2022 MN WILD/NHL THREAD

Have to score on the 5 on 3.

Another gross turnover by Dumba that bites us in the a$$!

3 things
YES – must score on 5-3 !!
Dumba – AGAIN!!
We are 6 for 7 in our last 7 games – that’s not bad

As a whole things are going well, but they should have won that game. Got down early and a costly mistake by Dumba beat them. Another comeback but it fell short. They have to get going early and should never lose a game against a team that was so shorthanded with all the regulars out. They played last night like they were looking past Vegas. Looking past Arizona may have made sense because they are a hot mess, but Vegas is a team they will be competing against in the standings and did not show up.

Kudos to Dumba for taking full responsibility for his mistake that led to the late goal, if you listended to his interview after the game you know he felt like $hit about it, no deflecting blame or cliched response… we’ll see how he bounces back on Saturday…

Dumba was in the crosshairs of most of the criticisim, but the entire team didn’t show up until the 3rd…How about Gologoski’s “pylon” defense that led to the 2nd goal?

I’ve said this before, but at what point does GMBG make some fundamental changes to the Powerplay strategy?!? It’s obviously NOT WORKING!

Watching the replay from last nights game the Wild should have had 4-5 goals on absolute grade A chances… for as bad as the 1st period was, the Wild pretty much dominated the rest of the game, just didn’t capitalize on a fraction of their chances…like I said earlier for as much grief as Dumba will get, Goligoski played much worse…

They better come out prepared against the Kraken. There are no excuses to lose another game to an inferior opponent.

Somehow trying to minimize Dumba’s defensive gaff’s because Gologoski played worse maybe points to a bigger problem.. Gologoski is 37 years old and yes he is going to get skated around by a 20 year old once in awhile. That’s just what you expect when you bring in players that are at the end of their careers. They lose a step or two and do their best to make up for it with experience and it doesn’t always work out.

Dumba has had turn over problems his entire career. And yes there is not a player on the ice who it doesn’t happen to as Spurgeon said in Dumba’s defense. Everyone knows that to be true. But with Dumba it happens to often and they are glaring. Like the one last night and the night before. He was involved in the turnover where Ladd scored and another one when Crouse stripped him of the puck and went in alone only to have Kaako make a stellar glove save. Had Kaako not made that save you could say Dumba gave the opposing team three goals in two games.

I’m sure he is going to clean it up going forward. Maybe being embaarassed the way he was last night and the night before will get him to bear down and focus. I hope so because he keeps this up his trade stock is going to plummet!

Ice Cap wrote:

Somehow trying to minimize Dumba’s defensive gaff’s because Gologoski played worse maybe points to a bigger problem.. Gologoski is 37 years old and yes he is going to get skated around by a 20 year old once in awhile. That’s just what you expect when you bring in players that are at the end of their careers. They lose a step or two and do their best to make up for it with experience and it doesn’t always work out.

Dumba has had turn over problems his entire career. And yes there is not a player on the ice who it doesn’t happen to as Spurgeon said in Dumba’s defense. Everyone knows that to be true. But with Dumba it happens to often and they are glaring. Like the one last night and the night before. He was involved in the turnover where Ladd scored and another one when Crouse stripped him of the puck and went in alone only to have Kaako make a stellar glove save. Had Kaako not made that save you could say Dumba gave the opposing team three goals in two games.

I’m sure he is going to clean it up going forward. Maybe being embaarassed the way he was last night and the night before will get him to bear down and focus. I hope so because he keeps this up his trade stock is going to plummet!

he’s also tied for 2nd in scoring on the team, that’s the good you take with his bad…

Yes we will take the scoring he provides but I’d sooner see Dumba become a better defenseman and not always be looking to score. Let’s get KK and Fiala going to provide the scoring.

On another note Eichel had his surgery today so the clock starts running to see if he gets ice team this year. He sounds like he wants to be back after the Olympic break in Feb. I wish him luck!

Think kappo gets the start tonight after his last two performances and the way Talbot has played so far?

I’d like to see Kaapo in net. Talbot has been fine but the last 2 by Kaapo he’s been really good. We saw what he did last year when he was hot. Just don’t play him against the Blues.

Talbot in tonight according to Russo. I’d like to have seen Kaapo get another start as well.

Pitlick. A pure hat trick for his first, second, and third nhl goal?! That is pretty sweet.

Ok I take back my comment about Pitlick being another Gopher hometown guy signing for the Wild.

