2022 MN WILD/NHL THREAD

Charlie W wrote:

Those old goons would not have been able to catch most of today’s speed guys.

This feels relevant right now

tswoboda wrote:

<div class=”d4p-bbt-quote-title”>Charlie W wrote:</div>
Those old goons would not have been able to catch most of today’s speed guys.

This feels relevant right now

Haha assuming you mean how they’re skating around us like we’re the goons from 40 years ago – then yes. Luckily, in our defense, this Avs team is one of the best and most complete teams in terms of size and speed in NHL history.

Or did you mean the speed and quickness from both the wild and avs in this game would crush a bunch of goons?

Somehow we’re still ahead after 2. Broke their 7 game 21 consecutive penalty kill streak on top of it!!

Dumba just laid the wood on Rantaan. Then backed it up with fighting Mackinnon. He may not be the most skilled defenseman, but we need guys like that on the team. I like his attitude!

Jost just got worked over on a set faceoff play he likely practiced with Colorado all year…

Unreal game! How doesn’t GMBG move heaven and earth to re-sign Fiala?

They just never quit!

JoeMX1825 wrote:

Unreal game! How doesn’t GMBG move heaven and earth to re-sign Fiala?

My wife will be heartbroken if he’s gone. Nice statement game for the Wild.

this Avs team is one of the best and most complete teams in terms of size and speed in NHL history.

In history…That’s a stretch.

JoeMX1825 wrote:

Unreal game! How doesn’t GMBG move heaven and earth to re-sign Fiala?

He doesn’t. Sorry

Jost just got worked over on a set faceoff play he likely practiced with Colorado all year…

Not sure practicing face offs in Colorado is any better than MN.

Hey they won the faceoff battle what more do you want.😂

JoeMX1825 wrote:

Unreal game! How doesn’t GMBG move heaven and earth to re-sign Fiala?

Right. BG made his mind up awhile ago on Fiala. With the extensions and signings he’s done keeping Fiala just is not in the cards. Imo the Wild will suffer for it and KK will feel the repercussions more than anyone else on the team. But we can look forward to having Dumba around for the next few years.

Man has Boldy gone stone cold or what?

It’s not as if it is Dumba or Fiala contract. One is going to be much more than the other.

KK will be just fine.

The vibes around this team and season are off the charts. I never love Deano more than when he goes with the 4F 0D powerplay. It’s amazing what good goaltending can do, this was a 6-2 game a month ago.

Give dumba credit on that fight. He’s been challenged and turned it down after big hits at least a dozen times this season. Smart move to take Mackinnon off the ice, even though it backfired and they got 2 with him in the box.

tswoboda wrote:

Give dumba credit on that fight. He’s been challenged and turned it down after big hits at least a dozen times this season. Smart move to take Mackinnon off the ice, even though it backfired and they got 2 with him in the box.

Exactly what I was thinking. Dumba knew EXACTLY what he was doing dropping the gloves with Mackinnon. Dumb move by Mackinnon and Dumba took advantage and took him off the ice for 5 key minutes in the 3rd. There’s never a bad time to take Mackinnon off the ice.

The Wild have to be careful as we saw tonight, nice to have all this new beef in the middle, but you can’t goon-squad it too much because suddenly the NHL found the rule book and determined that crosschecking is actually a penalty now. Getting put in the box was the reason we ended up tied.

Ryan Hartman is having a stealth career year, he’s just flying along with 25 goals and nobody in the league notices because of who he’s on a line with and that’s probably fine with him. What an effort that guy puts in, nice to see him rewarded.

tswoboda wrote:

I never love Deano more than when he goes with the 4F 0D powerplay

It’s funny, in his post game presser he said his assistant coaches insisted on going 4 forwards in OT, he wasn’t too sure about it, but trusted his coaches, 15 seconds later Fiala scores…

If there’s a penalty in OT, I think they should be playing 3 on 2. Not 4 on 3. That would really make for an entertaining open ice OT.

