Wild 2013-14 season

[OnAFly]

Heatley actually turned on the gas at one point last night. I had to make sure it was actually him skating up ice leading a rush. Still, he's gone after this year. Too many young guys that can take his spot.

That HL contract is what scares me. If that's what it takes to keep a guy like Miller, I don't want it. I would take Backs+DK for a total of $4M over that and use the other $4M elsewhere.

[CaptainMusky]

HUGE win last night! The guys have certainly responded and Kemps is playing like he has been in the league 10 years. I have a feeling its due to my skepticism that he is ready to be "the guy". :-)

5 out of 6 pts against the likes of Anaheim, Chicago and San Jose? Are you kidding me? I never thought that would happen especially with two of them being on the road.

Really impressed with how this team is playing now.

I agree a contract like Lundquist certainly wouldnt interest me at all. We have young guys that will be looking for a payday soon so we have to plan for that vs the here and now.

[bbfenatic]

Amazing how they just keep buzzing around like a bunch of gnats against these larger bodied teams, when we have our legs we are tough to play against. Rupp was a bone head with that double minor and they scored one and had another 2 mn left but we held them off....Keumper was a little squirrely but came up huge time after time. Parise brings that missing component of hustle and when Koivu comes back it will bring us up another notch....this is getting interesting!!!

[RK]

Fun game last night. Thought I was watching a chimes concert there for a while they way both teams were clanking them off the iron... Wonder if they thought they were playing horseshoes rules?

Nice little run they're on right now, and if you'd have said a month ago that they'd take 5 of 6 points from the Ducks, Sharks and Hawks I'd have said you were crazy.

What's cool is it's a lot of young guys stepping up. Granlund has been stellar - says a lot that they had him on the ice at the end of the game taking O zone draws. Nino has played big, and guys like Coyle Fontaine and Haula have all been great at times...not to mention Kuemper. Ducks are a team that feasts on pressure and second chance goals off rebounds, and Kuemper's puck control last night was just outstanding.

Easy to forget how young this team really is, but we have 8 roster players under 25 and several of them are key cogs right now.

As far as the goalie situation... Heard some speculation on Coyle as part of a deal for Miller. To me, no way on God's green earth that happens. The kid is a top 6 forward at 21, a horse that can play wing or center... No way they give that up for a rental goalie with Kuemper playing well, Backstrom a credible #2, and hopefully Harding back sooner rather than later. There will be some bumps with Kuemper - as good as he's been he's still awfully young - but as a team with the number of young players, they're at the very front edge of a window. Be a way different story if we were a team like the Sharks with a lot of veterans and a possibly closing window that needed a goalie.

[CaptainMusky]

Big game tonight. We have owned Colorado in recent years IN Colorado so hopefully we can continue that trend.

We need this game. If the current trend continues Colorado could fall below us in the standings before too long, but they do have a few games in hand so that makes it tough.

It is just crazy to think of the run we have been on in the last 18 or so games and that we havent really made that much headway in the standings. The West is stacked.

[Bear55]

Pass on Miller for now, just don't want to give up the assets to get him. Now if we can sign him in the offseason for free then maybe. Certainly we have an unusual goalie situation right now but it seems someone always steps up and we play good team D. If Harding can get his meds figured out I'm cool with him and kuemper going forward but you have to wonder how much more uncertainty the wild can deal with.

Many Colorado looks scary good in a few years. Insain amounts of young talent on that team.

[OnAFly]

Oh my that 2nd goal by COL was ugly. Keep calm Darcy, pull you head out of your a$$ and move on.

[CaptainMusky]

Oof! This is not at all what I expected. These games come around every once in a while lets hope they turn it around quickly.

[BartmanMN]

Looks like the line we wanted is paying off.

[Bear55]

Nice comeback after an ugly first two periods, would have been fun to tie that game up.

[OnAFly]

2 goals against just shouldn't have happened in that game. The 2nd and the 4th I think were totally on DK. Then after our 3rd goal we decide play pass-to-the-other-team. There were 3 or 4 giveaways leading up to the 5th goal. I stopped watching after that. We were just slapping at the puck every time we got it.

