2022 MN WILD/NHL THREAD

Ripjiggen wrote:

Huh? Ek was 6 of 11 for 64 percent.
Hartman was 1 for 8.

Ek was 45 percent his lone other game.
Team was 41 percent that game.

Joe we all know you not a fanboy of EK😂

I was distracted with company most of the game, I must have caught all 5 losses and none of the wins…all of the losses were clean, including the 1st pp draw he lost clean resulting in 20 seconds of lost pp time. That being said, I think Ek on the 1st line could work as he does drive the net alot resulting in more o-zone space for Zuc and Kap. I sure hope they have Koivu work with our centers on draws…

If Fiala can get a line mate or two look out. His center has been meh so far and his wings have been non existent.

Ripjiggen wrote:

Huh? Ek was 6 of 11 for 64 percent.

11 of 17… don’t sell him short. If face-offs are the only part of JEEKs game Joe can pick apart then I think we’ll all be very happy this season.

^^^ha apparently I can’t read.

tswoboda wrote:

11 of 17… don’t sell him short. If face-offs are the only part of JEEKs game Joe can pick apart then I think we’ll all be very happy this season.

if mostly dirty goals are expected out of Ek, I think he can be successful on that line, but don’t expect him to be involved in many tic-tac-toe plays with Zuc & Kap, kinda hard to swallow paying a guy $5+ to basically be interference and open up space for the offense creators. There was a chance last night where Kap put it right on Ek’s tape in the slot and he whiffed on it…

The faceoffs are a big concern (not just with Ek). You’ll start to see frustration in Kaprizov if he’s spending 1/2 of every shift just chasing down the puck to get possession back, especially on the powerplay. The good thing is that faceoffs are teachable, its just surprising they’ve been so bad for so long…

My favorite thing from last night’s game was the on ice microphone perfectly picked up some fan who yelled “Rask you Suck!” when he failed to give Fiala a breakaway pass… I lol’d

JoeMX1825 wrote:

My favorite thing from last night’s game was the on ice microphone perfectly picked up some fan who yelled “Rask you Suck!” when he failed to give Fiala a breakaway pass… I lol’d

Man that was funny. I laughed out loud when I heard that.

Apparently Fiala was unable to lose that snake that keeps biting him during this off season. He could easily have had two goals last night but Kuemper treated him like Fluery did during the playoffs last year.

KK and Zuccarello were men among boys last night. But in honesty boys are what comprised the majority of Colorado’s line up last night and imo they made a good showing of themselves against a veteran Wild line up. Colorado looks like they are going to be solid well into the future. Greenway is Greenway. He gets a come to Jesus meeting with the staff and he comes out playing like he should. For how long before he lapses back is anyone’s guess but lapse he will.

Might not be fair but Russo made the point the Wild may choose to not play Rossi for more than nine NHL games this year in order to slide his contract one more year to get past the dead cap space years as they are expecting to have to pay him big $$. I’m sure this won’t sit well with Rossi or fans but as they say it’s a business and another consequence of the buy outs.

I think that will all be determined by Rossi and how he plays. I think most Wild fans deep down figured he would have to start the season in Iowa just to get used to the pro game speed (vs Junior) and get his body used to taking a beating playing games every 2-3 nights..

IF he absolutely lights it up in Iowa, then GMBG will have no choice but to promote him to the NHL, not doing so would cause just as much harm as would starting him in the NHL when he’s clearly not ready…

The cap and contracts take care of themselves, yes there are the impending dead cap hits, but this team also has alot of capspace freeing up in 2-3 years (Dumba,Zuccarello,Foligno,Hartman,Talbot = over $21 million – some of them might be re-signed, but they are all getting up in age) so there will be money available, especially if they can’t sign Fiala long term and are forced to trade him for picks & prospects. They also setup their D corp to be relatively cheap (Spurgeon & Brodin being the foundation with Addison on his bridge deal) in 2 years with their heavy investment in top D picks the past 2 drafts that will likely be ready to join the team in 1-3 years all on their 3 year rookie deals…

Ice Cap wrote:

Greenway is Greenway. He gets a come to Jesus meeting with the staff and he comes out playing like he should. For how long before he lapses back is anyone’s guess but lapse he will.

Apparently Greenway didnt have any conversations with coaches after that poor game. He motivated himself to come out and it showed. Aside from KK, Zuc and Fiala he was one of the best players out there. The D actually looked pretty decent and Dumba had some howitzers sheesh.
Avs played mostly young kids which is fine.
Regarding Rossi, I was wondering if that would come into play. I agree with Joe. Its in Marco’s hands. If he blows it up in Iowa and the centers on the big club are struggling he will force the hand. The way that kid works no one should be surprised with anything. It would be nice to see him with some talent however. It was fun watching him and Boldy in the Hawks game.

JoeMX1825 wrote:

if mostly dirty goals are expected out of Ek, I think he can be successful on that line, but don’t expect him to be involved in many tic-tac-toe plays with Zuc & Kap, kinda hard to swallow paying a guy $5+ to basically be interference and open up space for the offense creators. There was a chance last night where Kap put it right on Ek’s tape in the slot and he whiffed on it…
My favorite thing from last night’s game was the on ice microphone perfectly picked up some fan who yelled “Rask you Suck!” when he failed to give Fiala a breakaway pass… I lol’d

I dont think anyone expects Ek to stay with those two far into the future. We are looking for a prospect to emerge as a true 1C or some other roster moves to be made to get a more skilled Center.
Ek needs to be there now because they lack options and Rask isnt one. It makes sense for a player like Ek to be between those two skilled guys because he is a menace in front of the net (obvious on Brodin goal) and allows Kaprizov and Zucc space to make plays and he just disrupts in front of the net. Rask couldnt do that for them last year.
That Rask chant was absolutely hilarious.