JoeMX1825 wrote:

It’s funny, in his post game presser he said his assistant coaches insisted on going 4 forwards in OT, he wasn’t too sure about it, but trusted his coaches, 15 seconds later Fiala scores…

Yeah it was Maclean’s call. It’s not the first time they’ve done it though, I believe it’s actually the 3rd time and they’ve scored every single time. Once was even in the first period of a game. Funny, I remember bringing the 4F/0D up last fall when the Leafs and Jets started doing it and getting sh!t on for it.

The next thing I’d love to see: Federov style OT – pull the goalie
**for the record, I think that’s a terrible idea and will never happen in the NHL because the team doesn’t get the loser point for an OTL if the goalie is pulled.

Dumba got rag dolled by McKinnon. That was pretty embarrassing.

Huge win and great game. Can stole us that one but the D was as good as I’ve seen it in a long time.

TheFamousGrouse wrote:

the NHL found the rule book and determined that crosschecking is actually a penalty now.

They call a few more of them now but not many. Guys on the ice in front of their offensive goal are almost always crosschecked.

Netguy wrote:

<div class=”d4p-bbt-quote-title”>TheFamousGrouse wrote:</div>
the NHL found the rule book and determined that crosschecking is actually a penalty now.

They call a few more of them now but not many. Guys on the ice in front of their offensive goal are almost always crosschecked.

That was a point of emphasis going into this season. I think it’s a black and white change even just from last year, crosschecking is down tenfold. Who remembers Doughty and Burns and every Vegas Dman non stop hammering on KK’s kidneys last season? That’s not happening this year.

mahtofire14 wrote:

Dumba got rag dolled by McKinnon. That was pretty embarrassing.

We get it, you don’t like Dumba. There’s a reason he turns down fights every other game. He knows he’s a bad fighter but took one for the team to get Mack off the ice in a 1-goal game.

mahtofire14 wrote:

Huge win and great game. Can stole us that one but the D was as good as I’ve seen it in a long time.

100% No doubt the team defended great. They were just defending way too much! Shots were way uneven and Colorado dominated possession time but never really got to the net. Scoring chances were 50/50 and high danger chances were way in favor of the Wild.

Wild won the face off stat and goal column.

Nothing cheaper than hitting a guy during a celly and cross-check into the net is the cherry on top. That would be a penalty if it happened during game time, but somehow isn’t after the whistle? Should be a sussy for Toews or at minimum the 5K max blah blah blah.

wormdunker wrote:

Wild won the face off stat and goal column.

we must win 80% of the neutral zone draws to skeew that stat then because we lose a vast majority of our Defensive and Offensive zone draws…2 of those losses directly led to both of the Avs goals…

The Avs ran the faceoff play perfectly when Kadri scored, but Jost should have instantly known it was coming…he made the pick player’s job super easy…

The Avalanche are just as terrible on the dot as the wild. Mac is 45.5 percent slightly below his 45.9 career.
Yet they will win the presidents trophy with a 47% winning percentage. The exact same as the wild. Yet people harp on it.

Ripjiggen wrote:

<div class=”d4p-bbt-quote-title”>JoeMX1825 wrote:</div>
Unreal game! How doesn’t GMBG move heaven and earth to re-sign Fiala?

He doesn’t. Sorry

Yeah, I’ve come to accept that now…

looking at this likely reality there’s good that can come from it, this likely means the Wild has enough cap to re-sign Fleury to a 1-2 year extension and bridge the gap to Wallstedt, Talbot is still signed at a reasonable rate next year or they could pententially save $2+ by trading him away and signing a cheap Vet as the backup.

I think Jost will be dealt before the draft for a pick return better than what Sturm could have got us, Jost could be replaced by the minimum salaries of Dewar or Gaudreau and bring a very modest $ savings… Ben Meyers could factor in too if the Wild can sign him..

