2022 MN WILD/NHL THREAD

Have to score on 5-3 in a tie game

Fun Game…

First period felt like a playoff game.

That felt like an even matchup to me. Very playoffy too. Speed, size, and record are similar on both teams. I don’t know of any recent wild teams that could have stayed in that game. A 7 game series between those two teams would be wild (pun intended).

biggill wrote:

First period felt like a playoff game.

Thought the same thing. Total battle at 5v5 but then the refs had to let their presence be known… so obvious how the referees controlled that game.

GREEF line was dominant, shut Matthew’s down and scored
Sturm line was brutal
Kaprizov line was so close, just seemed like they couldn’t get a bounce.
If Fiala ever comes out of this slump, he’s going to score a million goals

Special teams shoulda won that game for the Wild.

What a game from Spezza.

Awesome game to watch and an impressive home stand sweep for the team. Hopefully they have what its takes to keep it going.

Kind of amazing Fiala can’t get a cheap one with the amount of chances he has been having.

Fiala has got to break out of his scoring slump soon. The Wild will be even more dangerous when that happens.

“The West is absolutely winnable. Partly because the Wild are good, but even moreso because the West is terrible. Last season the West was won by an Eastern Conf. team. Lot’s can change between now and the playoffs, but so far the best teams in the West have all gotten worse since last season besides the Wild.

VGK is an injury mess.
Colorado doesn’t have a goalie.
The oilers are reliant on a powerplay that won’t get calls in the playoffs.
Calgary is riding old man Sutter energy.
The middle of the central is a jumbled mess like usual.

Think back to the peak Suter/Parise years and that was also at the peak of the Blackhawks and when the California teams were actually good. The West was a battlefield back then.”

I agree with this. I will say however that the wild still need to look for ways to improve during the season. Whether it be trade, via internal players, or just overall improvement and growth. The other top teams in both the west and east are going to be looking to make moves.
Guessing the AVs look for another goalie option. Be it a starter or backup.
Vegas will get healthier.
Tampa will get two of there top forwards back.
And teams will make trades at the deadline to help improve their playoff depth.

The wild need to get better on special teams and figure out a combo or a way to keep that third line consistent. I think the third line success is pretty important in the playoffs.
I think this team is as deep as any in the NHL currently.

Not sure how they’ll do it capwise, but either the Oilers or Avs are going to get MA Fleury before the deadline…

Can the Wild really rely on Benn playing minutes in the playoffs?

They have plenty of time to worry about Benn. He was there 7th dman possibly 8 depending how much Addison keeps progressing.
I honestly don’t think the D depth is that concerning.

Size maybe but they are kind of what they are with there top 4.

If it was the playoffs now and spurg went out I have a feeling Addison would more likely be playing over Benn.
Benn seems to be able to fill that bottom 2 role for size if needed.

A long ways to go and injuries will no doubt change the landscape of teams throughout this year. Some for the better some for the worse.

Special teams needs to get better, yes. But how about staying out of the box? We are currently 3rd in the league in penalty minutes. Our 5 on 5 play alone is good enough to keep us in most games. IF (knock on wood) we make the playoffs, and IF we make it deep in the playoffs, the big dogs are going to murder us if we can’t stay out of the box.

Ripjiggen wrote:

Have to score on 5-3 in a tie game

Have to quit taking #$@%ing hooking and high sticking penalties 5 times a game, too. It’s going to be easy in the West not to take this seriously because the Wild can basically hang 5 goals on any team on any given night, but we saw last night what happens when you’re up against a top team that has a real PP.

Good enough last night, but not great. Basically the difference is Tabot’s absolutely stellar play. Without him, they lose that game 5 or 6 to 3.

TheFamousGrouse wrote:

<div class=”d4p-bbt-quote-title”>Ripjiggen wrote:</div>
Have to score on 5-3 in a tie game

Have to quit taking #$@%ing hooking and high sticking penalties 5 times a game, too. It’s going to be easy in the West not to take this seriously because the Wild can basically hang 5 goals on any team on any given night, but we saw last night what happens when you’re up against a top team that has a real PP.

Good enough last night, but not great. Basically the difference is Tabot’s absolutely stellar play. Without him, they lose that game 5 or 6 to 3.

could say the same thing for the Leafs goalie too last night…

Boldy got hurt again in today’s Iowa game, it appeared to be his ankle, not sure if it was the same ankle as before though?

Two things,
– at least it aint the Vikings
and,
– We have a GOOD team – nitpick all you want. They are fun to watch, there is talent, they play TOGETHER and they don’t give up.
LOVE watching my WILD!!!!!!!
I can turn a game on ANY night, no matter the opponent and have a high expectation of a win or a close game. They WILL lose but so will everybody else.
Enjoy them.
Oh, and the dive by Spezza for the high stick, last time I saw a dive like that it ended up in the pool!

