Eric Staal has quietly gone about his business over the past couple of weeks, working tirelessly in practices and games, waiting for his moment to come.
Even if it felt like it never might.
To say the 34-year-old Staal has looked a step slow so far this season would be putting it lightly. He has spent some nights looking like he was skating in quicksand, other nights looking like he was completely lost, and no nights putting the puck into the back of the net.
This wasn’t the same Eric Staal that scored 42 goals a couple of seasons ago. Not even close.
That said, Staal kept chipping away, and chipping away, and chipping away, and finally, on Tuesday night at the Xcel Energy Center, he broke through.
Not only did Staal score, he scored twice, as the Wild earned an improbable 3-0 win over the Edmonton Oilers.
“Eventually it was going to happen,” coach Bruce Boudreau said. “You could see the elevation in his game. … It’s just been going skyward, so to me it was a matter of time before he did something.”
Unfortunately for the Wild, the win came at a cost, as starting goaltender Devan Dubnyk and hulking winger Jordan Greenway both left the game with injuries.
It looked like Dubnyk slammed the back of his head on the ice after getting his legs taken out from under him, while Greenway took a brutal body check early in the game.
There was no immediate update on either player Tuesday night, and both will likely be re-evaluated Wednesday afternoon before the team leaves for a road game against the Nashville Predators.
While the injuries certainly put a damper on the night for the Wild, there were still lots of smiles when the final buzzer sounded, most notably from Staal, who needed this type of game in the worst way.
“You never want to go long stretches,” Staal said. “It was a tough grind. No question. What are you going to do? You’ve got to keep playing. You’ve got to compete. You’ve got to work.”
His first goal fittingly came thanks to some hard work midway through the first period when he collected a centering pass from Greenway and slid a backhander past Oilers goaltender Mike Smith.
After realizing that he scored, Staal spread his arms wide, let out a massive roar, and his teammates mobbed him.
It was a heck of a moment for Staal, and he was just getting started.
His second goal came barely 60 seconds later when he collected an initial blast by Carson Soucy and slid a backhander into the back of the net.
“It’s amazing what a little confidence will do,” Staal said with a smile. “It was a big win by our guys tonight.”
As if Staal didn’t already owe Greenway a nice dinner for helping him score his first goal to break out of his slump, he owes him a lot more than that considering how he singlehandedly set up his second goal.
Using his massive 6-foot-6, 225-pound frame, Greenway fought off a hit and then got demolished by Oilers winger Josh Archibald while firing a pass to Soucy to continue the sequence. A few seconds later, Staal was celebrating his goal while Greenway was still face down on the ice, bleeding from his lip.
“He’s in beast mode at that point,” Boudreau said. “He made the great play, and I think he watched the pass go because that guy hit him pretty hard.”
For good measure, red-hot defenseman Brad Hunt scored his team-leading fourth goal of the season to increase the lead, and backup goaltender Alex Stalock made 16 saves in relief to preserve the shutout.
“This team is trending in the right direction after falling on some hard times early,” defenseman Matt Dumba said. “This is the team that we know we had and hopefully going forward this is what we put forth every night.”
No doubt Staal would like games like that every night.
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