Pitlick’s ppg in the NHL is pretty damn good for as few games he’s played…16 games, 7 points…
His goals are all because of Ryan Hartman though… you watch Pitlick on the ice and he’s practically invisible and then you look after the game and he gets on the scoresheet…right place at the right time tonight for sure…

Kid looks like he can finish though. Something that is historically rare on our club. Even when gift wrapped chances occur. Hope he can keep it going.

mahtofire14 wrote:

Kid looks like he can finish though. Something that is historically rare on our club. Even when gift wrapped chances occur. Hope he can keep it going.

He’s definitely dangerous on the rush and in transition. He’s got 5 points in a few games and they’re all beauties. Plus that breakaway where he hit the post in his debut. He talks like Wes Walz in his interviews and it creeps me out.

Not sure what dumba’s deal is right now but 3 games in a row with a big choke job in the 3rd period.

tswoboda wrote:

<div class=”d4p-bbt-quote-title”>mahtofire14 wrote:</div>
Kid looks like he can finish though. Something that is historically rare on our club. Even when gift wrapped chances occur. Hope he can keep it going.

He’s definitely dangerous on the rush and in transition. He’s got 5 points in a few games and they’re all beauties. Plus that breakaway where he hit the post in his debut. He talks like Wes Walz in his interviews and it creeps me out.

Not sure what dumba’s deal is right now but 3 games in a row with a big choke job in the 3rd period.

Dumba doing Dumba things but he is on a particularly bad streak even by his standards. Grubauer doesn’t seem like the same goalie when he was with the Av’s. Of course he had better players in front of him but Pitlick made him look very average. Congrats to Pitlick on the hatty! Must make that kid feel good waking up this morning.

Fiala and KK kept off the scoresheet. Hartman a three point night dude is on fire. 11 points to lead the team and a plus 11! I hope this depth scoring keeps showing up because Fiala and KK can’t seem to find their game.

I’m still convinced at the end of the season it will be revealed that Kaprizov was injured at the end of the Jets game (when he crashed backwards into the boards) They obviously won’t say anything now during the season to protect him, but it’s likely a shoulder/neck/lower back injury. You can see that he’s been getting a little better over time, but it’s still effecting him, especially in his shooting (his snapshot has 1/2 the power and accuracy it did last year) just watch replays when he shoots, the puck is fluttering… there’s no reason for puck flutter with the strength he has other than he’s injured and can’t generate the shot power…

Now I agree with the likely replies of why he isn’t out injured then? Team should keep him out and let it heal? My guess is that Kirill is too proud to sit out injured (I only remember him missing 1-2 games his entire time in the KHL from a knee on knee injury) especially after signing the big contract…

We’ll see I guess, I also find it interesting that Russo hinted about an injury a few times early on and then immediately went quiet on it (likely he got a call from GMBG to stop mentioning it)

I agree Joe. He hasnt been quite the same since that play. I also agree he seems to be progressing. It seems players are almost always “hurt” but only miss time if they are injured. In fact I think BG has even said that before. Every guy is dealing with something and if he can play through it without further injuring himself or hurting the team that is fine.
His shooting percentage right now is roughly 1/3 of what it was last season. Its probably unrealistic to expect 17% again, but he is better than 6% he is shooting now.

CaptainMusky wrote:

I agree Joe. He hasnt been quite the same since that play. I also agree he seems to be progressing. It seems players are almost always “hurt” but only miss time if they are injured. In fact I think BG has even said that before. Every guy is dealing with something and if he can play through it without further injuring himself or hurting the team that is fine.
His shooting percentage right now is roughly 1/3 of what it was last season. Its probably unrealistic to expect 17% again, but he is better than 6% he is shooting now.

You can just see the difference in his shot, like I mentioned, it flutters, he’s getting no torque on his stick. This leads me to think it’s either a shoulder or neck/back injury where he likely gets a pain “twinj” when he really tries to shoot hard…I think the neck/back injury could also effect his skating explosiveness too…

Fourteen games in and we are already setting the excuse table for Kaprizov? C’mon you guys. If he is hurt to where it is effecting his performance to this degree there is no way they would be playing him. He is the future of the franchise. It’s early in the season and they are winning without him or Fiala scoring. It’s not like there is fifteen games left in the season and they have to run the table to make the playoffs. It’s not always the players call regardless of how proud they are if they are going to play with a injury or not.

I read somewhere maybe one of Russo’s articles where he always get off to a slow start. First time I had ever heard that and it certainly was not the case last year. I think him and Fiala are both going to be fine. KK may not tear it up like last season but I said all along 55 games against 7 teams is a small sample size. He played just enough last year and performed exceptionally well which is going to get everyone’s attention. This is his welcome to the NHL year. He is getting a lot of extra attention. Time and space are being taken away. As soon as the puck is on his stick someone is right there. He has taken some hard hits and he doesn’t look slow to get up. If he was hurt some of those hits would exacerbate the problem.

