WILD HOCKEY!

[schmitty3]

BTW, Koivu is now hurt. Sounds like a leg strain of some sort. I would like to see the man-games lost stat per team. We have to be around the top.

Where did you hear this? I can't find anything

[schmitty3]

Nevermind just found it...

http://www.startribune.com/sports/blogs/135664648.html

Hopefully nothing too serious

[Musky Buck]

You got it RK, Koivu is no fun to play against, it's good to see him get some props it's like you want a Brett Hull score 50, do absolutely nothing else for the team or score maybe 30 and do the intangibles better than most. Keep rocking wild ! Anyone remember Brent Burns, John Madden, Eric Nystrom,Martin Havlat, buried in my memory.

[RK]

Sounds like Koivu is out at least for the Isles game and maybe beyond. That REALLY hurts. If PMB is still out, that makes 4 of our top 6 forwards missing.

Other news - apparently Wild prospect Charlie Coyle is leaving Boston U to go play for the St John's Sea Dogs in the QMJ. He'll join fellow Wild prospect Zach Phillips I believe.

[Bear55]

Just saw that about Coyle, sound like maybe academic issues. Nothing official yet but if this goes down it might be good for Coyle and Phillips to get some extra playing time together.

[scsavre]

Pertaining to Coyle, sounds like there are a few issues in BU, maybe he is separating himself - not saying he is in any trouble, just saying I wouldnt blame him for getting out of there.

When saying the D looked shaky last game. it jsut seemed like they were constantly a few feet off. Too many times I saw guys between the net and our d man. Also, looked a little off on the offensive points, except for scandella.

I think Zid and Zannon could be moved at the deadline. They both can be perfect for the right team. I am more worried about Harding. I would love to make the playoffs and have 2 good goalies plus Hackett. But, we need to get something for Harding while we can. He will not be here next year as no one wants Backstron. We could pick up a solid offensive d man and a top 4 forward for him.

I am not a trade deadline fan, but we might have to do something with Harding. Lets just grab Parise

[OnAFly]

I wish the NHL would review games in which players are diving. Burrows is the biggest joke in the NHL. I don't understand how this reflects any less poorly on the NHL than Rome flipping off the crowd last year or a coach throwing sticks onto the ice.

[Bear55]

We need to get healthy! Tough to hang with the better teams with a partial AHL roster.

[OnAFly]

So is it safe to say that Koivu is the true leader to this team? Every time he's out we fall apart. We got one good period and then the Burrows thing happens as we lose it.

[Musky Buck]

Koivu is so solid really, Yeo went to Finland to talk to him and Backstrom to get their angle on the team etc once hired. In a bit of a funk, but it's not like the other teams are full of clowns, we got a target on us and teams are responding, we'll be ok.

[OnAFly]

This team looks to have reverted back to the beginning of the year where they'll take a period off and have no PP. We need forwards back, especially Koivu.

[solbes]

Agreed. Must get some scoring drive back with Koivu. What's the timeline for Seto? I'm sure Lats is day to day which could go on indefinitely.

[OnAFly]

They aren't even talking about Lats. It's reminiscent of Bouchard two years ago. Hopefully not as bad, but who knows.

Seto and Koivu traveled with the team I believe. So take that for what it's worth. Sounds like Koivu is close, could play tomorrow.

For Seto, I'm just happy it wasn't a torn up knee. He has the ability to score and at minimum gives the other team something to think about. Right now we are a one line team and it's showing. We are asking AHL guys to do our scoring while PMB/Cullen/Heatley consistently face a shutdown line. Also, in the words of Mike Yeo, "We need to shoot the puck. We are trying to pass the puck into the net."

[spearchucker]

Things go good when they forecheck hard and fall apart when they don't. D played bad last night IMO. Trying to play the puck in front of the net instead of just taking the body and knocking them out of the way.

[OnAFly]

Yeah, I agree with you on the D. Look at a couple of the Canuck's goals. They could have been avoided by taking the body instead of trying to stick check.

[scsavre]

The defene were chsing the puck way too much. Anybody else notice the puck was like a bouncy ball out there last night. The ice musta been soft cause it was jumping over our sticks all night.

I think kiovu will suit up, but wouldn't be surprised if he didn't sounds like he was ready to go last night, but we didn't want to rush him.

Ltd, who knows. I have a feeling its his last year here. Hopefully he heels up, but who knows....

[OnAFly]

With his injury problems, I wouldn't think he would be too spendy for a "show us you can be healthy" one year contract. This year he came to camp in shape and played well. He just got unlucky with the concussion.

[10,000 Casts]

Injuries are hurting us just like last year. If we want to make a run at the playoffs, we need to stay healthy. When we have the top 2 lines intact, we can compete, right now we are depleated and they look pretty bad. Only time will tell.

Funny how our #1/#2 lineman Mittens couldn't even catch on with another NHL team until now.. What does that tell us?

[RK]

Hiya -

The injury bug can stop gnawing on this team any time now...

Saw stats today that are pretty staggering. Wild have had 36 players on the roster in 36 games, and made 16 call-ups from the Aeros. That's more call-ups than the entire 2008-2009 season.

I know there are some Koivu haters out there who question how much he really does for this team, but to me the last few games really point out how much value he has, not only on the ice as a player but on the bench and in the room as a leader. The kind of game he brings is exactly what they've been missing. Still, can't get to down in the dumps over the last few games. When you have 3rd line guys playing top line roles, you're going to have to accept some additions in the L column.

Take the long view though, and it's great experience for some of the call-ups that may be players with the NHL club in the future. Tough to watch now, good for the organization in the long run.

Amazing to me though how one of the youngest guys on the team - Spurgeon - has been probably their best player during this stretch.

[OnAFly]

McLeod can be assured a nice rest for a week at least. That was about as dirty a hit as you'll see. The worst part, McLeod got him once from behind before the hit that put Spurgeon out. I hope Shanny takes that into account when determining suspension length.

When was the last game we played where on of our players wasn't run by a questionable (at best) hit? It's time for the Wild to start going for big hits just to show they won't tolerate being pushed around.

[OnAFly]

Cody McLeod isn't getting suspended. What a joke.

[solbes]

And I keep thinking back to how Shanny suspended Butch for 2 games for the high stick on the faceoff. No rhyme or reason to how these are handed out.

[scsavre]

What a joke.

[Bear55]

And I keep thinking back to how Shanny suspended Butch for 2 games for the high stick on the faceoff. No rhyme or reason to how these are handed out.

Kind of reminds you when they cracked down on obstruction, call everything like crazy at the begining of the year and then slowly let things go again. What the heck is wrong with a listtle consistency? You think they would have this stuff figured out by now. Obviously these are judgement calls by the refs/Shanny but a penalty or suspension should be called reguardless if it is the first game or the last.

[Bear55]

Wild drop another one but this time it looks like we played much better in a shootout loss.

I read a good quote a while back, it went something along the lines of a team going into a losing streak will win games they have no business winning and they will lose games they should win when coming out of a losing streak.