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

The consistency of the mental mistakes are unexcusable at this point. And a lot of players are making them.

Maybe 4 or 5 players are consistently playing well with their heads in the game and it shows in the stats.

To much glitchy poor decision making and puck handling going on. The neutral zone is not good.

Exiting the defensive zone is utterly painful to watch. So many pucks that should be cleared aren’t. Like others are saying pee-wee mistake after mistake.

Poor entry into the offensive zone isn’t good.

Blue line play in the o-zone makes me get the yipps watching Boldy especially but it’s not just him loosing pucks at horrible times. Extremely sloppy and lazy with the puck. Not winning a lot of loose puck battles and some just awful passes to nobody. Players need to get to spots but that doesn’t excuse just blindly passing so often. Simple passes behind or in players skates is getting way to redundant.

O-zone draws are just awful. Get a fricken face off coach or bring in an old school player who understands it and could teach the basics to the centers.

Coaching hasn’t been inspiring at all.

Go back to the basics and keep it simple.

Ek gets grief for not shooting on one play, yet has been a model of consistency. Boldy makes mistake after mistake and gets praised for one good play after 10 bad ones. His plus minus is not good. He’s a puck coughing up machine that passes up every open look he gets looking around for Fiala still. Zero creativity and needs a play maker/goal scorer to pass too. The team as a whole needs to shoot more when there’s a shot vs forcing shots in desperation.

Dumba and Greenway are utter no shows. Doubt there’s a lotta real titfortat trade value for either one.

PP looks awful without Addy.

Merrell looks a bit snake bit.

Flower goes through some pretty marginal stretches.

Steel is borderline worthless.

Hartman looks a little better and is trying to stay out of the box.

Shaw, Dewar and Duhaime bring a lot of energy.

Brodin and Spurgeon are consistently good.

Would really like to see a different strategy from the coaching staff on d-zone exits and entering the o-zone. The grief line is over. Really think Boldy needs a night off to mentally regroup. Not as a punishment, just to get his bearings. He’s a talented young kid but mentally looks awful.

As much as I’d like to see what a capable 1st line center could do right now, I don’t want to give anything up that’s not heavily in our favor long term. Tired of short term getting screwed deals.

Funny new posted up with Ryan Carter

I watched that a little bit ago. That was awesome.

it would have been funny is somebody said Spurgeon looked like he was 33 years old in the photo…that dude still looks 14 years old, his perma-playoff beard should come into full bloom in about 3 years, aligning with the buyout pain being over..

The glaring problem with last night is the Avalanche were tired and out of sorts. No where near the top of their game. We could not have had a better opportunity to get a win and we still lost. At home. Those goals Fleury gave up were seriously pathetic.

JoeMX1825 wrote:

I forgot to mention this a few days ago, but in the last Russo podcast with GMBG I found it interesting when Russo asked him a question around the lack of goal production by Hartman/Foligno/Greenway this season and GMBG answered that it’s unfair to expect the same production after they all had career years….

UMMMM, isn’t that EXACTLY what GMBG said during the entire preseason when asked why no bigger offseason moves were made with the unexpected capspace they had? He said he fully expects them all to maintain that production this season (I specifically remember him stressing that point at the State Fair interview he did and perhaps at the opening season presser?)

Just cought my attention because usually GMBG doesn’t contradict himself and stands by his words…

BG says things quite often and then does something different. “Everyone has to earn it” They have been doing some odd things at odd times lately. Setting Dumba and now Addison were both bad and strange timing. You can bet the players are having some wtf discussions amongst themselves. I said this last year about BG back when the whole Fiala trade stuff was going on he’s not a people person. I get it he’s a hard nose no bs guy but when you are running a hockey team you need to have some people skills. If he likes you (Flower) you’re golden if he doesn’t (Fiala) he will publicly bad mouth you knowing he has to trade you.

They need to realize they are not winning the Cup this year. Time to sit some people and get some of these super stud prospects we got up here and start the growing pains of transitioning these guys to the NHL if in fact they can transition to it but we need to find out. The clock is ticking on KK’s contract and when that’s up I can almost promise you he is not going to be satisfied being on a team waiting for a bunch of prospects to catch up.

