2022 MN WILD/NHL THREAD

Did Ek even play tonight? I seriously didnt notice him once, didnt even hear his name called during the broadcast…

I still say, the fans care more than the players.

Lets think…. I make more money than 99% of the population, the season is looooong. Wouldn’t another month off be nice??

Well Fiala got assists on each of KK’s goals last night so at least he’s getting on the board. I’m guessing the Blues strategy might be to put as many people as needed to bottle up KK until the Wild prove they can hurt them in another way. Binnington looks like he’s getting more confidence he had some nice stops last night. Fluery let that long one in but otherwise did what he needed to do just didn’t get the goal support.

The percentages are certainly in the Blues favor with teams that win game 5 go on to win the series 80% of the time or at least I think that’s the number they threw out last night. Same with scoring the first goal proved to be true. Tough road out of the West.

Disappointing finish last night. Somebody other than Kaprisov needs to step it up.

Boy this thread really died out after the first period last night. Tough game to watch last night. Hopefully they can pull off a big road win to force game 7.

Absolute collapse in the 3rd. That one hurt.

tswoboda wrote:

Middelton’s controller dies and Flower gets sniped. Game over. 3rd period felt like it lasted 5 minutes.

Wild in 7.

Seriously, That’s the first time I’ve seen him just let a guy go. Usually he’s driving him into the boards there.

mahtofire14 wrote:

<div class=”d4p-bbt-quote-title”>tswoboda wrote:</div>
Middelton’s controller dies and Flower gets sniped. Game over. 3rd period felt like it lasted 5 minutes.

Wild in 7.

Seriously, That’s the first time I’ve seen him just let a guy go. Usually he’s driving him into the boards there.

The Blue player had a step on him and perhaps Middleton didn’t want to pickup a holding penalty trying to cut him off BUT Spurgeon can’t stand next to the far post like a pylon leaving Terasenko wide open in the slot…

The 2nd Terasenko goal is all on Fleury, (with some blame going to Merril & Goligoski for the coverage mixup) we’ve seen both he and Talbot get exposed with top corner snapshots from that same spot all season…

Bottom line, Wild need to win on thursday or season’s over, the good news is they know EXACTLY how to play to win there based on Game 3…Oilers, Lightning, Rangers, Bruins in the same position, win or go home…

Should the Wild not advance I think you have to point to game four at St. Louis. Not just half of the Blues D is out but the better half of the D is out. They have a goalie in who has struggled all season in a big way and we could never even sniff the lead. For a high octane offense like the Wild that should have been in their pocket for a 3-2 lead.

Last nights game was everything the Wild should have wanted. Home ice, they have the lead after the first period and most of the second, most of the game played 5 on 5, 100% on two power plays and 50% on the pk and still can’t come away with the win. Yeah, disappointing for sure.

We need someone other than Kaprizov to do something. The kid is doing everything for this team.

JoeMX1825 wrote:

The Blue player had a step on him and perhaps Middleton didn’t want to pickup a holding penalty trying to cut him off BUT Spurgeon can’t stand next to the far post like a pylon leaving Terasenko wide open in the slot…

Spurgeon’s read was making himself an option for Middelton to chip him the puck… because he had 6 steps on the Blues player. At bare minimum that should be a 50/50 battle behind the net but he just let Buch take it and make one of the most dangerous passes in hockey completely unattested. Not tyring to pick on Middelton because he’s been outstanding, but for that single play he completely shut his brain off. You somehow singling out Spurgeon there just shows an obvious bias against him

CaptainMusky wrote:

We need someone other than Kaprizov to do something. The kid is doing everything for this team.

I only saw the first period (again) because of the late start. I agree that right now he really is the only threat. If the Blues were smart about it, they would just shadow him the whole time he’s out there and make someone else beat them.

I thought St Louis was the hungrier team in the first period right away and the Wild responded well to it. Foligno was punishing players physically too, which was entertaining.

