NHL PLayoffs 13' - 14'

[CaptainMusky]

Yeah disappointing end. Crawford definitely stepped up in this game.

They had a good run and played extremely well for the most part. Lots of good experience for the kids.

[RK]

Bad end to a fun series and season. Mid-way through the second period when the Wild just could not get any puck luck at all I told my buddy that this was starting to feel like a game that ends with the Wild feeling like they deserved better.... Hate it when I'm right.

Have to hand it to Crawford though - he stole that game for them, and good goalies can do that for you. No shame in losing to a good team, and Chicago's good. I feel a lot better as a Wild fan this morning than I would if I were a Penguins fan that's for sure.

What a fun season though. Hopefully as an organization they're finally past the 'just happy to be here' attitude about the post-season. I don't think they've ever been there as a franchise, but this post-season just felt different somehow.

[PierBridge]

I will say BB was right and we were a lot closer to being a cup contender then I thought at the present time.

We litterly were a couple of bounces away from being in the conference finals.

That hurts!

[Bear55]

Despite the loss the we hung with the Hawks and then some. We certainly deserved that game last night but if you can't burry them after so many chances you are really playing with fire (or Kane).

Heck of a season Wild! The kids really impressed me this year and I have some fairly serious expectations going into next season.

[OnAFly]

IMO, Crawford was no better than Bryz in that whole series. It would be nice to have the guy back next year, but I kinda doubt it unless we somehow dump Backs' and Harding's contracts.

The year ended better than I expected. Now I have even higher expectations for next year

[PierBridge]

Yeah im not buying into the theory that we have won this series with an elite goalie.

You have to score more than 1 goal to win and we didnt lose this series because of anything bryz or keump did or didnt do.

Not saying we dont need a tender, we do in order to get home ice next season and contend for a cup. But to blame the goaltending for this series loss is crazy imo.

[archerystud]

I'd only argue that as a team you can be more aggressive if you have more faith in your goalie, but more goals are needed.

[PierBridge]

No doubt and really it was the team defense that made it relitively easy for our tenders... but like you said you pack in and it hurts offensive production.

Still totally bummed.

[yakfisher]

Sorry boys, replied to the wrong thread.

[PierBridge]

Quote:

Koivu he proved he is one of the best second line centers i

Glad you brought that up. Obviously hes a few millon per over paid. But hes one of the better all around players imo.

Being one of best face off guys in the league is an invaluable asset.

And despite having ankle surgery which obviously curtailed his play he did a fantastic job on Toews in Hawks series for the most part.

I think he will have a big year next season.

With Boston out and another home team losing game 7 we were extremely close to actually winning the cup this year.

It hurts still lol.

[Bear55]

I'll just say this about goaltending, ours was fine but sometimes to finish off the top teams you need some next level goaltending. Crawford was better than Bryz in game 6, hard to tell if it was all Crawford or our inability to put the Hawks away but he stole that game. Bryz was great and stopped everything he should have and then some but we needed a little more to beat the Hawks. Just look at what Price did to Boston the last two games.

[CaptainMusky]

Just look at what Price did to Boston the last two games.

Or what Lundqvuist did against the Penguins. The trouble I have with a marquee goalie is the price. I would rather put that money toward a scorer considering how well we play defensively.

We had 3 goalies this year that had the best stats in the league for various portions of the season (save %, GAA), but you put them on pretty much any other team and I am quite confident they wouldnt have been nearly as good.

Look at what St Louis did to bring in Miller. Honestly I would have thought they were a shoein for the Cup, but they imploded. Not entirely his fault, but there were games where he looked below average.

[bbfenatic]

I will say BB was right and we were a lot closer to being a cup contender then I thought at the present time.

We litterly were a couple of bounces away from being in the conference finals.

That hurts!

Most hockey pundits had the Bruins to win it, look what Montreal has done. There was no team in the top 8 who was overwhelmingly better than the others IMO and the Wild player for player could have done it, a good bounce here, a great save there, finishing on a great opportunity, and who knows. I am very disappointed because I had higher hopes than most with the overall talent this team had. Next year is a big question mark but one has to be optimistic going in....but we shall see what unfolds. Go Wild!

