Wild 2016-17 Regular Season

[Bear55]

Yep good to see Parise score and look like his old self, hopefully he is/stays healthy. Florida is bad right now so good that we thumped them, also a nice win against the Blues. Kind of like the lines we have as well as long as good Parise and Stall can carry Pommers (Grandpa Line) we should be good. Koivu line looks good and the Haula line could be a beast if they get going. 4th line is no slouch either, Graovac and Stewart can play, not sure what to make of Gabriel yet but he doesn't look out of place.

[Bear55]

Some more good number from the Wild.
57 lowest goals against in the NHL (tied with Columbus).
Goal differential +23 - 1st in the West and 4th in the league.
Regulation losses 8 - Tied for 1st in the West and 5th in the NHL

A lot of these are thanks to Dubs but the team as a whole has looked really good the past week or two.

[ANYFISH2]

Like how we letting Dubnyk make saves. Keeping the front somewhat clear, minimizing our own deflections in front of him.  He may be seeing more shots then I would like but the vast majority are seen well and from a reasonable distance.  He is playing out of his mind yes, but the team is letting him do his job effectively. 

[hoppe56307]

On 12/14/2016 at 9:16 AM, Bear55 said:

4th line is no slouch either, Graovac and Stewart can play, not sure what to make of Gabriel yet but he doesn't look out of place.

 

 

I really like our 4th line, the bring that toughness but still have enough still to pound one home every once and awhile.

[bbfenatic]

Devan Dubnyk

[Bear55]

Ya that was all Dubs, we looked awful in the 2nd and 3rd and really big chunks of the 1st.

[CaptainMusky]

7 game win streak, that is pretty impressive. Hopefully Haula isn't out too long, but we have been pretty healthy lately, you just knew someone was going to come down with something.

Parise is starting to play better! Nino has been dominant at times out there. I'm glad the team hasn't seemed to have let down game against "inferior" teams of late. They have been in general playing very well and for large parts of the game. The PP has chipped in a couple. Coyle is quietly racking up goals like we thought/hoped he would. I am hopeful that we could have 3 guys with around 30 goals this year. That would be a very good accomplishment for this team IMO.

Have to pummel the Avs tomorrow night. No team I like beating or hate losing to more than them!

Oh, I am so over the "Let's go crazy" goal song too.

[CaptainMusky]

8 in a row for Boudreau, 8 in a row for Boudreau!

Nice solid dominating effort pretty much from start to finish. Way too many penalties in the 3rd, but luckily they killed them all off.

2 tough tasks coming up. This will be a real sign to see if they are playing well or just well enough. Rangers and the Habs, this will be a good test.

[Bryce]

Hard to find much fault right now. Can't argue the results. Some things make me nervous as a MN fan.

No big injury runs

Keep Dumba in check

Keep Sutter on short shifts

Don't let him and Parise lengthen shift times

Don't let Koivu see them changing shift times

Head case goalies have always hurt this team

Edited December 21, 2016 by Bryce

[Bear55]

Win streak at 9, a bunch of the kids have stepped up this year, just need a little more out of Parise and Pommers and we might have a beast on our hands. Still a long season but BB has them playing well, we appear to be deep and balanced across the board right now. Stall at 3.5 million is looking like highway robbery, a Nino for Clutterbuck kind of robbery.

Oh, it's scary when Dubs handles the puck, bad things seem to happen.

[bbfenatic]

Agree Bear...what surprises me is their skill/performance level improvement.  Their passing is a huge improvement over last year....much more tape to tape passing, plus their stick-handling skills seems to have improved immensely as well...not sure if BB put more emphasis on basic skills in training camp or what but they've always been fast but this year they have more to go with that speed.  I'm starting to believe  

[Bear55]

I think a lot of it was just giving them time to mature and figure out how to play at an NHL level. I'm sure we all would have been thrilled had they broken out big time like other young players but I guess ours was a much slower process with smaller steps and finally putting it all together to play consistently on a higher level, hopefully they can keep it up. They might never reach super star status but if they can stay in that 50-70 point zone we will have some great players to work with going forward. The coaching probably helped too, BB fell in our lap and we should consider ourselves fortunate. Dubs has been huge too, lot of good happening this year, now lets sustain it and skip those huge mid season swoons. I don't mean to say losing streaks won't happen but just avoid the major collapse.

