“Don’t miss again,” Boldy joked.
Johansson, 32, didn’t know much about Boldy before arriving but loves what he’s seeing from the 21-year-old 2019 first-round pick.
“He’s got a good shot, obviously,” Johansson said. “He’s such a good playmaker, too. So I think that’s a good threat for him that teams know that he can shoot and pass, which maybe sometimes gives him a little bit more room as well. It’s been fun to watch him play and even more fun to play with him because he’s an unbelievable player.”
Boldy’s eyes light up when he talks about Johansson.
“We play similar but in terms of how we think the game, we want to produce,” he said. “We want to be creative and make plays, but we’re pretty solid and can protect pucks and play in the hard areas. Obviously, the way he skates makes it pretty easy for me to be able to get him pucks when he’s moving that quick.”
Evason noted the same thing, saying Johansson is pushing the pace and that Boldy and Eriksson Ek have to “go” in order to keep up with the blazing once-Capitals first-round pick. He looks so much faster and more offensive-minded than his first stint in Minnesota which ended with him breaking his arm during Game 3 of the Wild’s playoff series in Vegas.
Evason has wondered what would have happened in Game 7 had the Wild not been without Johansson, Brodin and Carson Soucy.
“There was a lot of injuries (the past five years) and a lot of missed games and I didn’t really play my best hockey in that time either,” Johansson said. “Now I feel like (since the) end of last year (in Seattle) and this year (with the Caps and Wild) I’ve got back to playing how I used to play and feel like I’m back to myself and (have) some confidence back and some jump in me and enjoying it a lot right now. I just feel like I’ve found myself a little bit again.
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“I know most of the guys here and I liked it here a lot last time I was here. I had a lot of injuries (that year), too, and a lot of bumps in the road. It’s fun to be — knock on wood — so far healthy and be able to play and it’s been a lot of fun.”
Johansson said this after missing the final 14 1/2 minutes Sunday, so that’s a good sign that the friendly fire he took from Freddy Gaudreau off the left ankle isn’t serious.
Boldy sure hopes it’s not because he’s finally found chemistry with a left winger and doesn’t want that to stop in its tracks. It also makes for another tough decision for management this offseason. With cap space limited and several players to re-sign, Johansson may suddenly have to turn into a priority.
As Evason said, “JoJo obviously has a vision, but I think it starts with his legs. He creates a gap because he pushes defenses back and that’s why those plays can open up too. They’ve got a chemistry for sure.”
The Wild got a solid goaltending performance from Fleury, with Ovechkin scoring twice to improve his points per game against the Wild to 1.67. That’s the highest in history by any player against Minnesota. But Fleury made 33 saves for his seventh straight win.
And the Wild, 12-1-3 in their past 16, impressively made certain to rebound after their streak got busted the day before in a game where they gave the league’s best, the Bruins, one heck of a fight. With the win, the Wild have moved back into second in the Central Division and are a point back of the Stars.
“I think sometimes when you go on a streak like that and then you lose one it’s easy sometimes to slump,” Reaves said. “I think it was important to make sure that we didn’t. We got a good game today and a big two games on the road.
“I thought we put a pretty good game out for the most part (Saturday) and a big bounceback game (Sunday) after we went streaking. Hopefully, we’re getting naked again.”
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Dumba injures Kuznetsov
Early in the third period, Evgeny Kuznetsov, who got under the Wild’s skin all game with several extracurriculars, got labeled by Matt Dumba with a shoulder-to-shoulder check that injured the Capitals forward.
After laying a HUGE hit on Evgeny Kuznetsov, Matt Dumba chucks some knucks with T.J. Oshie#mnwild | #ALLCAPS pic.twitter.com/3NUHrjyCgp
— Hockey Daily 365 l NHL Highlights (@HockeyDaily365) March 19, 2023
“I don’t like the hit, a player’s vulnerable like that (and) takes a pop to his head,” Capitals coach Peter Laviolette said. “I don’t like the hit.”
Dumba’s not expected to be suspended.
(Photo of Matt Boldy and Marcus Johansson: Bailey Hillesheim / Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)
