Wild 2014/2015 Regular Season

[PierBridge]

Because backs was/is old injured and washed up. Kemps has strived in stretches including the playoffs and to start this season but being 24 and rookie caught up with him/us.

By system I mean the over all team defense.

I have no doubt we would have made the playoffs or atleast close with just about any NHL caliber goalie playing for us including Kempner.

[CaptainMusky]

Fishing tech I think you meant Sean Burke for Dybnyk right?

That is something that has been talked about how much improved he is at handling the puck. He has two assists I believe with us. That makes a huge difference and really takes some heat off the D so they don't get blasted into the boards trying to fish a puck away from them.

[fishersofmen]

Everyone keeps talking about how brutal the upcoming schedule is and the teams we have to face. What it comes down to is these teams have to play us....the best team in the NHL right now! Ducks, dead. Blues, dead. Predators, dead. We're coming!!

[10,000 Casts]

Quote:

I agree on it not being the system...

ok then how do you explain Ilya Bryzgalov? With the wild he went 7-1 with a 2.12 gaa and now this year he is 1-4 with a 4.19 gaa in Anaheim.

Something is making these goalies better and I'd like to know what it is. It's pretty obvious that fletch and yeo knew that they just need an avg skilled big bodied well positioned goalie to play in our system so they went out and got Duubs. And bang... it worked.

[Bear55]

We have a goale friendly system that is for sure but they have to keep up their end of the deal or any team can turn into a train wreck.

[CaptainMusky]

We have a goale friendly system that is for sure but they have to keep up their end of the deal or any team can turn into a train wreck.

Exactly. Even when we were losing a lot of games we were still allowing close to the fewest shots per game.

When our system is working right we don't need a stud goalie. Our system was failing us earlier in the year and our goalies were not playing even close to average.

This is made most evident by "soft" goals allowed. Since Dubnyk arrived I can only think of probably a handful of goals he really should have saved. I remember one outing where Kuemper had 4 in the first period!

We need a guy who stops everything he should and steal a few. Dubnyk has been doing this and then some.

[bbfenatic]

fletch and yeo knew that they just need an avg skilled big bodied well positioned goalie to play in our system so they went out and got Duubs. And bang... it worked.

At this point Dubs is playing well above avg IMO and not so sure they zeroed in on an avg skilled big bodied well positioned guy only.....they took best available for what they had to give up and struck gold with Dubs IMO. We are tied with LA Kings in lowest shots allowed but I don't attribute that to a "lock down defensive style" or any type of "neutral zone trap"...we just play good O-zone puck control..."keep away"...but for the shot differential of only 4 shots I still think the goalie makes the biggest difference. What I like about Dubs size is the fact that unless it is a tip or mis-direct he most likely will come up with the save and he does not have to exert too much energy to make a save. His weakness is high glove side IMO.

It will be very interesting how Dubs responds following a game where one of these high powered opponents coming up goes for 5+ on him. I look for teams to start loading up players in front of our net and force our D to have to deal with them more...and trying to get those tips and garbage goals....cuz shooting from the perimeter with no screens has proven hopeless against Dubs for the most part.

[OnAFly]

There is a stat somewhere on the strength of shots given up vs taken. That's probably more valuable than shot counts as when we are "on" we tend to give up few shots and the shots we do give up are fairly harmless. I don't remember what it's called, but there's a stat somewhere for this.

Also, shooting from the perimeter should be hopeless on any unscreened NHL goalie. That was the problem that the team had with Kuemper and solved with Dubs. Hopefully the fact that Dubs has a big body and plays deep in his net will help counter that garbage goal effect which will start happening, especially in the playoffs.

[Bear55]

Interesting scoreboard last night, Winnipeg just dropped out of a playoff position they have held forever, probably full melt down mode north of the border right now. Five teams (including us) within 3 point of eachother so we have to keep on winning or collecting points because even two losses in a row could drop us out. We just have to stay ahead of one of those teams, San Jose is getting closer too so keep an eye on them. Crazy tight playoff race right now.

