Wild Week Ahead: Schedule & Storylines – Olympians Return, Goaltending Issues & NHL Resumes – The Hockey Writers – Minnesota Wild

The 2026 Winter Olympics have officially come to a close, and three Minnesota Wild players are coming home with gold medals as Team USA took down Canada 2-1 in overtime on Sunday, Feb. 22. The Wild’s non-Olympians have been practicing since the middle of last week, but with the Olympics over, the rest of the team will join them shortly. 

The Wild have three games coming up this week, with their first two being a back-to-back on the road, and they’ll wrap up the week back at home. Here are a few storylines to follow for the week of Feb. 23 – Mar. 2. 

Wild’s Olympians Return 

Although it was only a few weeks, it felt like much longer for most Wild fans who missed their team while the Olympics were underway. With the awarding of the gold medal for men’s hockey, the Olympics have finished, and now it will be time for the NHL schedule to start back up again. It’ll take a few days for the Wild to get everyone back for practice, but they’ll have quite the experience coming back to the roster. 

The Wild had eight players representing them, and three will come back with the gold. Nico Sturm and Team Germany were knocked out in the quarterfinals, as were Team Sweden’s Joel Eriksson Ek, Marcus Johansson, Jesper Wallstedt, and Filip Gustavsson. The Swedes were knocked out by their Team USA teammates Brock Faber, Quinn Hughes, and Matt Boldy, who will have gold medals after defeating Canada. 

Boldy, Faber, and Hughes all had an impact in winning the gold medal, and hopefully, that confidence will come back with them to the Wild. They’re going to have to hit the ground running because the season starts back up for the Wild on Thursday, Feb. 26. 

Wild’s Olympic Goaltending

The Wild sent both of their starting goaltenders, Filip Gustavsson and Jesper Wallstedt, with Sweden to the Olympics, but unfortunately, things didn’t go as well as expected. Gustavsson had a rough start to his first game, which was against Italy, but after that first hiccup, he locked down, and they got the win. He played in their second game, and unfortunately for Gustavsson, it was a difficult 4-1 loss to Finland. 

After that loss, Gustavsson didn’t play for the rest of Sweden’s duration in the tournament. Wallstedt did back up during the tournament, but he didn’t get any action between the pipes. Jacob Markström played strongly in place of Gustavsson, but it would’ve been nice to see Wallstedt get at least a game, even in the preliminaries, to show what he could do, but they obviously felt Markström was the hot goaltender. 

Clearly, Gustavsson had some struggles in his Olympic debut, but hopefully, he got it out of his system and will come back ready to be strong for the Wild. The same can be said for Wallstedt, although he didn’t play, he still skated and shouldn’t have too much trouble adjusting back. 

Wild’s First Game Back 

The Wild will restart their season on Thursday night on the road against the Colorado Avalanche. They began the break on a five-game win streak, and it would be great if they could get off on the right foot with a big win. It’ll be interesting to see how the team does, as they haven’t played together in the past few weeks. 

Breaks can make or bust a team, and regardless of how the first game goes, if they win, they have to figure out how to keep it going, or if they lose, they can’t let it continue to slide. The Wild are just five points behind the Avalanche, and they have a chance to close the gap this week. While Faber, Boldy, and Hughes will probably still be riding the high of winning gold, the Wild will need them to play like that against the Avalanche. 

Related: Wild Adding Quinn Hughes Has Paid Off in More Ways Than One

It’ll be interesting to see how the Wild handle their first game back and if they can get things started with a win. Luckily, it looks like they’ll have all of their players returning uninjured, which was a pretty big worry at the beginning of the tournament. Hopefully, they can get off on the right foot and come out of this week with three wins. 

Wild Schedule Feb. 23 – Mar. 1