Reusse: Neither playoff pressure nor crying babies can deter Wild goalie Filip Gustavsson

The Wild took the official team photo on the ice Tuesday morning at Xcel Energy Center. This was followed by a 50-minute skate in which their two best forwards, points machine Kirill Kaprizov and two-way standout Joel Eriksson-Ek, were wearing green jerseys.

“They aren’t wearing red or yellow … that must mean they’re close to playing," said Tom Reid, once a penalty-shot scorer for the North Stars, a saloon owner on W. 7th Street near the arena, and the analyst on Wild radio since the 2001-02 season.

Filip Gustavsson was in front of the net at the other end of the ice, standing tall in white pads and coming off a solid night’s sleep in the basement of the family’s Twin Cities residence.

Such rest was not a given, considering son Lage was born on March 26, placing him in tandem with brother Vollrad, not yet age 2.

Followers of the Wild since the franchise’s birth in 2000 perhaps remember original coach Jacques Lemaire’s concerns about homes with young children as playoff time approached. He was the maestro of the team’s one true playoff run in the spring of 2003 and put the team in a local hotel before home games.

This was done out of fear that key players might be tasked with changing diapers, taking out the garbage, going to the convenience store, etc., rather than concentrating fully on the Avalanche or Canucks, and getting eight hours of peaceful sleep.

“Not a problem for me,” Gustavsson said. “My wife’s mother, Kajas, is here from Sweden to help with the baby and his brother. She comes from working in the kindergarten world. Her being here is perfect.

“When it’s time to sleep, I just go downstairs where it’s quiet.”

Gustavsson and wife, Rebecka, are both from Skellefteå, an area with a population of 37,000, a 10-hour drive north of Stockholm along the Bothnian Sea. It is nicknamed Guldstaden — “Gold Town” — in Swedish lore for the way that valuable ingredient shows up in that mineral-rich area.

“No place else in Sweden we’d rather be than our hometown,” he said. “It is a beautiful place. We love it there.”

There was some unrest in the hockey aspect of Filip’s career when they returned to Sweden early last spring, what with the Wild missing the playoffs. He first arrived here as a minimum-salaried uncertainty in 2022-23, played very well and earned himself a three-year contract paying $3.75 million per season.

The Wild then bombed out last season. Gustavsson’s statistics were bad. Those fans that attempt to analyze, rather than merely show up and chant “Let’s go Wild” every couple of minutes, were quick to select Gustavsson as a leading culprit.

“You know when you’re most apt to see bad goaltending?” hockey boss Bill Guerin said Tuesday. “When your team is playing bad hockey. When your defense is giving up way too many 1A chances. That was us for most of last season.”

Still, when the Wild re-signed legendary Marc-Andre Fleury for what would be a final season, and when they gave a two-year big-league contract to prospect Jesper Wallstedt, the thought was in the media that the tight salary cap situation could lead to Gustavsson being moved some time during the season.

The idea of carrying three goalies ended quickly when injuries elsewhere caused Wallstedt to be sent back to the Iowa Wild for roster room in St. Paul. Wallstedt has had injury issues there and a husky fellow named Samuel Hlavaj has been playing more than the alleged No. 1 goalie-in-waiting.

Then again, the Wild don’t need one of those, as Gustavsson had more than a bounce-back season. He has been outstanding. And with his heavy workload and all the time missed by Kaprizov and Eriksson-Ek, Filip has flipped up what should be a team MVP season.

The Wild’s biggest win of the season came 3-2 in overtime against Dallas on Sunday. It was Gustavsson’s 30th victory. It also was his 12th start in 13 games, and 16th out of 18 since Feb. 28.

Coach John Hynes said there’s a chance Fleury will play Wednesday night’s home game vs. non-playoff team San Jose — the logic being Fleury deserves one more at home, and there’s a chance Tuesday’s finale will have playoff implications, meaning a Gustavsson start.

“How’s it been as a teammate with that guy in the next locker?” the Wild’s No. 1 goalie was asked.

Gustavsson nodded at Fleury and said: “He has been great. The Flower has been through everything — the best times, good times, and like last season, when it wasn’t so good ... as a team, for me personally.

“He knows everything there is about playing the position, and he shares that all the time.”

What’s also true is that Gustavsson already has been through a lot on his own — washed out of Ottawa after 23 games, traded here on a minimum-salaried flyer because the Wild wanted to move on from Cam Talbot, a standout season, a subpar season, and now … ironman excellence.

And Gustavsson doesn’t turn 27 until June 7. Could that be late in an upset playoff run? We know this:

The outside possibility of such an effort will not be disrupted by middle-of-the-night diaper changing duty for the No. 1 goalie.

To which our guy Jacques would say, “Bravo.”