Will the Wild scratch Buium or Bogosian for Game 3? Also, Faber’s big minutes and ‘unbelievable’ Gustavsson

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MINNEAPOLIS — Coaches usually loathe fiddling with the lineup after victories, but as the Wild-Vegas Golden Knights series switches to Minnesota, there’s a chance John Hynes will tweak his lineup for Game 3.

The Wild coach insinuated on Wednesday that the coaches were discussing changing up the third defense pair and perhaps even the fourth line heading into Thursday night’s game.

If the Wild sit rookie Zeev Buium or veteran Zach Bogosian, Hynes said there could be a myriad of reasons for it. The top two pairs of Jonas Brodin-Brock Faber and Jake Middleton-Jared Spurgeon got a heavy workload down the stretch of the regular season and in the first two games of this series. With a short turnaround between Thursday night’s game and Saturday afternoon’s Game 4 — and then two days off before Game 5 in Las Vegas — it’s clear Hynes would like to even out the ice time in Game 3 and better manage their minutes.

The Buium-Bogosian pair has been on the ice for three Vegas goals in the series, including both in Game 2. In 20 minutes, 49 seconds, of five-on-five ice time, they’ve been outscored 3-1 (and the one goal-for was a Matt Boldy goal in Game 1, when Brodin and Faber made the play leading up to the goal before a line change) and have been out-attempted 31-17 for a 35.42 Corsi For percentage.

“I think the D pairings have been pretty solid,” Hynes said before volunteering, “I think that we may look at some different things, possibly. I think sometimes as a series goes on, you might look at, say, your 5-6 pair. Is there something you want to adapt or change there? Do you want to keep it the same? Do you make a lineup change? Do you insert a player and give a player a break? All those things you consider as it goes through.

“You’re looking at now a travel day (Wednesday). Then you have an 8 o’clock game, then you have a 3 o’clock game, then there’s a little bit of a breather, right? So do you want to be able to possibly insert someone and keep some guys fresh? It’s not so much particular pairs or a particular player, or whatever is. I think you’re looking at the assessment of the series now, of trying to manage workloads, manage different pairings and things like that. So those are all things we’ve talked about today and will continue to talk about leading into (Thursday).”

Tomas Hertl makes it a two-goal game early in the 3rd! 👀 pic.twitter.com/E3IPhMYu7s

— Sportsnet (@Sportsnet) April 23, 2025

Since the Wild have yet to scratch Bogosian, it very well could be Buium, who was thrown into the fire in games 1 and 2 for his first NHL action, who gets a little breather. Mixing the defense pairs makes little sense since the top-four has been stellar, so perhaps Buium will watch a game from upstairs before getting back in Saturday.

Hynes, as he insinuated, also doesn’t want Jon Merrill and/or Declan Chisholm getting stale by not playing for too long.

Hynes does feel it’s too easy to pick apart Buium’s every move because he’s the newbie in the lineup.

“Everything he does well, and every time there’s a mistake, it’s magnified because he’s a young guy that just got added to our team,” Hynes said. “So I think he’s done some good things. I think Bogo has done some good things. To me, it’s more you’re also assessing the total D corps. … It’s managing Brodin, Faber, Spurgeon, Middleton, and their roles and responsibilities. Those guys have played solid for us and played a lot of big minutes, which is going to continue. But as this goes on, it doesn’t mean you’re always going to have the same six D, so there’s lots of things that come into it. Is it a different 5-6 pair that we want to look at for a game? There’s a potential of that.”

Noah Hanifin gets the Golden Knights on the board
🎥ESPN #VegasBorn pic.twitter.com/2wC8vSy5bl

— Daily Faceoff (@DailyFaceoff) April 23, 2025

Faber agreed that Buium is under a microscope with everything he does. After all, Faber experienced that two years ago when he signed out of the University of Minnesota and was thrown into the Dallas series on the third pair.

“It’s super hard, right?” Faber said. “It’s his first games. … If the puck’s on his stick, if the puck’s around him, you’re staring at him the whole 60 minutes of the game, whenever he’s out there. So, everything’s magnified. Obviously, what he’s doing is different. I came in a year older, I believe. I had two regular-season games. … I was able to kind of get comfortable and find my game whereas Zeev was Game 1 against Vegas, arguably one of the hardest teams to play against in the entire league, thrown into the fire like that. So, what he’s doing, he’s playing great obviously considering the circumstances. We all have trust in him. We’re all glad that he’s here. He’s going to keep getting better. It’s hard to do what he’s doing, for sure.”

NHL GameScore Impact Card for Minnesota Wild on 2025-04-22: pic.twitter.com/XlLIekLW21

— HockeyStatCards (@hockeystatcards) April 23, 2025

It’ll also be interesting to see if Hynes does anything to address the fourth line of Yakov Trenin, Marco Rossi and Justin Brazeau. The trio had three shifts on Tuesday night when they got hemmed significantly in their defensive zone. Rossi, demoted to the fourth line after playing 12 minutes in Game 1, played only eight minutes in Game 2. Could we see Devin Shore inserted in the lineup for Rossi, or could we see the Wild give him a new winger, such as Vinnie Hinostroza or Liam Ohgren, who could bring more skill and speed to his wing?

