Wild players throw some friendly chirps at each other ahead of 4 Nations Tournament.
ST. PAUL - Filip Gustavsson finished up taking off his gear after practice on Thursday, a day after he was announced to Team Sweden in the upcoming 4 Nations Tournament.
He was joking that USA, which selected Matt Boldy and Brock Faber, lost early over the summer in the IIHF World Championships. Faber did not play in that, but Boldy did, with John Hynes as the head coach.
Faber's locker stall is right next to Gustavsson so we made sure to remind Faber that Gustavsson was chirping USA a little bit.
"I would love to score on him. That would be a lot of fun. A lot more fun than scoring on him in practice," Faber said laughing. "We’re competitors and they're the same way. They’re excited to represent their country, and we’re excited to represent ours. And it’s going to be a battle. It’s going to be best on best. And it’s so exciting."
Boldy faced Gustavsson and Sweden during the IIHF Men's World Championships for one of the first games of the tournament. He had four shots on goal but did not score. Gustavsson made 28 saves in Sweden's 5-2 win over USA.
Joel Eriksson Ek had two goals and an assist that game and Marcus Johansson had one goal and one assist. Boldy finished with an assist.
That was the only meeting between the two teams and Gustavsson shut down Boldy and USA.
When we (media) talked to Boldy following Thursday's practice, we told him about what Gustavsson said.
"That's fine," Boldy said on the chirp. "It doesn't matter."
It is all part of Boldy's plan, he says. But a second opportunity to score on Gustavsson in the tournament?
"Yeah, of course," Boldy said. "I got to be so nice to him to keep his confidence up here, so it will be nice to shoot to score for once."
Let us know what you think by commenting below or on the Forum.
Make sure you bookmark The Hockey News' Minnesota Wild page for the latest news, exclusive interviews, breakdowns and so much more.
Follow Dylan Loucks on Blue Sky and Twitter (X).