Wild 2014/2015 Regular Season

[CaptainMusky]

You said zucker is "on fire...maybe". How does that translate to "awesome".

I don't know which dumba you've been watching but he has a long ways to go before he's ready for the NHL full time. Far too many mistakes though he did play a bit better his last stint when Suter was out.

You want to trade our most consistent d man "Brodin" for what? You nuts? Apparently because he needs to add 5#. Good lord. You aren't dogging Brodin? Each time you mention his name its "he's too small, too light" that's dogging him. Fact remains he is our best d man consistently and guys who have played in the NHL who know far more than you or I say the same thing and have said its preposterous to think about trading him. He is a pillar player you build around not dump.

You are talking in circles.

[bobberineyes]

You guy's are funny. Not trying to pull you 2 apart but what frustrates me is the lack of effort out of some of the players. I understand to go full tilt for sixty minutes takes a lot out of one but we have some guy's that give it their best like parise, zuck, spurg to name a few. Then we have guy's like vanek, brods and our fearless captain k. Sure koivu has a couple descent shifts where he has a good forecheck or a good backcheck but my god it seems like most of his shifts he's giving about 60% tops. Watching him come up ice half speed just to cross the red line and dump the puck turn in a big winding circle to come off the ice and not once move your feet until he hits the bench drives me batty. Move your dang feet, those skates aren't that heavy.

[bbfenatic]

You said zucker is "on fire...maybe". How does that translate to "awesome".

I don't know which dumba you've been watching but he has a long ways to go before he's ready for the NHL full time. Far too many mistakes though he did play a bit better his last stint when Suter was out.

You want to trade our most consistent d man "Brodin" for what? You nuts? Apparently because he needs to add 5#. Good lord. You aren't dogging Brodin? Each time you mention his name its "he's too small, too light" that's dogging him. Fact remains he is our best d man consistently and guys who have played in the NHL who know far more than you or I say the same thing and have said its preposterous to think about trading him. He is a pillar player you build around not dump.

You are talking in circles.

CM you crack me up, I am having a blast with this back and forth. Zucker is on fire...we'll see if he stays on fire is the maybe...either way I think he has a very bright future.....and sorry, but Scandella over Brodin for consistency by a mile and Brodin could not fight himself out of wet paper bag...in fact he might be the only guy on the team I think I could whoop. CM, Brodin is an avg NHL Dman - period, and not a guy a team could build a core around....too small, not mean/tough enough. And who are these NHL'ers that say Brodin is a "must keep" and "so good"? You sure you are not confusing the "Homer Media" guys Anthony Lapanta and Mike Greenly for NHL'ers? You have your opinion and I have mine...that's what makes the world go around as they say...and I am done responding to your B$ on this subject....next subject we may agree on 100%...who knows.

[bbfenatic]

You guy's are funny. Not trying to pull you 2 apart but what frustrates me is the lack of effort out of some of the players. I understand to go full tilt for sixty minutes takes a lot out of one but we have some guy's that give it their best like parise, zuck, spurg to name a few. Then we have guy's like vanek, brods and our fearless captain k. Sure koivu has a couple descent shifts where he has a good forecheck or a good backcheck but my god it seems like most of his shifts he's giving about 60% tops. Watching him come up ice half speed just to cross the red line and dump the puck turn in a big winding circle to come off the ice and not once move your feet until he hits the bench drives me batty. Move your dang feet, those skates aren't that heavy.

I agree on Koivu, Vanek, and Brodz...it's almost like they have the "hey I have put in my time in this League, I'll do what I want when I want" attitude which some others in the NHL have but the Wild can't afford to have any slackers they need everyone going 100% all the time to be successful IMO.

[CaptainMusky]

BB, the guys I am referring to are Jamie mclennon (played in nhl now works for NHL network), Jeremy roenick (hopefully you recognise his name or you haven't watched much hockey), wes walz ( a guy much like Parise in work ethic but far less skill) and greenlay (he did play in the NHL). I respect waltz very highly he says and is usually spot on.

At least now I see what you consider an above avg d man is: someone who is big, can fight. So that eliminates McDonough, goligoski, martin and about 20 other consensus premiere d men in the league.

Guys like stoner you must just croon over. Lol

[CaptainMusky]

BB its funny how you and I can each have an opinion but mine is talk. I bet you never even played hockey.

