from Michael Russo of The Athletic,

Fifty-three wins, 113 points and countless team and individual milestones, especially from the first true superstar in franchise history: Kirill Kaprizov.

And all for naught.

Maybe in a few weeks we’ll reflect on the 2021-22 campaign and remember the loads of excitement this close-knit team provided during a historic 82-game regular season. But even with a vast culture change, even when things prove to be different, this franchise never fails to disappoint when it matters most.

Thursday night, despite their latest catchy “It’s About Winning” playoff slogan, the Wild’s season ended emphatically as usual with a good old-fashioned, 5-1 butt-kicking courtesy of the always piercing thorn in their sides, the St. Louis Blues.

After holding a 2-1 series lead and having a chance to take a stranglehold in the series when the Blues played four defensemen totaling 15 games of playoff experience, including players like Steven Santini and Calle Rosen in Game 4, the Wild bowed out with three consecutive losses. If you’re counting at home — and we know you are — out of the Wild’s nine playoff appearances in the past 10 years, they’ve lasted past the first round twice and not since 2015.

“It’s tough to put into words right now just how close this group was and how positive the regular season was,” veteran Marcus Foligno said. “It’s just disappointing because we feel like we were right there with them and played a hard series and had a lot of positivity around this team this year and thought that we could do something special. When you don’t get the job done, especially in crunchtime … it’s disappointing, for sure.”

continued ($$$)

Posted by Paul from Motown Area on 05/13/22 at 04:22 AM ET

This guy writes for NHL.com (allegedly) so posting without back up:

Lou Korac
@lkorac10

In 3 games Nick Leddy played in this series, he went against Kirill Kaprizov for a total of 23:26 of 5v5 play. Kaprizov, who scored seven of #mnwild’s 16 goals in the series, was held to 0 goals in 5v5 going against Leddy with four high danger chances against. Leddy was a blanket

2:38 AM · May 13, 2022·TweetDeck

Honestly doesn’t seem like a lot of TOI but there it is

Posted by ilovehomers on 05/13/22 at 08:04 AM ET

He was half assing it in Detroit from the moment he got the call he had been traded from the nyi.

Posted by TreKronor on 05/13/22 at 08:49 AM ET

You can never go wrong betting against Minnesota in the playoffs.

Posted by dwgs on 05/13/22 at 10:03 AM ET

There is a regular season Nick Leddy——and a Post Season Nick Leddy…..

I remember - Pre Trotz -  Leddy was a - 40 player (Plus/minus) and went to even zero under Trotz. 

Playoff Leddy - he was somewhere between a + 5 to + 10

He was no Lidstrom or Denis Potvin….but he can carry the puck and seemed to play better in the post season.

He is one of the few who can skate with the faster forwards like Dollar Bill (who seemed like he is a fabulous player - I was mostly watching the east coast games)

Posted by Kaszycki and his Krew on 05/13/22 at 10:37 AM ET

Never know how game six (or seven)
would’ve turned out, but unless he was slowed by
an injury or they saw something in his game they didn’t like, I have no idea why Minnesota went with Cam Talbot so late in the series.

The whole point of acquiring Fleury was to have a higher-ceiling,
playoff-proven, Cup-winning goalie on their side.
Fleury had been inconsistent in that series, but he seemed like
their best bet for shutting down St. Louis and getting to a game seven.
If it didn’t work out, ok, you took your shot, and the cap mess next season likely means they move on.

Why go back to a solid but lesser goalie all of a sudden in an elimination game?

Posted by lefty.30 on 05/13/22 at 02:47 PM ET

Leddy was uninspired and uninspiring in Detroit,
but no way St. Louis trades a 2nd and two
lower-end roster players for that version of Leddy.

It looked like St. Louis might not get much value from the trade,
but having another confident playoff-seasoned puck carrier who can skate is so important with Krug missing so much time.

Posted by lefty.30 on 05/13/22 at 02:53 PM ET

I picked the Blues in 7, they won in six but the way played they could of won in 5.  If they get healthy before the next round they will be interesting to watch. They are very balanced without the splashiness. They are fun to watch.

Posted by damndog revenge From the bowels of Detroit on 05/13/22 at 06:06 PM ET