2022 MN WILD/NHL THREAD

Ice Cap wrote:

Gross turnover by Dumba to Crouse. Kaako had to came up with a stellar glove save to keep it out of the net. Dumba drop pass to Greenway didn’t have enough on it and darn near put it on Jaskin’s stick before making it’s way to Greenway. Which led to the turnover and the goal scored by Ladd on the breakaway.

He did not have a good game last night. The Yotes are ghastly bad.

yeah, Dumba seems to have 2-3 good games followed by a bad game… that’s been his entire career though, you take the good with the bad… I’ve been more upset with the sheer amount of turnovers Kaprizov has been averaging sofar in the league, yet we don’t really complain about it because he usually offsets them with more good plays…There was 1 shift last night that Kaprizov had 3 turnovers…3!

again, you take the good with the bad…

I mentioned after the Isles game that I thought Hertl is a guy who could put the forward group over the top. Do I think they go after him… probably not. It’ll likely take a 1st – 3rd – and low end prospect. Including Greenway is interesting, I like that idea.

I only saw the 3rd last night but WOW was that KK goal sweet. I think it was Pang that said “yeah that’s a common play you see teams try a lot”. No you don’t, Darren. I only saw the highlight of Fiala’s goal but it’s nice to see the 2 stars back on the highlight reels. Hopefully they don’t carry over any bad habits from playing a terrible coyotes team, the 3rd period looked pretty sloppy.

Well enough about the game, can we talk about the absolutely god-awful TNT coverage and announcers? I can’t even listen to these morons. I have to turn the volume off. The game is out of sync with the broadcast on the radio so I can’t even turn up the radio play by play.

Mrs. Grouse watched the game for about 10 minutes and then commented that TNT Network must be the place four year old commercials go to die. What in the hell is up with that discovery card commercial with the Asian chick letting it go? They need to let it go all right. They must have played that damn commercial 25 times last night.

TheFamousGrouse wrote:

Well enough about the game, can we talk about the absolutely god-awful TNT coverage and announcers? I can’t even listen to these morons. I have to turn the volume off. The game is out of sync with the broadcast on the radio so I can’t even turn up the radio play by play.

Mrs. Grouse watched the game for about 10 minutes and then commented that TNT Network must be the place four year old commercials go to die. What in the hell is up with that discovery card commercial with the Asian chick letting it go? They need to let it go all right. They must have played that damn commercial 25 times last night.

They are still working out the kinks, but TNT is going for the younger audience and the commercials are tailored to that audeinece. I enjoy the guys in the studio takes before the game and between periods, Panger is a decent color commentator, I’ve never heard the play by play guy before but I thought he was fine, most of the TNT games I’ve watched its been Kenny Albert (I think he focuses on east coast games?) and he’s always awesome imo…I wasn’t a fan of the female between the benches last night, but A.J. Mleczko is awesome!

The ESPN crew that did the Wild opener this year was terrible, sorry, but that female play by play announcer was terrible… again they are working out the kinks…

AJ is very good. I have enjoyed her the last couple years from NBC Sports. Its nice to see more women getting into it. Contrary to what others thought about her play calling, I thought Leah Hextall was good when she did the Wild/Jets game. Yes, she is sort of monotone, but I think she does a good job overall. We have to remember there is only one Doc Emerick and these other folks have their own styles. He was next level in how descriptive he was.
I only watched the first period last night and it was mostly in a fog after I slipped and fell flat on my back on wet steps. The bottom step hit me right in the middle of the back. Excruciating. Going to feel that for a few days.

That move from behind the net by KK to the front and into the net was just lighning on a stick! But the only way him and Zucc have the time to make that happen is a 5 on 3. I watched a Russian Red Army team play one time where while on a power play the Russian who had the puck skated low towards the net. While the goaltender was watching him a player on the right snuck down low as well. Both players meeting together at the back of the net behind the goal tender where they made the exchange of the puck. Goalie didn’t have a clue the puck was exchanged and slid to his left to cover the net where he was sure the skater was going to try to stuff it in.

Meanwhile the other player comes out to a wide open net and dumps it in. This all happened in the space of a second. Probably one the best and most smoothly executed of a play I have ever seen.

JoeMX1825 wrote:

The ESPN crew that did the Wild opener this year was terrible, sorry, but that female play by play announcer was terrible… again they are working out the kinks…

That ESPN crew that did the first game was one of the worst announcing crews I have ever heard! It made it hard to listen to.

Bissonette, Anson Carter and Liam McHugh are so good. Biz is just hilarious and everyone chirps him on the broadcast. This team will continue to grow, but so glad we arent seeing the likes of Roenick, Milburry, etc.

CaptainMusky wrote:

Bissonette, Anson Carter and Liam McHugh are so good. Biz is just hilarious and everyone chirps him on the broadcast. This team will continue to grow, but so glad we arent seeing the likes of Roenick, Milburry, etc.

Yeah I like those guys, Tochett is a wild card, sometime’s he seems so damn serious and every know and again he’ll try to throw in an odd joke, last night was a bit awkward since Arizona fired him last year…

CaptainMusky wrote:

Bissonette, Anson Carter and Liam McHugh are so good. Biz is just hilarious and everyone chirps him on the broadcast. This team will continue to grow, but so glad we arent seeing the likes of Roenick, Milburry, etc.

