2022 MN WILD/NHL THREAD

Don’t look now but Mark Stone is skating and Vegas is placing half their team on LTIR in order to activate him. Wild did them a big favor by beating The Kings.

tswoboda wrote:

Don’t look now but Mark Stone is skating and Vegas is placing half their team on LTIR in order to activate him. Wild did them a big favor by beating The Kings.

Its a christmas miracle!

They made up some ground playing the Kraken, Coyotes and Canucks lately but their schedule gets tougher, I don’t think they make it (fingers crossed)

VGK schedule is tougher than LA down the stretch, but I think Vegas gets in. Stars and Preds are both within reach too and they have tougher schedules. If they pull it off, it makes anything Tampa or Chicago did look like child’s play.

I’d take Dallas’s remaining schedule (7 of 10 home games) and they have 1 game in hand over Vegas. They play Vegas at home on the 26th, that could determine it…

They are still the long shot but are playing well, getting “healthy”, and only need to surpass 1 of those 3 teams. Vegas making the playoffs just feels inevitable.

I’ll go with the Stars in that final playoff spot too. Its really just a moot point though, as whoever draws them will face the heavily-favored Avalanche in round one.

Other than Calgary, no one in the Pacific Division scares me to be honest. The Oilers can score, but they don’t play any defense.

Of the 4 Nashville has the toughest schedule la has the easiest.
Vegas only needs to worry about beating Nashville or Dallas.
If they do that they are in, if they beat LA they are in.
If Nashville makes the playoffs other teams had better pay attention as they will have beat some pretty good teams to do it.

Boldy has 13 for the season since he came up in January. If he plays the whole season with the big club, who has more goals: Boldy or Fiala?

Probably Fiala as would have also benefited from playing with Boldy but there stats are very close Boldy playing almost exactly half the games Fiala has this year.

That keep in effort by Kaprizov on the first pp was insane. If that woulda turned into a goal, he deserved all the credit.

How under appreciated and overlooked is Jimmy? He has to be one of the best defenseman in the league just doesn’t put up gaudy numbers on the offensive side

Brodin is unreal. Love his game.

Freddy freaking hockey btw

Brady Valberg wrote:

How under appreciated and overlooked is Jimmy? He has to be one of the best defenseman in the league just doesn’t put up gaudy numbers on the offensive side

It’s why they really need an official defensive defenseman award…Make the Norris an offensive defenseman award…

CaptainMusky wrote:

Freddy freaking hockey btw

Yaaaaasssss

What’s the latest on The Greaser, Jon Merrill?

What happened to Greenway?

CaptainMusky wrote:

Freddy freaking hockey btw

If you just focus on his play, he’s not very good at all though, just saying… focus on watching him his next few shifts, the dude is lazy without the puck…he fades in the background because everybody is watching Fiala and Boldy all the time…

I was surprised as you’d think he’d be one of the hardest workers as a player who’s always been a fringe NHL player and wanting to stay in the show…nope…

Fiala and Boldy playing well together

ugggg, losing Fiala is going to hurt….

St Louis has come back and gone ahead of Boston. The Blues just won’t go away. They’re like cock roaches that keep crawling out of the toilet bowl.

gim wrote:

They’re like cock roaches that keep crawling out of the toilet bowl.

That sounds awful. I’m glad I have never experienced that

Ek Foligno continues their struggle on the PK. Drai missed 3 chances in about 20 seconds that he rarely misses. They let the McDirty to Draisitl royal road pass happen back to back to back.

Other than that 40 seconds on the PK… complete beat down tonight.

JoeMX1825 wrote:

ugggg, losing Fiala is going to hurt….

I’m still holding out hope that things shake out where BG decides to keep him assuming of course he wants to stay here. Been some speculation that the Goligoski signing signals Dumba may be the one to go.

If Kevin continues to play like he has been through the playoffs he puts BG in a awkward situation. If BG don’t make a serious play to keep him he’s going to look incompetent. If Fiala just prices himself out then he never wanted to stay and would rather stick it to BG.

What a great all around effort. Hope the upper body injury to Big Rig isn’t too serious.

JoeMX1825 wrote:

<div class=”d4p-bbt-quote-title”>CaptainMusky wrote:</div>
Freddy freaking hockey btw

If you just focus on his play, he’s not very good at all though, just saying… focus on watching him his next few shifts, the dude is lazy without the puck…he fades in the background because everybody is watching Fiala and Boldy all the time…

I was surprised as you’d think he’d be one of the hardest workers as a player who’s always been a fringe NHL player and wanting to stay in the show…nope…

Disagree

Ice Cap wrote:

<div class=”d4p-bbt-quote-title”>JoeMX1825 wrote:</div>
ugggg, losing Fiala is going to hurt….

I’m still holding out hope that things shake out where BG decides to keep him assuming of course he wants to stay here. Been some speculation that the Goligoski signing signals Dumba may be the one to go.

If Kevin continues to play like he has been through the playoffs he puts BG in a awkward situation. If BG don’t make a serious play to keep him he’s going to look incompetent. If Fiala just prices himself out then he never wanted to stay and would rather stick it to BG.

Also disagree with the GMBG comment of looking incompetent.
Fiala will price himself out.
Find it funny that people say Fiala or Dumba if it was only that simple.

^^yup and yup

Stealth rat Ryan Hartman finding ways to make me love him even more. 2 goals and an all time final shift. The saucer pass that hit KK right in the numbers had me rolling. Jumping the crowd to grab E-Kane and somehow the Wild getting a powerplay out of it is prime Hartman. I thought the bird was dumb personally, but will make for another great photo.

Ugh how bad is Edmonton’s D? They have been due for a stinker and they ran into a buzz saw last night but still. We don’t seem to be suffering as bad without Dumba this go around now we will see how we do without him and Greenway for a few more games. See how Evason sets up the lines for tomorrow against Dallas but I don’t think Jost is a good fit with Ek and Foligno. I’d like to see Freddy put there and Jost with Fiala and Boldy. But the way Freddy has been producing lately on that line Evason is not going to mess with it.

Last I seen the analytics guys put Fiala’s current market value between $7.5 and $8M. He’s not going to get that here and personally I think his ceiling is between $6.5 and $7M. And the only way that happens is if Dumba goes. So in some ways it is as simple as Dumba or Fiala. Sure there are other scenarios that could make it happen but it would require a lot more moving parts and I don’t see BG going through a lot of machinations to keep Fiala.

Just for the record I’m not calling BG incompetent and probably not the right word to use. But as I said if Fiala keeps up his play and even steps it up another notch in the playoffs and BG does not make a serious run at keeping him in the fold a lot of people around the league and fans no doubt would question what he’s thinking. A wtf moment if you will. I say this from the viewpoint of the often strained relationship triangle of Fiala, BG and Evason.

Guessing we will hear what Meyers is going to do today. Sounds like he’s leaning Wild’s way?

Ice Cap wrote:

Ugh how bad is Edmonton’s D?

As bad as advertised. As I previously mentioned, the only team that scares me in the Pacific is Calgary.