WILD HOCKEY!

[scsavre]

Any kouivu updates. Is he gonna miss any more ice time.

[PierBridge]

Sounds like 4 to 6 weeks although historically he's a fast healer.

[scsavre]

So we can expect our next victory to be in march.....

[Bear55]

Might as well tank for the draft, it was a crazy fun start to the season but we need to get a lot better to compete for a cup.

[OnAFly]

Cheer up everyone. The future is bright with guys like Granlud, Brodin, Larsson, Zucker, Coyle and Bulmer coming up in the next few years. If we can stay healthy and develope our prospects the right way instaed of rushing them into the NHL to fill a minor gap in a poor season, we will be in good shape.

This year has been the year of man games lost. Could we make the playoffs, maybe, but we probably would be a one and done. Either way, I'll be watching to the end.

[Bear55]

Agreed Fly, too bad the way the year has turned out but I will alwasy watch. I do feel we have a bright future ahead of us, in the long run having a poor season now could help us down the road.

[solbes]

Yeah but it's been really tough the last few weeks. What a start and then what a slump.

I'm also excited for the future looking at our guys in the system. 2 years maybe to get a lot of these guys up and contributing? In the mean time, our current team is going to have to stop the bleeding. That Koivu injury is killer, but someone else is going to have to step it up.

[archerystud]

Ugghhh. I didn't watch last nights game as my son had a game. They really can't generate any goals anymore.

Although I guess when 3 guys from your top 2 lines are missing I guess you will be a little short handed in the offense dept.

There is a reason some players are first or second liners and others are third or fourth liners.

I still think the future looks very bright for this team. I'm hoping they can make a big signing like a Parise in the off season and then get in some of their up and coming young talent.

[Bear55]

Wow we are just bad right now, they have to come out of this thing eventually right?

[schmitty3]

This is starting to become hard to watch

[solbes]

I'm not even sure they will come out of it. Guys are clearly frustrated and I would be too. At times I see effort, and at times all I see is flat uninspired play. I'm sure there have been stark turn arounds like this in the NHL before, but I can't remember any as severe.

[bbfenatic]

Solbes - there is absolutely no one on the team that can "step it up" at this point, the talent just is not there. Not to mention that many are probably playing dinged up at this point. The "future" is too far off and still an unknown for those youngsters; they need to trade one of the goalies and maybe a guy like heatley and/or clutterbuck to get a young scoring stud like bobby ryan. I know jason blake could be had for little to nothing and he would love to play for his home state, Mpls is his residence now and he is lighting it up after coming off his injury and time off, is super fast, and is tough. Ducks are 8-2 since he has returned.

[hockeybc69]

Ouch.

There went another MN sports team right into the toilet....

Whos next? Ugh. Not much left unfortuneately...

[archerystud]

I'd be surprised if they don't move Harding before the deadline. At this point I actually prefer him to Backs based on age/salary but the team also has a couple good goaltending prospects for the future. Harding has now proven he can be a No 1. and has recovered from the knee injury. I'm sure he's been playing quite a bit lately to be showcased as trade bait.

I doubt they can get a high enough impact player in return for the playoffs but I don't see how the Wild can keep him in the off season. May as well get something in return.

I thought this team was a bubble playoff team but they've probably had far too many injuries to make it. I was thinking that if they had good years out of PMB and GL that they'd make it. I still think at least the future looks bright for this MN team, not sure about the others.

[bbfenatic]

archerystud: I agree, Harding will be gone and if any team even sniffs around heatley I'd let him go in a heart beat; did not realize that guy is as wimpy as he is and never wins a battle in the corner and I am not sure he even knows our goalies names, his better days are definitely behind him. Sounds like Drew Stafford is on the block, he'd be a good pick up, then do whatever it takes to get Parise in the off season.

[OnAFly]

We can't trade Backs (NTC). We have to trade Harding. We have goalie prospects that look good in the minors and in the Euro leagues.

