Wild 2016-17 Regular Season

[bobberineyes]

21 hours ago, Bear55 said:

Ask and you shall receive, he is starting tomorrow.

It'll be interesting to see if the team plays a little harder in front of a different goalie. 

[Bobby Bass]

A well needed win, good team defense, a quality start by Stalock and a couple of points needed. I watched Stalock play for UMD and we thought he would make it in the NHL If I remember right he had a terrible injury getting cut which set him back a season and a half. He is a very good puck handler for a goalie and when he is on his game he is like a third d moving the puck. Good movement and for a small guy he covers a lot of net. He is coming up as a hot goalie so I hope he gets another start in the up coming back to back games we have. Might be to late to catch the Hawks but I hope the Wild get their game back together in time for the playoffs,

[Bear55]

A WIN!!! Not sure we are back yet but that was a nice step in the right direction. Give Stalock another start and rest up Dubs, hopefully he can push Dubs a little and he can get his game back too. That Ek, kid is just a player, does a lot of good things out there, he might be huge if he can contribute in the playoffs.

[hoppe56307]

I think Dubs would have made the save on the goal, but it was a laser of a shot.  Remind me again why we did not keep Ek here, the kid is good and likes to battle in the corner.  I like how they kept commenting on how he put on weight during the season, so maybe it was a good thing to send him back and light a fire under his a$$.

[Bobby Bass]

Elk played in a tourney that he was committed to for his country that is why he was gone. Had a good couple of weeks and gain a few pounds over there

2 hours ago, hoppe56307 said:

I think Dubs would have made the save on the goal, but it was a laser of a shot. 

But would have Keumper?

[Bear55]

4 hours ago, hoppe56307 said:

I think Dubs would have made the save on the goal, but it was a laser of a shot.  Remind me again why we did not keep Ek here, the kid is good and likes to battle in the corner.  I like how they kept commenting on how he put on weight during the season, so maybe it was a good thing to send him back and light a fire under his a$$.

I think we didn't wan to burn a year of his entry level contract but when you are slumping a need help that year is meaningless. We did the same thing with Dumba when he was looking good, not a huge deal but it could cause cap issues down the road.

[Bobby Bass]

looks like keumper is gone as he is an unrestricted free agent at the end of the season. cap money should not be a problem if they want to keep stalock around

[Bear55]

Keumps is gone for sure, Guessing they sign one other goalie as insurance and see who can hack it as a backup long term. Didn't realize Stalock was on 29 so he has some mileage left, not amazing NHL numbers but decent enough for a backup and like any goalie can run hot/cold.

[Bear55]

Looking more and more like we get the Blues who are playing well right now, us slumping or fighting our way out of a slump and a motivated Yoe could spell trouble for us. The blues can also be major head cases come playoff time so maybe getting them is a good thing.

1 point to clinch home ice in the first round.

[hoppe56307]

Is Ek going to be available for the playoffs?  I hope so would be a great learning experience for him, maybe that also played into them burning a year of eligibility.

[Bear55]

I believe there is no reason he can't, kid has a very mature game, forget about experience he is going to contribute and help us win some games.

[CaptainMusky]

From what I have read, it was in their plans all along to bring back Ek this season. There was actually talk about bringing him back January/February timeframe, but it was decided to let him play in the playoffs in Sweden to get more icetime.

He has a mature game IMO. He isn't flashy, but he can handle the puck well, skate well and play sound defense. In a few years he should be one of our more solid forwards. I don't know if he will every score 35 plus goals, which is hard to do anyway, but I bet he hits 30.

Ek, will be available for the playoffs. This should be a good learning experience for him. It also allows so positional flexibility since he can play wing or center. When Zucker is back, Haula will be back at Center and then Ek will likely be a wing again. Not sure of the extent of Zucker's "lower body" injury. I didn't see when it happened, but I thought it was pregame?

[bottomdweller]

Surprised they sent stalock back down, I guess he will get playing time down there and be ready for playoffs I hope.  From what ive seen much prefer him to back up dubs.

[CaptainMusky]

Stalock will be brought back up, I would almost guarantee that. We will have 3 goalies for the playoffs once the rosters are expanded.

[Bear55]

Backup is the least of our worries, they gave Dubs a little rest and hopefully he can get going again because we need him to be sharp fast.

[CaptainMusky]

 

18 hours ago, Bear55 said:

Backup is the least of our worries, they gave Dubs a little rest and hopefully he can get going again because we need him to be sharp fast.

After the start of the game last night you still think a backup is the least of the worries?

Stalock stopped 34 shots and Iowa won 2-1.

Dubnyk looked awful in the 1st, but tightened it up in the 2nd and 3rd. Cannot afford starts like that in the playoffs.

[Bear55]

Yes, Dubs needs to get it together, he did look ok after that start and that is what I meant. Nice to have Stalock there and playing well if bad Dubs shows up in the playoffs but I don't think he can get us to the finals unless come kind of miracle happens. We need early season Dubs to show up and shut them down + limit the soft goals.

Nice to see the offense going again but man Dumba just scares me come playoff time, love his offense but him and Scandella need to be sheltered or something because they are not working. They are both decent players by themselves but they need a high end partner to be consistent. Scandella was at his best when paired with Spurgeon, you couldn't really tell at the time but little #46 did a lot of the heavy lifting.

[CaptainMusky]

Pairing Dumba and Scandella is a train wreck, but if you break them apart the "steady" D man gets worn down for covering for the other guy each shift.

I really hope one of those two gets taken by Vegas. I really don't care which one. Dumba has more offensive upside, but neither one is strong defensively. Scandella had a pretty decent year last year so this is perplexing. I would have thought those two would excel under Stevens.

Hopefully Spurgeon isn't injured too bad. Not sure what happened, but sounds like he will make the road trip so that is a good sign.

Not to optimistic about Zucker. That doesn't sound good. Thinking groin...

[Bear55]

Sounds like Spurgie is going on the road trip, they probably shut him down just to be safe. Losing Zucker would not be cool, same goes for the expansion draft. I am guessing they find a way to protect him.

[CaptainMusky]

Zucker will play on this roadtrip so that is a definite good sign. Stewart has been ill so that is why he has been out. Need everyone healthy for the Cup run.

[Bear55]

I'm assuming we will rest some of the older guys too, we are locked into second place. Doesn't mean we can win the next two games and head into the playoffs on a little bit of a high note after a dreadful march.

[CaptainMusky]

Not Wild related, but scary indeed. Kyle Okposo is hospitalized in the Neuro Surgical ICU with an "illness". He became sick on 3/28 and was hospitalized Sunday. Running an battery of tests, but nothing thus far is conclusive.

Hopefully they get it figured out and he makes a full recovery.

[hoppe56307]

36 minutes ago, CaptainMusky said:

Not Wild related, but scary indeed. Kyle Okposo is hospitalized in the Neuro Surgical ICU with an "illness". He became sick on 3/28 and was hospitalized Sunday. Running an battery of tests, but nothing thus far is conclusive.

Hopefully they get it figured out and he makes a full recovery.

 

Not good.

[Bear55]

Saw that on Okposo, sounds serious.

[Bear55]

Well should be a fun and interesting series, if the Wild play well and Dubs and stay consistent we win. If we aren't at our best we are in for a long interesting series. Yoe was a pretty decent coach in the playoffs, always liked what he did when everything was on the line so no doubt he will bring his best. However this Blues team isn't as strong as they have been the last few years, keep their top line in check and we should be ok. You aren't going to stop #91 and he always seems score on us but if we can slow him down we should be ok.