2021 MN Wild/NHL Thread

PHX is a much better team than I think alot of people (myself included) give them credit for…they don’t have alot of name recognition players other than Kessel and Keller but they play a good game and had tons of breakaway chances that thankfully Talbot has stopped sofar…Kaprizov should have had at least 2 goals yesterday, the whole give up a shot to help somebody else get at an empty net goal shenanigans needs to stop before we get bit hard by it and end up getting a game tied and lose in OT, especially in this years all division matchups where every single point gained/given up matters…

Ripjiggen wrote:

Any update on Folingo?

Russo on Saturday said it might be awhile for Foligno. Left the stadium in a boot and crutches.

We’d be in first place if Parise hadnt done that stupid long shift in Vegas. Take 2 pts away from Vegas and add 1 to ours and First Place MN Wild. Has a nice ring to it.

CaptainMusky wrote:

We’d be in first place if Parise hadnt done that stupid long shift in Vegas. Take 2 pts away from Vegas and add 1 to ours and First Place MN Wild. Has a nice ring to it.

This season is setting up to be very tight at the end…how shameful would it be if that 1 point ends up being difference…You could also look at the 2nd game of the year where after an empty net post we scored to tie with a few seconds left and then won it in OT as a balance though….

JoeMX1825 wrote:

This season is setting up to be very tight at the end…how shameful would it be if that 1 point ends up being difference…

If the Wild go in the crapper so badly that 1 point is the difference between making the playoffs or not, then we get what we deserve. You can trace it back to any one of dozens of situations where players “could have” sealed the deal on a game but didn’t.

Parise is another great example of the Minnesota Correlation. The more a player is paid, the more fans blame any performance slump on “attitude” or “laziness” or “pouting” or “having a hissy fit”.

Middle of the road player making the middle-of-the-road money, it’s a slump. They’ll get going. It’s the line they’re on. They just need X or Y or Z. I can’t count the number of times that guys pitched this excuse to me to defend players that I couldn’t wait to get rid of like Charlie Coyle.

But sign the big contract in Minnesota and have a slump, it’s because you’re a huge attitude problem and a locker room cancer.

Grouse

I think the playoffs are pretty much assured now for the Wild, I’m specifically talking about having a 1 point difference between seeding or home ice advantage…

JoeMX1825 wrote:

I think the playoffs are pretty much assured now for the Wild, I’m specifically talking about having a 1 point difference between seeding or home ice advantage…

The Wild have the second best odds at winning the Stanley Cup! I am not sure who put that out, but I read it earlier today. #1 is no surprise, TB.

Tampa vs Min in the finals would be fun, if it is possible with the format.

mplspug wrote:

Tampa vs Min in the finals would be fun, if it is possible with the format.

You’re a little biased.

Been off the grid and missed the last few games but holy cow looks like the Wild are on a heater! Scoring goals, getting good goaltending from both guys, swept Vegas, and a freaking hat trick from Kaprizov – the highlights from KK97 and Zuccs have been fun to watch. I expect the consistent goaltending to continue but not sure on the goal scoring. Every year since I can remember the Wild hit a mid season slide where they just can’t seem to score goals and they go in the tank – let’s hope this is the year they can break that!

Looks like Foligno is out for awhile and possibly the regular season, so it’ll be interesting to see how much that affects the team.

As far as Parise goes, if he’s not nursing an injury then I think age is catching up with him his game is finally just falling off a cliff. He’s looked just all around bad all season. It’s not really shocking as he’s almost 37, has history of injury, and plays a really tough game. We all knew this was coming eventually, it’s just a little sooner than anyone hoped. He scores like 1/3 of his goals on the powerplay so without significant powerplay time (which he certainly doesn’t deserve) he’s not going to have much production either. I’m sure he’s frustrated with himself, who wouldn’t be. Maybe he will go on some hot streaks, but I think this level of play is the new norm for Parise.

The one positive about Parise is that it’s pretty obvious the team is fine, probably even better, without him – so now just to figure out how to get rid of that cap hit. The risk in trading him is that they’ll need to take a bad contract back, and if Parise retires from whatever team he’s traded to then the Wild end up eating both cap hits so it’s worse then if they just held onto him. A buyout this summer saves money next season but then spreads it out for 4 additional years. Best case scenario is they can convince him to pull a Seabrook/Hossa after this season or next. I’m sure he won’t be excited to fill a bottom 6 role for $1m or $2m per year. Even if he outright retires, they’d save around $1m per season which is better than nothing. Suter is fine and still playing well.

Are we ever going to see the Blues this season?!

I think the scoring will stay the same or actually get a bit better because at some point the power play has to start clicking a bit and we get closer to the league average (which would give us almost another goal a game) we have too much talent to be this bad on the power play…I do think players like Ek & Greenway come back to earth vs their current scoring pace and maybe the improved power play balances their drop a bit? This team is able to generate scoring chances on all 4 lines, that and their strong goalie play will keep them in games all year…

I haven’t heard any mention of Foligno breaking anything in his ankle/foot, so I would think 2 weeks would be the max he’s out, I still think he’s back in a week…

Parise…don’t get me started…if he’s traded we’ll have to eat 50% of that contract the next 4 years..that’s a tough pill to swallow for the GM/Owner and I see ZERO chance Parise plays ball with the Wild in terms of staying on LTIR and helps them in any way…

JoeMX1825 wrote:

I think the scoring will stay the same or actually get a bit better because at some point the power play has to start clicking a bit and we get closer to the league average (which would give us almost another goal a game) we have too much talent to be this bad on the power play…I do think players like Ek & Greenway come back to earth vs their current scoring pace and maybe the improved power play balances their drop a bit? This team is able to generate scoring chances on all 4 lines, that and their strong goalie play will keep them in games all year…

I forgot about the horrid PP, and it will be interesting to see if they can get that figured out by the end of the regular season. Not sure which coach runs the PP, but if they don’t get it going then I can’t see that coach coming back next year. Because you’re exactly right, way to much talent to be that bad… feels weird to say that about a Wild team.

