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

Ripjiggen wrote:

Only quiet to those that thought he was nothing more than a third line center.

yeah, what on earth were those NHL Coaches and GMs thinking keeping him in that 3C lineup slot for 5 years…

TheFamousGrouse wrote:

An how’s about some love for Flower? At the game last night the crowd was chanting his name, it was awesome.

He’s been great lately, fun goalie to watch when he’s on.

You picked a good one to go to. Did you throw your hat?

tswoboda wrote:

He’s been great lately, fun goalie to watch when he’s on.

You picked a good one to go to. Did you throw your hat?

I’m a season ticket holder, so at least the play in Feb/March has balanced out some of the games back in Nov/Dec that were not so great.

The Butt Kracken were clearly frustrated last night with multiple netfront chaos chances and having the Wild pinned down in the D zone for extended periods and Fleury bailed out the team multiple times. By the 3rd period, the win was in the bag, everyone in the crowd clearly was there for the shutout.

I wasn’t wearing a hat. I do admire the sheer marketing brilliance when I see it, though. Within a minute after Boldy’s hat trick, they had an ad on the scoreboard offering 15% off all hats and caps at the Hockey Lodge.

I was wondering if they still do the 15% off for hattricks ha that is genius. How many games on the season ticket package? The X looks a lot more fun the last 2 seasons.

Kraken are a good hard working team with meh goalies and no real scorers. They have to absolutely dominate teams in order to win games, which they have been doing quite a bit this year. Tough to do that in the playoffs though. Remind anyone of some Wild teams over the last 10 years?

tswoboda wrote:

Remind anyone of some Wild teams over the last 10 years?

THats exactly what the Wild did for like the first 10 years under Lemaire.

Absolutely loving how this team has stepped up in KK’s absence. What a steal of a deal Johannson is turning out to be! Ek has looked great at 2C I think, and seems like it makes a pretty balanced line. Ek’s grittiness and Johansson’s speed(and honestly playmaking ability), have really opened things up for Boldy. Couple that with some increased confidence of late and a willingness to just shoot the puck, and that line is killing it.

I don’t watch as much hockey as a lot of you guys, but man, seems like Boldy has a quick release. Glad he’s shooting a lot out there, need more guys who are a threat to score every time they have a shooting lane. Have we ever had more than like one of these guys on a Wild team at the same time? Would be so awesome to be one of those teams.

You know how you watch an Avs game and as soon as MacKinnon is on the ice you just kind of hold your breath until his shift is over, or when Kane was in his prime and we were losing to them every year in the playoffs? He’d get an outlet pass in the neutral zone and you’d just be like, ‘oh crap oh crap oh crap’.

Would be a nice change of pace for opposing teams to hold their breath when KK gets the puck AND when someone like Boldy gets the puck. Like, “don’t give this dude space cause if he gets an open look it’s going in”. Make them pucker up until our 3rd/4th lines are out there. And if you have guys on multiple lines that can snipe a corner when given the chance, just feels like that could really opens things up for our other forwards too.

Hockey is such a team sport and depth is so important in the playoffs, but there’s still plenty of playoff games that come down to a skill player just making a play/shot.

I would say that Boldy has nearly an elite level release and shot. The only thing is his skating is not quite the greatest. He is a good skater, but lacks speed. Him shooting the puck a lot now is exactly why he is on fire and I think the addition of Johansson has him thinking now instead of trying to make plays he can just fire the puck since someone else is making the plays instead of him.

I wouldn’t call Boldy’s shot elite yet, his hands yes, but not his shot… but it’s something offseason work can improve (especially his 1 timer)…I think his recent success can be attributed to him finally figuring out how to get into the quiet/danger areas of the offensive zone and he’s FINALLY playing with somebody who knows how to get him the puck when he gets there…He’s still only 21 years old and finally reached a full NHL season’s worth of games a month ago, he’ll only get better…

yeah, what on earth were those NHL Coaches and GMs thinking keeping him in that 3C lineup slot for 5 years…

Developing his game.

Remember like a month or two ago when the team was scoring 1 goal/game and shooting 5% and a lot of fans thought they were missing playoffs? Yeah this is the flip side of that. Neither lasts forever even though it feels like it will in the moment.

I think the biggest part of Boldy’s recent success is that he’s on a freaking heater and 1 out of every 3 shots he takes is going in the net. As compared to 1 out of 15 in the first 62 games. Boldy actually had more shot attempts/60 minutes (5 on 5) in the first 62 games than he does in the last 12 games. He’s not shooting more, but he is getting better looks (linemates rolling) and hitting the net more. Couple that with the fact that he’s on a freakin heater and it’s been really fun to watch, I hope it never ends.

Justin Donson wrote:

Have we ever had more than like one of these guys on a Wild team at the same time? Would be so awesome to be one of those teams.

Last year with Fiala and Kaprizov – Fiala just had a lot more flaws in the other parts of his game that Kaprizov and Boldy don’t have.

The sick part is how many of those players does it take to win a cup? Looking at the last 2 cups Colorado has Mackinnon, Rantanen, Makar plus Landeskog and others you can make the argument for. Tampa has Kucherov, Stamkos, Point, Hedman, Vasilevsky, I’m going to stop now

Last year with Fiala and Kaprizov – Fiala just had a lot more flaws in the other parts of his game that Kaprizov and Boldy don’t have.

