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

Kirill Fiala? Who could have seen that coming? Actually Fiala is out scoring KK in the playoffs despite Fiala has only played in two games. We are probably going to hear post playoffs he’s hurt but players play hurt all the time and still find a way to contribute especially the super stars. Besides they went on a tear when he was out of the line up. I think Dallas has just done a good job of smothering him.

But that still doesn’t let the rest of the team off the hook. So do we see Fluery game six?

Their problem is not scoring on the PP and taking too many penalties and not stopping them on the PK.

If the wild take penalties and can somehow keep the stars from scoring on the PP in the first 25 seconds they tend to kill off the penalty.

obviously the terrible PK and PP are very concerning, both in terms of the players performance, but also the lack of any visible changes by the coaching staff…I’m also not a fan of Deano and some of the players (Foligno) crying about every penalty call. That’s just a loser mentality, own up to mistakes and stop making them!

BUT

Our “stars” are not performing, 1 goal by Kaprizov and NOTHING else, couple of assits by Boldy and NOTHING else…Your stars need to perform in the playoffs, if they don’t you need other guys to elevate their game to star status… we have none…

Injuries are not an excuse, EVERY player has some injuries they play through in the playoffs…if they fizzle out at home on Friday, I think GMBG will take a hard look at making bigger changes if possible…not sure if the staff will/can change as they all just signed extensions earlier this season? I’d put money on Foligno dealt this offseason, he’s an overpaid loose cannon and there’s zero chance they give him a raise on any type of extension, they need his capspace to sign Jojo and Gus, Hartman could be used for the majority of the season and then get dealt at the deadline because he’ll have trade value and the Wild would be in a pickle on how much $ & term they would pay him for whatever position he’d play, you don’t pay him anything close to a 1C salary…they would also know for sure by the deadline if Rossi has a top 6 Center future…They could also just ride out the season with him like they did with Dumba and let him walk in FA…

In terms of leadership, I don’t see a change at Captian UNLESS Spurgeon decides to give it up (doubtful) I think Kaprizov and Ek get the A’s that would be vacated by Foligno and Dumba leaving…

I still beleive the series isn’t over, I think the Wild will reset and win Friday night, then game 7 on sunday is mostly a coinflip (slight edge to Dallas playing at home) but they’ll have all the pressure…

Keep the faith Wild fans!

The PK is truly unbelievable, the failure there cannot be overstated.

Some stats to put it in perspective…
During the regular season Edmonton (who set the record for best powerplay in NHL history) scored 1 goal ever 4:43 on the PP
Dallas was #2 in the regular season and scored 1 goal every 6:23 on the PP
Wild were #12 at 1 goal every 7:50
Dallas in this series has scored a PP goal every 3:26 (!!!!!!!!!!!!!)

Last post-season Colorado had the most PP goals with 20… in 4 series. Dallas is almost halfway there with 9 PP goals through 5 games.

As far as taking penalties… The team motto is GRITFIRST and fans love it. After the first 3 games all I saw was “SURE IS NICE TO SEE THE WILD BE THE MORE PHYSICAL TEAM IN THE PLAYOFFS FOR ONCE”. If you want to be the old school rough and tumble bully then it’s pretty easy to expect a lot of special teams play. You can’t just go lay an egg.

Series ain’t over but if they go out in R1 *like this* Deano’s seat is going to be mighty warm.

tswoboda wrote:

Last post-season Colorado had the most PP goals with 20… in 4 series. Dallas is almost halfway there with 9 PP goals through 5 games.

Sheesh, I knew the PK was bad, but didnt think it could be that bad.

i’ll probably catch heat for this, but if you look at the Dallas PP success this series, alot of it has been due to overpowering Spurgeon and Brodin in front of the net, they cant move anybody…Dallas is able to put bodies in front of our net and keep them there all powerplay…

Small and soft D just don’t work well in the playoffs when battles down in the trenches lead either directly or indirectly to dirty goals…

I was thinking the same thing about Spurgeon. He has been getting thrown around a lot.

Didn’t want to pile on Spurgeon as I like him but standing there watching Dallas Jack hammer on Gus on the first power play last night and finally scoring on the 4th rebound attempt wasn’t real impressed.

