Wild Regular Season 2017-18

[Bear55]

They will figure it out eventually, nice to see Dubs and Zucker win some games for us. Maybe we should start signing everyone to 1 year contracts, those contract years seem to be amazing for every player in the league. Don't mind a slow start as long as we figure it out and finish strong. These days it doesn't matter if you are a 1 seed or an 8, be playing well when its most important and the beginning of the year is history. 

[CaptainMusky]

Granlund still seems to be laboring a bit. He is still a very dynamic player though. I hope he gets right soon, we need more production out of him.

Dumba has played much better after the debacle 4 games ago. I don't recall any glaring mistakes in the last 3 games. Tonight is a tough one. We just shut them out so you know they are going to be out for revenge. The Flyers' top line is legit and keeping them without a goal is no easy task.

I expect a tough game for the home team tonight. Aside from Zucker we haven't had any offense in the last 2 games. We cannot rely on that. Nino needs to get one tonight as does Staal.

[hoppe56307]

So I just checked the standings and I thought we were farther behind than we actually are.  We are only 5pts out of second with a long ways to go.  Yeo has the Blues playing some pretty good hockey they are 6pts clear of the Jets.

I thought the Central was crazy competitive, but it looks like a log Jam in the Metro.  3pts Separate 2nd and 8th with 1st only clear by 3pts.

[CaptainMusky]

Well, I said Nino and Staal needed to get goals last night, and they delivered! :-)

Pretty boring game, Dubnyk was unreal. Keeps the shutout streak alive. He is playing very well right now. As good as he has ever IMO.

[Hoyt4]

We don't need first place we just need to make the playoffs and push to go further into the playoffs. Going to be fun year young guys needing to step up.

[bbfenatic]

Put opponent to sleep early...lull them into being over confident...then turn the switch on and totally surprise and overwhelm them...great game plan by BB 

[bbfenatic]

Zucker is the new Parise in style, types of goals, speed, etc.

Only 4 diff forwards have scored in the last 27 periods (9 games) and Koivu has only 4 goals and ended last yr with only 1 in his last 23 games...and got a hefty extension.

We should obliterate the Sabres tonight, bad team playing even worse lately.  The jury is still out on the Wild, very strange team...is it lack of talent, lack of effort, poor coaching, or what?  I still think Fletcher has us setup for failure and Boudreau is trying to make something out of nothing. Thoughts?

[Bear55]

Always doom and gloom bb, we will be fine. Started out the year decimated by injuries, I think at one point Parise, Granny, Nino & Coyle were out, no one can miss 4 top 6ish players and not feel a little pain but we haven't totally tanked either. Zucker has had a great year and Nino & Granny are coming along, Stall just being his old self. Need to get Coyle going now and we will be set. We are going to win with depth and skill, surprisingly we are scoring at a decent clip this year despite the injuries but the D has let in a lot more goals. Dubs has run hot and cold, Stevens is gone so maybe there is an adjustment period but if we can get back to some solid D the offence hasn't really missed a beat. Still a whole lot of season left and we haven't even hit our stride yet. 

As far as fletcher goes he is doing a fine job, not a great job but name one fan base who hasn't won a cup in the last few years who is happy about their gm. We really only have 4 old guys right now and the rest of the team is young and hitting their prime years or play on the 4th line. Lots of up and coming talent too that will need some time to mature and or get in the system, present is good, future is good. Hopefully we can be playing our best by the end of the year. 

[bbfenatic]

On 11/24/2017 at 6:45 PM, Bear55 said:

As far as fletcher goes he is doing a fine job, not a great job but name one fan base who hasn't won a cup in the last few years who is happy about their gm.

Tampa Bay, Toronto, NJ, Columbus, NYI, St Louis, Winnipeg, Nashville, Vegas, LAK, Calgary, Edmonton...I know you only wanted one but ripping off a dozen was not too hard.

I actually feel sorry for Boudreau trying to work with this mess Fletch has got us in to.

