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

I didn’t realize that the Europeans brought to the NHL how feet and hands work independently of each other. Who knew, said no one whoever played before.

icex wrote:

Fiala with a filthy back hander last night.

Came here to post the same highlight

Kevin might have really turned the Kings into last years Wild. They went from having great D and goaltending and not being able to score goals to having terrible goaltending and just outscoring teams.

And even with that magical season last year they still got bounced in the first round

He’s Paul Fenton’s get out of jail free card from a talent evaluator standpoint… Remember the Kings had the best prospect pool in hockey for like 3 years in a row, those players are now mostly in the NHL or on the cusp and they are reaping the forward talent rewards…but as you mentioned they never paid much attention to the goalie position and now that Quick isn’t very quick anymore, so their next move is to overpay for an established goalie…it will be interesting to see how they navigate all of their young talent when their ELC’s start expiring although Kopitar’s $10 million comes off in 2 years so that will fix alot of cap issues…4 more years of Doughty at $11aav could get ugly…

AK Guy wrote:

I didn’t realize that the Europeans brought to the NHL how feet and hands work independently of each other. Who knew, said no one whoever played before.

LOL we can rag on our homer announcers like LaPanta, but that was just flat our ridiculous PxP. LOL Nice move by Fiala, but hardly that ridiculous.

CaptainMusky wrote:

LOL we can rag on our homer announcers like LaPanta, but that was just flat our ridiculous PxP. LOL Nice move by Fiala, but hardly that ridiculous.

That was the color guy and I bet Wes was taking notes haha could you imagine. Realistically Walz would criticize the play and say he should have dumped it to start the forecheck.

lindyrig79 wrote:

And even with that magical season last year they still got bounced in the first round

So sensitive

JoeMX1825 wrote:

Remember the Kings had the best prospect pool in hockey for like 3 years in a row, those players are now mostly in the NHL or on the cusp and they are reaping the forward talent rewards

Yeah not so much, only 2 of those prized prospects are truly contributing and they’re middle 6 forwards. They have a couple young D contributing that were never considered part of that elite prospect pool. The rest of their #1 ranked prospect pool is in the AHL, including top 5 picks Byfield and Turcotte. It’s the cautionary tale for Wild fans.

tswoboda wrote:

That was the color guy and I bet Wes was taking notes haha could you imagine. Realistically Walz would criticize the play and say he should have dumped it to start the forecheck.

I used to really like Walz, now he just irritates me. Not sure what changed him or me, but I would much rather have Carter in there.

tswoboda wrote:

<div class=”d4p-bbt-quote-title”>JoeMX1825 wrote:</div>
Remember the Kings had the best prospect pool in hockey for like 3 years in a row, those players are now mostly in the NHL or on the cusp and they are reaping the forward talent rewards

Yeah not so much, only 2 of those prized prospects are truly contributing and they’re middle 6 forwards. They have a couple young D contributing that were never considered part of that elite prospect pool. The rest of their #1 ranked prospect pool is in the AHL, including top 5 picks Byfield and Turcotte. It’s the cautionary tale for Wild fans.

Was going to say the exact same thing.

There goal diff is a -7. If they don’t figure something out that ain’t going to work in playoffs.

CaptainMusky wrote:

<div class=”d4p-bbt-quote-title”>tswoboda wrote:</div>
That was the color guy and I bet Wes was taking notes haha could you imagine. Realistically Walz would criticize the play and say he should have dumped it to start the forecheck.

I used to really like Walz, now he just irritates me. Not sure what changed him or me, but I would much rather have Carter in there.

Me too. He talks too much and references too many players and coaches when he played. I threaten to do shots whenever he brings up Jacques LeMaire…

Oh give me Ryan Carter all day. That guys is a beauty.

Ripjiggen wrote:

Oh give me Ryan Carter all day. That guys is a beauty.

Straight up! From the busted up nose to the classic mullet.

Walz describing a strong solid board effort by Matt Boldy trying to clear the d zone at our blue line. “Look at him, he’s like a big strong Alberta farm boy”.

The guy just cant shut up about Canada and “back in MY day”. Oh back in your day when your era turned a hockey team into the most boring product in sports?

Wes, “the Wild just ran into a hot goalie tonight”. When the opponent is playing their third string keep? really? every game? The Wild hit an amazing goalie effort? ITs like Groundhog day with Wes and Ballys. Sme thing new day.

Wes actually gets enamored with Dump ins. Someone needs to make a GIf of Wes staring down longingly at the toilet bowl saying I remember one of those from back in MY day.” Looooong sigh.

The biggest problem to me with FOX/BALLY etc… is the stagnant typical Minnesotan script they have been following for years. Carter breaks that script.

Another gif, Wes and Leah Hextall sitting in the booth staring longingly at a Pitch fork (as in tonal pitch fork).

