2021 MN Wild/NHL Thread

JoeMX1825 wrote:

Did anybody listen to the Russo/BillyG podcast? What was the update on Rossi injury? Any trade talk for a center?

Just started it, but will post what he says.

mahtofire14 wrote:

My cousin is a big time Avs fan who lives in Denver and is not happy about the trade. Hopefully it’s a good move for us. Also has quite a bit of postseason play and two cups with the pens.

Player for player the Wild got the better end of this deal, but this is a long term thing to free up a spot for Byrum which will be an upgrade in the end.
Kind of a funny scenario with the players both being in LA, original thought is that the Avs bus would drop off the rest of their players at the team hotel and then bring Cole to the Wild hotel and then pick up Pateryn to avoid isolation, but it appears to be hitting a snag.

Russo is recapping the conversation with BG just a few minutes into the podcast and he said that Rossi will not be available any time soon and BG is not able to say too much, but this is before any real conversation about it.

Rossi is staying with Vanek, but BG says he cannot talk too much about the situation. Its an upper body injury that long term will be fine. BG says that Rossi’s health is the most important and has not thought about if this gives him pause about playing him this year or not if/when he gets ready.

Very interesting comments about Mennell from BG. He says he holds no grudge against him for his decision and said guys do this because they are “trying to make it” and that he thought this was the best decision for him at that time. He also said he has not talked to his representation yet, but definitely expects him to be with the Wild again at some point since the Wild control his path to the NHL.

this type of talk regarding Rossi is a bit scary as it seems to point to an unknown at the time medical issue (similar to Toews)…it leads to alot of needles speculation…hope all is ok

JoeMX1825 wrote:

this type of talk regarding Rossi is a bit scary as it seems to point to an unknown at the time medical issue (similar to Toews)…it leads to alot of needles speculation…hope all is ok

Agreed. Russo didnt ask if he was injured in the WJC or where the “injury” happened. I think he tried to ask it, but BG started to respond and never got back to it. I realize he cannot just say explicitly what it is, but like you say it leads to so much needless speculation.

CaptainMusky wrote:

<div class=”d4p-bbt-quote-title”>JoeMX1825 wrote:</div>
this type of talk regarding Rossi is a bit scary as it seems to point to an unknown at the time medical issue (similar to Toews)…it leads to alot of needles speculation…hope all is ok

Agreed. Russo didnt ask if he was injured in the WJC or where the “injury” happened. I think he tried to ask it, but BG started to respond and never got back to it. I realize he cannot just say explicitly what it is, but like you say it leads to so much needless speculation.

other than maybe wanting to keep an embarrassing injury (Vanek’s kids beating him up or the family dog took a chunk out of his foot) it seems like it’s not an injury and more like an internal body problem, I sure hope not, but this vagueness opens the door to anything speculation…

I just don’t see what could possibly be wrong with saying “He separated his shoulder or broke his wrist” or whatever…

CaptainMusky wrote:

Very interesting comments about Mennell from BG. He says he holds no grudge against him for his decision and said guys do this because they are “trying to make it” and that he thought this was the best decision for him at that time. He also said he has not talked to his representation yet, but definitely expects him to be with the Wild again at some point since the Wild control his path to the NHL.

Mennell would become a UFA eventually and could sign anywhere right? Not sure how many years until that happens.

Anyone know the story on how Khovanov is leaving his KHL/VHL team and heading to Iowa this season?

tswoboda wrote:

Mennell would become a UFA eventually and could sign anywhere right? Not sure how many years until that happens.

Anyone know the story on how Khovanov is leaving his KHL/VHL team and heading to Iowa this season?

The Wild did tender a qualifying offer for the 23-year-old this offseason, so they will retain his rights until he’s either 25 as a Group 6 UFA — if he’s played less than 80 NHL games at that point — or as a regular UFA when he turns 27.

The Rossi situation, with all the secrecy makes me think cardiac/medical reasoning and they are trying to keep personal and medical information confidential.

I wonder if they found some underlying medical issue during his initial physicals and workup. I hope not but many times these things are cardiac problems that come up when someone has a very indepth physical that was never found before.

mahtofire14 wrote:

The Rossi situation, with all the secrecy makes me think cardiac/medical reasoning and they are trying to keep personal and medical information confidential.

Totally what I was thinking. The whole thing smells like something cardiac or related.

Otherwise, why would there be any need to hide the injury with this vague “upper body” BS? The kid’s not even on the team, has never even practiced with the team, and even if they were to want him to join the team tomorrow I believe under protocol he’d have to re-quarantine following the NHL procedures.

Agree, whatever it is, it ain’t good.

Grouse

TheFamousGrouse wrote:

<div class=”d4p-bbt-quote-title”>mahtofire14 wrote:</div>
The Rossi situation, with all the secrecy makes me think cardiac/medical reasoning and they are trying to keep personal and medical information confidential.

Totally what I was thinking. The whole thing smells like something cardiac or related.

Otherwise, why would there be any need to hide the injury with this vague “upper body” BS? The kid’s not even on the team, has never even practiced with the team, and even if they were to want him to join the team tomorrow I believe under protocol he’d have to re-quarantine following the NHL procedures.

Agree, whatever it is, it ain’t good.

Grouse

if true chalk it upto Covid, typical years have a pre-draft physical testing camp where that kind of stuff is found, makes you wonder if some teams knew something and that’s why he slipped to #9 in the draft???

JoeMX1825 wrote:

<div class=”d4p-bbt-quote-title”>TheFamousGrouse wrote:</div>

<div class=”d4p-bbt-quote-title”>mahtofire14 wrote:</div>
The Rossi situation, with all the secrecy makes me think cardiac/medical reasoning and they are trying to keep personal and medical information confidential.

Totally what I was thinking. The whole thing smells like something cardiac or related.

Otherwise, why would there be any need to hide the injury with this vague “upper body” BS? The kid’s not even on the team, has never even practiced with the team, and even if they were to want him to join the team tomorrow I believe under protocol he’d have to re-quarantine following the NHL procedures.

Agree, whatever it is, it ain’t good.

Grouse

if true chalk it upto Covid, typical years have a pre-draft physical testing camp where that kind of stuff is found, makes you wonder if some teams knew something and that’s why he slipped to #9 in the draft???

While it sucks now in the long term (if cardiac) this is a very good thing it was caught. I’d hate to watch a player die on the ice because someone missed a cardiac issue. It’s happened plenty of times. Look at Bouwmeester for example.

BG said it’s fixable to if it is cardiac related he may have to have surgery and then be good to go after he checks out.

I was doing some digging around the net on Rossi and found a post where somebody speculated it could be Myocarditis which is a well known side effect of having COVID. It’s an inflamed muscle of the heart that effects your body’s electrical system and it needs to be treated very carefully early on (no strenuous activity at all for several weeks and then a slow gradual increase over several months) BUT you recover back to normal after treatment. I’m no doctor and hate to speculate, but this sounds like what is going on…good thing is that its treatable and recoverable.

Just so folks don’t get too scared if that’s what it turns out to be, Here’s a story of an 18 year old female athlete who had the myocarditis side effect – https://www.geisinger.org/health-and-wellness/wellness-articles/2020/12/08/17/12/i-have-post-covid-myocarditis

and even if it’s not what Rossi has, it’s something to keep an eye on for younger athletes you might know who previously tested positive for covid and then developed these types of symptoms later on but just shrugged them off as nothing to worry about…

JoeMX1825 wrote:

I was doing some digging around the net on Rossi and found a post where somebody speculated it could be Myocarditis which is a well known side effect of having COVID. It’s an inflamed muscle of the heart that effects your body’s electrical system and it needs to be treated very carefully early on (no strenuous activity) BUT you recover back to normal after treatment. I’m no doctor and hate to speculate, but this sounds like what is going on…good thing is that its treatable and recoverable.

Just so folks don’t get too scared if that’s what it turns out to be, Here’s a story of an 18 year old female athlete who had the myocarditis side effect – https://www.geisinger.org/health-and-wellness/wellness-articles/2020/12/08/17/12/i-have-post-covid-myocarditis

and even if it’s not what Rossi has, it’s something to keep an eye on for younger athletes you might know who previously tested positive for covid and then developed these symptoms later on but just shrugged them off…

Could be right. Again this is obviously all speculation but all myocarditis is is an inflammation of your heart muscle (which is literally your heart itself). We usually tell people with this to avoid sports or physical activities for 3-6 months after so this timeline would go along with what the speculated timeline is looking like.

Just realized you literally said all of this in your post Joe.

mahtofire14 wrote:

Just realized you literally said all of this in your post Joe.

all good brother!

You guys and your tea leaves are pretty entertaining.

Not sure Kahkonen knows where his left hand is…..

mahtofire14 wrote:

and even if it’s not what Rossi has, it’s something to keep an eye on for younger athletes you might know who previously tested positive for covid and then developed these symptoms later on but just shrugged them off…

Could be right. Again this is obviously all speculation but all myocarditis is is an inflammation of your heart muscle (which is literally your heart itself). We usually tell people with this to avoid sports or physical activities for 3-6 months after so this timeline would go along with what the speculated timeline is looking like.
And to further clarify, this isnt just a side effect of COVID, but ANY virus could cause this. Just so someone doesnt think this is some new side effect of the “invisible enemy” we have been dealing with the past year or so. The silver lining I guess is that there is so much attention paid to people who have COVID that things like this are discovered before serious damage or health effects occur.