The sick part is how many of those players does it take to win a cup? Looking at the last 2 cups Colorado has Mackinnon, Rantanen, Makar plus Landeskog and others you can make the argument for. Tampa has Kucherov, Stamkos, Point, Hedman, Vasilevsky, I’m going to stop now
[/quote]

That’s okay, we have Freddy Gaudreau

tswoboda wrote:

Looking at the last 2 cups Colorado has Mackinnon, Rantanen, Makar plus Landeskog and others you can make the argument for. Tampa has Kucherov, Stamkos, Point, Hedman, Vasilevsky, I’m going to stop now

That’s kind of depressing TBH

Most cup winners have the following

1) strong goaltending
2) a core of 3-5 great/star players that excel at the Powerplay and clutch scoring.
3) Great role players that sacrifice everything & elevate their games at the most important times …

Heater…

3) Great role players that sacrifice everything & elevate their games at the most important times …

That are willing to sign fair deals or come to a team knowing they have a good chance to get to the cup.

I just wanna watch some hockey and who exactly schedules this sh!t

I was watching some of the lookins on NHL NEtwork last night, but didnt settle in to watch an entire game. I got into some show on Netflix that I have been binging on off nights for the Wild.

The Jets are actually going to miss the playoffs. They were in 1st like a month ago. It’s too bad I’ve always liked the Jets but when they lose to the Sharks on the same night the teams chasing them beat the Bruins and the Kings… yeah, I think it’s over for them.

tswoboda wrote:

I just wanna watch some hockey and who exactly schedules this sh!t

Haha I ran into that last night too, and before any game had started it was bedtime for the boys. Watched some really elite Pokemon tho, I hope I never meet the creator of Pokemon, words will be exchanged.

tswoboda wrote:

The Jets are actually going to miss the playoffs. They were in 1st like a month ago. It’s too bad I’ve always liked the Jets but when they lose to the Sharks on the same night the teams chasing them beat the Bruins and the Kings… yeah, I think it’s over for them.

Nashville is going to get the last spot, they have 2 games in hand and are playing really well right now…that would be another bad matchup for the Wild to get imo…

I watched like 15 minutes of the Oilers / Golden Knights game, it was a goal scoring gong show…

We all know +/- has it’s issues, but Draisaitl being +1 with 116 points is pretty funny…29 PP goals is nuts, only 6 away from the season record….

BigWerm wrote:

Watched some really elite Pokemon tho, I hope I never meet the creator of Pokemon, words will be exchanged.

Don’t get me started on Pokemon, at least my 6 year old doesn’t understand the difference between real cards and the dirt cheap knockoffs I buy him….

Duhaime (sick) and Reaves out tonight so instead of using an emergency callup they are going to play 11 forwards 7 defenseman with Goligoski likely to get some shifts at Forward.

Why on earth would you do this against the AVALANCHE??

with like 8 hours until game time maybe they are waiting to see if Duhaime feels better tonight?

JoeMX1825 wrote:

Goligoski likely to get some shifts at Forward.

Likely to what?!?!

I don’t like that

tswoboda wrote:

<div class=”d4p-bbt-quote-title”>JoeMX1825 wrote:</div>
Goligoski likely to get some shifts at Forward.

Likely to what?!?!

I don’t like that

Joe Smith mentioned this, I guess it makes sense vs the other D choices playing tonight…(insert Addison complaint here)

11/7 is just fine – But a D playing forward in the National league never makes sense. Unless its Big Buff or Burns – actually that didn’t make make sense either so I stand by my original point.

Play 3 lines and sprinkle in Shaw/Dewar as needed when forwards get tired – that’s how you keep the most structure and continuity. Lots of other teams run 11/7 at times and don’t galaxy brain it like this.

These next 3 games are going to be important. Should be some good hockey to watch. I see the game tonight is on TNT. I’m not even sure I get TNT on my TV at home. I sure hope so. I have not been able to watch to many games this season.

tswoboda wrote:

11/7 is just fine – But a D playing forward in the National league never makes sense. Unless its Big Buff or Burns – actually that didn’t make make sense either so I stand by my original point.

Play 3 lines and sprinkle in Shaw/Dewar as needed when forwards get tired – that’s how you keep the most structure and continuity. Lots of other teams run 11/7 at times and don’t galaxy brain it like this.

I think 11/7 was fine the many times they’ve done it this season when KIRILL was the forward getting double-shifted…i’m sure it will fall on Boldy tonight…I guess we’ll see if the top 2 D pair can play 28+ minutes a game…

I also think there’s a chance Duhaime feels beter by puck drop…

JoeMX1825 wrote:

I guess we’ll see if the top 2 D pair can play 28+ minutes a game…

If they’re dressing 7 D why would the top 4 play 28 more minutes than they have all year?

I just think putting a defenseman, especially Goose, at forward in a big game is a bad move.

tswoboda wrote:

<div class=”d4p-bbt-quote-title”>JoeMX1825 wrote:</div>
I guess we’ll see if the top 2 D pair can play 28+ minutes a game…

If they’re dressing 7 D why would the top 4 play 28 more minutes than they have all year?

I just think putting a defenseman, especially Goose, at forward in a big game is a bad move.

yeah I can see your point, i’m just thinking our D game will need to be on point tonight…our 3rd pair have been giving up alot of turnovers lately but the goalies have bailed them out…

So 8 games left in the season, at Colorado, at Vegas, Host Vegas, at Pittsburgh, Host St Louis, at Chicago, Host Winnipeg, at Nashville.

Obviously the next 4 games are critical in terms of quality of opponent and 3 are road games, after that mess then you have 2 teams that are out of the playoffs and the final 2 games vs teams that either 1 or both could be eliminated from the playoffs already.

Avs have 9 games left with 4 tough games against Dallas, Minnesota, Edmonton and Los Angeles…

Stars have 8 games left with only 3 tough games against Colorado, Nashville (still in the hunt) and Vegas, the rest are creampuffs…

What’s everybody guess on the Wild’s record these final 8 games? I think they go 5-3 (losses at Colorado, at Vegas and at Pittsburgh)

..will that be enough to maintain 1st place? it will be close…