WILD HOCKEY!

[berfish]

"]Parise is in orono, its no secret. I've also heard he's not real hot about playing here. Id have to bo him. Is parise a game changer? I honestly havnt seen him play in a long time. There is still better and cheaper guys out there. It will be fun to see how it shakes out. Also sounds like jersey wants to hang on to him

I think Parise would fit our team pretty good though. Koivu is not a #1 center. If we inserted Parise to #1 center and Koivu down to #2 center it would open up Koivu offensively.

But I also not betting on that we will get him either. There are some other teams that will want him too and can afford to pay him.

I hope we can add a d-man and a number one center. I haven't looked at who will be available free agency wise but maybe we will have to trade some assets (not necessarily prospects) maybe backstrom to get the guys we need?

[OnAFly]

I heard that too about Gilbert. I definitely agree about Schultz. As much as people go on about how dependable he was, he sure wasn't this year. It looked like he lost a step and started taking more penalties because of it.

BTW, the NJ-NY game last night, Zids was on the ice for the empty netter allowed. He couldn't keep the puck in the offensive zone, lost a step on the guy, and took a penalty. That sounds exactly like this season's games here. The guy is done. He should just retire and go live out the rest of his days fabulously wealthy, doing whatever he wants. He was good in his prime, but not now.

[Bear55]

Well the Kings just own us this year. Mikko out another two weeks, put a fork in us we are done. Give the young guys the reigns and lets see how low we can draft.

[YiGGiN4SLoBS]

Whoever we get in FA, no matter what position, we need someone that can PUT THE PUCK IN THE NET!! ive never seen a franchise have so much trouble scoring and it gets OLD to watch to say the least.

Hopefully Granlund can help out with that next year also.

[OnAFly]

We thought we were getting that in Heatley and Seto. We got scoring in Heater, Seto's been ok, but we need to get rid of the mentality that we are going to score highlight reel goals. Sit in front of the net, when someone shoots, try to deflect it. When the goalie stops it, try to shove it in. When the D tries to clear you, destroy them. When they've done these things this year they have a very good record. When they don't, we get what we saw last night.

Our defense' age showed last night too. Hopefully they grow a lot by next year.

[Bear55]

I just hope this mid to late season tail spin we are in doesn't scare off those big time UFA that we need. From what I see we have tons of potential and talent in the system + a ton of cap room. A few big signings could turn this franchise around, well that an some nice development on the D side of things from a few of the young guys. We have been very much ravaged by injuries this year, hopefully some top end guys can see that and give us a chance.

[archerystud]

Koivu/PMB/GL have missed 98 out of a possible 189 games to this point. You could pretty much say that is the equivalent of one line missing half the season up until now. No team would be doing well with those numbers. Land a big name and a middle tier free agent and this team should be fine at scoring. Not sure if any of the other young guns will play too much next year.

I agree with Bear on the D however. I thought the second and third goals by the King last night were horrible defensive plays.

[OnAFly]

Tonight we play a team that has dominated us, which could be a good thing. We sit in 10th overall right now. I think we can get a better pick than that

Imagine getting between a #3 and #6 pick this summer. Could be nice to draft a high scoring winger.

Oh yeah, and Charlie Coyle signed an entry level contract. He's played 16 QMJHL games and in that time has 12G and 12A. Yeah, he's good.

[YiGGiN4SLoBS]

It may be taboo to say this on here, but im gonna anyway- I think Koivu is soft. The guy seems to get injured every year, sometimes multiple instances..... Its beginning to look like hes a little overpaid too. Good two way player but he doesnt score NEAR as much as he should for the $. To me hes just another soft euro who wont suck it up and play through nagging injuries.

[OnAFly]

Nothing wrong with having an opinion. No taboos here beside the ones the forum admins setup and I don't think there was anything on Koivu in there

I disagree. In a recent interview, Fletcher said that Koivu had re-aggravated his previous injury by trying to play through it. Yeo&Fletch finally had to sit him (according to Fletch). Yeah, he doesn't score a ton, but look at the Wild record with vs without him. Overpaid, maybe, but you need to pay franchise players. Koivu is this franchise' guy. He's not a goal scorer like our last guy. He's a setup-two way center and leader.