The TNT studio group is laugh out loud funny. They bring a fun energy to it that has been missing for a long time. I love it.

tswoboda wrote:

The TNT studio group is laugh out loud funny. They bring a fun energy to it that has been missing for a long time. I love it.

Exactly nothing like the country club atmosphere of the NBC Sports. Its even some of the same people but its so different. I have been a big fan of Anson Carter for a long time. He does such a great job.
Biz when getting ripped and the dumb look on his face every time is hysterical.

Give me TNT announcers over Leah Hextall literally any day of the week

fishingdakotacountymn wrote:

Give me TNT announcers over Leah Hextall literally any day of the week

I second this. TNT announcers were actually a nice change of pace last night.

Russo did a great podcast with Tom Reid recently, if you have 30 minutes (and an Athletic account I beleive is required?) Tom shares a bunch of great stories about the good old days in the NHL…it was a fun listen

JoeMX1825 wrote:

2 points for Rossi tonight in a crazy comeback win for Iowa Wild..

I am not convinced he is feeling better yet. LOL

^^^Don’t need a sub. to listen to The Athletic podcasts. I listen to them on google podcasts because the athletic app is terribly glitchy with podcasts. The only difference is they insert a bunch of ball shaving ad reads.

tswoboda wrote:

^^^Don’t need a sub. to listen to The Athletic podcasts. I listen to them on google podcasts because the athletic app is terribly glitchy with podcasts. The only difference is they insert a bunch of ball shaving ad reads.

Correct, they are up on Spotify or Apple podcasts.
He has so many different podcasts its hard to keep track.

Really liking Kulikov’s game. Every game he is noticeable. Nice goal last night again. I am always amazed at how active he is in the offensive zone. He is literally everywhere on the ice.
He has certainly been a pleasant surprise. The Wild D as a group lead the NHL in scoring.
Speaking of Russo, his latest on Chychrun and Duhaime is fantastic.
We were talking about possibility of in-season trade. The one thing that I could see BG doing is moving Rask and Greenway. Neither of them are really bringing anything to the table and just getting draft picks in return would be good. I dont think we need the bodies. I suppose that’s a risk if injuries or Covid strikes again, but Rask has been getting scratched so much anyway.

I keep waiting for Bissonette to inadvertently drop a f bomb seeing as how he uses it pretty regularly on Spittin’ Chicklets.

Ice Cap wrote:

iting for Bissonette to inadvertently drop a f bomb seeing as how he uses it pretty regularly on Spittin’ Chicklets.

He called Bob Murray an as$hole last night. So he’s getting closer.

tswoboda wrote:

He called Bob Murray an as$hole last night. So he’s getting closer.

I LOL’d when he did that. They were all like “can he say that?”

We’re going to have to pay something (draft pick) to get rid of Rask (in addition to eating 25-50% of his salary) because of that, I think they’ll just keep him as a veteran injury backup if needed vs pay for somebody else to take him…The only way I could see them doing this would be if they needed to free up capspace to sign/trade for somebody else they really wanted..

Greenway has some value though (his age/size/rfa control status) so he could fetch a decent draft pick(s) return from a rebuilding team like Arizona, Detroit, Anahiem, Buffalo or Ottawa who have tons of capspace and draft picks…

I’d put my money on Greenway getting traded to Arizona for one of their FIVE 2nd round picks this draft…Arizona gets a good player now vs screwing up those picks…Wild get the cap savings and a redo 2nd round pick for Judd to work with…

I agree Greenway should return a 2nd Round pick. Im bummed he hasnt been more consistent. I really had high hopes for him, but it just doesnt seem to be that its going to happen here.

Don’t forget there’s always a chance they don’t have Fiala on the team long term. Good chance he prices himself out of Minnesota as soon as this summer. He’s off to a slow start points wise but he’s been a slow starter every season and this year he still looks really good. At some point he’ll go on a tear and I bet he ends up close to a point per game player this season. It’ll be interesting to see what they do with him this off-season. They will be really vulnerable to an offer sheet if it gets close to arbitration again.

How did Pitlick look last night? I saw he had another nice assist on Kulikov’s goal.

CaptainMusky wrote:

I agree Greenway should return a 2nd Round pick. Im bummed he hasnt been more consistent. I really had high hopes for him, but it just doesnt seem to be that its going to happen here.

if the Wild weren’t so cap strapped the next 3 years I think they would offer him another 2-3 year bridge deal… If Jordan can mature and figure out how to play full effort every night, he could turn into one of those “why did we trade him” players…

I love this from ESPN+. I think its little things like this that will spawn new interest from casual fans. Do this in the playoffs when the intensity is much higher and the energy will be unreal.

Finally got to see a game last night as it was on TNT.

Very impressed overall and the Wild have just had a different swagger with this group. Hope it keeps up!

Some pisspore defensive efforts there by Kulikov and Gologoski, but Talbot should have had those… we’ll see if the comeback kids can do it sgain…

What a period… WOOF!

Two first time NHL goals by kids on Vegas. Yikes! Wonder if that’s ever happened before where two rookies on the same team get their first in the same game.