I haven’t watched much of the regular season (thanks Bally’s), but Ryan Hartman does nothing for me, especially for a 30 goal scorer. Kirill and Zuccarello have some good chemistry, and you can tell Zucc is trying to get Kirill the puck in spots to score. Hartman just floats around, usually lagging behind the play, and doesn’t seem to add anything to his or his linemates games.

The only option Middleton was going to have was to eat it on the boards or backhand rim the puck around the net, no chance to reverse to Spurgeon with the Blues guy beating him to the back of the net (yes that’s on Middleton) but Spurgeon standing next to the post made no sense, he should have been in front of the net to start as Terasenko was his guy, he skated with him from the blueline down to to the net and left him free in the slot…

BigWerm wrote:

I haven’t watched much of the regular season (thanks Bally’s), but Ryan Hartman does nothing for me, especially for a 30 goal scorer. Kirill and Zuccarello have some good chemistry, and you can tell Zucc is trying to get Kirill the puck in spots to score. Hartman just floats around, usually lagging behind the play, and doesn’t seem to add anything to his or his linemates games.

Hartman is the same player he’s been his entire career, he’s a sandpaper 3rd/4th line guy on most teams. He was elevated to 1st line as a sort of who else can we play here decision and benefitted from playing with a superstar. It’s tough to critize him because he’s doing what he’s always done, the difference is the Blues are forcing him to be the trigger man by taking Zuccy away and it’s forcing Kirill to try and do everything himself…Hartman was setup with 2-3 grade A chances last night by Kaprizov and he failed to score…

in terms of our Defense, outside of Brodin, the other 5 played terrible last night…Dumba’s playing with 1 arm and taking too many gambles that haven’t paid off at all, Spurgeon is making mistakes all over the ice (mostly mental which is concerning), Merrill was a turnover machine and his center ice pinch led to the 4th goal, Goligoski is too soft and has no motor left…

in terms of our Forwards, Kaprizov has the team’s offense entirely on his back, Zuccy is being taken away from the Blues as their #1 priority, Hartman isn’t answering the challenge, Greenway is playing well, Foligno is playing well, Ek was a standout UNTIL last night, I didn’t even notice him playing) Gaudreau/Boldy/Fiala line was going to be the series X factor and they have 1 goal in the series…the 4th line has been good, they haven’t generated much offense but they haven’t given up much either…

in terms of Goalie play, I think Fleury has played well, look at the goals he’s given up, I agree there’s been probably 1 a game he should have made the save on, but the rest are mostly Powerplay 2nd & 3rd save attempts or tight in the slot greasy goals that are a result of Defensive mistakes…

I beleive they’ll win game 6 and then game 7 is a tossup with the hope that home ice gives a slight matchup advantage…

Regarding the 4th line I have thought Jost has been very noticeable in this series especially last night. He had a couple nice chances and surprisingly is strong on his skates for his size.

We desperately need another line or two to show up in game 6. The only offense last night was coming from KK, can’t win a cup that way.

4th line has looked solid defensively, and Jost has been FLYING around the ice. I think Jost probably has a few points in this series if he was playing with different linemates. I like having D-Lo around for his physicality, but he has looked slow out there. Not really able to deliver any big hits as he seems like he can’t catch up. As was said though, they’ve been solid defensively which is about all you can ask of your 4th line.

Fiala line has been invisible this series, and that’s the difference for me. GREEF line shows up offensively sporadically, just like the regular season, but that’s okay because they are so good defensively and set such a good tone for the team most games. We can’t have our high scoring 2nd line do nothing for 6 games, just no chance we go anywhere if that’s the case.

Fiala especially just seems to be really fighting the puck, like at a different level than his early season slump. Early in the season he was still generating scoring chances at an elite level, right now he is whiffing shots and mis-handling the puck constantly.

It is something to have a legit superstar on this team though. KK is a treat to watch, just hope he survives the series, he took a beating last night. On that note, I really wish the refs would call something on Schenn, the dude leaves his feet on EVERY hit. He had a terrible hit to the back of Kap’s neck last night, downright dangerous. And then Kap took a brutal stick to the face later as well.