The open D spots from not re-signing Gologoski and trading Kulikov could be filled with Middleton/Addison at likely significant savings (Addison still on elc and Middleton getting a decent raise over his $725k base)

Lowcost UFA’s could also fill those lineup gaps if needed…I don’t see any Iowa players outside of Beckman and Addison who could factor in the Wild next year…

Dumba’s expiring contract next year opens the checkbook to re-sign Boldy to a 2-3 bridge deal as soon as they can (January 1st 2023?) to avoid any Offer Sheet worries…

Possible 2022-2023 Wild Lineup:

1st line = Kaprizov – Hartman/Rossi – Zuccarello
2nd line = Boldy – Rossi/Hartman – Beckman/UFA signed
3rd line = Foligno – Ek – Greenway
4th line = Duhaime – Gaudreau – Delaurias/Dewer/UFA signed

1st pair = Brodin – Dumba
2nd pair = Spurgeon – Middleton
3rd pair = Merrill – Addison/UFA signed

Starter = Fleury or Talbot
Backup = Talbot or UFA signed

Ripjiggen wrote:

The Avalanche are just as terrible on the dot as the wild. Mac is 45.5 percent slightly below his 45.9 career.
Yet they will win the presidents trophy with a 47% winning percentage. The exact same as the wild. Yet people harp on it.

Landeskog takes over 40% of that lines draws and he’s at 55%, I don’t know this for sure, but I’d guess their line has MacKinnon taking the neutral zone draws and then Landeskog takes the majority of O & D zone draws…Kadri (their main pp/pk faceoff guy by far) & Compher are at 50%, Newhook is absolutely terrible at 34% and drags thier overall % down alot… another aspect of the Avs terrible faceoff % vs them winning is that even when the MacKinnon line loses the draw, they are so tenacious that they quickly get it back and then maintain puck possesion like no other line in the NHL…

Like Joe points out both of Colorado’s goals come off of set plays winning the face offs last night. Nobody is going to win them all but good things can happen when you do win them. It’s just another facet of the game that is nice to be on the plus side of. Especially when you have forwards who can shoot the puck like Colorado and the Wild.

Pens drop 11 on the Wings last night! Wow!

My faceoff arguments have ALWAYS been about the lack of strategy shown by the Wild center’s, of course not all center’s are Bergeron or Giroux, but we need our main guy to be over 50% and my frustration with Ek is that he appears to have no plan on the draws (other than his strong side pull back which is the standard for all centers)
He’s at 46.7% this year which is only 1% better than he’s been the previous 4 seasons, how has he not improved more in 4 years? It’s just not acceptable when it’s part of your toolbox as a center…

I’m focusing on Ek here because he’s by far our main faceoff guy, the argument applies to all of our centers though…

watching the 10 minute recap of last night’s game a few observations, Talbot stole those 2 points, Keumper played really well too! Kaprizov creates offense everytime he’s on the ice, he setup 4-5 golden chances we didn’t score on, his overtime dish to Ek that setup the goal was sick…Kulikov played a really good game too! generated lots of offense himself! Toews should have paid a bigger price for the cheaphot cross-check to the ribs of Kaprizov after he scored…

JoeMX1825 wrote:

Toews should have paid a bigger price for the cheaphot cross-check to the ribs of Kaprizov after he scored…

Agreed. If anyone but that 1st PP group was on the ice when it happened I think there would have been a lot more fireworks. I noticed Greenway and Foligno hunting Toews on the forecheck in the 3rd, but there’s only so much they can do without taking a bad penalty in a close game. Toews knew what was coming and wanted no part of it.

I think Bednar is an idiot for how much he’s playing their big guns. Toews and Makar were at 28-29 minutes last night, both top 10 in the league in ice time per game. Their first line is all top 10 amongst forwards. Why beat the horses when then only thing they’re chasing is a President’s trophy?