Wild 2013-14 season

[10,000 Casts]

I can't take it anymore!!! Heatley is the worst player in the NHL!

[yakfisher]

I can't take it anymore!!! Heatley is the worst player in the NHL!

I don't know, he did make it into the zone ahead of the puck on that offside call against him. Must have some "wheels" left or the D must have shoved his wheelchair a little too hard.

Tough game, I've missed the last 5 and maybe I should miss the next 5 to bring them some luck.

[Bear55]

I can't take it anymore!!! Heatley is the worst player in the NHL!

Thought I saw him using one of these last night but no, it was a hockey stick.

[spearchucker]

I can't take it anymore!!! Heatley is the worst player in the NHL!

He is terrible this year and Koivu needs to step it up a lot too. We are paying to much for what he is producing.

[CaptainMusky]

I havent been a huge fan of Koivu. He is really a second line guy IMO.

Heatley is a liability out there pretty much from the second he laces up his skates.

[archerystud]

I missed the first 2 periods last night. I thought our D had a couple of whoopses in the third. Dumba got schooled and then missed the crossing pass. Big whoops!

In the age of the salary cap missing any of your top 10 players is huge. Especially when you consider it moves the Heater up a line or 2. I mean the guy isn't fast but he has to forecheck harder if he isn't scoring.

The result last night was kind of what I expected. Can't wait for Brodin/Coyle to get back!!!

[bbfenatic]

Disappointing game last night; they can't get over the hump and at this rate they are going to be on the bubble. I agree with the Koivu observation, has not been a 1st line caliber center for a couple years now. Nuff said on Heatley...no other team would even have him on their team. Dumba has struggled recently and needs to turn it around or he could be sent back down for the year. Hopefully Harding is ready to start again and they need to give Gustafson a shot...maybe he is better than Backs. They will be much improved with Brodin & Coyle back and need to put a run of wins together soon to stay up there in points.

[OnAFly]

To bad we just resigned Backs to a 3yr, $3.5mil/yr deal. I thought that was too long when we did it. I would have taken him on for one more year, maybe two. He's aging clearly and had an injury plagued season last year. If this is the trend, we are in for a long three years.

[yakfisher]

I agree. Koivu would never have made the money he does if we had the top end players we do now. He works hard but I never felt he was a number one guy. He is a great piece if your completing a puzzle, but I'm not sure he knows he is just a piece. Maybe we can sell him to Anaheim for some talent, he can play with Saku and finally everyone wins. That may free up some space for Vanek for a couple years to make a good run then unload him to keep the young guns. Of course, this all assumes we can dump grandpa Heatly.

[OnAFly]

Heatley isn't going anywhere. Who would take him? Everyone sees what he's doing here. We just have to wait the season out and he's gone.

Our bigger problem right now is goal tending. Backstrom is not the goalie he was. Harding is a huge question mark with the MS thing. Kuemper looked like a sieve, Gustaffson has no NHL experience and is quite young especially for goalie standards at 21.

Oh and BTW, Mark Parrish is in his final year of his contract

[10,000 Casts]

Quote:

Dumba got schooled and then missed the crossing pass. Big whoops!

Boy did he ever and did you notice who the other D was? Suter... They are going to have to get him to stop pinching like that, you can't do that in the NHL, the players are to good and to fast and he found that out last night. I think it's his 3rd time getting beat like that...

[OnAFly]

He'll figure it out. I'm guessing he sits next game and watches from the press box. It's good for him to make these mistakes early and learns from them early.

Coyle might be back Friday against the Habs. They should sit Heatley, put Fonatin on the 3rd line and throw Coyle back up on #1. But, we all know the circus that erupt if Heatley gets benched.

[CaptainMusky]

It was Dumba and Stoner when Dumba had that major F up. If Suter would have been out there it likely wouldnt have resulted in a goal.

Dumba needs to settle down a bit. He made several bad plays last night, but the one directly resulted in a goal.

Backstrom was actually very healthy last year until the playoffs.

I dont mind having him around, they just cannot rely on him to carry the load. Against a team like the Hawks who have so much speed and skill you need a goaltender who is quick side to side and he is not.