[CaptainMusky]

16 minutes ago, bbfenatic said:

Tampa Bay, Toronto, NJ, Columbus, NYI, St Louis, Winnipeg, Nashville, Vegas, LAK, Calgary, Edmonton...I know you only wanted one but ripping off a dozen was not too hard.

I actually feel sorry for Boudreau trying to work with this mess Fletch has got us in to.

I would agree with most of what you put there, but no way NYI, LAK and Calgary. The Kings are on the brink of collapse. The Islanders have Tavares and that is really the only thing to be happy about. Snow blows!

I think Winnipeg is getting turned around now, they certainly have talent if they can just keep the puck out of their net. Big test coming up for the Wild.

Tampa Bay is my 2nd favorite team, well maybe 3rd because I really like the Golden Knights story. Their twitter feed is absolutely hilarious too. Give them a follow if you are so inclined. Before the season they were golden!!!

The Wild are 6-2-1 recently, but have some tough ones coming up. The Blues are legit, Winnipeg is on fire, I think its 4 of 5 against Conference foes?! This could be make or break early.

[bbfenatic]

3 hours ago, CaptainMusky said:

I would agree with most of what you put there, but no way NYI, LAK and Calgary. The Kings are on the brink of collapse. 

Calgary one of the younger teams and having a good year so far, NYI has a solid lineup even minus Tavares and having a good year thus far, LAK are long in the teeth having an OK year with a couple good players out with injuries.

Read an article not long ago titled "Which Teams are setup best for the Future" listing the all the teams by their Under 25 core...Wild are listed at 29 out of 31 teams.  Calgary is 7th, NYI 25th, LAK one behind Wild at 30th. Top 5 are Oilers, BlueJackets, Panthers, Jets, Mapleleafs.

[Bear55]

Most of those teams are a stretch,  Winnepeg hates their GM but winning usually fixes everything, we will see if it lasts. Plus you have to realize that most fan bases are full of people like you who are never happy so in reality almost every team will never be happy with management unless they happened to win 3 cups in a row.  The islanders have the worse GM in the league and their fans know it so please don't try and pass them off as legit, Tavaras is UFA after this season, if he leaves they are in huge trouble.

I might be able to take you seriously if every winning streak we weren't destined to win the cup and every time something goes wrong we need new management and players, you are just too predictable. Plus it is just sports, go with the flow and enjoy it, all the complaining in the world isn't going to change anything anyway. 

A little too convenient you listed our under 25 team, lets look at the ages of the players that will be here for a while. This is our core now, probably throw Suter in there because he will play forever.

Zucker 25
Granlund 25
Nino 24
Dumba 23
Coyle 25
Brodin 24
Reilly 24 and looking decent this year. 
Spurgeon is only 27

We also have a pretty decent prospect pool, Ek and Kunin have shown flashes, Olofsson is looking better after a rocky start, that Greenway huge is a beast with some skill, it's too bad the Russian kid didn't come over but that is out of our control, doesn't mean he won't be here in the future. There is plenty to be positive about and we haven't even found our game yet this year, lots of season left. 

 

[bbfenatic]

27 minutes ago, Bear55 said:

A little too convenient you listed our under 25 team

 

LOL...I just listed the info from the article...no editing...so this is from The Atheltic written by Dom Luszczyszyn (try pronouncing that one) 

Talk about predictable...you've been saying "Next Year!" for almost a decade now....and don't you get tired of it?  I will agree that there is a lot of the season left but not sure what can change much...no cap room to bring guys up for any length of time or god forbid go out and sign someone. Maybe we will find "lightning in a bottle" and make a run in the playoffs...but I'd bet against it.

[Bear55]

I didn't say you edited anything, I just though it was an convenient cutoff for you given that 3 of our better players just turned 25. Listen you are the one calling for Leopold to blow up the team and fire all management EVERY SINGLE YEAR if we make the playoffs or not. I just don't think you have any kind of reasonable expectations or you think this is like fantasy sports or something. Sometimes you have to be patient. I don't think Fletcher is going somewhere any time soon, Leopold has only hired 2 GM's in his time as an owner. It took Poile 20 years with the Preds to make the finals, let that sink in for a while. It's not like these players, coaches and management aren't giving their all. Cups are special, there are 31 teams trying to win it every single year. Sometimes you get lucky and draft the right players at the right time, other times the stars align and teams get hot. It's not a perfect science and making a ton of moves can hurt just as much as it helps, there is no magic formula for winning. For every team that tanks and gets the right guys and get competitive there are 10 or more teams that do nothing.