[Bear55]

I can't blame Kuemps on the 4th goal, he made a pretty amazing save on a one timer that led to a rebound goal off Brodziaks stick. Its going to be a battle down the stretch. I don't see us catching any of the top teams including Colorado, big gap after them and some of the teams below us have been playing well.

Mr Granlund (7 points in his last 4 games) might just be coming into his own the 2nd half of the season. He's been good all year but really starting to show what all the hype was about, he's got an elite passing game.

[bbfenatic]

I agree Bear, not sure how Brodz ended up putting that in, maybe because he cannot score on the opposing goalies . I have never seen a guy get so many good chances as Brodz and not light the lamp....other than his role a a Penalty killer he just can't get the job done, he's taken over my "gotta go" guy target from Heatley..so that is not saying much for Brodz.

[10,000 Casts]

I went to bed when it was 4-1 in the 2nd. Nice to wake up and see they rallied for 3 goals in the 3rd. Also nice to see Stoner handle McCloud, he has really been tough in his last few scraps. Also nice to see prosser get revenge on that big hit where Scandella stupidly came over and we ended up giving up that softy. I love how he followed him to the blue line and forced the issue.

They said that Varmalov got a 5 yr $30m deal so $6m yr. So would $7m yr for Miller be that bad???

[10,000 Casts]

Quote:

he's taken over my "gotta go" guy target from Heatley..so that is not saying much for Brodz.

hahahahahahaha, I'm with ya! But the All Star still has to go with him.. Wow, that's $9m in wasted cap space!

[BartmanMN]

It was interesting watching the teams really use the low far side shot as a pass off the goalies pads. You could really see the puck handler make a conscious effort to look to see if someone was streaking towards the net and then fire off the low hard shot that they know the goalie is going to kick right back out to the forward coming down the slot.

[OnAFly]

Bear - You're right. There was a different goal I was thinking of. The Brodziak one wasn't on DK.

At least Brodziak ended his scoring drought That guy needs to be relegated to the 4th line and PK permanently. Awesome defensively. Awesome without the puck. Can't score on an open net.

[OnAFly]

I saw this on another site and to me it looks very intriguing:

Parise - Grandlund - Pommer

Nino - Koivu - Fontaine

Zucker - Coyle - Heater

Cooke - Brodz - Mitchell

Looks like a 1A-1B-3-4 type of line setup. This would make it much more difficult for teams to shut us down and gives Coyle some softer minutes to work on being an NHL center. We'll just try not to give him any defensive zone faceoffs

[schmitty3]

Can't score on an open net.

Unless it's his won

[Lahey]

Trade brodizak, haula, a goalie, and draft pick for a gritty power forward who bounces people around and can score. Clarkson would be perfect!

[CaptainMusky]

I was with you up to Haula. I would ditch zucker 5 times before Haula.

[Lahey]

Zucker is having the same issues Granlund did last year. Zucker is a goal scorer but not used to NHL pace and operating room yet. It wouldn't hurt of feelings to trade him ether. We can afford to trade youth for proven results. Would also like to see Grandlund, mikko, and poms on a line.

[Bear55]

Fly I like those lines too.

Brodziak is a black hole right now, can't score to save his life on crazy good opportunities, now many break aways now? Wasn't his last goal awarded to him?

I still think Zucker has a future with us, we just need to be patient while he figures everything out. Kids got speed and scoring touch to spare, that kind of stuff doesn't grow on trees.

With the talent we have I kind of wish they would kind of roll 3 scoring lines, I don't like the idea of Zucker on a top 6 or bust roll because our top 6 seems full already and we could make some moves this off season.

[Lahey]

Anyone else have the feeling mikko is on the trading blocks?

[bbfenatic]

Trade brodizak, haula, a goalie, and draft pick for a gritty power forward who bounces people around and can score. Clarkson would be perfect!

I'd be ALL IN on that and might be an enticing enough package to warrant a taker.

I'd also be open to trading Koivu for a 1st round pick if someone is hungry enough for a "rental" player. My guess is we will do nothing before trade deadline unless it is a deal for Vanek which might involve Koivu.