I don't think Heatley is going anywhere this year. It wouldn't surprise me if Clutterbuck got traded. I think it will take more than him to get Bobby Ryan though.

Getting Parise might be tough, too. We don't want to get into a situation where we are way overpaying for a guy.

[archerystud]

I'd take Stafford for Harding in heartbeat.

I'm not quite as down on Heatley as others are. I do think he still has a good scoring touch and he was getting plenty of opportunities earlier in the year.

You need a couple good players on a line to generate offense, not just one. I don't think they've had a good line combo for him yet. Although his numbers are down and I can see where others are down on him.

I've played in Adult leagues for a while and I finally got paired up with another guy who could score. Both of our numbers have went up dramatically. Not a great comparison (old fart hockey vs pro) but even Ovechkin needs a guy like Semin or Backstrom on his line to get more scoring opportunities.

[archerystud]

Forgot Stafford was with the Sabres, I think they still have a pretty good goalie. Maybe a 3 team trade???

[Bran32]

I don't see why we keep bringing up guys that can't seem to score in the NHL!! Maybe give Rau and Fontaine a look, they scored a ton in college and are playing pretty well in Houston and if you have seen Matt Read play this year I think it shows college players can come right in and bee effective! The 2 best young wild players that I have seen this year are Palmer and Wellman (collegiate players) Sorry but I just do not see Peters, Macmillan, or Macintyer!! Heck i wouldn't mind seeing Genoway come up, he looks just like Spurgeon!! We need to find someone to make plays!!!

[bbfenatic]

One rumor site has the wild trading wellman for jason blake and pairing blake with PMB and Cullen. As for Stafford, I'd give Buffalo Clutterbuck, Heatley and Wellman for him, then trade Harding to Tampa Bay (who wants him) for a Grinder/Scorer whomever that might be.

[OnAFly]

The idea behind bringing Peters up and putting him with Heater was to take some of the defensive load off of Heater. They thought maybe then he could actually spend some time in the offensive zone instead of starting out his shift in the D zone and finally getting into the O zone when he's gassed.

Really, our defense need to stop flipping the puck up ice. All that happens is we give up possession, we change lines, and then our fresh line starts out in the D zone. There's nothing more frustrating than watching 60 minutes of that carp.

What happened to Stoner? He was so dependable early on. Now, it's like he doesn;t know what to do with the puck. Zidlicky needs to improve or go. Simple as that. We pay him way too much for him to have an off game...all season.

[archerystud]

Totally agree about Zidlicky. I always thought he saw similar to Brent Burns with far LESS upside. He is a defensive liability who doesn't score as much. He's good on the point on the PP but I think Spurgeon is already better at it. I think it was just a DR contract that we are stuck with.

I really liked Scandella at the start of the year. I wasn't seeing as many games before he got sent back down but I thought he was great early on.

To be honest I think the D is getting some bad raps because of the inability of the offense to score. We get behind and then eventually start pressing which leads to more offensive opportunities for the other team. Early on when they were winning it seemed as if they were never behind by more than one goal. Now I've been flipping on the TV to find them down 2 or 3 at the mid point of the game. Always easier to play with a lead!!!

[archerystud]

I also like the idea of giving Fontaine a shot. They probably don't want to look desperate as they aren't out of the playoff chase or anything but with the lack of offense they might as well go for it.

Rau just got called back up.

[10,000 Casts]

another Matt Kassian call up and another W. They should have gooned it up 5 games ago and rolled with it, with the lack of talent on the ice, this team needs to win off emotion like they did last night..

pretty cool Rau got a goal last night.. all 4 call ups looked good.

[bbfenatic]

Powe "took it on the chin" (literally) for the team to get them going and boy did they respond! Can't win on just emotion night in and night out though; at some point you have to win with skill. Heatley looked surprisingly good last night, maybe coach or the GM gave him an earful. They will make a trade soon, hope it is a major upgrade!