All I am proposing is we chill out a little bit as fans because we are just along for the ride, nothing more nothing less. Sports should be fun and entertaining, yes we all want to win a cup, every single one of us wants that but that changes nothing. If you or anyone lese is getting too upset to follow a game because we don't win the cup or make the final every year I don't know what to tell you.

[CaptainMusky]

Last night was tough.

 

BB, you pretty much proved my point with  your "under 25" comment. NYI and LAK are really no better off than we are. Yes, I agree that Calgary may have young talent, but I have a buddy who is from Calgary and word around there is they are none too happy with their GM regardless of who is on the roster with "potential".

Its a tough business, I get it. Fans invest a lot and expect a lot. Our society is an immediate satisfaction one now and if they don't win right away people get restless.

We lost 9 guys from our roster at the end of last year. Let that sink in, 9 guys. That is a lot of turnover regardless of reason and to Bear's point, we need to trust the process and in the end see how things shake out. It may be painful for a while, but we still have a group of core young guys that are trending upward. Granlund and Nino have looked very good of late and Coyle is getting going after his injury. We need to shore up our D end. Not just defense, but our forwards covering on backcheck and in the zone. Stewart is terrible at that and had 2 glaring issues that led to goals last night.

[Bear55]

Nice embarrassing loss last night, hopefully lights a fire under them. Saw somewhere that we were scoring at the same rate as last season, the D zone is where the issues are. Might be time to split up S/S and go Suter/Dumba and Brodin/Spugie or see if Spurgie or Brodin can carry another player. I mention the 9 player turnover earlier this year too, no small thing. 

[bbfenatic]

I agree NYI and LAK are in no better shape age wise...as you can see I'm not hiding anything but the argument was about the GM's not the ages.  

Last night was a $hitShow....Winnipeg was Bigger, Faster, Stronger and more highly skilled.  I'll say it again I feel sorry for Boudreau and where has Fletch been?  Totally quiet, no interviews, not taking any blame.We lost 9 guys becasue our backs are against the wall with no cap space.

It is great being a Sub to The Atheletic cuz you get the twitter feed from both team's fans during the game...good stuff. On funny one was about Suter...how the fastes he moved all night was when he skated over to a Ref quickly to point out that a fan was hit with a puck when it flew over the glass...IALTO

 

[Bear55]

Quincy waived, he was pretty terrible. Like I mentioned before we are scoring just fine but Dubs has been bi-polar and the D zone is a bit of a mess. Losing Scandella, Folin and Prosser is hurting us more than most thought it would, they all had their flaws but maybe they were better than we thought, sometimes the grass isn't greener on the other side. We went from a position of depth to some serious flaws in one season. Prosser on waivers so I am guessing he will be back soon. Stevens could have been a big loss too. 

[Bear55]

BB think of our situation this way, if you want to win a cup our best chance short term is with this team of solid vets and a now middle aged core that are hitting their stride. Right now we seem miles away from that but if they figure out the D zone we can still save the season. Now if management wanst to blow up the team then it is out of my control but if we start selling off pieces in the name of rebuild I am guessing we start to see some of our younger guys walk when they hit UFA because they want to win, it could be a huge risk to do that right now. Then we gut our depth even more and potentially turning a say 2-3 year rebuild/re-tool into a 5 or 10 year tank job in hope of getting elite talent and starting this process all over. Trading for elite talent is also an issue, you either gut what depth we have left to trade for a young star or get an older star who doesn't have enough left in the tank to carry a team and also gut some of our depth. No one is trading a young elite player for anything short of a crazy overpayment. Then you end up trading for guys who aren't elite and hope they turn out, we might be better off hoping Granny, Nino, Coyle & Zucker can carry the team with their skills and build around them, hanging onto the vets for depth. Depth is our only chance at a cup short term, we seemed to have let a lot of our D depth go and its hurting us right now. We are also only 2 lines deep right now with the 3rd and 4th line not really turning out as expected and Ek/Kunin showing us they weren't ready for prime time yet.Not a big surprise because we just went through the same thing with our middle aged players. For every young guy that breaks into the league and scores young there are ten times as many players who need time to figure it out. It is a very complex thing, glad its not my job. 