The benefit of the doubt would say that if he is hurt where it shows this much difference in performance from last year to this year than someone needs to be fired for putting him on the ice.

Ice Cap wrote:

Fourteen games in and we are already setting the excuse table for Kaprizov? C’mon you guys. If he is hurt to where it is effecting his performance to this degree there is no way they would be playing him. He is the future of the franchise. It’s early in the season and they are winning without him or Fiala scoring. It’s not like there is fifteen games left in the season and they have to run the table to make the playoffs. It’s not always the players call regardless of how proud they are if they are going to play with a injury or not.

I read somewhere maybe one of Russo’s articles where he always get off to a slow start. First time I had ever heard that and it certainly was not the case last year. I think him and Fiala are both going to be fine. KK may not tear it up like last season but I said all along 55 games against 7 teams is a small sample size. He played just enough last year and performed exceptionally well which is going to get everyone’s attention. This is his welcome to the NHL year. He is getting a lot of extra attention. Time and space are being taken away. As soon as the puck is on his stick someone is right there. He has taken some hard hits and he doesn’t look slow to get up. If he was hurt some of those hits would exacerbate the problem.

The benefit of the doubt would say that if he is hurt where it shows this much difference in performance from last year to this year than someone needs to be fired for putting him on the ice.

I’m not making any type of excuses…I simply said I don’t believe them when they say he isn’t hurt, when I watch him, he looks like an injured player trying to play through it (and I said he’s looked better lately) but still gimped a bit with his shot and skating explosiveness, that has nothing to do with the added attention he’s getting (which is minimal imo, maybe opposing teams have more focus to finish checks on him, but he’s certaintly not being shadowed on the ice)

and I bet they finally acknowledge it at the end of the season…

If you are right Joe then see my last paragraph. Somebody needs to be fired for putting him on the ice. Heck he is still almost a point a game player at this point. There is still the revolving door at center with him and I’m sure he is trying to figure out adjustments he needs to make with the extra attention he’s getting. Lets see where he is at a game 25. I bet he is still darn close to a point a game. He will figure it out as will Fiala.

Here are Kirill’s stats the first 14 games last year vs this year:

2020-2021 = 3 goals 8 assists
2021-2022 = 3 goals 8 assists

It was game #15 that he started to take off last year….

Ice Cap wrote:

Heck he is still almost a point a game player at this point.

I’m guessing this is why he’s still in the lineup, and perhaps the injury isn’t structural and more of a deep tissue bruise and he just needs to play through it? I’m no doctor, but I do know the player can tell the trainer exactly what he wants to hear and if the injury isn’t something obvious on an x-ray, the trainer can’t do much about it…

Fans keep asking why is he playing so different from last year? My entire point is that I think he’s been playing hurt since the end of the Jets game and it’s effecting his burst skating and shooting, the whole argument that he’s being focused on more is BS imo, if that’s the case I’d like to see examples of it…the ENTIRE league knew about him and his skillset AFTER game 1 of last year against the Kings, he was “focused on” ever since that game, nothing new this year…

Russo has started mentioning Kaprizov’s lack of burst and shooting issues a bit more and more lately, but he still won’t say the injury word…

I agree with you that him playing through an injury isn’t a good long term idea for the team and the center changes have derailed the top 2 lines (Gudreau is NOT a top 6 player, he needs to be swapped with Sturm or Hartman) good thing the bottom 2 lines have picked up the slack.

It must be driving GMBG crazy to keep Rossi in the AHL knowing how valuable he could be to Kaprizov or Fiala this year, I give him credit for sticking to his guns and thinking long term…

Bottom Line – Kaprizov hasn’t forgotten how or lost the desire to play the same way he did last year (super explosive, constant motor, wins most puck battles, impossible to move off the puck) I think he just can’t physically play that way right now due to an injury either he or the team won’t acknowledge…

Ice Cap wrote:

If you are right Joe then see my last paragraph. Somebody needs to be fired for putting him on the ice.

Guys play hurt/injured all the time its nothing new and no one should be fired over it. Coyle played through the playoffs one year with two separated shoulders.
It was obvious he was dealing with something and it came out after the season ended that he indeed was injured.

It has been said he came into camp out of shape. He is a notorious slow starter in his career. Without much paractice at all so far…I’m not too concerned with KK just yet.

Not concerned either. 25 games in then maybe. I read somewhere that they thought he added too much bulk as in muscle.