Wild ready to resume season with Swedish, American stars back in the fold

Half a period into his 4 Nations Face-Off debut, Wild goaltender Filip Gustavsson sensed he and Team Sweden might be in trouble.

“That first 10 minutes was so fast,” he said. “It almost felt like we were going to lose 10-0.”

But the tournament kickoff vs. Canada Feb. 12 in Montreal ended up being competitive, with Gustavsson backstopping Sweden to overtime where the Canadians ultimately won 4-3.

“Everyone released their shoulders a little bit and started playing,” Gustavsson said. “It was very much fun.”

Sweden and Finland didn’t advance to the final, which Canada won 3-2 in overtime against the United States Thursday in Boston to deny the championship to the Wild contingent of forward Matt Boldy, defenseman Brock Faber and coach John Hynes on Team USA, but the experience was still enjoyable.

“You play for your country, it’s a big pride,” Wild defenseman Jonas Brodin said. “I thought it was going to be really hard like it was. I didn’t think it was going to be like an All-Star Game or anything.

“You play for your country you do everything you can to win.”

Brodin, Gustavsson and forward Joel Eriksson Ek rejoined the Wild for practice Friday at Tria Rink in St. Paul before the team flew to Detroit where it will restart the season Saturday vs. the Red Wings.

Boldy, Faber and Hynes, who was an assistant on the American staff, will meet the team in Detroit after an impressive finish to the 4 Nations by the Wild duo despite the loss: Faber played a game-high 28 minutes, 50 seconds and wasn’t on the ice for any of Canada’s goals, while Boldy led all U.S. forwards in ice time (22:42) and had seven shot attempts in the first best-on-best competition featuring NHLers since the 2016 World Cup of Hockey.

“If I could’ve chosen if I wanted to go on vacation or go there, I think I would still go for the national team,” Gustavsson said. “You don’t know how many chances you’re going to get to go do such a thing.”

After that overtime loss to Canada in the opener, Gustavsson played just one more period before he was sidelined by illness.

“I didn’t feel well,” he said, “so I felt the best thing was to let [Linus] Ullmark play because every player that’s on the roster [are] so good hockey players that if you don’t play at 100%, it’s better to play the other guy.”

Brodin and Eriksson Ek appeared in all three games for Sweden, with Brodin scoring and Eriksson Ek tallying a goal and assist while continuing to be a handful for the opposition.

“He plays the same as he does here,” Brodin said. “He’s hard to play against, hard in front of the net, and he works really hard. He’s fun to watch.”

For Brodin, the action was welcome because he sat out nearly a month injured before returning for the last three games before the break.

“I feel in good shape,” he said. “I was hurt for a while there, too, so I think it was good for me to get some more games and be ready for when the season starts up again here.”

As quick as the action was with the world’s best players concentrated on four teams, Gustavsson doesn’t expect the regular season to feel like slow motion.

“I don’t think so,” he said. “All the players we play against there, everyone can make the plays in such high pace. But here we’re going to come back to play our normal structure of hockey.

“It’s going to be a little bit easier, I think, but the pace is going to be very high still.”

Plus, the Wild’s playoff hopes are at stake.

“It’s going to go all the way down to the wire,” Gustavsson said. “Colorado is chasing us, and then right behind them it’s very close in the wild-card race. If we start to struggle a little bit, it’s going to be tight there.

“We just have to hit the gas.”

Saturday, 11:30 a.m., Little Caesars Arena

TV, radio: ABC/ESPN+, 100.3-FM

Game preview: Detroit will resume its season in the second and final wild-card spot in the Eastern Conference. Before the 4 Nations Face-Off, the Red Wings had their seven-game win streak broken. RW Lucas Raymond, who played for Sweden at the 4 Nations tournament, leads Detroit in scoring with 59 points. This is the beginning of a home-and-home for the Red Wings and Wild, who will host the rematch on Tuesday. Last season, they went 1-1 against each other.

Injuries: Wild LW Kirill Kaprizov (lower body) and LW Jakub Lauko (lower body) are out. Red Wings D Jeff Petry (undisclosed) is out.