Sounds like Beckman might be getting called up per Joe Smith.

Um we don’t have super stud prospects to call up. We have maybe 1.

CaptainMusky wrote:

Sounds like Beckman might be getting called up per Joe Smith.

I get the Beckman call up, he’s a hot scorer right now and has more NHL experience, but its kinda strange SAMMY Walker hasn’t got another shot, that kid was an instant energy/speed/skill shot in the arm…

kinda exactly what they need right now

I think they should bring up both Beckman and Walker. Send Steel down. Sit Reaves.

I get what you are saying but doesn’t do a whole lot to bring those two up to have one play fourth line either.

Ripjiggen wrote:

I get what you are saying but doesn’t do a whole lot to bring those two up to have one play fourth line either.

no, i’d bring 1 up for Boldy’s line and put Duhaime back on the 4th line…sit Reaves

JoeMX1825 wrote:

<div class=”d4p-bbt-quote-title”>Ripjiggen wrote:</div>
I get what you are saying but doesn’t do a whole lot to bring those two up to have one play fourth line either.

no, i’d bring 1 up for Boldy’s line and put Duhaime back on the 4th line…sit Reaves

Bingo. Exactly what I was thinking. Remember Foligno is out of the lineup.

basseyes wrote:

The consistency of the mental mistakes are unexcusable at this point. And a lot of players are making them.

Maybe 4 or 5 players are consistently playing well with their heads in the game and it shows in the stats.

To much glitchy poor decision making and puck handling going on. The neutral zone is not good.

Exiting the defensive zone is utterly painful to watch. So many pucks that should be cleared aren’t. Like others are saying pee-wee mistake after mistake.

Poor entry into the offensive zone isn’t good.

Blue line play in the o-zone makes me get the yipps watching Boldy especially but it’s not just him loosing pucks at horrible times. Extremely sloppy and lazy with the puck. Not winning a lot of loose puck battles and some just awful passes to nobody. Players need to get to spots but that doesn’t excuse just blindly passing so often. Simple passes behind or in players skates is getting way to redundant.

O-zone draws are just awful. Get a fricken face off coach or bring in an old school player who understands it and could teach the basics to the centers.

Coaching hasn’t been inspiring at all.

Go back to the basics and keep it simple.

Ek gets grief for not shooting on one play, yet has been a model of consistency. Boldy makes mistake after mistake and gets praised for one good play after 10 bad ones. His plus minus is not good. He’s a puck coughing up machine that passes up every open look he gets looking around for Fiala still. Zero creativity and needs a play maker/goal scorer to pass too. The team as a whole needs to shoot more when there’s a shot vs forcing shots in desperation.

Dumba and Greenway are utter no shows. Doubt there’s a lotta real titfortat trade value for either one.

PP looks awful without Addy.

Merrell looks a bit snake bit.

Flower goes through some pretty marginal stretches.

Steel is borderline worthless.

Hartman looks a little better and is trying to stay out of the box.

Shaw, Dewar and Duhaime bring a lot of energy.

Brodin and Spurgeon are consistently good.

Would really like to see a different strategy from the coaching staff on d-zone exits and entering the o-zone. The grief line is over. Really think Boldy needs a night off to mentally regroup. Not as a punishment, just to get his bearings. He’s a talented young kid but mentally looks awful.

As much as I’d like to see what a capable 1st line center could do right now, I don’t want to give anything up that’s not heavily in our favor long term. Tired of short term getting screwed deals.

Replying to this to gain this thread a couple pages.

Not my quote just going to leave it here.

Who knows cause/effect, but it’s interesting that #mnwild were rolling along smoothly (12-3-2 in 17 games, points in 7 of 8), they sit Dumba and team has no regulation wins in 11 (3-7-1) since

Ripjiggen wrote:

Who knows cause/effect, but it’s interesting that #mnwild were rolling along smoothly (12-3-2 in 17 games, points in 7 of 8), they sit Dumba and team has no regulation wins in 11 (3-7-1) since

maybe that 1 game of no glaring turnovers completely messed with the team’s heads? I have no desire to do the research, but when the Wild were winning games for that stretch about 3 weeks into the season was there any correlation to the quality of teams they were beating? were we catching teams with injuries? multiple 2nd game of back to backs?

