Wild 2016-17 Regular Season

[Bear55]

Scott Stevens resigned, claims wants to be closer to family which could be legit or just an excuse for something else. Thought he did a good job and consider this a loss, hopefully we find someone decent to replace him. 

[bbfenatic]

Was not a good fit for the Wild....no Dmen on the roster that were even close to his "in your face" style.  The game has changed a little since his hay days but we need a better mix of both style and substance....right now all we have is style and that does not get you very far in the NHL,,,IMO we will see a much diff back end by the start of the season and hopefully a little diff front end with more substance there as well.

[Bear55]

Not sure it was not a good fit, D play was solid all year and offensively Spurgie, Brodin and Dumba all had career years. Sure we could use that extra physical presence but not at the expense of quality play, finding large bodies who can hold their own with the puck is like winning the lottery, easier said than done.

[bbfenatic]

8 hours ago, Bear55 said:

Not sure it was not a good fit, D play was solid all year and offensively Spurgie, Brodin and Dumba all had career years. Sure we could use that extra physical presence but not at the expense of quality play, finding large bodies who can hold their own with the puck is like winning the lottery, easier said than done.

 

Bear.... did I say the D played bad? NO. Lots of guys had "career years" this year....happy for each one of them but it got us nowhere in the playoffs.  I can almost guarantee they will make the move towards extra physical presence vs what you call "quality play"...only makes sense...if it is not working...you fix it.

[Bear55]

You watching Nashville trying to get physical with the penguins? It only works if the guys can also play at a high level, I would take a less physical Brodin over a not good enough Clayton Stoner every time. You can't just get big and physical for the heck of it. Wild are a speed and skating team, we tried out hitting the blues and it did not work, we beat them in 2013 by out skating them not getting physical with them. Not that it doesn't have it's place in the game and we could use a little more of it but we need to play our game and sometimes not worry what the other team is trying to do. We also can't copy other teams playing style because we don't have their skaters. We have to find our own way to win, our own way to a cup. Maybe that is a big tough team with different players but that is a long way off, we have to use the team we have and not try to force them to play a different style that doesn't suite them. 

[CaptainMusky]

3 hours ago, Bear55 said:

You watching Nashville trying to get physical with the penguins? It only works if the guys can also play at a high level, I would take a less physical Brodin over a not good enough Clayton Stoner every time. You can't just get big and physical for the heck of it. Wild are a speed and skating team

Exactly. Your D men should be a compliment to your forwards. Unless they trash the majority of their speed from up-front going to a more physical D corps would be a huge mistake. The D should be an extension of the forwards. Getting pucks up with stretch passes to defeat the trap that all these teams try and do so successfully. They need to be able to skate with the puck to free up space too. It doesn't hurt to have a guy who can hit, but unless they make significant changes at forward they shouldn't make huge "strategy" type changes on D IMO.

[bbfenatic]

6 hours ago, Bear55 said:

You watching Nashville trying to get physical with the penguins? It only works if the guys can also play at a high level, I would take a less physical Brodin over a not good enough Clayton Stoner every time. You can't just get big and physical for the heck of it. Wild are a speed and skating team, we tried out hitting the blues and it did not work, we beat them in 2013 by out skating them not getting physical with them. Not that it doesn't have it's place in the game and we could use a little more of it but we need to play our game and sometimes not worry what the other team is trying to do. We also can't copy other teams playing style because we don't have their skaters. We have to find our own way to win, our own way to a cup. Maybe that is a big tough team with different players but that is a long way off, we have to use the team we have and not try to force them to play a different style that doesn't suite them. 

 

It will be interesting to see what happens....you & CM might need to find a diff speedy & non physical team to start watching...and good luck finding one that can compete at a high level.

[Bear55]

Did you ever see Chicago beat teams up with their physical play? Or those great oilers teams? The best teams win because they have skill, we finally have the skill and now you want to get rid of them for bigger slower players that we had for years. Don't get me wrong I love a big physical guy like Coyle who could certainly be more physical but he can also play hockey and score. We can't just go big to get big, it has to be the right kind of big is all we are saying. I also like guys like Zucker and Granlund who can beat you with their speed and brains. We had a great year and didn't win the cup, its not the end of the world, we don't have to blow up the team to have a chance next year. Just get into the playoffs and hopefully we playing well at the right time. We have a great team and hopefully many winning years ahead of us, once you get past the old core we a relatively young and with the prospects we have we should be able to stay good for a long time. 