I looked more into the goalie numbers and neither of them are top 20 in GSAA so it’s not like they’re standing on their heads and stealing games. Just solid and steady… something we haven’t seen in a couple years.

JoeMX1825 wrote:

I haven’t heard any mention of Foligno breaking anything in his ankle/foot, so I would think 2 weeks would be the max he’s out, I still think he’s back in a week…

The quote I saw was “out at least a few weeks”. Those usually aren’t conservative estimates.

Anyone see that a 19 yo Russian died today from taking a puck to the head? Total fluke play, a dump in, and just an absolute tragedy. My first thought was the Dumba shot to the head earlier this season that looked 100x more dangerous.

tswoboda wrote:

Anyone see that a 19 yo Russian died today from taking a puck to the head? Total fluke play, a dump in, and just an absolute tragedy. My first thought was the Dumba shot to the head earlier this season that looked 100x more dangerous.

I saw that! Although it didnt look good getting hit in the head by a puck, I certainly didnt think he would die. How sad!

Considering Foligno left the arena in a walking boot and crutches after the game tells me it’ll be more than 2 weeks. Hockey annoys the hell out of me by only saying upper/lower body injuries so no one is going to say if it’s broken or not. Russo seems to think it was and Eveson didn’t sound too confident he won’t be out for awhile either in his presser about it.

mahtofire14 wrote:

Considering Foligno left the arena in a walking boot and crutches after the game tells me it’ll be more than 2 weeks. Hockey annoys the hell out of me by only saying upper/lower body injuries so no one is going to say if it’s broken or not. Russo seems to think it was and Eveson didn’t sound too confident he won’t be out for awhile either in his presser about it.

I’ve become a big fan of his play and how he puts the team first so its tough to see him out.

Its very frustrating but I believe they do that to protect player so they don’t get targeted when they come back? Someone correct me if I’m wrong but I swear I’ve heard that before.

KP wrote:

Its very frustrating but I believe they do that to protect player so they don’t get targeted when they come back? Someone correct me if I’m wrong but I swear I’ve heard that before.

That’s the reason they always fall back on when asked why they are so generic. For crying out loud Stalock had and upper body injury and it was myocarditis.

CaptainMusky wrote:

<div class=”d4p-bbt-quote-title”>KP wrote:</div>
Its very frustrating but I believe they do that to protect player so they don’t get targeted when they come back? Someone correct me if I’m wrong but I swear I’ve heard that before.

That’s the reason they always fall back on when asked why they are so generic. For crying out loud Stalock had and upper body injury and it was myocarditis.

Remember last summer when every single injury was simply “unfit to play” haha. I guess I don’t really care how secretive or open they are about injury status. “Targeting” is pretty old school and I doubt it happens in the NHL, but there are apparently some GMs (Fenton) and coaches who think it does. Usually by the time a player is back on the ice, the injury is well known anyway. The reason other pro sports leagues, i.e. the NFL, update injury lists so often is due to fantasy teams.

Dayumm those warm up sweaters tonight are lit. For the young pups here…

Wow, that was just the best shift Parise played all season…

My gawd this powerplay… everyone has their own plan on what they want to do out there…

Pretty ugly game overall. But they still seem to be in control.

Deaner and his PP lineup changes kind of mind boggling. One PP has 1 center the next has 4? Come on man. I know it’s been a battle with penalties, etc but that’s ridiculous

I’m really surprised GMBG hasn’t pushed for major changes on the PP sofar???

During his career he always played on great powerplays, so he knows exactly what they take to succeed. Its so strange they havent made major player swap outs yet?? Replace Suter with Spurgeon or Brodin, swap Fiala and Kaprizov around, put Greenway back in front of the net….

DO SOMETHING FOR GAWDS SAKE!!

Just think if this team had even an average PP……

mahtofire14 wrote:

Pretty ugly game overall. But they still seem to be in control.

That’s what you will get against the yotes. They play a really slow defensive game. Almost like wild of previous years. D up till you get a break. Hard to watch isn’t it?

I really hope we can keep Hartman. That guy is playing great, especially since he moved to Center. It might be a fun experiment to put him between Zuccarello and Kaprizov. Zuccarello should have had a hat trick last night. He was looking to the stars twice on almost guaranteed goals he missed.

I guess he really wants to stay in MN, but he’ll need to prove it with his contract demands…with Boldy and Rossi hopefully plugged into top 6 roles next year and the Greenway-Ek-Foligno line back at #3, realistically he’s a 4th line player and you can’t pay those guys more than $1-$2 million per at the most…The good thing about him is that you can plug him in if a top 3 line guy gets hurt, but you can’t pay somebody based on what ifs…

I like him alot, but you can’t overpay…that’s how you build up caphell

100% agree! He adds so much to this team and like you say his flexibility to move up and down the lineup is very much needed in a long season or even a condensed on like this year where you get 10 games in 15 days. No room for injuries.

I’ve been thinking about this lately about the Wild’s success this year. What do you credit the success to?

A. Kaprizov finally being on the team

B. Billy G’s small overhaul of the team

C. Dean Evason’s coaching

D. All of the above

D.

Plus goal tending. They were one of the worst in the league last year. Kappo sis a top 5 goalie stat wise and Talbot has been good as well.