2022 MN WILD/NHL THREAD

Ripjiggen wrote:

^^^Those people were dumb.

We should go back and provide the receipts!

CaptainMusky wrote:

Of course it does, but remember when people were saying here that they just didnt see superstar in him? So far this season he has shown it for sure. He is going to shatter all the team season records. Exciting times.

“HeS hOlDiNg ThE fRaNcHiSe HoStAgE”

CaptainMusky wrote:

We should go back and provide the receipts!

I said anyone who used that line doesn’t get to cheer for him.

tswoboda wrote:

I said anyone who used that line doesn’t get to cheer for him.

I remember that! LOL

JoeMX1825 wrote:

I’m having a hard time figuring out why Dumba even deserves that salary?

That’s because he doesn’t. He’s a below average defensemen and his offensive skills have diminished so extensively that he can’t even find a guy to pass the puck to, panics, and then coughs up the puck. I wouldn’t pay him $4 million a year. With the addition of Middleton I think you can move on from Dumba this offseason and add someone that can fill some of the offensive void left from losing Fiala if that unfortunately happens.

mahtofire14 wrote:

JoeMX1825 wrote:
I’m having a hard time figuring out why Dumba even deserves that salary?

That’s because he doesn’t.

But does Billy G think he’s worth that money? I think it’s pretty obvious the team loves Dumba and wants to keep him around.

Trust me, I would love for them to move Dumba. I’m a Fiala apologist and president of the Addison Fan Club. The 2 guys who would benefit most by Dumba being gone.

Speaking of Fiala, I finally found his perfect drop pass last night

CaptainMusky wrote:

<div class=”d4p-bbt-quote-title”>Ripjiggen wrote:</div>
^^^Those people were dumb.

We should go back and provide the receipts!

You are welcome to check but I know my name was not attached to one.

That was a bad pass.

Ripjiggen wrote:

This is so refreshing from Deslauriers, “Nobody should be standing there”, compared to what we have been used to, Spurgeon et al negotiating with the opponent as they beat our goalies, avoiding eye contact so as not to insight conflict. We have the softest D core in the league, aside from infrequent bomb hits by Dumba. Never any messages sent by our D, opponents allowed to maul our goalie while our D tug on jerseys. It is disgraceful.

That is a bit exaggerated IMHO.

What have you been watching? My description isn’t even close to the unfortunate reality. Forwards coming in are when we got any convincing aggression in front of the net. Watch the most recent Wild game day video on you tube, Spurgeon is even joking with the ref about him going in to a small melee. He said I suppose I should go in there or something to that affect, and laughed.

While I’m not going to hold a 5’7 tall guy’s feet to the flames for not jumping into melees, I do agree our d rarely moves guys from in front of the net and rarely sends a message like almost every other team does when a player is crowding the goalie (Parise getting the crap kicked out of him after every whistle comes to mind). I think Middleton is going to be a huge help in this regard too from watching his highlights.

Don’t think our goalies are getting mauled, and don’t think net front presence is all on d men.
Sorry but this isn’t the 70’s NHL either.
Don’t think Cale Makar and Sam Girard are exactly tossing bodies around in front of the Avs net.

I mean we can go and get 6 Jamie Benn like players so they can get skated around like cones but should be able to clear the front of the net with a handful of cross checks and send some messages.

I am the first one to say this is one of the reasons Addison can’t play in our top 4 and probably isn’t a great fit in MN, but you make it sound like our goalies get blown up night in and night out.

wormdunker wrote:

What have you been watching? My description isn’t even close to the unfortunate reality.

Please provide a reference to a specific game in which our goalie was “getting mauled”.

Ripjiggen wrote:

Don’t think our goalies are getting mauled, and don’t think net front presence is all on d men.
Sorry but this isn’t the 70’s NHL either.
Don’t think Cale Makar and Sam Girard are exactly tossing bodies around in front of the Avs net.

I mean we can go and get 6 Jamie Benn like players so they can get skated around like cones but should be able to clear the front of the net with a handful of cross checks and send some messages.

I am the first one to say this is one of the reasons Addison can’t play in our top 4 and probably isn’t a great fit in MN, but you make it sound like our goalies get blown up night in and night out.

Not mauled but most games our guys let forwards sit right in front of the net without any kind of cost. No deterrent for them to be there. That’s not ok.

mahtofire14 wrote:

<div class=”d4p-bbt-quote-title”>Ripjiggen wrote:</div>
Don’t think our goalies are getting mauled, and don’t think net front presence is all on d men.
Sorry but this isn’t the 70’s NHL either.
Don’t think Cale Makar and Sam Girard are exactly tossing bodies around in front of the Avs net.