Most other teams he wouldnt get exposed like he did last night, but the Hawks have so much talent up front. The Sharp goal he was looking the wrong dang direction!!!

I am for getting some ice time for the young goalies, but they really cannot afford to experiment too much or they could drop in the standings even further.

Coyle and Brodin being out much longer will have a lasting affect. Ballard needs to come back too to have more depth.

[hoppe56307]

Oh and BTW, Mark Parrish is in his final year of his contract

[bbfenatic]

He'll figure it out. I'm guessing he sits next game and watches from the press box. It's good for him to make these mistakes early and learns from them early.

Coyle might be back Friday against the Habs. They should sit Heatley, put Fonatin on the 3rd line and throw Coyle back up on #1. But, we all know the circus that erupt if Heatley gets benched.

I do not understand how sitting Heatley would cause a circus, please explain. No one knows better than himself how poorly he is playing and has to admit he is a liability at this point. Other players want to win too and they must know they need more productivity at that position in order to do so; would they really be visibly upset if they benched Heatley...at least for a few games to see what effect it has? Does his seniority and salary give him protected rights to play regardless, would the NHLPA have a gripe? Not sure I understand the in & outs of benching a player like him.

[OnAFly]

From everything I've heard, Heatley is a leader in the locker room and taking a guy like that, making what he makes and sit him in the press box. That's not going to go well.

No to mention every radio !diot in town will be calling for his head or calling the organization a bunch of fools for sitting a guy making that much.

[CaptainMusky]

Not so sure about that. Every talking head I have heard who follows the Wild regularly has constantly been saying MORE is needed from Heatley and he is NOT playing well. Yeo came right out and said it in last week's press conference.

There are a lot of guys who have earned a shot to play or to stay up with the team, but when Coyle comes back something will have to give. Send down a guy that has been playing well in favor of keeping a spot for a guy whose only mark was on a gift open net goal?

To me, keeping him around sends a worse message that less than mediocrity is acceptable provided you are paid a lot.

[OnAFly]

My last post was referring to his contributions off the ice. I don't think anyone can argue that he's performing on the ice.

[bbfenatic]

Listened to Lou Nanne yesterday; he claims that they could send Heatley through waivers and Lou thinks he would undoubtedly clear because of his poor performance, then they could send him to minors and remove the hit to the salary cap but still need to pay him his full salary....if he does not turn around soon my guess is that is what will happen.

[Bear55]

They will give Heatley a chance to start producing because he is a Vet and still has some skills. However at some point you just have to cut him, like it has been mentioned before, the guy drags down every line he plays on. You have to wonder what happened to him because he was pretty darn good his first season here, not a ton of points but he was hustling and could still skate a little.

[OnAFly]

BB - I didn't think the cap hit went away if he went to Iowa, but I've been wrong been wrong before...lots of times. Still, Leopold would be paying a guy 7.5mil in the minors. I can't imagine that would sit well with him.

[bbfenatic]

OnAFly - that is the way Nanne explained it. If he clears waivers first and is sent down his salary is removed from the cap hit but Leo still has to pay him what he makes. Nanne might be wrong but just how he explained it yesterday during his weekly call with Barreiro.

[OnAFly]

That would be interesting. I doubt we would be signing anyone big with that $$ since we need it later on for our young guys and a rental is what is going to push us into being a Cup contender. It would probably just be to clear space for younger guys to play on the lines they should be on instead of playing any of them on the 4th line or cycling them through the lineup.

Looks like they are planning on sending Veilleux down to Iowa. No news on Dumba, he might not play Friday anyways.

[bbfenatic]

Look at today's lines in practice:

Parise-Coyle-Heatley

Cooke-Granlund-Pominville

Nino-Koivu-Brodziak

Mithcell-Konopka-Fontaine

Talk about mixing it up! They are either giving Heatley every chance to succeed or they are trying to hide him and think Parise/Coyle are so talented they can play as a 2 man line . Who knows if they will roll this out at game time though.

[10,000 Casts]

I say put Heatley on Waivers and send him down. Who cares if he cries about it.. Whether you pay him $7m to bring this team down or $7m to bring Iowa down you still have to pay him $7m.