[Bear55]

The trouble I have with a marquee goalie is the price.

I don't think we need a high end goalie, just one that can get hot and steal a game from time to time. Without MS Harding was looking like that guy, now that is up in the air and Kuemper could be that guy, Bryz might have been that guy at one point but I'm not sure any more despite him being a quality goalie. Backs is probably done unless he can get healthy and even then he is getting old fast.

Wild exceeded my expectations this year a bit but they turned out about where I thought we would, good but not good enough, you have to burry teams when you outplay them that bad and we don't seem to have "it" yet. After what I saw this year I think we will be right up there with the best of them. Sky is the limit if the kids keep improving.

[bbfenatic]

I don't think we need a high end goalie,

What drives me crazy is that we rely too much on pure hustle and hoping we get a lucky bounce thus we were absolutely gassed and beat up by the end IMO. You need to be able to compete, score on your share of opportunities, capitalize more on the PowerPlay, and have plenty in the tank to keep going, we need a guy or two that are pure scorers..we have none.

If we don't make a huge improvement in goal regardless the cost then we will need to either change our system of trying to "out-hustle" and "locking down" .... putting it on the goalies shoulders....or we will need a guy or two like Vanek allowing us to win 4-3, 3-2, 2-1 games....we are fine on D with what is here and what is in the stable IMO.

[solbes]

I do think we need a high end goalie. We're going to have games where we struggle to score offensively, even if we stack up on stud forwards. Probably 4 or 5 of those games in the 3 series leading to the Cup series. Winning 2 or 3 of those games with a G that can steal a victory is the difference between winning in 7 or losing in 7.

I also don't buy that Bryz played similarly to Crawford. The schemes are totally different with ours protecting Bryz. I fully admit Crawford was mediocre at best in games 3 and 4, but he rolled us good in the games they won. He picked up steam in every win he got (.938, .947, .964, .971). When we exerted offensive pressure and needed the goal, we couldn't buy one against him (period 1 of game 5, most of game 6). Probably a lot of you would disagree, but I don't see Vanek scoring then either. I'll take a G, and he needs to play every d&*# playoff game.

[CaptainMusky]

To me if we had a pure scorer and capitalized on one or two of these chances we had we win that series. It wasn't goal tending that cost us. The lack of having someone with an innate ability to score. Like Kane did for the hawks. Haula was about the closest thing we had IMO. Its going to be tough to deal with this goalie situation but I don't think we need a $7M per yr guy in net to win.

Our #1 goal should be getting home ice for at least one round in the playoffs. That's going to be tough considering how strong the west has been. But a top 4 in the west should be goal #1. Now figure out how to get there. Need at least one pure scorer that kills on the PP would be a huge step.

[bbfenatic]

Penguins firing GM and Coach, when you have the talent and can't produce the changes have to be made.

[bbfenatic]

Half right, GM gone...my source was wrong!

[PierBridge]

LoL...oops.

Yeah the gm has made quite the mess out of the Pens and should be canned.

Nothing to do with coach everything to do with the players as is almost always the case in hockey

[PierBridge]

Speaking of coaches.

Cut and past.

After winning a playoff round for the first time in 11 years, the Minnesota Wild will reportedly bring back the coach that led them there.

Mike Yeo is expected to agree to a contract extension soon, according to sources of the Pioneer Press. Those same sources claim that both Minnesota and Yeo have “expressed interest in getting a deal done,” a key point that illustrates 1) the Wild want to keep Yeo, despite letting him coach this entire season in the last of a three-year deal with no guarantee of anything beyond; 2) Yeo won’t be hitting the open market for any of the current available gigs (Vancouver, Carolina, Florida, Washington) or ones that might come up (Pittsburgh, specifically.)

Yesterday, we asked if Yeo did enough this year to stick in Minnesota — and answered it pretty quickly.

The NHL’s youngest head coach at age 40, Yeo led the Wild to 43 wins this year, third-most in franchise history, and 98 points in the ultra-competitive Central Division, which featured the NHL’s third (Colorado), fourth (St. Louis) and seventh (Chicago) place teams.