[knoppers]

another win on the road against another top team, this team is for real.

[bottomdweller]

Great ride so far!  Amazing what a good coach can do.  

[bobberineyes]

On 12/24/2016 at 6:47 AM, bottomdweller said:

Great ride so far!  Amazing what a good coach can do.  

Not only him but the whole staff. Big game tonight, the jackets are not a pushover team so this should an end to end battle.

[Bear55]

Historic game, 12 game win streak vs 14 game win streak, has never happened before in the NHL or possibly other sports. I think the next highest was two 7 game win streaks. Should be fun, someone's streak is ending tonight. NHL record is 17 games so Columbus is pretty close if they win this one.

[Bear55]

Nice little streak but obviously not as hot as Columbus right now, time to get on with the rest of the season and avoid our all too common mid-season swoon.

[bobberineyes]

Yep, it'll be interesting to see how they bounce back. Poor Zach, had a wide open net to make it 1 zip.

[hoppe56307]

Just a little food for thought here on the streak Columbus is on.

Their streak is longer than the win totals for, Buffalo, New York Islanders(tie), New Jersey, Colorado, and Arizona.

[CaptainMusky]

If any of you have NHL network, take in the World Junior Hockey tourney going on now. There are 4 Wild prospects in there, Joel Eriksson Ek, Jordan Greenway (Boston), Kunin (Wisconsin) and Kiprosov (KHL) and they are all playing very well. Greenway was a beast 2 games ago. Last night he finished with the GWG and an Assist, Ek had 2 Goals yesterday. Kiprosov is ON FIRE. In the KHL he is on pace to beat long-standing records and has I believe 5 goals in the WJC.

Future is looking bright when these guys come in!

[Bear55]

Was just going to post something about the World Jr's, our guys are looking really good and these are not high end first round picks, we might have scored some gems in the later rounds. Also keep an eye on that 7th rounder Sokolov, another Russian putting up a lot of goals in Canadian Jr's right now. With the young guys we have hitting their stride and what looks to be some nice talent coming up we could be for a fun ride. Hopefully these guys can fill in for our aging vets, Ek is close and could be playing right now, Greenway is just a beast but might need a little time. Kunin looks like a good pick. I think Kaprizov would be playing for the Wild right now if he had come over but he might have to play one more year in the KHL before we get to see him. Would love to slot him in for Pomminville right now.

[CaptainMusky]

19 hours ago, Bear55 said:

I think Kaprizov would be playing for the Wild right now if he had come over but he might have to play one more year in the KHL before we get to see him. Would love to slot him in for Pomminville right now.

I agree! I forgot about Sokolov. A couple of Russians to compliment our Fins and Swedes!

[hoppe56307]

With the way Pomminville has been playing of late, I really hope he gets bought out or waives his no trade clause so we can expose him for the expansion draft. That would free up spot for one of these guys lighting it up at the World Juniors.

[bbfenatic]

2 hours ago, hoppe56307 said:

With the way Pomminville has been playing of late, I really hope he gets bought out or waives his no trade clause so we can expose him for the expansion draft. That would free up spot for one of these guys lighting it up at the World Juniors.

 

I agree....even if they just put Pom up in the seats...Wild have players in Iowa that are better than Pom right now, he's weak on his skates....gripping his stick too tight....and just seems to be confused out there much of the time....just glad BB put Schroeder up on the top line and demoted Pom to the 4th...he fits in better down there and keeps up better.

[Bear55]

I do love the way BB juggles the lines when guys are playing well or vice versa. No way Yoe would have ever put Pommers on the 4th line in favor of Schroeder. I don't see any way the Wild don't get Pomminville to waive or buy him out this off season, they need that slot for one of the kids and there is a 0% chance Vegas picks him up.