You also have to figure how much just pure luck plays a roll in this game, absolute all-stars are selected in later rounds that no one is passing on if anyone had a clue they would turn out this way, top ten and twenty picks go bust all the time. I think 1st rounders have like a 50% chance of turning into solid nhl players, odds go way down in the later rounds. Sometimes amazing trades fall into your lap (Nino) and sometimes they just blow up in your face (Leddy). Sometimes you look like a genius in FA and get guys like Spurgeon and Staal, other times players like Vanek who has mad skills but just wasn't the right fit or the guy to push you over the top. Some years everything clicks and things look great (last season) then the next you make some cap moves but try to maintain that and it blows up in your face again. This stuff happens to every single team every single year. 

[CaptainMusky]

I think Kunin is ready right now, its just not helping him only playing 10 minutes a night. Ek needs more time in Iowa. I think if Kunin were up with Mitchell that could be a dynamic pair with Cullen. They would be fun to watch.

I am done with the Stewart thing. He is a tremendous defensive liability and really doesn't provide much other than his little scraps here and there. He isn't even very physical. He is a decent guy, but I just cannot see the value in his production with all the risk he is on the defensive end. We would be better off taking our lumps with a young guy than him.

It will be fun to watch Haula and Tuch back at the X tonight. No doubt Haula wants to rub it in the Wild's faces a bit.

There was a very nice piece by Russo yesterday about the "anatomy of a trade". Its unlocked on Athletic so anyone can read it. Interesting read for sure.

I didn't realize the Wild received just short of $17M for the expansion draft (as did the other teams). Too bad that couldn't have been used to buy down the salary cap. LOL

[bbfenatic]

Prosser pickup can't hurt no matter how bad of a player he is...we desparately need a right-handed Dman...he shoots right handed...or should I say carries his stick right-handed 

[Bear55]

2 hours ago, CaptainMusky said:

I think Kunin is ready right now, its just not helping him only playing 10 minutes a night. Ek needs more time in Iowa. I think if Kunin were up with Mitchell that could be a dynamic pair with Cullen. They would be fun to watch.

At times he's looked ready but if you throw him on lines with guys like Cullen or Ek its just not an ideal situation for a rookie. But why on earth Winnik is playing with Koivu and Granlund instead of Kunin is beyond me, that would be a great situation where he has a better chance to succeed and not drag that line down as much as Winnik. 

[CaptainMusky]

18 hours ago, Bear55 said:

At times he's looked ready but if you throw him on lines with guys like Cullen or Ek its just not an ideal situation for a rookie. But why on earth Winnik is playing with Koivu and Granlund instead of Kunin is beyond me, that would be a great situation where he has a better chance to succeed and not drag that line down as much as Winnik. 

Agreed 100%. Winnik has not business on that line and Kunin would be a great fit there. I am sure as time goes by, around mid-season we will see Kunin in that spot. He is such a competitor and I am actually surprised at his physical play. He is more physical than Stewart and has half as many fights this year. LOL

[bbfenatic]

Wild looked good last night...was impressed they fought back after being down 2-1...Dubs was hot...let's hope they can go on a run.

[CaptainMusky]

Overall decent game against the Blues. The Blues are a very talented team and haven't been playing well recently. I will take the W, D play was much better, but we didn't muster a ton of offense.

Good to see Dumba get that OT winner. He was on his horse to get  up ice on that play, good to see him get rewarded.

He has been playing better in recent games so that is encouraging.