Wild 2015-2016 Season

[bottomdweller]

I dont get this team at all.  I cant believe being without spurgeon is putting us in a tailspin.  I like Torch but jeez change the lines a little more for cripes sake.  Every five minutes was a different line, its got to be hard getting any rythm with different players all the time.  I know you need to make a change when things are not working but last nite was a bit much.  We are snakebit when we are chasing from behind.  We need to get the first goal or we lose our composure

[bbfenatic]

I can here the beep...beep...beep of the Wild backing into the pIayoffs right now and I have been saying for 2 years that this team is barely a playoff caliber team and so far away from being a cup contender it is ridiculous.  Fletcher should lose his job IMO, what we have now is average at best and no top notch game changers in Iowa we can look forward to....no money to spend....contracts all out of whack.....small and fast does not cut it in the NHL anymore...no snipers does not cut it anymore...no grit does not cut it anymore...we get knocked off the puck too easy, we lose too many battles out front and in the corners, and we have to have every player going at 110% all the time to be good and that is not possible.  I am so disgusted where we are and where we are headed at this point, yes we'll make the playoffs but so will 15 other teams so nothing to be that proud of....IMO we'll only win 1 or 2 games in the first round....pathetic situation for the State of Hockey.....Go Wild?????

[Bear55]

Eh it's not that bad, we just aren't as good as we hoped we would be, the vets aren't bringing it like they use to and the kids aren't picking up the slack like we would have hoped. Their break out years have been good but pretty average. Money and contract wise you have to give this team one more year to pull it together. After that you have to look at giving up on some of the vets and going younger, we are pretty much married to Parise and Suter but Vaneks contract is up after next season and Pommers might be a buy out candidate, not that he and vanek don't have skill, I just don't see us winning a cup with those guys in the lineup at this point. Koivu can still play but he needs to be our 2nd or 3rd line center. We have crazy depth and skill on D right now, we might have to trade some valuable pieces to find a center.

I'm still fine with fletcher, remember he had nothing to work with when he got here. I'm talking nothing outside of Koivu and Burns and even less prospects than we have now. Based on trades it seems ownership wanted him  to compete right away, he's done that. If it wasn't for a historical swoon mid season we would have clinched a week ago. Heck if we weren't 1-9 and at 3 on 3 OT we would have clinched by now. It's MN sports, you need to be prepared for this kind of disappointment.

The team the year before he was hired.
http://www.hockeydb.com/ihdb/stats/leagues/seasons/teams/0023312009.html

Even worse was our AHL team. Scandella is the only player on that list I would want. Nino is still better than Clutterbuck and Pouliot has been a massive disappointment for 4th overall.
http://www.hockeydb.com/ihdb/stats/leagues/seasons/teams/0026762009.html

On a side note it looks like we will get one of Dallas or St Louis which is good, they will either crush us fast or the team will come together and figure out a way to pull off an upset. The blues can become a head case in the post season and Dallas has weak D and goaltending so they could be exposed.

Yes I know we haven't clinched yet but between the wild finally winning one of their last two games and the Avs sucking worse than us and losing just one of their last 3 games we will get in.

[Bear55]

Lose 4 in a row, clinch playoff spot, that has to be some kind of record.  Bring on the cup!

[bbfenatic]

Wild solidified 16th spot in the playoff race,,,whoopy!  Keep in mind they don' even have the 16th best record point wise overall so actually the 19th best record in the NHL...what a joke. Kneejerkchetti benching guys for a bad play, pulling guys up, sending guys down, juggling lines, over playing tired vets...all to try and make a name for himself is not working IMO.  Now is the time to set your playoff lineup, try to rally the "team" so they have some chemistry and mojo going in but appears to me the team is in total disarray, no one playing at the level they are capable of, no one having fun, just a bunch of "deer in the headlights looks"....very sad state of affairs IMO.

One more item, not sure what is up with Dubs but it is not good, does not seem to be the same guy, not challenging shooters, not moving very fast, just weird watching him compared to the "days of old" and we need him back to his old form or we could see some 10-0 games in the playoffs! LOL JK.

 

[CaptainMusky]

Dubs was on fire for their 6 game winning streak, but just ask quickly has cooled to below avg. On any given night I can tell from the get go if he is going to have a good game, the last several it was obvious early that he wasn't in it. Some of that he is feeding off the guys in front of him, but he seems to take plays off at times and as a MN sports fan we all know that doesn't bring championships.

We all know what can happen in the playoffs, but how they have been playing certainly doesn't instill any confidence that it could be "their" year.

When they are on, they are tough to beat, but they are banged up pretty good right now which leads to all sorts of line juggling.

Benching Dumba wasn't ONE bad play. He has had several in every game. They guy is feast or famine. I have been concerned about this since the first day I saw him and it has lessened to a degree, but he still has mental lapses. Scandella is really off too.

I think having the 5 pt lead over the Avs really did these guys a disservice. Had it been tight I think their work ethic would have been better, but in reality there was only one way that the Avs were going to catch them and that was to win every game in regulation. That's tough for anyone to do.

[Bear55]

The Wild are bi-polar, this has been going on for years, not as good as their winning streaks or as bad as when they are in the dumps. This is the team we are stuck with good or bad, they could be done in 4 games or make it to the finals. Now that last one is certainly a long shot, especially this year but it's not nearly as bad of a team as the one who lost to the Hawks in 5 a few seasons back. Just have to roll with it, we are predictably unpredictable. I'm still going to watch, if hockey makes you upset turn the channel.

[O.T.C.]

Is it time to bring up Iowa for the last few and just rest the whole gang ? Most are saying the best thing for Duncan Keith was to get suspended in a timely manner, he'll be rollin come playoff time. Would it really hurt, chemistry seems to be absent. Is this accurate ? Mikko has scored 3 goals all season in 5 on 5 play ? I wish we could ask Winnipeg and San Jose players all our questions, they know what's lacking on our team and what holes in it they were exploiting. Toughness and not even talking fighters is one area for sure. To move guys from out front and to stay put out front on the other end. 

[bbfenatic]

4 hours ago, Bear55 said:

 I'm still going to watch, if hockey makes you upset turn the channel.

Believe me I have...plenty of other good hockey games going on so I have tended to bounce to other games on any given night more than years past. I'd say the loyal season ticket holders are getting more restless when it comes to this team as well with the more frequent booing going on with the pathetic Wild play more often than not.....they are not even .500 counting overtime losses.

[Bear55]

We've been terrible in OT that is for sure, something like 1-9 in 3on3, that has to be the worse record in the league. Heck even a lucky bounce here and there and we might have clinched earlier. This season I've come to just lower any expectations I had for this team, the talent is kind of there and some times they look like world beaters and then go on long pathetic stretches. I hope they surprise me.