^^^Spot on right there

Fiala is a ghost and the whole line has been a non factor when they’re supposed to be the x-factor.
4th line is ‘fine’ but not generating any kind of momentum or physical play. DLo looks like the definition of you can’t hit them if you can’t catch them.
Flower hasn’t been bad but he hasn’t been the better goalie and hasn’t come close to stealing a game either.
KK and the GREEF line are trying to drag the team to round 2 but all the passengers are getting heavy.

Thursday’s game 6 will be the FINGERPRINT game for this team’s next 1-3 years, this player core, this leadership group, this coaching staff. IF they lay an egg, then ultimately they aren’t much different than previous teams, sure maybe they like each other more in the locker room, but the goal is to advance the playoff stepping stones with the ultimate goal of winning the cup or “It’s about F’ing Winning!” (we shouldnt expecting them to go from A -Z in one season though)

If they show alot of heart, win Game 6 and get it to game 7, the next step is obviously winning it, but game 7’s often go to the team with the most experiance and while the Wild lost in 7 to Vegas last year, the Blues have tons of it…again, it would be another step stone for this group to win it…

we’ll see what this team is made of tomorrow night…

I haven’t seen it mentioned besides me, didn’t anybody else think Ek was absolutely invisible last night?

I really dont like the fact that Binnington has seemingly found his game. I was worried it would happen when he started game 4. He wasnt spectacular in that game, but he was very good last night. There will be lineup changes for game 6 I am almost sure of it. Id like to see Dewar get a chance. He is tenacious and feisty. He isnt big, but he plays a tough and fast game.

JoeMX1825 wrote:

I haven’t seen it mentioned besides me, didn’t anybody else think Ek was absolutely invisible last night?

He wasnt as noticeable I dont think, but there were guys who were visible for all the wrong reasons. Fans are dogging Greenway for his game last night, but I thought it was decent. Foligno was noticeable too. Dumba can sit. He was atrocious last night.

JoeMX1825 wrote:

I haven’t seen it mentioned besides me, didn’t anybody else think Ek was absolutely invisible last night?

Can’t say I noticed him much, not like previous games anyway. His line was good and he did show up good on the stat sheet though.

ooof this is bad bad bad….

Yikes! On the ice for 4 Blues goals?! Ouch Spurgie.

JoeMX1825 wrote:

IF they lay an egg, then ultimately they aren’t much different than previous teams, sure maybe they like each other more in the locker room, but the goal is to advance the playoff stepping stones with the ultimate goal of winning the cup or “It’s about F’ing Winning!”

I don’t disagree with that. However, the difference with this team compared to last year’s is that they have home ice advantage. Generally home ice comes into play when you get to game 7. Of course, if you don’t get that far, what will it matter. Last season they lost to Vegas on the road in game 7 so we were willing to give them a pass. Well, this season they have that game 7 advantage so there is no pass. I would argue if they can’t force a game 7 AND win it, this team has regressed from last year, at least in terms of playoff caliber.

If they dont make it out of this series I wouldnt say they regressed. A lot happens in the playoffs. The Wild are essentially playing the 4th best team in the West. The way these playoff seedings are done is dumb, but it happens every year. There are dang good teams that get bounced in the first round every year with this format. I get it that currently it builds rivalry with inter-division foes, but if you truly want the best teams to battle it out for the conference they need to change it.

CaptainMusky wrote:

but if you truly want the best teams to battle it out for the conference they need to change it.

Completely agree. Go to a straight up 1-8 seeds/matchups and then re-seed after each round. Some years one division will be stacked (like it is this season in the Central) and some years another division will be better. It just happened to be that this year the Central is clearly the deeper division than the Pacific out west.

I don’t think anyone likes the playoff structure and Central gets boned by it. Central has both WC spots almost every season for about 10 years now.