2022/2023 NHL/Wild Offseason-Season-Postseason Thread

I’ve seen a few people say once Fabre gets comfortable he has the skills to grow into a more offensive game.

No Foligno tonight.

Hartman! Should have called both but still stupid on his part.

Rossi with 2 goals last night including the game tying goal with 15 seconds left…5

0-2 with Dumba in press box. Coincidence? Don’t look now but Colorado has won 5 straight and the standings are getting tight at the bottom.

What a complete cluster F in Vancouver.

They really did Bruce dirty. He was so tore up about it. Didn’t deserve to be treated like that.

CaptainMusky wrote:

They really did Bruce dirty. He was so tore up about it. Didn’t deserve to be treated like that.

Can someone fill me in on what all went down in the events leading up to this?

CaptainMusky wrote:

They really did Bruce dirty. He was so tore up about it. Didn’t deserve to be treated like that.

The Vancouver hockey ops guy Rutherford is a total douche who thinks he can run the team better from the executive suite than the coach can from behind the bench.

Nobody in the NHL thought Bruce was the problem in Vancouver. The problems in Vancouver are in the toxic GM and VP positions. Good luck to Tocchet, I hope he took Rutherford to the cleaners salary wise because when Vancouver doesn’t improve (and they won’t) he’ll be the next fall guy.

Charlie W wrote:

Can someone fill me in on what all went down in the events leading up to this?

He was dead man walking essentially. They basically announced that he was going to be fired by Monday yet they had multiple games to play yet. Why treat someone like that and why would another coach want to come into an environment like that is beyond me. Good luck to Tocchet, I think he is a decent coach, but this is a toxic environment and many of the players want out.

TheFamousGrouse wrote:

Good luck to Tocchet

Fun fact, a buddy’s sister nannied for him in the summer here in MN. Kinda cool.

I felt really bad for Bruce and was really happy to see the fans get behind him at least. He had hardly anything to work with there and you could tell the players have been checked out in that club for two years. For such a great guy and really good coach to get that kind of treatment is really crappy. The Chicklets guys really throttled the Vancouver front office about it as well. Pretty sad.

Stonehands!

Was starting to think you guys were in trouble….over a day without a post in here!

PK is starting to score more than the PP!

That was one of the softest hooking calls on Freddy Hockey which leads to a PPG

Another brilliant game by Hartman…

Brutal fluke goal to wipe out a really nice effort tonight.

Will have to go back and listen to recap from Russo as I didn’t catch a lot of the game as my kid and neighbor thought they could beat me in hockey in the back yard

They might want to pull a lever here pretty quick as objects in the mirror look closer than they appear.

Boldy isn’t nearly as good as people think he is. Yeah, he’s young and has potential, just to many mental glitches.

Steel isn’t a 1st line center in the minors. Will never understand not at least finding different bodies to fill that role cause he’s way out of his element. Find a slow old-timer that can actually win an offensive zone face-off. Then just get out of the way.

Hartman is awful. Why sit Dumba but not Hartman?

Flower played very well. No Addison pulling the goalie, why?

Dumba gets sat out but nobody else? Hartman, Boldy and Steel need to ride the pine for a game or two, or ten for Hartman, they are not good lately at all. Coaching and gm decisions are going to kill KK’s desire to stay here long term.

Ref’s are just not getting calls at all for both sides. Call the game and stop playing bs games within the games.

Put one actual NHL 1st line center on this team that’s somewhat capable and a lot of issues would go away. And Steel is not even close to being that guy.

Always love the Minnesota sports fan reaction after a little adversity.

You almost can’t give Hartman the 1C spot now based on how bad he’s been playing recently, but swapping him and Steele are the only levers Deano can pull. Maybe sit Hartman for a few games and call up Walker to see if you can light a spark?

Another game without a 5-5 goal…Avs likely leapfrog the Wild tonight for the final Wildcard spot… still tons of games left but we’re trending in the wrong direction with not alot of options to fix things…

at least our goaltending isn’t the problem….

Iowa Wild won again tonight 2-1 in OT

Wallstedt stopped 24/25 shots and Rossi had 1G/1A…. Wallstedt has won his last 6 starts and has ridiculous numbers over the streak…

Boldy is six points off his pace from this time last year. 39 points in 47 games (that’s all he played last year) to 33 points in 46 games this year. He could hit a streak and make that up but he doesn’t look as dynamic this year as last year but that’s due to not having Fiala on the other side I’m sure. Fiala had a ot game winner snipe by the way last night.

For 7M a year you’d like to see a point per game player or pretty close at least and maybe he will wind up there by the end of the year. He clearly needs better linemates than Gaudereau and especially Hartman. But you could say he should be making them better but he’s not at that level at least not yet.

They almost gotta bring Rossi back up soon don’t they? They have to find out if this kid can dance in the NHL or not. Maybe they don’t want to find out just yet who knows. Flyers tomorrow night and another ESPN+ game. Flyers can be a tough out.

