Gustavsson comfortable, 'been great' for Wild ahead of Game 5 vs. Stars

ST. PAUL, Minn. --As soon as Filip Gustavsson found out he was traded to the Minnesota Wild, he texted one of their forwards and fellow native of Sweden, Joel Eriksson Ek.

"He said, 'You're going to love it here,'" said the goalie, who was acquired by the Wild from the Ottawa Senators for goalie Cam Talbot on July 12, 2022.
"The older group is so easy going with all the guys and letting everyone in. Ever since I got here, the staff and everyone has been super helpful, very nice to me. I've felt at home right away."
That comfort level has shown in his game. He was 22-9-7 with a 2.10 goals-against average, .931 save percentage and three shutouts in 39 regular-season games (37 starts) His GAA and save percentage were second only to Linus Ullmark of the Boston Bruins (1.89, .938), who is a favorite to win the Vezina Trophy as best goalie in the NHL.
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Now Gustavsson and the Wild are trying to advance past the Western Conference First Round for the first time since 2015. Their best-of-7 series with the Dallas Stars is tied 2-2, with Game 5 at American Airlines Center in Dallas on Tuesday 8 p.m. ET (TBS, SN360, TVAS2, BSSW, BSN, BSWIX).
Gustavsson has started three of the Wild's four Stanley Cup Playoff games and is 2-1 with a 1.72 goals-against average and .941 save percentage.
"'Gus' has been great," Wild forward Ryan Hartman said. "Seems like he doesn't wow you with some crazy saves, but I feel that means he's in the right position.
"If you're a goalie and you're making big, flashy saves all the time, it probably means you made a mistake somewhere, right? He's so compact and it looks easy at times for him. He's never making crazy, flashy saves."
A second-round pick (No. 55) by the Pittsburgh Penguins in the 2016 NHL Draft, Gustavsson was traded to the Senators with defenseman Ian Cole and Pittsburgh's first-round pick in the 2018 draft for for forward Vincent Dunn and Ottawa's third-round pick in the 2018 draft on Feb. 23, 2018.
The Senators saw the potential in Gustavsson before they got him.
"When we first made the trade, I went to Sweden to see him play in the Swedish Elite League," said Pierre Groulx, Senators goaltending coach from 2016-21. "Right from the get-go I saw a goalie with great composure in the net and that translated to his composure off the ice.
"The composure, footwork and positioning were really impressive. To add to that, he was just real student of the game. When we did video before or after games, he was always willing to learn to get better and always push himself to apply his craft."
However, the results weren't quite there in Ottawa, where he was 10-13-3 with a 3.12 GAA and .905 save percentage in 27 games (23 starts) over two seasons.
Then the Wild came calling. They had acquired Marc-Andre Fleury from the Chicago Blackhawks at the 2022 NHL Trade Deadline, signed him to a two-year contract July 7 and felt it was best to move in a different direction from Talbot.
Gustavsson said the move was good for him, too.
"It felt like I was a little stuck in the mud. We were done in Ottawa," he said. "They'd have some faith in me and then they don't. It was back and forth. I think it was good for both getting a fresh start."
There was a rotation throughout the season with Gustavsson and Fleury, who was 24-16-4 with a 2.85 GAA, .908 save percentage and two shutouts in 46 games (45 starts).
The two also formed a great bond on and off the ice.

"Even though he's at the end of his career, he'll still talk to me about small details. He still wants to improve his game even more," Gustavsson said. "Having that dialogue and learning from him, how he's played, how he's been successful for all those years, it's cool to have that insight. It's almost like having a database, just going in to ask him about stuff."
Fleury called the 24-year-old "a great kid"
"He's calm, quieter but still, he throws in a few good jabs for a good laugh," Fleury said. "He's been amazing for us all season. He's very consistent, he's up there in the League for best stats and all of it. From camp on, he got better, and he's been very good all year."
When Gustavsson got the first postseason start of his NHL career in Game 1 against the Stars, he had an expectation of how things would go. He was in for a surprise but adjusted quickly, making 51 saves in a 3-2 double-overtime win.
"I was just trying to get through that first period, and I was hoping it was going to be a 0-0 score after that first period and then get into the whole thing and try to treat it as a normal game," he said. "It was way faster, way louder and it's so hard to talk to each other out there because it's so loud. Then you just get going, you kind of go in a routine, you don't think too much and you do what you've always been doing."
Still, there's always work to be done. Somewhat surprisingly, Gustavsson said sometimes his calmness works against him.
"Maybe some more desperation sometimes, competitiveness in a few situations," he said. "It feels like I'm very calm in the net and sometimes it's almost a little too calm, I would say. Then when you have those skilled players doing some tic-tac-toe and stuff like that, I just need to be able to get that desperation save."
Nevertheless, Gustavsson has had a breakthrough season. He's found a home in Minnesota, and it's worked out very well for him and the Wild.
"Coming here, a fresh start, fresh people around me and having such a fantastic team and mentorship in the locker room has helped a lot with confidence and being able to improve and play my game," he said. "It's been really fun."