I mean we can go and get 6 Jamie Benn like players so they can get skated around like cones but should be able to clear the front of the net with a handful of cross checks and send some messages.

I am the first one to say this is one of the reasons Addison can’t play in our top 4 and probably isn’t a great fit in MN, but you make it sound like our goalies get blown up night in and night out.

Not mauled but most games our guys let forwards sit right in front of the net without any kind of cost. No deterrent for them to be there. That’s not ok.

So exaggerated like I stated.

mahtofire14 wrote:

<div class=”d4p-bbt-quote-title”>Ripjiggen wrote:</div>
Don’t think our goalies are getting mauled, and don’t think net front presence is all on d men.
Sorry but this isn’t the 70’s NHL either.
Don’t think Cale Makar and Sam Girard are exactly tossing bodies around in front of the Avs net.

I mean we can go and get 6 Jamie Benn like players so they can get skated around like cones but should be able to clear the front of the net with a handful of cross checks and send some messages.

I am the first one to say this is one of the reasons Addison can’t play in our top 4 and probably isn’t a great fit in MN, but you make it sound like our goalies get blown up night in and night out.

Not mauled but most games our guys let forwards sit right in front of the net without any kind of cost. No deterrent for them to be there. That’s not ok.

Trying to clear guys out from the goalie can have unintended consequences of screening your goalie.
Not sure if this is a coaching decision or not.

Ripjiggen wrote:

So exaggerated like I stated.

I didn’t really read his whole post so maybe it was?

If you want examples, watch the Calgary games. Guys like Lucic, Tkachuk, Taffoli, Mangiapane going hard, “falling” or “tripping” into our goalie but never stopping short of the crease, always hangin over top of our goalie inside our d men. Our guys hug them, grab shirts. No face wash, headlocks pulling them off.

On the other end against top teams, our forwards go to the net hard but get abused by Zaodorov, Gudbranson, Hanafin, Tanev. Against Boston Charlie Mcavoy was getting after our guys in front, he got hammered too but he didnt let guys get away with touching their goalie.

Vs Colorado we have the puck so infrequently how would we know how their d would treat our forwards.

It gets worse in the playoffs. Don’t get me wrong, there is nothing wrong with going to the net and getting into a goalies head but the Wild have not been able to do anything about it because our d are finesses guys.

Kulikov – Not physical at all. Plays a finesse game.
Merril – Nice stache,nicer guy, haven’t seen him hit a player this year.
Spurgy – “work hard and have fun” F no Spurgy, that says it all. but good/great finesse player. Not net front power whatsoever.
Goligoski – do I have to say anything? He leaves the house before a game and his wife says be careful,and he obliges.
Dumba – not as tough since injuries from fighting but he tries.
Brodin – just an awesome D man but is not physically imposing, or physical at all. But an amazing player.
Benn – ok If he could catch someone, he would hit them. but we won’t play teams he can catch players on in the playoffs. When he was in, he did police the net but his lack of speed is a liability.
Addison – I believe he has potential even with his smaller frame, finesse but plays physical.

Charlie McAvoy – not a big guy but he was a PIA on the ice against the Wild. Not big but didn’t let anything happen in front of the Boston net.

The NHL is not the same as hockey in the 70’s? The playoffs are certainly not far off those days with the exception of less fighting. The game is faster and hits are bigger today than the 70s, by a wide margin.

Really looking forward to see both new guys on the ice, there was. reason Billy made these moves. Gonna be a fun run from here out.

So what is good net front D. Not allowing tip and rebound goals? or beating the urine out of the other team after every whistle?

Both. They are getting paid, they need to make life easier on their goalies. But if you question it, why did Billy go get grit?
Beating the snot and making guys accountable to getting at our goalie are 2 different things.

I’ve been saying for a long time our D needs to be tougher. Would love a more physical attitude back there and give opposing forwards something to think about at very least. Part of the reason I didn’t care for Suter either. Hit somebody for fs sake.

wormdunker wrote:

Both. They are getting paid, they need to make life easier on their goalies. But if you question it, why did Billy go get grit?
Beating the snot and making guys accountable to getting at our goalie are 2 different things.

Those two things are NOT synonymous with one another. Sure both would be great, but I’m wondering which is more important. Which one is good net front D?