[CaptainMusky]

The Ducks have lost 3 in a row. Not liking that, I don't foresee 4 in a row.

Tough game tonight and like has been said, its important for the Wild. Maybe they can capitalize on the Ducks being a bit down tonight.

[OnAFly]

I did a quick analysis of our PO situation:

Three teams are essentially in it for the final two spots:

MIN - 81pts

LAK - 79pts

WPG - 78pts

I broke off remaining schedules into Div Leading Teams (L), Playoff Teams (P), Out Teams (O). For the sake of this, I called all three above wildcard teams.

--LAK-WPG-MIN

O--6---4---1

P--6---6---7

L--3---4---7

Basically, LAK has a creampuff schedule and will likely be in the playoffs. WPG plays a lot of playoff teams, but still has a fairly balanced schedule. MIN plays half of it's remaining games against teams who are leading their divisions . Although our playoff chances are pretty good right now, I don't think those chances include the strength of competition.

Honestly, I think WPG continues to have difficulties in goal and we sneak into the 8th spot and play STL, losing in the first round.

EDIT: Sorry about the small table, formatting it terrible on these boards.

[solbes]

If we can get St Louis and Nashville to separate, we might be able to finish our last 2 games where they have nothing to play for with set top playoff positions. We can only hope.

Otherwise I agree our schedule is pretty brutal in comparison to Winnipeg and the Kings. Good analysis there Fly.

BTW, are you outta the country right now so we can count on a win vs the Ducks tonight? Is it too late to take up that collection if not?

[OnAFly]

I'm in the country. Where I go in Asia is 13h ahead right now, 14 without DST.

The good news is that I won't be able to watch the games tonight and tomorrow, so we definitely have a chance

[CaptainMusky]

Take one for the team OnAFly! LOL

[Bear55]

Three teams are essentially in it for the final two spots:

MIN - 81pts

LAK - 79pts

WPG - 78pts

You have to include Calgary Vancouver and San Jose in the mix too, everyone is so tightly jammed in there it could shake out any which way over 15 games. The key is to atay ahead of any two of V, LA, W, C & SJ. As long as we do that we are in.

[M1dwestF1sh]

I know we missed a lot of chances but I liked how we played tonight. It was a good physical hockey game but we just whiffed on too many that could have been easy goals.

[fishersofmen]

Ducks got away with this one.

[PierBridge]

Im going with Dubnyk and Schroeder tomorrow night against St Louis!!! !

[Bear55]

Can't argue with the last three posts.

[fishersofmen]

Dubnyk carried this team on his back tonight. Best game so far in a Wild jersey. His play lit a fire under their a$$ in the 3rd period.

[noahsdad]

awesome win tonight...nice come back and i sure am liking Dumbas play as of late....that scrap with Oshie was cool....he did not give an inch

[Bear55]

Well that was quite the turn around. If we make the playoffs, avoiding the Blues would be in our favor. Dubs, what can you say, he has looked even better on the back to back nights.

Dumba is making a few more mistakes lately but overall I still really like what he brings, sometimes it's like he is the only guy who is throwing hits and playing with somewhat of an edge.

[bobberineyes]

It seemed to pizz em off after Zach ' S goal was disallowed, was nice to see them capitalize on the blues mistakes. Agreed on dubs, when he's on the wild are tough to beat. Let's just hope the avs and ducks game don't hurt us in the long run.

[schmitty3]

Was nice to be on the other end of one of these games for once. We never had that with Backstrom or Keumper in net.

Was also nice to see someone actually step up on Taresenko. That's one thing that really bothers me about the Wild D men they will just let the little guys like Taresenko and Kane walk right into the zone, and they will just play positioning while they just stick handle around the zone waiting for something to open up. Was really happy to see Dumba step into him like that, you know he'll at least be thinking about it next time he comes into the zone.

[10,000 Casts]

Nice read by Dumba on that play but he's lucky he didn't get an elbow penalty. And if he continues to improve next year, he could score 10-15 goals.

How about that STL goal that never even went in the net? How in the **** do they even try to call that a goal?