Remember Greenlay? Man, did fans have a love/hate (mostly hate) relationship with him.
The one Walzism that gets me so irritated is “Listen”. LaPanta and his “mist of change” too grind my gears every time.

I can’t stand his friggin stopwatch shift stats he goes on and on about…his constant interruption of LaPanta…

but at least we no longer have Greenlay “Chuckles”….

I don’t get too fired up about the PxP or color analysts but I think Lapanta overall does a good job. I’ve been on the Carter bandwagon since he started, even when he would just trail off a topic right in the middle of making his point. Vegas PxP guy is my favorite of the local guys.

Next game take a drink every time Lapanta says “center” as in “Boldy centers it” or “Spurgeon tries to center”. It’s his comfort phrase

Geez, tough crowd. Maybe they should go back to Gigi Marvin?

tswoboda wrote:

Next game take a drink every time Lapanta says “center” as in “Boldy centers it” or “Spurgeon tries to center”. It’s his comfort phrase

Sounds like I would be drunk before the 2nd period would start if I did that haha

I’d take Greenlay over Walz any day. Carter would be at the top for me but lately he’s really having a hard time spitting words out. I like that he doesn’t give a rip and just says whatever he wants though.

Peter Forsberg on Chicklets new podcast by the way. Good one.

AK Guy wrote:

I didn’t realize that the Europeans brought to the NHL how feet and hands work independently of each other. Who knew, said no one whoever played before.

I thought that was a odd thing to say too. But our guys talk about KK’s 10 and 2 skating like he’s the first and only one who can do it. Parrish really goes off on that as does Walz. I agree Walz has worn thin on me as well as I started out really liking him and even thought he should have been considered a coach but I think he would just pi$$ everyone off after about a week!

icex wrote:

I agree Walz has worn thin on me as well as I started out really liking him and even thought he should have been considered a coach but I think he would just pi$$ everyone off after about a week!

Walz was an assistant coach for the Lightning and got fired mid-season

Walz was a coach at East Ridge, they were terrible with good talent. My kid played for another high school. During a JV game he was screaming at the officials from outside the bench. A parent from the opposing Team told yelled to him to grow up. I watched him run to get into a fight with the parent. Several parents got between them but no one was holding the other guy back.

Great story on Evason and his time in the WHL in the Athletic if you have a sub. It’s a great read.

Last post at 6pm last night? You guys all doing alright? Maybe too busy shoveling? I thought I’d see some commentary about last nights game. Anyways, It was good to wake up and see they got it done last night. 6 in a row!!

IceNEyes1986 wrote:

Last post at 6pm last night? You guys all doing alright? Maybe too busy shoveling? I thought I’d see some commentary about last nights game. Anyways, It was good to wake up and see they got it done last night. 6 in a row!!

As well they should. The Wild have been catching some bottom feeder teams on back to backs while the Wild have had a couple days off. They need to rack these points up to stay in the mix. Tables are turned tonight with the Wild on back to back and the Sharks coming off a day off. Sharks aren’t much better than the Ducks so the Wild should be coming away with another two.

9:30 start tonight ugh, I hate these west coast swings!

I’m glad Hartman got the empty net goal to give him some confidence, because he was having a terrible game the first 58 minutes (understandible after missing so much time with the injury) He couldn’t make a simple pass if his life depended on it and the puck was flying off his stick when he was passed to. When he gets his timing back it will be interesting to see what Ryan Hartman shows up? The one who scored 30+ goals last year or the one who was terrible the first 15 games or so before he got hurt…

Flower made some unreal saves that kept the Wild in it until they pulled away in the 3rd…Hopefully they don’t look past the Sharks tonight and go into the holiday break as the hottest team in the NHL…

Lastly, the 4th line was awesome again last night, it will be interesting to see what Deano does when Duhaime comes back…Reaves (+1 with an assist last night) is playing well and warrants staying in the lineup…not bad for a defensive liability and the worst player in the NHL….

Bad night for the double K. A horrible Dumba like turnover resulting in a goal and held off the score sheet against one of the worst teams in the league running out their beer league goal tender. Everyone has a off night of course. I don’t think we know who the real Wild are yet.

icex wrote:

Bad night for the double K. A horrible Dumba like turnover resulting in a goal and held off the score sheet against one of the worst teams in the league running out their beer league goal tender. Everyone has an off night of course. I don’t think we know who the real Wild are yet.

We didn’t know who they were last year either. Until the first round.

Cmon now Reaves assist was the puck hitting his skate because he was standing there unaware. Dewar picked it up and threw it on net from the blue line.
I will admit Reaves has been fine as a fourth line grinder. But he is absolutely the guy that should be getting healthy scratches when Duhaime is back.

No way you can scratch Dewar or Shaw. Way to valuable on a much improved PK.

Who else would you suggest to sit in the press box?

It is a good problem to have as Duhaime can play up and down the lineup a bit and maybe they give some guys with bumps and bruises a night off here and there till someone else is out with an injury. Knock on wood.