No question they’re soft in the D-zone scrums and that stuff gets amped up to 100 in the playoffs. I’m just not sure how much it affects the outcome of a game. I’ll admit I’m probably undervaluing how important it is. Billy G obviously thinks it’s important just looking at the guys he picked up. He also swapped out Sturm for Jost, so quite the downsize for the 4th line center. I also think the constant after whistle scrums in the playoffs are one of the dumbest things in the league, and makes the NHL look like a gong show to casual fans. There’s no other legit professional sport where that crap is allowed and considered the norm after every routine whistle. Imagine NFL players all wrestling and grabbing each others helmets after every running play. We’re all just conditioned to thinking that’s normal as a show of toughness.

On to the other side of my question… The Wild give up the least amount of rebound shots and 3rd least rebound goals in the league, and it’s not like Cam and Kaapo are stellar at rebound control. NHL rule changes have moved the game away from the Chris Prongers patrolling the slot cross-checking guys right into wheel chairs. Nowadays you see a lot of D fronting forwards, getting low to block shots, and then taking away sticks when the puck comes. Watch Spurge, it seems to work pretty well at preventing goals. I think it’s fair to call that good net front defense. Maybe it’s not tough, but it prevents goals. And that definitely affects the final score.

I’m just hoping the new guy from the Sharks means far less Merrill on the ice.

tswoboda wrote:

<div class=”d4p-bbt-quote-title”>wormdunker wrote:</div>
Both. They are getting paid, they need to make life easier on their goalies. But if you question it, why did Billy go get grit?
Beating the snot and making guys accountable to getting at our goalie are 2 different things.

Those two things are NOT synonymous with one another. Sure both would be great, but I’m wondering which is more important. Which one is good net front D?

No question they’re soft in the D-zone scrums and that stuff gets amped up to 100 in the playoffs. I’m just not sure how much it affects the outcome of a game. I’ll admit I’m probably undervaluing how important it is. Billy G obviously thinks it’s important just looking at the guys he picked up.

I think you can look to the Wild’s playoff record as an indication. Obviously not 100% of the issues, but every postseason this team gets the snot kicked out of them physically and by game 6 or 7 they can’t compete.

tswoboda wrote:

<div class=”d4p-bbt-quote-title”>wormdunker wrote:</div>
Both. They are getting paid, they need to make life easier on their goalies. But if you question it, why did Billy go get grit?
Beating the snot and making guys accountable to getting at our goalie are 2 different things.

Those two things are NOT synonymous with one another. Sure both would be great, but I’m wondering which is more important. Which one is good net front D?

No question they’re soft in the D-zone scrums and that stuff gets amped up to 100 in the playoffs. I’m just not sure how much it affects the outcome of a game. I’ll admit I’m probably undervaluing how important it is. Billy G obviously thinks it’s important just looking at the guys he picked up. He also swapped out Sturm for Jost, so quite the downsize for the 4th line center. I also think the constant after whistle scrums in the playoffs are one of the dumbest things in the league, and makes the NHL look like a gong show to casual fans. There’s no other legit professional sport where that crap is allowed and considered the norm after every routine whistle. Imagine NFL players all wrestling and grabbing each others helmets after every running play. We’re all just conditioned to thinking that’s normal as a show of toughness.

On to the other side of my question… The Wild give up the least amount of rebound shots and 3rd least rebound goals in the league, and it’s not like Cam and Kaapo are stellar at rebound control. NHL rule changes have moved the game away from the Chris Prongers patrolling the slot cross-checking guys right into wheel chairs. Nowadays you see a lot of D fronting forwards, getting low to block shots, and then taking away sticks when the puck comes. Watch Spurge, it seems to work pretty well at preventing goals. I think it’s fair to call that good net front defense. Maybe it’s not tough, but it prevents goals. And that definitely affects the final score.

While the after whistle scrums are dumb, they exist and a team needs to be formed to deal with it. The Wild have not been in past years thus early exits. Well ok in previous years we haven’t had the offensive weapons we have now. But now that we do, we need heavy grit. Let put it this way, if you knew you could skate around the Ice with only one or two guys to worry about playing physically, would you play more feely? Now if you all of the sudden had a physical player every other shift if not every shift how would you play?

Sturm for Jost is a big change, Sturm, bigger but Jost will prove to be far more effective on the forecheck as F1 and be more productive because he is more agile. in tight spaces. Sturm seemed like a straight away big player that couldn’t get in and out of tight space quickly.