[bbfenatic]

6 minutes ago, Bear55 said:

Did you ever see Chicago beat teams up with their physical play? Or those great oilers teams? The best teams win because they have skill, we finally have the skill and now you want to get rid of them for bigger slower players that we had for years. Don't get me wrong I love a big physical guy like Coyle who could certainly be more physical but he can also play hockey and score. We can't just go big to get big, it has to be the right kind of big is all we are saying. I also like guys like Zucker and Granlund who can beat you with their speed and brains. We had a great year and didn't win the cup, its not the end of the world, we don't have to blow up the team to have a chance next year. Just get into the playoffs and hopefully we playing well at the right time. We have a great team and hopefully many winning years ahead of us, once you get past the old core we a relatively young and with the prospects we have we should be able to stay good for a long time. 

 

It's 2017 now Bear.....better teams now have both size/toughness and skill....and BTW...we have never blown up the team....and Zucker does have brains but I would never put him on the level "smart wise" as Grandlund for cripe sakes....good player but a headcase.

 

I agree...out with the old and in with the new......asap

[CaptainMusky]

16 hours ago, bbfenatic said:

 

It will be interesting to see what happens....you & CM might need to find a diff speedy & non physical team to start watching...and good luck finding one that can compete at a high level.

So, the Pens are on their way to likely their 2nd Cup in a row and they are achieving this how exactly? It certainly isn't with their physical play.

[Bear55]

16 hours ago, bbfenatic said:

 

It's 2017 now Bear.....better teams now have both size/toughness and skill....and BTW...we have never blown up the team....and Zucker does have brains but I would never put him on the level "smart wise" as Grandlund for cripe sakes....good player but a headcase.

 

I agree...out with the old and in with the new......asap

Zucker was speed, Granny was the brains. Penns and Hawks won with skill, I will give you some physical play with the kings but they also played amazing D and had some skill. We still have a shot over the next couple of years to win with Staal, Parise, Koivu & Suter, we just had our best year ever and you want to make big changes. Heck even if we wanted to making huge sweeping changes might not be possible, you need another GM to agree to a trade and if you get too desperate people are going to fleece us and we end up losing in the long run. Right now I don't see any reason we can't be better than last year, we might not and we lose a guy to vegas but so does everyone else. 

[lungdeflator]

I'm not ready for huge sweeping change, but I think there should be a little shake up of the core.  Even if it is as simple as changing Captains and changing the attitude in the locker room.  

Sure, we had a great reg season and a lot of guys had career years, but they also played well after they fired Yeo.  Who is to say they won't get "tired" of hearing what Baby Boudreau has to say middle of next year?  Quitting on a coach and stinking up a season is unacceptable as a paid professional IMO.  And that attitude starts and stops with the leadership in the locker room.

 

The Blues played their game, physical.  We tried to match that physicality and that pulled us away from our true form.  I wish Stewie or Teddy Bear Hanzal would have KO'd one of their guys early on in the series and it would have sent a message.  We don't need to play physical or change the style of play, but we need to be able to stand up for ourselves and teammates when the time comes.  I really like Stewie for that reason.  He stepped up multiple times in the reg season and it always seemed to benefit the team.  

[Bear55]

3 hours ago, lungdeflator said:

The Blues played their game, physical.  We tried to match that physicality and that pulled us away from our true form. 

I think we actually out-hit the blues most games so they didn't beat us into submission. They did however play amazing Yoe defense and had a hot goalie, it happens. In fact we did the exact same thing to the Blues when we beat them a couple years back, great D and timely goals and we sank their great season, they just paid us back. 

[bbfenatic]

40 minutes ago, Bear55 said:

I think we actually out-hit the blues most games so they didn't beat us into submission. 

 

Out hitting is one thing...actually making it hurt is another...we won't win the split decision on points when we are laying on the canvas out cold is my point.

 

Changes are coming whether we want them or not..just the nature of everything on the table this year...and my guess is physicality will trump over speed with the changes that are made this go-around....but we'll see.

[CaptainMusky]

Yep, its a guarantee one of the guys we are used to seeing in the Wild sweater will be gone next year. We don't have a ton of cash to go shopping around and we have some guys who have been key to us this past year that are due new contracts. Its inevitable that changes are coming. What those are will remain to be seen.

I think it would be a sign of panic to make significant changes. This team is too good for that and I think it would send a terrible message to the primadonnas in the room.

[lungdeflator]

2 hours ago, Bear55 said:

I think we actually out-hit the blues most games so they didn't beat us into submission. They did however play amazing Yoe defense and had a hot goalie, it happens. In fact we did the exact same thing to the Blues when we beat them a couple years back, great D and timely goals and we sank their great season, they just paid us back. 

 

Thinking back on it, you are right, the hits were pretty even.  But that was kind of the point I was trying to make.  We are a speed and talent team and matching or out hitting the Blues pulled the Wild out of thier form.  A smart and timely fight from one of our bigs could have sent the message of settle down and just play hockey instead of bumper cars.  The Wild should have been able to dictate the style of play, not the other way around.