The Wild also won a playoff round for the first time in since 2003— dispatching of the Avs in seven games — and showed great resilience against Chicago in Round 2, rebounding from an 0-2 deficit to make the series quite competitive.

Yeo did all this despite tremendous uncertainty in goal all season long, using four different starters while losing the services Josh Harding after he played at a Vezina-calibre level to start the year. Yeo also kept the team afloat as injuries sidelined Zach Parise, Mikko Koivu and Mikael Granlund for a combined 51 games.

The Pioneer Press report did not sa7y anything about the future of Yeo’s staff, however. Assistants Rick Wilson, Darryl Sydor and Darby Hendrickson have been with Yeo throughout his three-year tenure and, following Tuesday’s loss to Chicago, Parise spoke highly of the entire staff.

“I think [all the coaches] did a good job,’’ Parise said, per the Star-Tribune. “We were prepared. We made adjustments when we needed to make adjustments, and we switched lines when we needed to.”

[bbfenatic]

LoL...oops.

Yeah the gm has made quite the mess out of the Pens and should be canned.

Nothing to do with coach everything to do with the players as is almost always the case in hockey

I tend to agree.....but Pens have more talent than any team in the league, other than a crappy goalie (remind you of any team?); the new GM could still can Bylsma.....I would...can't replace the players in one fell swoop so the players will be the same for the most part. Crosby was pretty quiet in the Playoffs kind of like our reg season leading goal scorer, Pom.

[bbfenatic]

Speaking of coaches.

Cut and past.

After winning a playoff round for the first time in 11 years, the Minnesota Wild will reportedly bring back the coach that led them there.

Mike Yeo is expected to agree to a contract extension soon, according to sources of the Pioneer Press. Those same sources claim that both Minnesota and Yeo have “expressed interest in getting a deal done,” a key point that illustrates 1) the Wild want to keep Yeo, despite letting him coach this entire season in the last of a three-year deal with no guarantee of anything beyond; 2) Yeo won’t be hitting the open market for any of the current available gigs (Vancouver, Carolina, Florida, Washington) or ones that might come up (Pittsburgh, specifically.)

Yesterday, we asked if Yeo did enough this year to stick in Minnesota — and answered it pretty quickly.

The NHL’s youngest head coach at age 40, Yeo led the Wild to 43 wins this year, third-most in franchise history, and 98 points in the ultra-competitive Central Division, which featured the NHL’s third (Colorado), fourth (St. Louis) and seventh (Chicago) place teams.

The Wild also won a playoff round for the first time in since 2003— dispatching of the Avs in seven games — and showed great resilience against Chicago in Round 2, rebounding from an 0-2 deficit to make the series quite competitive.

Yeo did all this despite tremendous uncertainty in goal all season long, using four different starters while losing the services Josh Harding after he played at a Vezina-calibre level to start the year. Yeo also kept the team afloat as injuries sidelined Zach Parise, Mikko Koivu and Mikael Granlund for a combined 51 games.

The Pioneer Press report did not sa7y anything about the future of Yeo’s staff, however. Assistants Rick Wilson, Darryl Sydor and Darby Hendrickson have been with Yeo throughout his three-year tenure and, following Tuesday’s loss to Chicago, Parise spoke highly of the entire staff.

“I think [all the coaches] did a good job,’’ Parise said, per the Star-Tribune. “We were prepared. We made adjustments when we needed to make adjustments, and we switched lines when we needed to.”

No surprise there. I have always liked Yeo, hope it is a lifetime extension ...with all those positives from the article; he should actually give half his salary to Fletch, he's the one that made the vast improvements.

[PierBridge]

What crazy game hockey is.

Pittsburgh 1-20 on the power play in the Ranger series.

Sid the Kid 1 goal in the entire series.

The Pens were destroyed in the physicality department in the playoffs. One big reason coach B keeps his job for now imo.

Agree on Yeo pretty fortunate situation to end up in.

You guys do know we were going to win game 7 in Chi town right?...

[CaptainMusky]

Watching the ducks and kings now. Major bummer to be done watching wild.

Been doing some research on salary cap situation for next year and the blackhawks are screwed. Only $4M under and players to sign? Wild have like $22M. Looking forward to see some moves!

Ducks are getting rocked! 4-0 now ouch