Wild claimed Rem Pitlick off waivers from Nashville, this is actually a really good free pickup worth mentioning, young center with a track record of good offensive upside! (former gopher) I was reading a Nashville Predators website and they were really hoping he would have slipped through waivers. GMBG either has a plan to have him make the team or it’s a strategic timing move to see if other teams fill their roster holes with other claims and then the Wild could sneak him through to Iowa?

oh and Khusnutdinov scored again today

JoeMX1825 wrote:

oh and Khusnutdinov scored again today

He had a great chance early on in the game too, but it handcuffed him. I follow the official Russian Team Twitter account and the English version and the translation on the English one is hilarious.
I was surprised at how good the broadcast streamed last night. I dont have the fastest of internet (2 options available) and the video and sound quality was very good. I dont have trouble streaming other things, just thought the game might be laggy.
Dom consonant did a nice Wild season projection on the Wild yesterday for the Athletic and he has them at nearly an 80% lock for the playoffs. I really like his stuff but much of his analytics stuff goes over my head, but he didnt use much of that in this piece, at least in sharing in his predictions.

JoeMX1825 wrote:

oh and Khusnutdinov scored again today

You buried the lead. He scored from behind the goal line!

Wild claimed former Golden Gopher, Rem Pitlick today from Nashville. Meh

AnotherFisherman wrote:

Wild claimed former Golden Gopher, Rem Pitlick today from Nashville. Meh

Joe beat me by a mile. oops

JoeMX1825 wrote:

I was reading a Nashville Predators website and they were really hoping he would have slipped through waivers. GMBG either has a plan to have him make the team or it’s a strategic timing move to see if other teams fill their roster holes with other claims and then the Wild could sneak him through to Iowa?

I read the same article on the Preds site. Sounded like he was having a solid preseason too. AND HE’S A CENTER!

Sounds like he’ll start with the big club according to another article on it because he would have to clear waivers again for the Wild to send him down.

I think the contract scenario with Rossi definitely has some solid reasoning behind it. Everyone already said it’s almost impossible to make the jump from juniors to the NHL at center. He currently has almost zero chance of making the team out of camp IMO. He is not even skating with the NHL guys currently. Wouldn’t shock me at all that he stays in Iowa outside of his 9 game experience. Doubt Russo is just throwing it out there if he has not heard from someone on this plan.

Ek will be just fine on that line. Plays a 200ft game so his wings don’t have to.

Hartman is the guy I would be worried about in the face off circle. He gets worked. Which puts our shutdown line in shut down mode out of the gate.

As of now I think Duhaime and Beckmen have a better chance than Boldy and Rossi making the club out of camp.

Fiala has to be thinking can someone find me anyone worth a damn to play with. Please.

If Beckman does well these last few games I think he might get picked over Boldy… Boldy hasn’t looked comfortable at all this preseason (most rookies don’t)

AnotherFisherman wrote:

<div class=”d4p-bbt-quote-title”>AnotherFisherman wrote:</div>
Wild claimed former Golden Gopher, Rem Pitlick today from Nashville. Meh

Joe beat me by a mile. oops

Why do we always have to bring in guys because they have Minnesota ties? It just seems we always are bringing in guys like this and they never pan out.

KP wrote:

Why do we always have to bring in guys because they have Minnesota ties? It just seems we always are bringing in guys like this and they never pan out.

He’s absolutely worth the waiver claim, irregardless of his MN ties, young center with a pedigree of scoring at every level he’s played at, had a cup of coffee in the NHL sofar…

Because it’s easier to scout people in your back yard than around the whole globe. Guessing we have several people who have seen him play since pee wee and know how many hairs are on his head.

Would you prefer they pick up some guy you never heard of out of Wyoming.

Also doesn’t hurt that they have the money right now to do so. Lots of teams that don’t have that option without moving other pieces.

It’s a waiver player not like star players go through waivers. Smart easy move for nothing.

I hope he succeeds because we need it badly but all I’m saying this seems to be a trend that doesn’t normally work out.

Most waiver claims don’t hence the reason they were in waivers in the first place.

If it keeps Rask off the ice even in the short term I am good with that.

most times waivers aren’t worth it as its another teams unusable player, but other times teams have too much depth and are forced to role the dice when they send players to the minors, I THINK this is one of those cases…it’s a worthy risk for a 24 year old Center who knows how to score goals…

JoeMX1825 wrote:

most times waivers aren’t worth it as its another teams unusable player, but other times teams have too much depth and are forced to role the dice when they send players to the minors, I THINK this is one of those cases…it’s a worthy risk for a 24 year old Center who knows how to score goals…

That is exactly what the Nashville writers said. They had a logjam of forwards and they weren’t too happy about losing Pitlick.

Pitlick is not some cast off. He’s not a 1C by any stretch but this kid can play. Didn’t he have 8 goals in like 11 games? This was a calculated move by the preds and the wild took advantage.

In the AHL yes. He has no NHL goals in 11 games I believe. Sure seams like Rask spot is shrinking by the day…

CaptainMusky wrote:

Pitlick is not some cast off. He’s not a 1C by any stretch but this kid can play. Didn’t he have 8 goals in like 11 games? This was a calculated move by the preds and the wild took advantage.

His numbers have been really really good wherever he’s played at… he had 20 goals in his first AHL season and then 8 in 8 games next year in the covid shortened mini season…

Ripjiggen wrote:

In the AHL yes. He has no NHL goals in 11 games I believe. Sure seams like Rask spot is shrinking by the day…

We (and the guy who yelled last night) can only hope……