Edited June 2, 2017 by lungdeflator
Sp

[bbfenatic]

1 hour ago, CaptainMusky said:

Yep, its a guarantee one of the guys we are used to seeing in the Wild sweater will be gone next year.

 

There will be more than one gone...don't you think?  I sure hope so...plus young wild filling some jerseys too hopefully

[lungdeflator]

One thing really noticeable about the teams that go deep into playoffs is the amount of sacrifice by the players.  I am talking specifically about blocked shots.  I looked up the box scores for each of the Blues v Wild games.  In the series each team that won, blocked more shots than the loser.  In the series the Blues blocked 97 shots and the Wild only blocked 61.  

 

Players know blocking shots hurts and at any one time, a shot can cripple them.  In the playoffs it seems to take that kind of sacrifice to win.  The Wild do not have that kind of leadership to breed that kind of sacrifice.

 

I would love to dig deep into the blocked shots stat throughout the playoffs and see if there is a correlation of blocked shots = winning.  

[Bear55]

12 minutes ago, lungdeflator said:

 

Thinking back on it, you are right, the hits were pretty even.  But that was kind of the point I was trying to make.  We are a speed and talent team and matching or out hitting the Blues pulled the Wild out of thier form.  A smart and timely fight from one of our bigs could have sent the message of settle down and just play hockey instead of bumper cars.  The Wild should have been able to dictate the style of play, not the other way around.

Completely agree, trying to be physical took us off our game completely. I think we dictated most of the play too but sometimes that is not enough. Props to the Blues for playing a perfect series. My general sentiment is now is not the time to panic, we have a high end team with a shot to win, by all means do anything we can to make us better but every time is trying to do that so it kind of goes without saying. 

[bbfenatic]

14 minutes ago, Bear55 said:

Completely agree, trying to be physical took us off our game completely. 

 

By Design...we had nothing to push back with....take away our speed...make us shoot from the perimeter....no one that can take over and snipe a few....not one player rose to the occasion, guys who carried the reg season were non existant...either they chose not too or they don't have that next level in them...changes have already started internally thank god...keep the changes coming IMO.

[ANYFISH2]

Rumor is we are in talks with Dallas for thier 3rd overall pick for a quality defenseman?

[lungdeflator]

That would be interesting.....as all I have heard up to this point is we are likely to lose a D man in the expansion draft.  They would have some major holes in the back end if they end up losing 2 D men.  

And I don't know if the draft this year is that great (Supposed reason for Hanzal and White trade) so we might not see the benefits of that 3rd pick for a few years.  

[Bear55]

On ‎6‎/‎2‎/‎2017 at 2:56 PM, bbfenatic said:

 

By Design...we had nothing to push back with....take away our speed...make us shoot from the perimeter....no one that can take over and snipe a few....not one player rose to the occasion, guys who carried the reg season were non existant...either they chose not too or they don't have that next level in them...changes have already started internally thank god...keep the changes coming IMO.

There are always changes, especially this year with expansion. I just think making huge changes to a team that finished 2nd in the west isn't wise. I can't argue with the rest of your post, we didn't bring it post season, that doesn't mean we can't bring it next year. Just about every single team has good and bad post seasons. Before this year we were always the underdogs so winning a couple of series was over achieving, this year we were clearly under, none of it means anything next year. 

[lungdeflator]

Bear this goes back to what we were saying a few months ago now.  

 

Yeah we can always look forward to next year and be optimistic and expect great things.  But we have been doing that for 5 years now.  At what point do you say "Ok, this clearly isn't the way to win championships"?  I don't know the answer to that.  I don't think blowing it up is good and I don't think standing pat is good either.

 

I agree with you, the NHL playoffs are a fickle bee.  I think I heard last night that the Preds have basically been going to the playoffs for 10 years now.  And they finally made it to the Final as what, a 16 seed?   Just goes to show that any given year could be the year.  Not saying that Subban is the greatest player on the ice, but the Preds moved arguably their best D man last year for Subban.  They didn't blow it up, but they made a significant change.

[Bear55]

From my view for the last 5 years we have been trying to get where we are now, the kids finally broke out a bit and the vets had a decent years give or take. Just because we lost in the first round doesn't mean we are on the wrong track. The big thing is we are just fans, we have control over none of this so why worry about it. If they make big changes or not we are stuck with this team. I prefer to look at the positive side and look forward to the future instead of focusing on every little negative thing you can find. Championships are special, all we can do is wait until its our time to win one and getting all crabby and negative over sports is a waste of time. All I know is we are 10 times the team we had 5-6 years ago and that is a good thing, outside of past underdog cup runs by the wild and northstars this is probably our best chance to win. Does that mean we will, absolutely not, there have been hundreds of better teams than have never won a cup. If it was easy everyone would be doing it.