As Ive said before $7M might be an overpay for Boldy now, but it wont be in the future. This kid is going to keep getting better. The one thing I have noticed with his game lately and especially obvious last night is rather than making an easy pass to a wide open guy for a scoring chance he held onto the puck. He had someone on the off-side last night and it would have been a great scoring chance instead he skated down the side boards and ended up losing the puck behind the net. No shot on net.

and remember Boldy is making $880,000 THIS YEAR, his $7 million aav kicks in NEXT YEAR… as mentioned he hasn’t even played 1 season’s worth of games yet…

When you watch his game right now he still displays alot of signs of a rookie player, he defers shots to veteran players, he over passes, he’s still a bit hesitant to play physical and this season he’s trying to do too much to compensate for miserable linemates…all of these will change as he gets more comfortable in the NHL…

The one aspect of his game that absolutely needs to get better are his 1 timers…with his frame, he should be crushing 1 timers, yet his mechanics are a bit messed up so he flubs alot of 1 time attempts…this will also get better and equate to alot more goals, especially on the Powerplay where he’ll likley cement the right side boards position for the rest of his career…

icex wrote:

They almost gotta bring Rossi back up soon don’t they? They have to find out if this kid can dance in the NHL or not

I’m now thinking they likely won’t bring Rossi up until the end of the year if they are in the playoffs and rosters can be expanded…with everyone healthy (especially centers) who are you going to sit in the pressbox for Rossi to replace? I think they like the fact that’s he’s getting a ton of icetime and scoring in Iowa and building confidence…

I do think they are very close to bringing Sami Walker back up though…

On a positive note, that was an entertaining fight by Middleton. I thank the Sharks whenever I watch him.

As bad as the PP and PK was last year we could count on 5×5 scoring. This year it doesnt exist. That is VERY concerning. Good thing their PK and PP are humming along, but if that slips and the 5×5 scoring doesnt start we are in real trouble. We are on the outside looking in now. Our goalies have been basically playing fantastic since the terrible first few games, but we arent helping them out at all.

CaptainMusky wrote:

As bad as the PP and PK was last year we could count on 5×5 scoring. This year it doesnt exist. That is VERY concerning. Good thing their PK and PP are humming along, but if that slips and the 5×5 scoring doesnt start we are in real trouble. We are on the outside looking in now. Our goalies have been basically playing fantastic since the terrible first few games, but we arent helping them out at all.

The lack of any 5-5 scoring can be attributed to 2 obvious things:

1 – Losing Fiala removed any scoring threat from the 2nd line and allows the opposing team to put all defensive focus on stopping the 1st line…
2 – Terrible seasons sofar by Hartman, Foligno and Greenway (11 goals between them)

on the positive side Ek, Zuccy and Kirill are again having HUGE seasons again and Boldy is still on pace for a likely 70+ point season with no line help…Just look at how good the Ek extension is now!

Are the Wild….. Bad?

Nah but their 5v5 is pretty brutal right now. Crazy how the 5v5 and Special Teams play completely flip flopped from last year. If they had this special teams last year, they woulda been chasing the presidents trophy. But if they had last years special teams this year, they’d be chasing Connor Bedard. Where did the aggressive D go?!

They actually played a good game last night but lost to a good team. They dominated the 3rd just couldn’t get one past Vasy and Tampa got lucky.

Boldy is 21!! Yeah there’s mistakes and he’s not perfect but he’s already a top line caliber forward, good on the PP, and really good defensively. That’s a great contract by Billy G.

Hartman needs a move to center. I don’t care if it’s 4th line, 2nd, 1st, Iowa, whatever! He’s never been a top 6 winger anywhere, but when he moved to center 2 years ago he was a completely different player.

Love to see Rossi and Wallstead, the two most important prospects, actually dominating in Iowa.

tswoboda wrote:

Love to see Rossi and Wallstead, the two most important prospects, actually dominating in Iowa.

Yes, this is very encouraging for sure. Scott Wheeler is doing his annual prospect pool rankings and he is up to #16 and has not done the Wild yet. Surprisingly the Avs who only a few short years ago had the #1 or 2 prospect pool is dead last. Of course all those guys have elevated, but still seems surprising.

tswoboda wrote:

but when he moved to center 2 years ago he was a completely different player.

How much of that is the Kirill & Zuccy effect though? I agree with you that there needs to be lineuup changes just to see if they can find a spark, I just think they missed the opportunity to make that change a week or so ago and now Hartman’s recent terrible play (mostly mental mistakes/selfish decisions) could have a negative mental impact on the team by then rewarding it with the 1C promotion…I think they should call up Walker and put Hartman in the pressbox for a few games…then if the team still is lethargic put him back in the lineup at 1C as a last resort move to likely salvage the season…I think the coaches/GM now exactly what they have with Steel, he’s the safe play if they need to resort back if Hartman can’t find the spark again with Kirill and Zuccy…