In a flash, Kaprizov hit the breaks, deked and tucked a forehand shot past a sprawling Kaapo Kahkonen, much to the delight of his teammates and the folks watching at home on YouTube.
"You see the skill but what you see away from the puck and when he doesn't have it and his willingness to go get it, his battle level to compete on those loose pucks, that's what's impressive," said Wild coach Dean Evason. "He has skills obviously. He makes plays. He skates with the puck. But he competes his butt off and he does a real good job of shielding people, keeping people off his backside, really low base that he doesn't get pushed off pucks. That's what was really impressive here tonight."
2. Wild gets positive news on Johansson.
One of the more concerning moments of the scrimmage came a few minutes into the third period when newcomer Marcus Johansson fell awkwardly over Connor Dewar, who was on the ice himself after tripping over the goaltender's stick.
Johansson was engaged with someone else along the wall, when he came across a prone Dewar on the ice. It didn't look like Johansson saw Dewar until it was too late, and he fell over the top of him.
Johansson remained on the ice for a minute or two before skating gingerly off the ice and back to the dressing room.
Evason said afterward that it was nothing serious ... at least in terms of a nagging injury. Turns out, Johansson took some part of a stick to a delicate area of the male anatomy.
"He's fine," Evason said. "If I elaborate, it wouldn't be PG. But he's fine."
3. On paper, Team White's 2-1 victory over Team Green looked like an upset.
The white squad featured Minnesota's third and fourth lines. It's top defensive pairing will likely be the Wild's third d-set. It's goaltenders were likely backups Andrew Hammond and Kaapo Kahkonen.
It should have been a blowout, but it was all by design.
"On paper, it looks like that. But the grittier, so-called third and fourth lines, they're gonna play the same way each and every night," Evason said. "We saw some really nice things from skilled people for sure, but the white team just kept plugging away, doing their job, playing sound, opportunistic. Clearly, it was set up like that, to compete against each other in those roles. And we saw a lot of good things from both sides."
Evason said Sunday's scrimmage will feature more balanced lines and an actual game format in terms of 20-minute periods (Friday, they were 15 minutes apiece) with no special teams sessions sprinkled in.