The elephant in the room (and will continue to be the next 2 years) is that the Wild are playing with $13 million less in capspace this year and $15 million the next 2 years…That can equate to instead of a $8 million dollar player getting the breakaway in the first minute of the game, we have $825k Sam Steel getting the chance and not getting a shot on net. Instead of putting $1.2 million Freddy Gaudreau out to take crucial draws and losing them cleanly, we could have a $6 million dollar center with legit faceoff skills taking them…

Its tough to win without having a couple extra star/superstar players to work with…

GMBG knows this, he’ll talk up a good game regarding this team can win, yada yada yada, but he knows what he’s asking his team just isnt fair, whatever success the Wild can have these bad cap penalty years is just gravy, he’s looking to 2 years from now…

It’s not an excuse, but it’s a HUGE factor…

JoeMX1825 wrote:

i’ll probably catch heat for this, but if you look at the Dallas PP success this series, alot of it has been due to overpowering Spurgeon and Brodin in front of the net, they cant move anybody…Dallas is able to put bodies in front of our net and keep them there all powerplay…

Small and soft D just don’t work well in the playoffs when battles down in the trenches lead either directly or indirectly to dirty goals…

Every year this gets brought up in the postseason. Every year. I’m surprised it took until game 5. I couldn’t agree more. Those two may be out best killers in the regular season but why not try a dumba/Middleton combo for the start of the pk. Especially when they score 12 seconds in (yeah I know face offs). Try SOMETHING else. Heck throw faber out there for a different look – PP too.

From a emotionally unattached casual observer observation I think Foligno brought much of this on himself. Starting with the run at Marchment on Sunday. Ref no doubt seen Foligno making a run at Marchment from half a rink away and probably decided then a boarding call is coming. Hitting a player that hard in front of the bench can be dangerous. For both players. Players upper body has nothing to stop him until he lands on the bench. Skates generally fly up in the air potentially getting in someones face or neck area.

When Marchment smartly dodged the majority of the hit that kind of took the boarding or interference call out of it so all that was left was tripping. Point is Foligno was going to get something. His remarks post game however right they may be just drew more attention to himself. So when he runs into Faska last night the refs just decided that’s enough. See ya! Don’t matter if it was the right or wrong call once it’s made and stamped approved in Toronto it’s done. Unless you listened to the Power Trip this morning and you believe an investigation is needed to see who is betting big and paying the refs and the booth in Toronto off.

I was told there would be no Spurgeon criticism in here

Fact of the matter is the league/refs are rewarding flopping, and penalizing physical hockey that we traditionally associate with Playoff Hockey. There’s a dozen examples from this series alone, and according to a laundry list of former players it’s league wide. Faksa did the classic soccer move, act like you need an ambulance, wait for the penalty to be called, and then miraculously make it out next shift. There was no malicious intent on that hit, Biz did a great breakdown on it imo, and that should have been 2 minutes. Tops.

icex wrote:

Starting with the run at Marchment on Sunday. Ref no doubt seen Foligno making a run at Marchment from half a rink away and probably decided then a boarding call is coming.

43%?

He started the hit at the dot, it’s incredibly obvious when he set his feet and made a 90 degree turn. Did Dumba travel the entire length of the ice for his hit on Pavelski?

Is anyone surprised? Chirp about the refs publicly and then they call phantom and borderline penalties on you? Like what did you expect to happen? It’s happened all series, just the way it’s playing out, so you better adjust.

Dallas isn’t intimidated by Reaves or Foligno AT ALL right now, they are licking their chops every time they jump on the ice. Give them a glimmer of hope to lay a big hit down, dodge it or embellish, take the PP and score in literally 8-12 seconds. Wash, rinse, repeat.

To top it off, our PP can’t do crap, our top offensive players can’t do crap, so get one or two PP goals early and just shut things down for the rest of the game.

tswoboda wrote:

He started the hit at the dot, it’s incredibly obvious when he set his feet and made a 90 degree turn. Did Dumba travel the entire length of the ice for his hit on Pavelski?

The refs see him make a 45′ full speed charge directly at Marchment and launches himself into him…I’m just putting myself in the refs skates…I can see why they called Tripping (because of Marchments body twisting on impact) but Charging would have been a better call imo…

and I’ll go back to my original opinion that with 5 minutes left in the game, down 1 goal it was a needless play, he could of just rubbed him out into the boards and got a line change, but he wanted to plant him into the bench for the monster hit…it was selfish imo…and then there’s no accountabiity from himself, he just cried about the Refs and called them arrogant…what a brutal skate of shame he had last night going off the ice, you could see in his face he realized how much he F’d up…

Rule 607 | Charging
(Note) Charging is the action where a player takes more than two strides or travels an excessive distance to accelerate through a body check for the purpose of punishing the opponent. This includes skating or leaving one’s feet (jumping) into the opponent to deliver a check, accelerating through a check for the purpose of punishing the opponent, or skating a great distance for the purpose of delivering a check with excessive force.

