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It's been a disastrous season for the Wild, and it's hard to imagine them digging out of this hole.  Monday was a lone bright spot, both for the team and their oldest player.  The Wild beat the Islanders 5-0, with Marc-Andre Fleury posting a 21 save shutout.  The win gave Fleury the second most wins in NHL history, passing Patrick Roy.  It's been a very up and down career for Fleury.  He was incredible in the 2008 playoffs getting Pittsburgh to the finals.  His most iconic moment clinched the Cup the year after.  There were a handful of years right after that where his poor play was the reason the Penguins were eliminated early in the playoffs.  They won a Stanley Cup with him as the backup.  He also saved them the next year when Murray struggled early in the playoffs to lead Pittsburgh to back-to-back cups.  He carried Vegas to the Cup finals in their inaugural season.  That's how I'm going to remember MAF.  There were too many down years for him to be in that inner circle of all-time goalies, and his best generally wasn't among the current elite, as evidenced by him being a Vezina finalist once in 20 seasons.  However, when he was at his best, it was incredible to watch, and that will put him in the Hockey Hall of Fame sooner than later.  For this season, Gustavsson is back, so I expect them to split the games fairly evenly.  He's a streamer in good matchups for now, but like most goalies, MAF can turn into a hold sooner than later, or be complete unusable.  Let's take a look at what else happened over the last two nights:
The Devils have built arguably the best young core in the league.  There's a lot of talk about Hughes and Hischier leading the way now, with Nemec and L. Hughes on the way.  There's Meier and Bratt also playing a huge role.  However, there's another former first round pick making a huge charge in his sophomore season.  Dawson Mercer scored a hat trick on Tuesday in the 5-1 win over the Penguins.  I had to do a double check because I did not realize this, but Mercer now has 27 goals on the season.  I knew he was having a good year, but man, that's a huge jump for the 21 year old.  Mercer is a natural center, but with the two former #1 picks in the fold, there's no reason to put Mercer on the third line right now.  He's thriving on Hischier's wing, and is definitely worth a middle to late round pick in drafts next season.  I'm not sure how much better it will get other than a potential increase in ice time because his skating is below NHL average, but his playmaking in traffic is so good and his compete level is so high that incremental increases help a lot to get into the 70 point range.  Let's take a look at what else happened over the last two nights: