2021 MN Wild/NHL Thread

gimruis wrote:

<div class=”d4p-bbt-quote-title”>JoeMX1825 wrote:</div>
They have no clue what they are doing out there…whats the plan?

There isn’t one. I predicted this before the season even started and everyone thought I was an idiot. We’re almost halfway through the season now and I’m still here

I think the first 5 or so games they had some semblance of a plan with both Fiala and Kaprizov on the opposing board positions and forcing the killers to choose who to focus on and then quickly switch to the other side, they were getting plenty of chances, but were just snakebittin…they went away from that and now just try to force feed Fiala on the right side boards and it’s gone nowhere…

I think they should remove Suter and put Fiala at the point, drop Spurgeon to the left side boards and put Kaprizov in Fiala’s old right side board spot…Ek down low and Greenway in front of the net…

what’s strange is that other than just running normal lines out there (talk about a white flag for not having a clue what to do with their PP) They haven’t made any substantial changes, how do they still apparently think it’s working?

Ripjiggen wrote:

Don’t disagree not a whole lot of time to work on it however and can only really work on it in games. I mean I don’t see why a coach/coaching staff can’t change the pp or pp strategy on the fly. I mean every player has probably ran every pp know to man in there career. You may have hit some of it in the head though. Not having the talent down the middle has to have some of the blame.
Like I said give it to KK and just let him skate around.

This is the biggest problem with the condensed schedule they havent had much time to work on it. I think it looked better the few games they just rolled the regular lines and now they went away from it again.
I believe I read a stat that they score more 5 on 5 goals/60 than PP. That is pretty embarrassing.
Kahko looks so good right now I dont know how you take him out other than a back to back possibly and even that I would have a hard time doing it. Not that Talbot has looked bad, but Kahko is just swallowing up everything. At the beginning of the season he was suspect high glove, but that seems mostly fixed now too. Great to see!
I still cannot believe the turn around of Zucc this year. Whoa what a resurgence and the chemistry that he and KK97 have is electric. Its been a quiet few games points wise, but they still generate tons of chances.
Greenway was an animal last night too. He has such a heavy wrist shot. He does have a funny skating style, but that’s probably because of his height, but he is really crouched over. Almost like he is trying to be aerodynamic LOL

CaptainMusky wrote:

<div class=”d4p-bbt-quote-title”>Ripjiggen wrote:</div>
Don’t disagree not a whole lot of time to work on it however and can only really work on it in games. I mean I don’t see why a coach/coaching staff can’t change the pp or pp strategy on the fly. I mean every player has probably ran every pp know to man in there career. You may have hit some of it in the head though. Not having the talent down the middle has to have some of the blame.
Like I said give it to KK and just let him skate around.

This is the biggest problem with the condensed schedule they havent had much time to work on it. I think it looked better the few games they just rolled the regular lines and now they went away from it again.
I believe I read a stat that they score more 5 on 5 goals/60 than PP. That is pretty embarrassing.
Kahko looks so good right now I dont know how you take him out other than a back to back possibly and even that I would have a hard time doing it. Not that Talbot has looked bad, but Kahko is just swallowing up everything. At the beginning of the season he was suspect high glove, but that seems mostly fixed now too. Great to see!
I still cannot believe the turn around of Zucc this year. Whoa what a resurgence and the chemistry that he and KK97 have is electric. Its been a quiet few games points wise, but they still generate tons of chances.
Greenway was an animal last night too. He has such a heavy wrist shot. He does have a funny skating style, but that’s probably because of his height, but he is really crouched over. Almost like he is trying to be aerodynamic LOL

How much of Zuc’s turnaround do you think is directly due to playing with Kaprizov? I mean Rask looked more than serviceable on that line and they take him off and he looked like the terrible Rask of old…

I do think the condensed schedule has something to do with it, but every morning skate the powerplay runs through some practice, they should be beyond the point of not having & practicing a decent plan by now….

JoeMX1825 wrote:

I do think the condensed schedule has something to do with it, but every morning skate the powerplay runs through some practice, they should be beyond the point of not having & practicing a decent plan by now

Maybe the opponents simply know how to defend it. We’re almost halfway through the season now so there’s plenty of tape for teams to watch.

mahtofire14 wrote:

I’m not sure I think Spurgeon’s game is declining. He’s constantly out there against the best players and you’re going to get beat some times. I think he’s still be one of their best defensemen. Or maybe it’s because I’m too busy watching Suter cough up the puck whenever he’s out there to notice.

I think Brodin & Dumba get as much 1st line duty as Spurgeon and Suter do…I’m not saying Spurgeon’s decline is big, but I think it’s noticeable this year, lack of offense is pretty obvious too…

JoeMX1825 wrote:

How much of Zuc’s turnaround do you think is directly due to playing with Kaprizov? I mean Rask looked more than serviceable on that line and they take him off and he looked like the terrible Rask of old…

I do think the condensed schedule has something to do with it, but every morning skate the powerplay runs through some practice, they should be beyond the point of not having & practicing a decent plan by now….

I think playing with KK97 certainly helps, but he seems to have his legs under him which he didnt at all last year. So he has his skating back, but no doubt like you think he is definitely benefitting from playing with the rook.

CaptainMusky wrote:

<div class=”d4p-bbt-quote-title”>JoeMX1825 wrote:</div>
How much of Zuc’s turnaround do you think is directly due to playing with Kaprizov? I mean Rask looked more than serviceable on that line and they take him off and he looked like the terrible Rask of old…

I do think the condensed schedule has something to do with it, but every morning skate the powerplay runs through some practice, they should be beyond the point of not having & practicing a decent plan by now….

I think playing with KK97 certainly helps, but he seems to have his legs under him which he didnt at all last year. So he has his skating back, but no doubt like you think he is definitely benefitting from playing with the rook.

Kaprizov is a savior in many ways if he can get the most value out of Zuc’s caphit the next few years…

Serious question – What do you think BillyG’s contract offer will be to the Kaprizov camp? Keep in mind Kaprizov has the same agent as Artemi Panarin…

8+ years at around $7 per? Will his agent push for a shorter deal to maximize his FA value? From what we’ve seen sofar (and granted it’s only 24 games) if your BillyG how much do you overpay to keep him locked up long term?

JoeMX1825 wrote:

Serious question – What do you think BillyG’s contract offer will be to the Kaprizov camp? Keep in mind Kaprizov has the same agent as Artemi Panarin…

8+ years at around $7 per? Will his agent push for a shorter deal to maximize his FA value? From what we’ve seen sofar (and granted it’s only 24 games) if your BillyG how much do you overpay to keep him locked up long term?

This is going to hurt the bottom line in the near-term I think, but I agree, you just simply cannot do a short-term deal for him I dont think. There is a ton of risk there by doing that, but I just don’t see how you can go about doing it otherwise. The risk of a bridge type deal is higher IMO. I think the $7MM per might be high, but IDK, at year 2 of that deal it could be an absolute steal seeing how he is playing and how much this team benefits from him right now. Man, last year and at the start of this year we were just wondering how in the World we could find anyone to dump Zucc to. Who knew all we needed was this kid to come over and he somehow has been completely transformed. Admittedly I haven’t seen much of Zucc’s play previously but knew he was a good player, but had no idea he was capable of what is going on right now. No doubt KK97 is helping that for sure.
Fiala is the other quandary, but I think you can risk doing a bridge deal with him perhaps?
I don’t envy being in the Cap Guru’s or BG seat for these two negotiations.

Nice win last night for Kappo. Everyone else looked like wet, stale bread.

JoeMX1825 wrote:

I do think the condensed schedule has something to do with it, but every morning skate the powerplay runs through some practice, they should be beyond the point of not having & practicing a decent plan by now….

Maybe it’s just me, but I think the power play hit a new low last night? On that last power play, I yelled at the screen, “Decline the penalty!” Wrong sport, but wishful thinking to save us the pain. Deano, according to Russo, had to take a brief, calming stroll away from the bench during the last powerless play.

Deano looks like a man without a plan when it comes to fixing the PP. Condensed schedule or not, straight lines on the PP is a total surrender posture and I can understand it to clear heads for a game or two, but this is stupid. If Deano can’t figure out how to get a new format out there and at least running better than what we are doing now, I have to ask, should he really be coaching in the NHL? I think Bill needs to have a heart to heart with Dean because with the talent that’s there to work with, there is NO excuse for having the worst PP in the league by far.

Missing the net continues to plague the Wild, as do long, weak zone-holding wristers that don’t make the net or produce rebounds. If you want to get it back in deep, you have to actually have a shot with enough steam to at least make it over the goal line.

And now a warning. Huge venting ahead…

Last night was a classic example of the NHL RULE THAT DRIVES ME EFFING CRAZY! ARRRRRRRRAH….

So with the goalie pulled VGK is playing 6 on and they try to enter the zone, miss the touch and ice the puck.

And the Grouse goes out of his freaking mind on the couch!!!!!!

Because you can’t change players after an icing, but for reasons that nobody including God himself understands, you actually CAN because you can put your pulled goalie back in! Arrrrrrrraahhhhh. Why? If the damn goalie is pulled and you ice the puck, you should have to keep your men on the ice and take the faceoff in your own end without the goalie.

The downside to pulling the goalie should include the possibility of having to take a D zone faceoff if you ice the puck. The present situation makes it artificially easy to have extended zone time with no downside because you can always ice the puck to get out of trouble and still be allowed to change a goalie into the game where the team with the goalie in the net is penalized for icing by an own-end faceoff with no player changes at all.

Keep ’em all out there or allow everybody to change if the goalie is out. I frickin’ hate this rule.

I watched alot of Zuc the past few years and the way he’s playing right now is pretty similar to his best years as a Ranger, I think the only difference is that he mostly played with Shoot first guys and Kaprizov isn’t that player yet…

What we’re seeing with Kaprizov/Fiala is similar to how the Penguins and Blackhawks justify the big deals for Crosby/Malkin/Kane/Toews (obviously not to their level yet) in that they can take younger or older players with a much lower cap hit, put them on their lines and get the most value out of them…so maybe you overpay Kaprizov and Fiala, but then you make up the difference by having them play with a young Boldy or Rossi or an older vet and get the same production of a $5 million player from a $1 million player on their rookie/vet minimum deals….

I’d try to sign Kaprizov to an 8-9 year deal between $7-$8 million per

I’d try to sign Fiala to a 5-6 year deal at $6 million per

Fiala takes less money to get to FA earlier…if he’s worth resigning in 5-6 years, you have first priority to do so…same with Kaprizov but a few years later…

TheFamousGrouse wrote:

Nice win last night for Kappo. Everyone else looked like wet, stale bread.

<div class=”d4p-bbt-quote-title”>JoeMX1825 wrote:</div>
I do think the condensed schedule has something to do with it, but every morning skate the powerplay runs through some practice, they should be beyond the point of not having & practicing a decent plan by now….

Maybe it’s just me, but I think the power play hit a new low last night? On that last power play, I yelled at the screen, “Decline the penalty!” Wrong sport, but wishful thinking to save us the pain. Deano, according to Russo, had to take a brief, calming stroll away from the bench during the last powerless play.

Deano looks like a man without a plan when it comes to fixing the PP. Condensed schedule or not, straight lines on the PP is a total surrender posture and I can understand it to clear heads for a game or two, but this is stupid. If Deano can’t figure out how to get a new format out there and at least running better than what we are doing now, I have to ask, should he really be coaching in the NHL? I think Bill needs to have a heart to heart with Dean because with the talent that’s there to work with, there is NO excuse for having the worst PP in the league by far.

Missing the net continues to plague the Wild, as do long, weak zone-holding wristers that don’t make the net or produce rebounds. If you want to get it back in deep, you have to actually have a shot with enough steam to at least make it over the goal line.

And now a warning. Huge venting ahead…

Last night was a classic example of the NHL RULE THAT DRIVES ME EFFING CRAZY! ARRRRRRRRAH….

So with the goalie pulled VGK is playing 6 on and they try to enter the zone, miss the touch and ice the puck.

And the Grouse goes out of his freaking mind on the couch!!!!!!

Because you can’t change players after an icing, but for reasons that nobody including God himself understands, you actually CAN because you can put your pulled goalie back in! Arrrrrrrraahhhhh. Why? If the damn goalie is pulled and you ice the puck, you should have to keep your men on the ice and take the faceoff in your own end without the goalie.

The downside to pulling the goalie should include the possibility of having to take a D zone faceoff if you ice the puck. The present situation makes it artificially easy to have extended zone time with no downside because you can always ice the puck to get out of trouble and still be allowed to change a goalie into the game where the team with the goalie in the net is penalized for icing by an own-end faceoff with no player changes at all.

Keep ’em all out there or allow everybody to change if the goalie is out. I frickin’ hate this rule.

My guess is that it’s an integrity of the game type of decision, you lose faceoff and a quick open net goal? or perhaps even a player safety decision in that they don’t want a player standing in the crease when the offensive team wins the draw back to the D and they tee-up towards an open net?

I agree it’s a sort of loop hole for the team pulling. Has it ever been discussed by the NHL competition committee? I’ve never heard of it mentioned before?

TheFamousGrouse wrote:

Deano looks like a man without a plan when it comes to fixing the PP. Condensed schedule or not, straight lines on the PP is a total surrender posture and I can understand it to clear heads for a game or two, but this is stupid. If Deano can’t figure out how to get a new format out there and at least running better than what we are doing now, I have to ask, should he really be coaching in the NHL?

To be fair to Deano, typically the head coach isn’t much involved with the actual Power Play strategy, each team has assistant coaches that are separately in charge of PP & PK (is it Darby on our team?)

BUT

He should be demanding change/new strategies from the PP assistant coach, other than putting Greenway in front of the net, what changes have they made all year?

He should also be swapping players in/out of different spots to try and find some chemistry and the right fit for players…sofar we’ve seen none of that…

JoeMX1825 wrote:

To be fair to Deano, typically the head coach isn’t much involved with the actual Power Play strategy…

I get that, but look, as a head coach I’d damn well be involved in ANY aspect of the game where my team was by far the worst in the league. I don’t care if it’s the power play or pregame hackeysack, if my team sucked as bad as the Wild suck, I’d have been involved a long time before it got this bad.

Honestly, this cannot go on for much longer before the question has to be asked, is Deano really the guy for the job? We all know that he was the Plan B choice after the Plan A Guy fell out of the picture. Does BG need to start considering his options?

I am hard pressed to find any reason why a team with KK, Fiala, Zuc, Parise, Dumba, Spurgeon, etc should be even half this bad on the PP, much less the league cellar dwellers.

TheFamousGrouse wrote:

Honestly, this cannot go on for much longer before the question has to be asked, is Deano really the guy for the job? We all know that he was the Plan B choice after the Plan A Guy fell out of the picture. Does BG need to start considering his options?

Who was plan A? I genuinely don’t remember there being much discussion about any frontrunners, there was speculation about potentials, but I cannot seem to remember anyone being a real hot fit that went elsewhere.

I’m hoping BillyG has had chats with Deano on things to try with the PP, but its strange we haven’t seen anything change…

Guerin was a PP force during his playing days, I’m sure he has ideas…I don’t see how Deano could say no to any of them…the GM rules the show…

That’s what’s baffling to me, they were getting chance after chance the first 5 games and just had crappy luck, then they changed everything and it got much worse and they have stuck with it…are they afraid of hurting Fiala’s feelings by moving him to a different spot and running everything through Kaprizov?

I think Suter is the piece that needs to get swapped out, not exactly sure what he brings to the PP? There’s no break out pass as he skates up and drops it back to Fiala or Kaprizov with speed. His snapshots from the point either hit shinpads or go 3′ wide… he doesn’t move the puck with any speed from side to side so the defense has time to reposition…

I just don’t get it…

Suter has no place on the PP, PP1 or PP2 unless someone else is injured and cannot go.

TheFamousGrouse wrote:

<div class=”d4p-bbt-quote-title”>JoeMX1825 wrote:</div>
To be fair to Deano, typically the head coach isn’t much involved with the actual Power Play strategy…

I get that, but look, as a head coach I’d damn well be involved in ANY aspect of the game where my team was by far the worst in the league. I don’t care if it’s the power play or pregame hackeysack, if my team sucked as bad as the Wild suck, I’d have been involved a long time before it got this bad.

Honestly, this cannot go on for much longer before the question has to be asked, is Deano really the guy for the job? We all know that he was the Plan B choice after the Plan A Guy fell out of the picture. Does BG need to start considering his options?

I am hard pressed to find any reason why a team with KK, Fiala, Zuc, Parise, Dumba, Spurgeon, etc should be even half this bad on the PP, much less the league cellar dwellers.

So you want to fire a guy that is in one of the strangest seasons without much pre season went through a 2 week hiatus with Covid pretty much for the whole team. Has a team playing very well and in the thick of the playoff picture. With basically 1.5 serviceable centers. When by all accounts we were talking about flipping UFA’s and where they would fall in the top ten draft wise. A coach who finally had the stones to not play one of their vets. And fire him just because his PP is not scoring right now.
Doh K
I don’t think Deano’s job is in any way in jeopardy.

JoeMX1825 wrote:

I’m hoping BillyG has had chats with Deano on things to try with the PP, but its strange we haven’t seen anything change…

Guerin was a PP force during his playing days, I’m sure he has ideas…I don’t see how Deano could say no to any of them…the GM rules the show…

That’s what’s baffling to me, they were getting chance after chance the first 5 games and just had crappy luck, then they changed everything and it got much worse and they have stuck with it…are they afraid of hurting Fiala’s feelings by moving him to a different spot and running everything through Kaprizov?

I think Suter is the piece that needs to get swapped out, not exactly sure what he brings to the PP? There’s no break out pass as he skates up and drops it back to Fiala or Kaprizov with speed. His snapshots from the point either hit shinpads or go 3′ wide… he doesn’t move the puck with any speed from side to side so the defense has time to reposition…

I just don’t get it…

If you look deeper into their PP stats specifically. Some of the corsi stuff and shots from dangerous areas and mid danger areas. Not a big analytics guy but it is interesting in this case.
They are middle of the pack. So the opportunities have been there and they just are not finishing. I get the plan looks bad and results even worse but some of those metrics don’t seam as bad as the overall result of 5 for whatever.
And really if you look at the bottom teams the PP is not really end all be all.
Ducks bad team
Wild Decent team
Devils bad
Wings bad but then it’s
Pitt
Bos
Columbus
Vegas
Philly
All in the bottom 10.

Ripjiggen wrote:

And really if you look at the bottom teams the PP is not really end all be all.
Ducks bad team
Wild Decent team soon-to-be stanley cup champions
Devils bad
Wings bad but then it’s
Pitt
Bos
Columbus
Vegas
Philly
All in the bottom 10.

Fixed it for you…

NHL snd ESPN agree to a 7 year TV deal! Awesome news!!!

CaptainMusky wrote:

<div class=”d4p-bbt-quote-title”>Ripjiggen wrote:</div>
And really if you look at the bottom teams the PP is not really end all be all.
Ducks bad team
Wild Decent team soon-to-be stanley cup champions
Devils bad
Wings bad but then it’s
Pitt
Bos
Columbus
Vegas
Philly
All in the bottom 10.

Fixed it for you…

Ha thanks. Just think the law of averages have to work out at some point. Maybe they are saving there hot PP streak for the playoffs.

That will be good for the sport for sure. I thought NBC is still retaining some of the rights correct? If that’s true this will open it up to even wider audience.

JoeMX1825 wrote:

NHL snd ESPN agree to a 7 year TV deal! Awesome news!!!

That remains to be seen. I like the espn hockey guys especially Buccigross but wait to see what the numbers are like and if they shopped it to more than one affiliate like baseball basketball and football all have done to garner a lot more money. For that casual fan it is definitely good to get them on a more mainstream network.

Gary Thorne and Bill Clement back doing Wednesday Night Hockey?

BRING BACK BARRY MELSROSE!!!!!!

CaptainMusky wrote:

Who was plan A? I genuinely don’t remember there being much discussion about any frontrunners, there was speculation about potentials, but I cannot seem to remember anyone being a real hot fit that went elsewhere.

So with 20 games left in the season and the team on the playoff bubbly, Gurin fires Bruce and hangs the interim tag on Deano for the remainder of the season and the failed play-in attempt. Then it goes quiet with hardly a peep about the coaching situation and after all that, BG mysteriously tears off the interim tag and Dean’s the man.

I can’t see how anyone would believe Deano was the Plan A guy. If he was, what took so long? Clearly, BG had someone else in mind and something went south.

I’m not saying fire him now, but it’s certainly time for him to prove he belongs at the helm of an NHL team. Lack of #1 centerman can’t be the whole explanation for a power play that THIS bad. Sorry, but there are teams with less talent than the Wild who are kicking our @ss in the power play stats. Time to put on the Big Coach pants and figure it out.

Grouse

TheFamousGrouse wrote:

<div class=”d4p-bbt-quote-title”>CaptainMusky wrote:</div>
Who was plan A? I genuinely don’t remember there being much discussion about any frontrunners, there was speculation about potentials, but I cannot seem to remember anyone being a real hot fit that went elsewhere.

So with 20 games left in the season and the team on the playoff bubbly, Gurin fires Bruce and hangs the interim tag on Deano for the remainder of the season and the failed play-in attempt. Then it goes quiet with hardly a peep about the coaching situation and after all that, BG mysteriously tears off the interim tag and Dean’s the man.

I can’t see how anyone would believe Deano was the Plan A guy. If he was, what took so long? Clearly, BG had someone else in mind and something went south.

I’m not saying fire him now, but it’s certainly time for him to prove he belongs at the helm of an NHL team. Lack of #1 centerman can’t be the whole explanation for a power play that THIS bad. Sorry, but there are teams with less talent than the Wild who are kicking our @ss in the power play stats. Time to put on the Big Coach pants and figure it out.

Grouse

I agree it’s a bit surprising that there haven’t been many strategical changes to the PP, but for the first time in this franchise’s history, we have a team that comes out of the locker room and is prepared and amped up from the drop of the puck. No other head coach has been able to do that for this franchise. I think Dean has been pretty darn good so far.

I’m not saying he was plan A I want to hear who was. There were few options out there and TBH none of them intrigued me much. DeBoer may have been a good pick but he was snatched up right away before the vegas coaches seat even cooled a bit.

JoeMX1825 wrote:

NHL snd ESPN agree to a 7 year TV deal! Awesome news!!!

Lou Nanne on Barriro yesterday said it was obvious the league would go with ESPN. He also said the NHL wasnt happy with how Soccer was getting more airtime than the NHL. With Doc being retired I hope Gary Thorne comes back. Those 2 are great Hockey announcers.

Have you ever heard Mike Tiricco do hockey games? The guy can do a play by play on a garage sale and make it worth listening to. He is so good. He did the NHL Outdoor games at Tahoe this year. He would be my pick for the National Broadcast games, but Gary Thorne with Clement would be saweet too. I like Melrose, but I just think he is better suited as a studio analyst. Kind of like Wes Walz for FSN. He is very astute, but he gets too wordy with the color and that throws off the play by play. I think Carter is better for color on FSN.
Early game tonight boys! 6PM