Postgame Hat Trick: Blues 4, Wild 0

Wild.com's Dan Myers gives three takeaways from the Wild's 4-0 loss in Game 1 of its First Round playoff series against the St. Louis Blues at Xcel Energy Center in St. Paul on Monday night:

1. Husso shuts the door
It was a heck of a playoff debut for Blues goaltender Ville Husso.
Playing in his first-ever Stanley Cup Playoff game, and playing against a man with 90 career playoff WINS (fourth-most all-time), Husso was sensational in keeping the Wild off the board for his first career playoff shutout.
It wasn't for lack of effort on Minnesota's part.
It pelted the Blues net to the tune of 37 shots on goal, including a number of grade-As that Husso, quite frankly, had little business getting a body in front of.
Minnesota also dented three posts, as Matt Boldy hit one in the first, before Jake Middleton and Joel Eriksson Ek pinged iron in the second.

"Husso made some good saves. You can't say we didn't try," said Wild forward Kevin Fiala. "We had great opportunities 5-on-5 and on the power play as well. We hit the bar, I don't know how many times today, it can go the other way and it looks differently. But we have to let it go now, it's Game 1 and it's playoff hockey. It's best-of-7, we have to be ready for the next one."
Perhaps the most frustrating part for Wild fans in the building on Monday night was how reminiscent it was of another playoff series against the St. Louis Blues ... and another Game 1 against the Blues, back in 2017, when Jake Allen made 51 saves in a 2-1 St. Louis victory that was decided in overtime.
Time will tell if the Wild can answer the bell, but if this team's history is any indication, it will come out with the requisite desperation in Game 2 on Wednesday night.
"We talked about the game, a quick chat about that exact thing. The history shows us that this won't bother us," said Wild coach Dean Evason. "We'll regroup and come back and be a better team. We'll stay the heck out of the box and we'll play 5 on 5 and we'll give ourselves a better chance."
2. Perron goes postal
David Perron has made a habit of tormenting Wild fans in his career, a trend that continued in Game 1.
The line of Ivan Barbashev, Robert Thomas and Vladimir Tarasenko has been one of the NHL's best over the final two months of the regular season, but that group was rendered moot on this night.
Instead, it was Perron and linemates Ryan O'Reilly and Brandon Saad that did the offensive damage for the Blues.
Perron scored twice on the power play, once mere moments after a power play expired and also assisted on O'Reilly's even-strength marker in the first period, accounting for more than enough offensive support for Husso in this one.

"He's a good shooter. He's always a threat around the net, I know," said Wild goaltender Marc-Andre Fleury. "It seems like every puck on the power play just ended up on his stick, back door there. And he's a good player, he put them in."
Perron has 15 goals and 38 points in 45 career games against the Wild in the regular season, his second-most points against any team he's played against in his stellar career.
"Honestly, it just came right to him," Fiala said. "He didn't have to do much, he had an open net twice and he scored."
Minnesota's GREEF line successfully quieted the Thomas line in this game, and was far-and-away the Wild's best line on the night both defensively and offensively, at least in terms of generating scoring chances.
It'll be interesting to see if Evason decides to deploy that group against Perron in Game 2, or whether he keeps it on the lethal Thomas line and demands a better effort from the Wild's other lines in defending that group.
3. Special teams strife
At even strength, the Wild has been one of the best teams in the NHL this season.
It hasn't been as stellar on special teams, perhaps the one reoccurring issue that has cropped up with this club all year long, and it was an issue again in Game 1.
The bottom line: during the regular season, Minnesota's combined special teams were ranked near the bottom of the 16 teams that are left playing right now.
St. Louis' were ranked at the top, including a power play that finished the year second-best in the NHL and a road power play that was best on the circuit.
Pretty simple recipe, right?

The Wild did its best to follow that blueprint, at least through 40 minutes, putting the Blues on just two power plays through two periods. Things went sideways late as the game was out of hand and St. Louis was able to salt the game away in the third on the back of four power-play chances.
For the game, St. Louis officially finished 2-for-6 -- scoring a third goal two seconds after a power play expired -- while the Wild went 0-for-6 with the man advantage.
"t's got to change big time. I think if you just look at the game and we had a lot of chances, and give credit to Husso, he made a lot of great saves," Foligno said. "There's just big moments in the game and they capitalized on them and we didn't. That's playoff hockey. There's moments in the game that are momentum shifts and they jumped on them and we had a chance to do it and we didn't do it. It results in a game loss. We're still going to be confident in Game 2 and stick with our game."
Perron scored on the Blues' first power play. He scored on the second power play. And he scored two seconds after the fourth power play expired.
Minnesota, meanwhile, went 0-for-3 on the power play in the first period, which set a bad precedent for the evening. Still, the Wild liked some of its chances, even if it wasn't able to cash in.
"That's our season. Our special teams has not been very good. As of late they have been. But it's off and on," Evason said. "For us to have success we've got to stay out of the box and we've got to play 5 on 5 because we really, really liked our game 5 on 5. Obviously we weren't able to play all four lines. It gets disrupted."

Loose pucks

• Fleury stopped Ivan Barbashev's first-period penalty shot, the first he's faced in the postseason in his career
• The penalty shot against was just the second in Wild playoff history (Niklas Backstrom stopped Ryan Smyth in 2008)
• Torey Krug finished with three assists
• O'Reilly had a goal and an assist
• Saad, Justin Fault and Brayden Schenn each had one assist

Dan's three stars

1. David Perron
   2. Ville Husso
   3. Torey Krug

Highlights