Wild game is starting to get a little physical, BTW. It's taken about 10 minutes to get through 1 minute of play cause all the scrums.

[Bear55]

I have never thought of Koivu as soft but these injures are getting a little old.

I better go to the eye dr, did Matt Kaissian really score two goals tonight? Put him on the first line! Nice come back tonight, too bad we couldn't turn it into two. Or maybe its ok if we are tanking for the draft again.

[YiGGiN4SLoBS]

I have never thought of Koivu as soft but these injures are getting a little old.

I better go to the eye dr, did Matt Kaissian really score two goals tonight? Put him on the first line! Nice come back tonight, too bad we couldn't turn it into two. Or maybe its ok if we are tanking for the draft again.

Funniest post of the day bear... so true though

[archerystud]

Or maybe its ok if we are tanking for the draft again.

I say tank the season since GL and PMB are done and get a higher draft pick.

That was one thing I used to hate about Lemaire and "da system". The Wild would never finish bad enough to get a really good pick.

[10,000 Casts]

The whole team is soft. Or injury prone, whatever you want to call it, it cost them the playoffs this year.

One of the worst teams in the NHL made us look pretty bad last night and we stole a point but lost a goalie on a weak play. Now for some stats. We are last in shots, last in shots against, Our leading scorer is 66th in the leauge (Heatley) and our second leading scorer isn't even on the map. Brodziak who they just gave a nice contract to is -13! It shouldn't be too tough to tank fo the draft but they will probably win a few to screw it up.

[OnAFly]

We've been good at that the past couple years. Especially two years ago. If we didn't win our last two games, we would be talking about Jeff Skinner right now.

I say tank it. Yeah, it sucks to watch them lose, but it will be better next year...I hope.

[Bear55]

I hope Backstroms injury isn't too serious but I would be cool if he was out for a while, I'd like to see Hackett get a few starts.

[OnAFly]

A quote from the STrib on Backstroms injury, "I am hearing it is a groin injury -- a bad one."

Looks like we'll be seeing more of Hackett this season.

[fishing tech]

Backstrom out 2-4 weeks with a groin injury.

[OnAFly]

Looks like we've thrown in the towel. Harding got hung out to dry a couple times.

[Hockey Guy]

The Wild is such a joke this year. If I didn't have great seats I would probably give up my season tickets! I heard that they are going to set an NHL record this year though. I haven't confirmed this myself, but I heard that they will be the first team in NHL history to be in first place OVERALL in the NHL at Christmas to not make the playoffs. I think they will get the third overall draft pick this year. Why is it that MN is the place where goal scorers go to die? We all used to blame it on Lemaire. Now who do we blame it on???

[OnAFly]

I don't think we'll be as fortunate as to get the 3rd pick Scorers? We need to shoot first. Seto would have sooooo many goals if we would just shoot the puck for him. He's gotten quite a few from near the paint. I don't know what it is. We just won't shoot. Maybe the practices emphasize too many set plays. I don't know.

[schmitty3]

Suck for Luck!

[YiGGiN4SLoBS]

The wild have never been able to score since they became a franchise. Have they ever in their history ranked in the top half of the league in goals? Just in the top HALF? I guess the old cliche "defense wins championships" usually holds true, but COME ON... SOMEONE put the puck in the net!!!!!!!!! thats the object right?

[scsavre]

The wild were getting very lucky in the begining of the year. We had a decent team with everyone healthy. Now with our core players hurt we are terrible. We have no depth to allow for injuries. I'm guessing the coaching staff and cf are not surprised how bad we are.

[bak2MN]

Yes they have to start putting the puck at the net in order to score goals. A cheap goal is just as good as a designed play goal!