[schmitty3]

You've got to remember how old these guys are, especially Brodin at 21 playing as a D Man. He is already one of if not our best D Man, and hopefully will be for a long time, cause trading him would be insane. Coyle is 22, Niederreiter is 22, Granlund is 22, Haula 23, Folin 23, and Zucker 23.

These next few years are going to be huge for their improvement, but to just give up on them and say they aren't what we thought is foolish. They are all still very young nhl players.

[CaptainMusky]

Amen Schmitty!

[bbfenatic]

BB, the guys I am referring to are Jamie mclennon (played in nhl now works for NHL network), Jeremy roenick (hopefully you recognise his name or you haven't watched much hockey), wes walz ( a guy much like Parise in work ethic but far less skill) and greenlay (he did play in the NHL). I respect waltz very highly he says and is usually spot on.

At least now I see what you consider an above avg d man is: someone who is big, can fight. So that eliminates McDonough, goligoski, martin and about 20 other consensus premiere d men in the league.

Guys like stoner you must just croon over. Lol

You dig up the quotes from your talking heads where the say Brodin is in the same league as McDonough, Goligoski, Martin and the 20 premiere players cuz I know they know better than to spew such hogwash and never said anything of the kind, Greenly and Walz are homer deluxe guys and are paid to "talk nice" as much as they can so they don't hold water, if you have not figured that out that is too bad. Never liked Stoner (in fact those in my hockey circles called him Stonehands; and am not even a proponent of fighting but good clean physical hockey is necessary to win in the NHL.

[bobberineyes]

The wild has not done real well on the trade market( the leddy and burns move still haunts us). Back then we had a good supply of d when those trades happened,now we are looking a little thin on d. If anything we should be dangling some of our over payed forewards that don't have a trade clause for some big defenseman. Might as well take advantage and be sellers at the deadline to beef up our lineup.

[bbfenatic]

You've got to remember how old these guys are, especially Brodin at 21 playing as a D Man. He is already one of if not our best D Man, and hopefully will be for a long time, cause trading him would be insane. Coyle is 22, Niederreiter is 22, Granlund is 22, Haula 23, Folin 23, and Zucker 23.

These next few years are going to be huge for their improvement, but to just give up on them and say they aren't what we thought is foolish. They are all still very young nhl players.

I have never said we must get rig of Brodin and I will say it again, he is an avg defenseman in the NHL. I have said and will say it again he might be the only trade bait we have...who else could we trade to possibly upgrade our team that A) we could afford to give up and have any value to another team.

I get the "they might improve so let's give it more time" but Pro Sports is about winning, so much changes from year to year with current players and more importantly what opponents have done to make improvements...Fletch is in a tight spot and I look forward to the upcoming changes.

[OnAFly]

29 other teams have interest in Brodin. He could be near Lidstrom like if he keeps progressing his game. Just a solid, solid dman. Yeah, he backed down to a guy way bigger whIle (who was it Bickel?) Was getting mugged. I'm happy he did. He's more important.

Do we get pushed around, yeah. Is that our biggest problem, not in my opinion. But, if that mattered I'd be getting paid for this

[bbfenatic]

BB its funny how you and I can each have an opinion but mine is talk. I bet you never even played hockey.

HAHAAHA if you only knew CM...if you only knew. And I personally know more NHLers past and present than you care to know...plus one of the top Agents (who signed many players) and several that play for they Wild so I GUARANTEE you would not win the Tit for Tat. Move on CM, I apologize if I have offended you but I stand by my opinions as I am sure you stand by yours as you should.

[bbfenatic]

29 other teams have interest in Brodin. He could be near Lidstrom like if he keeps progressing his game. Just a solid, solid dman. Yeah, he backed down to a guy way bigger whIle (who was it Bickel?) Was getting mugged. I'm happy he did. He's more important.

Do we get pushed around, yeah. Is that our biggest problem, not in my opinion. But, if that mattered I'd be getting paid for this

I agree, our biggest issue is in the Net, second IMO is scoring (we do a nice job with puck control though), third IMO would be toughness which could help with both scoring and D coverage.

[OnAFly]

Net problem agreed. See the "next year" post. Just a sh!t show this year and that one is all on Fletch.

Honestly, I wonder if the scoring issue is related to the net issue. Guys feel like comebacks are useless after losing a few bad ones. I don't know. We should be better than this.

LIke I said at the time, I don't like the Vanek signing. In hindsight Stastny would have been a better choice.