Yeah that’s not the NHL Charging rule I have no idea where you got that from, but OK.

Charging in the NHL is essentially hitting too hard – 100% discretion call. Nothing about that hit was egregious or eye-catching until Foligno goes flying into the wall *after* making contact.

I wonder if the net-front PK problem has anything to do with constantly getting outnumbered? No no no definitely getting the meek little baby d getting out-muscled

PK goals allowed in games 4 & 5:

tswoboda wrote:

Yeah that’s not the NHL Charging rule I have no idea where you got that from, but OK.

Charging in the NHL is essentially hitting too hard – 100% discretion call. Nothing about that hit was egregious or eye-catching until Foligno goes flying into the wall *after* making contact.

I googled “NHL Charging penalty” and that was the first link, its from USA hockey…after scrolling 2 1/2 pages that Scounting the Refs link appeared…

JoeMX1825 wrote:

I googled “NHL Charging penalty” and that was the first link, its from USA hockey…after scrolling 2 1/2 pages that Scounting the Refs link appeared…

I’m sorry you don’t know how to use Google ??? It’s the second result

tswoboda wrote:

I wonder if the net-front PK problem has anything to do with constantly getting outnumbered? No no no definitely getting the meek little baby d getting out-muscled

PK goals allowed in games 4 & 5:

Seguin’s 2nd goal here had nothing to do with being out muscled, He was left all alone in the slot after Jojo went to go pick up his dropped stick…the other screenshots change if you take another one 1/2 second later and all 4 Wild have collapsed to the net…Dallas players just allowed to do whatever they want in front…Spurg and Brodin go for stick tieups, not moving/boxing out bodies…

tswoboda wrote:

<div class=”d4p-bbt-quote-title”>JoeMX1825 wrote:</div>
I googled “NHL Charging penalty” and that was the first link, its from USA hockey…after scrolling 2 1/2 pages that Scounting the Refs link appeared…

I’m sorry you don’t know how to use Google ??? It’s the second result

lol, you googled “NHL Rulebook pdf” I told you I googled “NHL Charging Penalty” I’m sorry, you don’t know how to read…

JoeMX1825 wrote:

I’m sorry, you don’t know how to read…

Ironic after citing the USA hockey charging rule. Like it’s someone else’s fault you can’t find the right rule

I know the Seguin rush goal isn’t the same, I just clipped the last 2 games PP goals – I mean I even labelled it “rush”. The 2 pictures we posted of the 5 min major goal actually show a really good time-lapse. Who exactly is Brodin supposed to Box-out with 3 guys hovering the crease? And then Spurgeon is supposed to go from blocking a shot above the hash marks to boxing out Seguin who is already established in the crease all in the time it took for a one touch pass/shot.

All I’m saying is the PK D have been put in a position to fail. Dallas PP is about creating 2v1’s right in front of the net and then just throwing pucks there. Wild are selling out to front everything and block the puck from ever getting there but every time the puck does get to the net they are completely screwed.

Dean is getting out coached for a 2nd yr in a row.

Mom/Dad stop fighting!

basseyes wrote:

Dean is getting out coached for a 2nd yr in a row.

IDK if its so much about that its just they are taking too dang many penalties and cant kill them off. The team is dominating on 5v5. Klingberg/Faber, Brodin/Dumba They had over 20 minutes of 5v5 hockey last night and had 0 expected goals against which is really unheard of.

One other thing is that the wild have run into a hot Goalie. I’ve said it before, A Average team with a HOT goalie can make a run all the way to a championship. I’m not one to like to Blame the Ref’s for a loss but, That 5 Min. Major call on Foligno was total BS. I can see the call being made on the ice real time, But it should have been changed after the Offcials review it. There is also no way it should have been a Game Misconduct call. That is the reason for the review, to get the call correct. I think they failed big time on this one. Just you typical Minnesota team. Get you excited for the playoffs only to let you down in the first round. I sure hope they can win the next 2 games and change that.

I don’t think Ottinger has been a hot goalie, his numbers say average (although last nights game helped those numbers alot)

until last nights cluster F, the Wild have been scoring on him just fine (for the playoffs) and that’s not including much help from the PP…