I ask because I don’t think this team is playing much different now vs when they were winning this season…lack of scoring, turnovers, poor defensive play, penalties have been in their game all season…

So I did do some research, lots of wins early on vs Arizona, Montreal, Vancouver, Ottawa, Chicago, Edmonton & Winnipeg (who we seem to own)

Yeah the teams we played in their stretch of winning were bad plus they largely had a lot of injuries too if memory serves. I think they are actually playing better lately just not getting the scoring but are playing much tougher teams. I think their home stretch here the winning % of the teams they are playing is in the mid 60s. Thats a tough stretch.

Sounds like Addison sitting again tonight….makes sense to me…

There’s alot that goes into the +/- stat…

Breaking down Addison’s -18… Merril is -7 and those 2 have primarily played together, Addison has played 2 more games, so that could add a few… I’m just trying to get more info on how Addison is -11 more than Merril…is part of it just bad luck with a lack of 5-5 scoring when he’s on the ice?

The influencer to pay attention to is that “offensive defenseman” are negatively impacted by +/- due to how the stat is figured. PP guys don’t get a + with a goal scored, but get a – when a shorty is scored, PK guys don’t get a – when a goal is scored against, but get a + when a shorty is scored (Wild have several SH goals this year) Same with empty netters, No – if a EN is scored against, but you get a + if you scored an EN for…

When you factor all these things in, Addison’s -18 doesn’t look as bad as many think it does…

other comperable “offensive defenseman” similar to Addison:

Torrey Krug is a -26 with 22 points scored

He averages over a minute of ice time more per game likely partially due to his PP time, but I am sure that plays a role in him being on the ice for more goals. Merrill likely takes shorter shifts.

Wild have given up only 2 shorties so yes his plus minus is terrible.

There is no denying Addison’s poor defence. It’s not just the dumb pinches, it’s the fact that he loses players around his net and is constantly chasing after them.
But Addison had better not be the only healthy scratch.
Reeves is bringing nothing to this team. He can’t catch anyone to hit and actually seems to avoid hitting them square. He doesn’t make glaring mistakes but also fails to make any notable plays.
Greenway is much the same, he doesn’t seem to be able to get a good shot off.
I don’t know if they would have to put someone on waivers or if they can put Greenway on the IR but they should bring up Beckman and Walker and sit Greenway and Reeves.

CaptainMusky wrote:

He averages over a minute of ice time more per game likely partially due to his PP time, but I am sure that plays a role in him being on the ice for more goals. Merrill likely takes shorter shifts.

Funny you bring this up. Addy takes the third longest shifts only behind KK and Zucc.

Tom schmitt wrote:

There is no denying Addison’s poor defence. It’s not just the dumb pinches, it’s the fact that he loses players around his net and is constantly chasing after them.
But Addison had better not be the only healthy scratch.
Reeves is bringing nothing to this team. He can’t catch anyone to hit and actually seems to avoid hitting them square. He doesn’t make glaring mistakes but also fails to make any notable plays.
Greenway is much the same, he doesn’t seem to be able to get a good shot off.
I don’t know if they would have to put someone on waivers or if they can put Greenway on the IR but they should bring up Beckman and Walker and sit Greenway and Reeves.

Not possible without injury or waiving a player.

Here’s the 5v5 goals for and goals against
+/- is so dumb

Beckman skating with Boldy tonight, as long as they stay together it will give an idea of what it could look like when Boldy plays with a dedicated shooter…

Willing to bet Beckman gets sent back down in less than 10 days.

Ripjiggen wrote:

Willing to bet Beckman gets sent back down in less than 10 days.

Yeah I dont see him sticking either, but we will see what chemistry he and Boldy can create.

at least he’s finally getting a lineup spot to do what he does best, shoot the puck…here’s his shot to stay in the NHL this year, I’m sure Tim Army told him “make it so they can’t send you back down”