Wild 2013-14 season

[bbfenatic]

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.

hahahaha +1

[Bear55]

Interesting lines, like the mix up for now. Heatley has a 7.5 cap hit but his actual salary is 5. So they would ONLY have to pay him 5 to play in the minors.

[CaptainMusky]

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.

I know what you were getting at, but post was in response to this comment: "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."

I dont know anyone that has been watching the games this year that would be upset with sitting Heatley even though he is paid so much. They have seen how much of a liability he is on the ice.

Off the ice, yeah thats nice, but I dont think they are paying him the money they are for his personality. If those comments are true, that is the ONLY thing they are getting from him right now.

[fishing tech]

Coyle to play Friday, Ballard probable, no word on Brodin. Lets hope we can stay healthy the rest of the year.

[OnAFly]

Heatley/Fonataine switching off between 1st and 4th lines. So...Heatley getting some 4th line time in. Yeo insists that is has nothing to do with his play, but seriously do you put a 40 goal Heatley on the 4th line. No, you put the 1 goal Heatley on the 4th line. I still kinda doubt that he would be sent to the minors.

[10,000 Casts]

Because of this Heatley deal, if they start calling for Yeo's head later this season like they did last season, I'm going to hop right on that band wagon... Moving him around like they are trying to let him find his game is talk, he's done and it's time to move on and let the prospects compete over his spot.

[Bear55]

It's not 100% Yoe's call, I'm sure Fletcher and Leopold might have some say on that move as well.

Its early in the year so like I said before they will give him some time yet, likely he plays himself out of the lineup. I just hope he doesn't bag a few goals over the next 10-15 games.

[OnAFly]

I'm guessing it's not Yeo's call. If I were Leo, I'd be telling Yeo to find a way to make Heatley useful, cause I'm not paying him to sit. Rotating Heatley around might be Yeo's way of showing Leo that no matter what Heatley does or where he goes, he's just a liability.

[RK]

Hiya -

So I kind of like the line shuffle. Keeps Granlund/Pomminville together, gets some better puck possession skills on the 3rd line with Koivu (say what you want about his scoring touch so far this year, the guy's a mule along the walls) and makes us harder to match lines against.

Heately - man o man what to do, what to do.

Sending him to the minors isn't really an option because of the cap. Under the new CBA you can't bury a bad contract in the AHL like the Rangers did a couple years ago. Salary still counts against the cap. So if you send Heater down, you have to call up someone and the NHL side of their two-way contract goes on the cap too, and you're over the cap or so close to it you have no flexibility at all to make call-ups for injuries or whatever. Team can't totally handcuff itself.

At the same time you hope the guy gets going, and his chances of getting going playing down on the 4th line with Kenopka and Mitchell aren't real good. He needs someone to feed him the puck and Kenopka isn't exactly Joe Thornton when it comes to being a playmaker. So you have to at least attempt to put him with some skill on the ice. But also have to think he's on a pretty short leash. Fontaine is really proving his worth in this situation - he can play up and down the lines and be competent at either a top 6 or 4th line role.

It really is an amazing deal. It's like he's just plain lost it. He handles the puck like a 12U girl right now...

[Hester]

Koivu's lack of speed/hustle bothers me so much.

Sometimes it looks like he isn't even trying it there.

[Bear55]

That was a fun game and not one we would have won in the past. I love Coyle but over the past couple weeks I think Granlund has leapfrogged him and reached Brodin status, just amazing vision and I kind of feel in the future wild forward will be fighting to play with him. Brodin was a little off tonight but not worried about it. Liked the lines towards the end of the game. PKC and NGP

[bbfenatic]

Nino is so good in tight, amazing how he can find a way to capitalize with not much room to work with; and Pom is starting to "snipe" some nice goals. Big win against a decent team but with the West full of good teams it is difficult to make up any ground on the standings....will need to win a lot of games against conference foes to make an upward move.

[CaptainMusky]

Could played pretty decent last night a couple point blank chances but I cannot get over the passing and vision of granlund! Man the cross ice passes drive me nuts most times because they are so dangerous but when he does it its stick to stick. Super impressed with his growth. 10 assists? Man that rocks. I love 64 and 29 together.

Borodin did look a little shaky at times. That will come back though. Not worried about him at all.

