In his career, Mike Tyson has been known more for his fists and his unfortunate body art choices than his punditry. But at the height of his boxing career, the heavyweight champ was asked about an opponent who supposedly had a plan to take down Tyson when they met in the ring.

“Everybody has a plan, until they get punched in the face,” Tyson famously replied.

Working not in the ring but on the rink, the Minnesota Wild had rarely been punched in the face for the season’s initial two weeks, scoring first in all of their first six games. More recently, the script has flipped, with the foe — Philadelphia, Pittsburgh and Tampa Bay, respectively — taking early leads of a goal or two in Minnesota’s three most recent games heading into the Sunday’s meeting with Toronto.

But keeping an even keel, and sticking with the plan even after taking a fist to the nose, has been working so far.

“(When) we got off to the starts with the goals…I think we managed those situations well,” Wild coach John Hynes said following a recent practice. “Then when we got down in a couple games, it was the same feeling as when we’re up. We know what we need to do, we’re confident, we’ve talked a lot about being a mentally tougher group.”

That is one of the differences Wild fans are seeing this season, as opposed to the 2023-24 campaign which ended with them outside looking in when the playoffs began. While last year’s team was sometimes prone to fold when adversity struck, the win over the Lightning was an example of the new attitude Hynes is installing.

Last season, the Wild were good when getting the first goal, going 30-9-4 in those games. But in the 39 games where the opponents scored first, Minnesota won just nine of them.

On Friday, Tampa Bay led 1-0 after the first period and was outshooting Minnesota 12-2 at one point early. A few players later characterized it as the normal sluggishness that comes after a long road trip. But the Wild stayed calm, tied the game, took a lead, and held on through a crazy third period to win.

“There’s a sense of calm in the room. We have a lot of confidence in this group, we know we can score and defend, and we’ve got confidence in our goaltending too. So I don’t think we’re going to stress about getting too far behind,” Wild defenseman Declan Chisholm said. “We’ve been maintaining an even keel, not too high, not too low, in most of our games.”

Excused practice absence for Middleton

With Wild defenseman Jake Middleton’s wife, Natalie, due in the maternity ward at any minute, he joked after Friday’s win over Tampa Bay that he was headed home to rub her back and try not to upset her in any way.

Middleton missed the team’s Saturday afternoon practice for the best reason, as the Middletons welcomed a healthy baby girl over the weekend.

He then logged nearly 20 minutes on Sunday after spending better than 12 hours the day before alongside his wife.

“Long day. She got induced at 7 a.m. and had a baby girl Stevie at 6:04 p.m.,” Middleton said, still beaming. “Mom and baby are healthy.”

Ovechkin’s advance on Gretzky continues

There has been no secret to the unexpected 8-2-0 start by the Washington Capitals, who are playing this season without long-time offensive force T.J. Oshie while the Warroad native deals with a career-threatening back ailment. While putting up seven goals versus the Columbus Blue Jackets on Saturday, star forward Alex Ovechkin recorded his third consecutive multi-point game, and moved a step closer to the NHL’s all-time scoring mark.

With a goal Sunday against Carolina, Ovechkin now needs 35 more goals to overtake the NHL’s all-time mark held by Wayne Gretzky, who retired in 1999 after scoring 894. Ovechkin, who is 35, has nine points in his past four games, and has not had a run like that since January of 2020 when he recorded seven goals and an assist in a three-game stretch.