Wild 2014/2015 Regular Season

[CaptainMusky]

Is it just me or does our 3rd line look extremely dangerous.

love love that 3rd line! That's the 3 guys I wanted to see together a bunch last year. They should be fun to watch!

Really like these combos. Lots of interchangeable pieces here and I think Yeo has to be grinning from ear to ear with what Fletch the mad scientist put together. Sky is the limit. Like Yeo said we could contend for the cup or miss the playoffs. Its that tough in the West.

Lets get off to a fast start by beating these Avs.

[BartmanMN]

Completely forgot Iginla was on the Avs. Going to be a fun one tonight.

[10,000 Casts]

Zucker-Carter-Fontaine, now that's a dangerous bottom 6 line..

[OnAFly]

Anyone know the Av's lineup for tonight? I looked a couple places, found nothing.

I'm guessing Iggy plays on the second line.

[PierBridge]

http://www2.dailyfaceoff.com/teams/lines/20/colorado-avalanche

[PierBridge]

NHL Center ice is free for the 1st week or so...!

[toughguy]

What a game last night. Colorado's defense was terrible but still, good to see the Wild come out of the gates like that.

[10,000 Casts]

HOLY COW! What a statement.

They outshot the Avs 48-16 and outplayed them all game. I'm still trying to figure out if they're that good or the Avs played that bad? The top line looked great and Granlund is a Superstar, some of the plays he made had me rewinding the DVR!

[OnAFly]

The best part of the entire game was Pierre McGuire asking when the Globe Trotters' theme song was going to come on after we had possession for about 3 straight minutes in the third.

I think next game the Avs might have a little fire under their a$$es.

[toughguy]

I was laughing pretty hard at the globetrotters line too.

[bbfenatic]

Pure domination in every aspect of the game.....are we really that good or is Co that bad? Time will tell.

[hoppe56307]

I think it was a combination of the Wild coming out Amped up to play, and Colorado coming out flat.

I would bet Roy will have a pretty big fire lit under there hind quarters today at practice.

[solbes]

Varlamov looked like he needed to call his Mommy to make him feel better. Man what a fun game to watch. Blood was in the water in the second and everyone was finishing!

I can't remember ever seeing this much depth on a Wild roster. That alone is very comforting and encouraging. Not changing the goalie situation during the off season leaves me feeling uncomfortable.

[RK]

Call the engraver

No way the Wild is that good, and no way the Avs are that bad, but man what a fun way to start the season...

Very encouraging to see them pick up with the same intensity they had late last season. To me that starts and ends with Parise. Man does that guy ever have a motor. Just remarkable how hard he works shift in and shift out.

Also really, really nice to see the D chipping in some offense. If that keeps up all year...

Really, really curious to see where the Avs go this season. Loads of talent there but I thought all last season there was some smoke and mirrors to their results, and Varly had to be stellar night in and night out. Have to wonder if they can sustain it. With a preseason that was apparently awful, then a stinker on opening night, have to wonder if it gets in the heads of some of their young guys.

Anyone else notice how slow Iginla looked last night?

[Hester]

Looked like Colorado was tied to a post while they were in their own zone.

We always had the puck and had a guy or two flying to the net.

[OnAFly]

Iginla was a non-factor. He just wasn't what he used to be, at least last night. Maybe that's just a bad game, maybe we lucked out coming in second in the Iginla FA race this summer.

Vanek looked like he was trying too hard at some points. He needs to ignore where he is and just play. No goofy behind the back passes, no shoveling the puck off to be unselfish, just go do what you do, the way you've always done it. I'm sure he'll settle in and be fine.

Not only does Parise out work everyone on the ice, but he's very smart/sneaky about how he does it. Look at his goal. He pauses and waits for the defender to move, then fires a low shot and uses the fact that the defender already started moving to get around him and get a couple more shots off with positive results. Watching it in slow-mo, it was even more impressive than at first.

[OnAFly]

I fell asleep after the 2nd, but it sounded like the 3rd pretty much went like the first two. So...how about Roy throwing out the 4th liners at the end? Maybe his thought process is, "if you can't beat them, hurt them."

The upcoming swing through Cali should he a good test. ANA and LAK are both better teams than COL. should be fun to watch, just wish I didn't have to wait 5 days.

In other news, TSN decided to "improve" thier internet presence to "optimize" it for mobile use...it is now completely useless. Either they had no article on the game, or I couldn't navigate to it.

[Bear55]

Good start to the season, didn't think I would enjoy beating the avs again and again and again but ya I like it.

[CaptainMusky]

I have said it earlier the Avs are going to fall this year. So much of last year was Varlamov playing out of his mind. Now you have teams who know how to shut down MacKinnon. They lose their best offensive player to the blues and replace him with a guy who needs a walker. Impressive couple of games by the wild but a bigger test coming up starting Friday.

[CaptainMusky]

Brodin signs 6 yr extension with wild worth $25M. I have to think could and Haula are not far behind. This seems like a decent deal for all parties.

[OnAFly]

We've got 15mil in cap space next year...we have to resign Mikael Granlund, Charlie Coyle, Erik Haula, Marco Scandella and Christian Folin. So we could average 3mil/guy and be right up against the cap while still needing potentially a couple of forwards and a defenseman. This might get tough around February.

[CaptainMusky]

Oh I know this will be unpopular among some folks here but koivu's time is limited on the wild.

[OnAFly]

Yep, limited to the next 4 years He's signed until 2018 and has a No Trade Clause. The only way he would do it is if we could come to an agreement with him. Things like that only usually happen to teams on the decline. Not many guys would jump ship on a rising team.

[Bear55]

Nice deal, Brodin and Suter on the top pair for 6 more years.

Sitting on 15 in space now and cap could go up next year, we should be good to sign everyone.

[CaptainMusky]

Yeah the cap is planned to go up so we "should " be fine. Zucker is one guy on the way out IMO along with a veteran trade bait. Watch for that at trade deadline this year.