“It’s something I think we’ll look at,” Hynes said. “I thought that line in Game 1 was actually very effective for us (with Ryan Hartman at center over Rossi). Last night, I thought they had some good pushes. There were a couple of times where they got caught and hemmed in the D zone.

“We made a couple tweaks after Game 1. Even though we didn’t win the game, we thought we played a really good game, and a solid game, and gave ourselves a chance to win Game 1. But we just saw some things and made some slight tweaks. I think with the way that our team’s playing, and the mindset of the group, I think there doesn’t need to be a ton of changes all the time. But I think if we feel like there’s something that could help us, or a little bit of a tweak, then we won’t be afraid to do that.”

Faber carrying big minutes

Faber, in his second full season, has averaged 27:09 of ice time in the first two games after playing a ton of minutes down the stretch of the season. Yet he continues to play at a high level, including being on the ice for all three Wild first-period goals on Tuesday.

“I feel good,” Faber said. “I think I’ll find my legs more as the series goes on. I feel like the intensity early and the emotion leading up to a series and feeling nerves — real nerves again before you play, just those meaningful games, they carry a heavy load emotionally, which obviously makes you more tired on the ice. I think we’re all still trying to settle in and it’s been a good series for us so far.

“I thought we played great in Game 1 and gave ourselves a chance to win. Game 2, I thought we played another really solid game. Now that we’re back home, it’s going to be loud. It’s going to be fun. But for me personally, I feel good. Again, I think I’ll start to feel better as the series goes on and the emotions start to flatten out a little bit and not so high.”

Faber says he’s a lot more at ease than in the 2023 series against the Stars.

“I feel that first time I was playing a little different minutes,” Faber said. “A little more sheltered, but, yeah, maybe more nerves the first time. I didn’t want to come in and make a mistake. Obviously, these guys work all year. It’s what Zeev’s doing now. It’s a hard spot to be in and it’s definitely nerve-wracking.”

Gus overshadowed

Overshadowed Tuesday night by the show Kirill Kaprizov and Boldy put on, and by the strong play of the third line of Marcus Foligno, Hartman and Gustav Nyquist, was the fact that Filip Gustavsson made 30 saves, including coming through big-time in the first five minutes of the game and during some hairy pockets late in the second period and in the third period. The Wild registered only seven shots in the final 42:45, so they did a lot of defending.

“I think we were just, execution-wise, a little bit off, but Gus made some unbelievable saves in there to keep us in and weather the storm,” Foligno said. “He did a great job and we just got to our game. The start was the start, but we felt good going into it and it was nice to see us take over there in the first.”

Gustavsson joked, “You get into the game very easy. A little sweat there.”

But he also raved about the job the Wild did in front of him. In fact, the Wild blocked 30 shots.

“I checked after the game, I saw Kirill having four blocks,” Gustavsson said. “If the star players are doing it, everyone’s going to do it.”

More on the Foligno-Hartman-Nyquist line

It’s amazing how one personnel move can change the makeup of a line. Hartman’s impact on the third line was that impressive.

Ryan Hartman finds Marcus Foligno with a terrific centering pass, doubling Minnesota’s lead to 2!#mnwild | #StanleyCupPlayoffs pic.twitter.com/KEPB8JbDsM

— Hockey Daily 365 l NHL Highlights & News (@HockeyDaily365) April 23, 2025

“One of the reasons we made the change was we felt that Hartzy played really well (in Game 1),” Hynes said. “I think he’s got some good chemistry with Foligno. It looks a little bit like a different line. Sometimes you just make a move or two, and you just feel like there might be something that a line could have a little bit stronger of an identity on it.

“I thought also Nyquist was good on the line as well. So those guys came through in a big way and I thought played the style of game that would give them a chance to be good.”

Foligno throwing his weight around

Foligno’s total of 23 hits is tied for the second-highest total over a two-game playoff span since the stat began being tracked in 2005-06. His playoff-franchise-record 12 hits on Tuesday tied for the eighth-highest ever in a playoff game.

Asked how he’s doing physically, Foligno quipped, “I feel good. I mean we took a year off (from the playoffs), so I should be good.”

Gustavsson said Foligno “said he was going to get 15 (Tuesday) and he only got 12, so he was a little upset. The physicality, their D, they know he’s coming there. Brock probably knows it’s not fun going back and get a puck there when Moose or some big guys are coming.”

Said Faber, “Yeah, thank God he’s on our team.”

(Photo of Zeev Buium, Zach Bogosian and Vegas’ Ivan Barbashev: Stephen R. Sylvanie / Imagn Images)

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