In the playoffs Spurge gets abused and goals go in the net. His fronting all of the sudden is completely in effective because bigger guys push him around. Spurge is a very good regular season player but gets exposed in the playoffs, hoping the new size and grit guys might benefit him too. Opponents will have their heads on a swivel.

Sounds like the NHL is going to nix the Dandanov trade…the next month & half will be interesting from a “Team Doctor’s Note” perspective in terms of clearing LTIR players fit to play… Before this trade got nixed there were lots of rumors & hints from Vegas brass that Martinez and a few other players were very close to returning…

JoeMX1825 wrote:

Sounds like the NHL is going to nix the Dandanov trade…the next month & half will be interesting from a “Team Doctor’s Note” perspective in terms of clearing LTIR players fit to play… Before this trade got nixed there were lots of rumors that Martinez and a few other players were very close to coming off LTIR….

Vegas should be digging the hole to bury this season in and start to figure out how to make the pieces fit during the off season and going into next season. They are a point out of the last wild card slot behind Dallas and Dallas has four games in hand as Vegas has already played 66 games. They are not in a good spot in a lot of different ways.

wormdunker wrote:

While the after whistle scrums are dumb, they exist and a team needs to be formed to deal with it. The Wild have not been in past years thus early exits. Well ok in previous years we haven’t had the offensive weapons we have now. But now that we do, we need heavy grit. Let put it this way, if you knew you could skate around the Ice with only one or two guys to worry about playing physically, would you play more feely? Now if you all of the sudden had a physical player every other shift if not every shift how would you play?

Sturm for Jost is a big change, Sturm, bigger but Jost will prove to be far more effective on the forecheck as F1 and be more productive because he is more agile. in tight spaces. Sturm seemed like a straight away big player that couldn’t get in and out of tight space quickly.

In the playoffs Spurge gets abused and goals go in the net. His fronting all of the sudden is completely in effective because bigger guys push him around. Spurge is a very good regular season player but gets exposed in the playoffs, hoping the new size and grit guys might benefit him too. Opponents will have their heads on a swivel.

Last year was the heaviest playing team I can remember the Wild bringing into the playoffs in the last 10 years. And they still lost because Vegas was better. The only time the Wild has been physically beat down in the playoffs was 2018 against the Jets.

The point about Spurge in the playoffs makes sense. Physicality goes up and he’s less effective at defending. I should re-watch the Calgary game you brought up. They’ve been playing Daryl Sutter hockey all year long, and Sutter hockey is playoff hockey.

I don’t get the Jost take. The reason I brought him up is because it shows Billy G isn’t only going after big guys that play physical. The Jost trade was the exact opposite of that.

Ice Cap wrote:

Vegas should be digging the hole to bury this season in and start to figure out how to make the pieces fit during the off season and going into next season. They are a point out of the last wild card slot behind Dallas and Dallas has four games in hand as Vegas has already played 66 games. They are not in a good spot in a lot of different ways.

I think any rational team would do exactly that and throw this season in the Garbage. Bill Foley, Geroge McPhee, and Kelly McCrimmon are not rational.

Don’t be shocked if Dadonov gets Nancy Kerriganed so they can move him to LTIR.

Middleton-Spurgeon
Brodin-Dumba
Merrill-Goose
Kuli-Benn

completely off Wild topic, but how f’ing impressive have Makar and Josi been this season? (Adam Fox too) We’re talking about Defenseman offensive output not seen in a very very long time!

The Norris trophy race is unbelievably close between these guys!

tswoboda wrote:

Middleton-Spurgeon
Brodin-Dumba
Merrill-Goose
Kuli-Benn

I don’t get why they think Merrill is better than Kulikov? Merrill has been a pylon the last 20 or so games.. Maybe it’s just a rotation plan and Kulikov pulled the short straw first?

Spurgeon Middleton tells a story.

As far as Jost, he is a bit smaller but he plays a very aggressive physical game. I mean he is 5’11” 200lbs give or take so he isn’t a small player. Sturm and Bjugstad are not only identical in appearance and very similar players, linear up and down ice tendency, not very agile in tight spaces. Jost adds the ability to get in and out of corners fast and will be a physical hard working presence on the 3,4 lines but has skill to toss on PP and PK. An example was the escape he performed in the corner against Vegas, dished to Duhaime who fed D-lo for the goal. Sturm would have never made that cut Jost made to gain space to make the pass.

All in all just another great piece added by Billy to diversify the team but add pieces that work together.