[Hester]

I still worry about our goal scoring. If pom pom doesn't put 1 or 2 in the net every night we will be back to 1 goal games. Granlund is so good with the puck. So much better than watching Pierre Marc Bouchard in the past.

[OnAFly]

If Pommer isn't scoring it's likely because the other team is using it's best shutdown line against him/Granny. At that point, we have a better match up with our first line. Having guys like Fontaine/Cook is nice too since they adds a little more scoring depth. As long as we have 2/3 lines running good, we should be able to win games.

BTW, there is a guy that is worse for his team that Heatley (at least the other night). Parros had right around 5 minutes of ice time against us and was a -3 on the night

[Bear55]

With Coyle back in the mix maybe that first line can get going again, I don't expect the 2nd line to keep this pace forever but some nice balanced scoring would be sweet. About time for Parise to pop in a couple against his old team.

[bbfenatic]

Coyle out...brought up MacMillian who has been playing well for Iowa. Glad to see others getting their chances, one of these guys will be replacing Heatley real soon IMO.

[Bear55]

Another nice win, have to say I like our team more than I thought I would this season. Nice to see Granlund get his first of the year, kid has been working his tail off this year. I suspect we see the Nino-Granny-Pommers line together for a long time.

[RK]

Kind of a sleepy game against a bad team but a W is a W, and it was nice to see Granlund continue to get on the scoresheet. That line is really turning into something, and man o man do you have to hate that Nino for Clutterbuck trade if you're an Islanders fan. Even Heately looked good last night.

Thought it was pretty ironic that one of the goals got banked in off Zidlicky too. Lemaire's quote about him always pops into my head every time I see him play: "Yeah, he generates offense. Both ends of the ice...."

Calgary went in and beat the Blackhawks at home last night. Be interesting to see what they're like Tuesday. They may be finally righting the ship up there.

[bbfenatic]

And Heatley played his best game of the year (which is not saying much) and had an OK goal. At least he seemed somewhat engaged in the flow of the game. When Coyle comes back 100% they should be much improved...they have proven to be deep enough to withstand injuries that will invariably come up all season.

[CaptainMusky]

Agreed Heatley did have his best game and IMO by a wide margin. Maybe he will start to get it together. I was seeing some pass attempts from him that showed great vision, but the execution just didnt quite happen. Maybe it will come with a few more games, but he did play much better.

Interesting quote from Russo during the intermission report was that Buffalo wanted Granlund NOT Larsson in that trade for Pominville. It seems like we made a good choice there as well, though time will come for Larsson I am sure.

That Clutterbuck deal is tremendous for us. Nino is a beast out there. He makes so many plays that dont end up on a stats sheet right now, but he is really shining.

[OnAFly]

If you're an Islanders fan, I don't think you hate the trade as much as the front office for treating their start prospects like garbage. Nino asked to be traded out after being sent to the minors for an entire year because he questioned the development methods (throw a top end prospect on the 4th line and then never play him).

That franchise just takes every opportunity to do the wrong thing it seems like. Honestly, I don't think that Vanek would resign there. He will have so many better places to go that will offer him the same $$ and maybe a shot at a cup.

BTW - That's a hilarious Lemaire quote on Zidlicky.

[Bear55]

Nino asked to be traded out after being sent to the minors for an entire year because he questioned the development methods (throw a top end prospect on the 4th line and then never play him).

I think the last straw was not getting invited to training camp last year. He was tearing up the AHL at that point and I think they didn't invite him on purpose to send a message or something. Either way I don't care and glad to have him playing well on our 2nd line. Clutterbuck was fun but he is no where near Nino right now let alone a couple of seasons from now.

[OnAFly]

Yeah, either way, it's working out well for us

I might have to break down and get cable again. This whole 'see a game or two here and there' thing isn't working out. I miss watching hockey day in and day out.

[10,000 Casts]

I've seen a couple twitter arguments on Russo's acct where the Isles fans still think they got the better end of the deal. I personally don't see it that way but the stats don't lie and Nino seems to be fitting in quite nicely and he's producing. Clutterbuck had that 20 goal season but followed it up with a dud last year and doesn't seem doing that great this season either.. maybe 400 some odd checks a year can take a tole on someone..