[CaptainMusky]

You dig up the quotes from your talking heads where the say Brodin is in the same league as McDonough, Goligoski, Martin and the 20 premiere players cuz I know they know better than to spew such hogwash and never said anything of the kind, Greenly and Walz are homer deluxe guys and are paid to "talk nice" as much as they can so they don't hold water, if you have not figured that out that is too bad. Never liked Stoner (in fact those in my hockey circles called him Stonehands; and am not even a proponent of fighting but good clean physical hockey is necessary to win in the NHL.

I will give you greenlay because he's as close to a homer as you can get but walz, if you listen to him he is far from a homer. Tells it like it is. Regarding quotes, they were live broadcasts so I will go out of my way to find those for ya.

Go back to your hockey circles or talking in circles and see what other material you can come up with. Not a fan of fighting but you want to fight brodin and think you would win? Lmao. Clueless. Clearly there must be someone feeding you something perhaps your wife she seems to have you wondering which ways up.

[CaptainMusky]

BB we don't have to trade anyone to upgrade our team. You keep wanting to move guys but we have RFA and UFA this off season. That's an easy decision to make. Buyout backstrom, sign/don't sign brodz, Haula, granlund tons of options.we don't have to give anything up to potentially get better.

You should maybe spend more time with your agents (wink wink I believe you) and they could tell you that.

[CaptainMusky]

Honestly, I wonder if the scoring issue is related to the net issue. Guys feel like comebacks are useless after losing a few bad ones. I don't know. We should be better than this.

LIke I said at the time, I don't like the Vanek signing. In hindsight Stastny would have been a better choice.

excellent point and I agree on the scoring issue. You can see the guys get deflated. Its sad/funny in one of the last games kuemper started the first goal goes in and I said "pull him that will boost morale". I think there is a lot to that.

I don't recall the $$$ of the stastny deal. He would have been awesome for sure. I think by the end of this season vanek will have tripled his goal production from now. That will get him around 30. That would be money well spent in my eyes. Basically we swapped heatley for vanek. So thinking about it that way we clearly come out ahead even if the season ended today.

[knoppers]

anyone see the all star game skills challenge? suter was a shooter at the top of the circle, they needed to make two shots into a open net receiving a pass. it took him at least 6 pucks to get 2 in. now I know how we cannot score, we have absolutely no accuracy.

[CaptainMusky]

I was wondering which event suter would participate in. That was painful to watch. It was kinda funny the last couple attempts he just hammered them. Lol clearly frustrated.

[OnAFly]

Suters all star skills include being in perfect defensive position all the time. That doesn't translate well to a skills competition. Seka got totally robbed at one point on the shootout. I did like that format a lot. The pace was fast and it felt like nonstop action for several minutes.

[bobberineyes]

Gee wiz, now I know why I don't go out if my way to watch the all star game. All this is is show off time. These guys are giving less effort than some of our skaters. I realize they don't want anyone hurt but I'm glad I didn't fork out big bucks to sit in the crowd to watch basically a low key practice.

[OnAFly]

If you watch an Allstar game (of any kind) expecting to see high caliber play and athletes giving their all, you're going to have a bad time.

It is what it is. I keep it on in the background while I'm doing something else and watch the replays. Some really nice goals, some really nice saves. Most of the time the goalie is getting hung out to dry, but that's pretty much what it is. One of the best parts of the whole thing is hearing the mic'd up players.

As for people paying to go, I'm sure they do it for the novelty.

I do like watching the skills competition though. I think guys are actually trying in those things and watching guys blast pucks 108mph is always gonna be fun for me

[CaptainMusky]

I knew Shay Weber had a big shot, but I didn't think it was going to be that big. That is huge. It was funny after he did it the guys on the bench said they were not going to try blocking anymore of his shots. LOL

I think much of that is the testament to the new sticks. I was reading that Scandella really worked over the offseason perfecting his stick preference and he gained 5 MPH. That is impressive.

In my day with the Montreal, Koho, etc lumber you would be lucky if you found 2 that were good out of about 20 sticks. Now they get a dozen and they are exactly the same. I surely wouldn't have been able to play hockey in today's money though, many the price of those sticks are insane. Skates were bad enough back in the day.

[OnAFly]

In my highschool years, top of the line skates were $300. Now it like $1000. The most expensive stick was an Easton Ultra-lite (oh yeah, I bought one!) at $100 without a blade.