Who would have thunk, regardless of who the Wild played that they would have taken 3 of 4 on the road without Parise or Fiala registering a single point. Evason’s quote after the game was awesome: “They have 6 points”. He doesnt strike me as someone with much of a sense of humor, but that is awesome.
He also mentioned when asked about putting Ek on PP1: “Russo said we needed a netfront presence so that is why we put him out there”.

Things will get tougher when they play Vegas, Colorado, and St Louis. I think those are the top 3 teams in the West Division and Minnesota will be competing with Phoenix for the 4th and final playoff spot.

gimruis wrote:

Things will get tougher when they play Vegas, Colorado, and St Louis. I think those are the top 3 teams in the West Division and Minnesota will be competing with Phoenix for the 4th and final playoff spot.

Agreed, but the Avs were playing LA right after the Wild played them and while the Avs were steam rolling them early 3-0 and Wild Twitter was going nuts about how “bad” the wild are and much better the Avs are because of how the Avs were destroying them, the game ended 3-2.
Vegas is just unreal and I dont think ANY Wild fan has any expectations that the Wild will finish above any of those 3 teams, agreed they should be competing heavily and favored for the 4th.

Evason needs to be careful with Fiala right now and do what he can to get him going offensively or the confidence he gained last year will slowly fade away. You can see him get frustrated on the ice as Johannson and Bonino just aren’t on the same page with him. I think you’ll start to see alot more Kaprizov and Fiala on the same line to try and get him going again…

The nice thing about not playing those good teams early on is that it’s allowing the Wild to gain some much needed confidence, especially Kaprizov. Starting the season getting pounded by the big teams would have been a nightmare.

We share see after the series with the Sharks….

I’d actually like to see Parise with Fiala. Kaprisov can play with anyone IMO. I’d hate to break up the GREEF line but you put KK97 with Ek and Greenway they would be tough to beat. They accounted for the game winner. Fiala and Parise had good chemistry last year it’s just finding the right center maybe rask but idk. It takes time a lot of turnover on the roster but blending a few from last year’s team together regardless of how skilled they may be the answer. Evason is definitely tinkering.

Finally was able to watch my first Wild game of the year (no FSN) and that power play is terrible to watch. I’m not a great hockey mind like some here, but even I could tell their spacing was terrible, throwing pucks to nobody once in the zone, yet they scored their first PP goal of the year. Hopefully just a matter of not enough time together yet, but yeesh that was bad.

BigWerm wrote:

power play is terrible to watch

I argued this point before the season started and its now coming to fruition. People thought I was on crack for saying it wouldn’t work

gimruis wrote:

<div class=”d4p-bbt-quote-title”>BigWerm wrote:</div>
power play is terrible to watch

I argued this point before the season started and its now coming to fruition. People thought I was on crack for saying it wouldn’t work

The PP hasnt looked bad until a few times last night. They have had several chances just hadnt capitalized. BG said he was pleased with how the PP looked up to last night and the goals would come. So, you are still on crack LOL

They are just dead set on only allowing Fiala to be the shooter, penalty kills know this and overplay his side of the ice. It’s going to take Kaprizov scoring a few goals from the other side to free up Fiala…

BUT

The PP1 unit just doesn’t have a plan once Fiala is taken away, penalty kills are pressuring the side board players forcing the Defense to either just throw snapshots to the net or dump it back down to the corners. Hopefully the coaches watch tape from the 20+ PP attempts sofar and figure out plans B & C for the players to fall back on… They ran the quick 1 timer from the guy below the net to the guy in the slot play 1 time I think last game? and got a really good shot, but haven’t run it again since… Watching highlights from other games last night and that same play resulted in several PP goals for other teams..

They’ll eventually figure it out, the good news is that we finally have skilled enough players that can actually run plays and get the premium scoring chances, they just need to work on it more if they can ever get practice time…These games every other night with mostly optional morning pre-skates make that tough…

JoeMX1825 wrote:

They’ll eventually figure it out, the good news is that we finally have skilled enough players that can actually run plays and get the premium scoring chances, they just need to work on it more if they can ever get practice time…These games every other night with mostly optional morning pre-skates make that tough…

THey’ll turn it around at home because all the fans will be yelling “SHOOOOOOTTT”! Wait…