The wild really need to get their Power Play to work before the playffs.
If they don’t teams in the playoffs will abuse them knowing they can’t score.
No differant from hack a shaq in basketball.
It’ll be the broadstreet bullies all over again, and when the retaliation penalties start it will be all over.

What a gong show in WPG last night. Refs missed a blatant knee on knee hit and everyone went bananas from there. There will be fines and suspensions there. Simmonds had like 3 two handed cross checks on one shift alone.

CaptainMusky wrote:

What a gong show in WPG last night. Refs missed a blatant knee on knee hit and everyone went bananas from there. There will be fines and suspensions there. Simmonds had like 3 two handed cross checks on one shift alone.

Yeah I went back and watched the 2nd and 3rd period of that game last night. Total chaos. Leafs were frustrated, no doubt, and Winnipeg embarrassed them. If you thought that knee on knee was bad, how about the knee on head from Spezza? I thought that was 100x worse, especially considering the Tavares incident in the playoffs last year. PLD borderline assaulted Matthews and nobody seemed to care or do anything about it, including the refs! Simmonds is a clown.

I’ve always given the leafs team/players the benefit of the doubt, but man that team and fan base is easy to hate. Foligno was leafs nation enemy #1 after the Wild game, but I’m pretty sure they’ve moved on

JoeMX1825 wrote:

Boldy got hurt again in today’s Iowa game, it appeared to be his ankle, not sure if it was the same ankle as before though?

Total anarchy yesterday in Iowa. 3 Wild players ejected in the blowout plus Boldy left injured… it was the other ankle.

Boldy was likely going to be called up but now it’s going to be Mason Shaw (one of the 3 ejected yesterday) getting his first call up. For those who don’t know Shaw is a Fletcher mid-round draft pick that’s had 3 major knee surgeries (torn ACL) since being drafted. He’s a high motor little guy that plays physical for his size and can play wing or center. Guessing he will be the 13th forward for the road trip and Billy G is rewarding him for his effort and perseverance.

tswoboda wrote:

If you thought that knee on knee was bad, how about the knee on head from Spezza? I thought that was 100x worse, especially considering the Tavares incident in the playoffs last year. PLD borderline assaulted Matthews and nobody seemed to care or do anything about it, including the refs! Simmonds is a clown.

Yeah, I was going to mention that dirty play by Spezza but forgot. That surely was worse. Interesting day in NHL Player Safety for sure.

I guess its a good thing it was his other ankle? Perhaps not? Havent seen anything on how severe and the only video I saw it was tough to see what happened. The guy absolutely blew him up along with boards, but the camera quality was bad. Gotta look for another angle. Didnt they finish the game with like 9 skaters on the bench?

Boudreau hired in Vancouver and Mike Yeo promoted to HC in Philli. Now just need to get Todd Richards promoted in Nashville!

not sure if there’s now more or less inclination for the Canucks to make some trades now? New regime wanting to rebuild and trade out existing players for picks or new regime realizes you don’t trade away players like JT Miller?

I would still welcome a JT Miller or Bo Horvat for Fiala+ trade…

JoeMX1825 wrote:

I would still welcome a JT Miller for Fiala+ trade…

I think it was that “Oh hi Tony…” from 10k rinks or something on Twitter he did a nice writeup on Miller vs Horvat and it was pretty much an overwhelming advantage to Miller. Horvat is a heckuva player too, but Id rather go after Miller.

CaptainMusky wrote:

What a gong show in WPG last night. Refs missed a blatant knee on knee hit and everyone went bananas from there. There will be fines and suspensions there. Simmonds had like 3 two handed cross checks on one shift alone.

It was like Gong Show Day in Canada yesterday. Kings vs Oilers.

McDavid gets a major and game misconduct for a flagrant boarding and the Kings absolutely terrorize the totally useless Oilers defense for 3–count em 3–PPGs in 5 minutes.

The Kings gave the Wild a great example of how to beat Edmonton. Put the GREEF line all over McDavid and grind the game to a virtual halt. Edmonton can’t win unless you get into a track meet with them and give them the chance to score 4 or more.

The way to beat the Oilers is stay out of the box. They’re a bad 5v5 team with an incredible powerplay. The obvious problem here is the Wild are really bad at not taking penalties.

There is a matchup problem at 5v5 though. McDavid/Draisitl haven’t played together much recently… If they match the Greef line against McDavid, who does that leave to defend the Draisaitl line? Against Toronto they matched the Sturm line against Tavares and they got destroyed. The Sturm/Duhaime line was great to start the season but they have been pretty terrible for a little while now.

tswoboda wrote:

The Sturm/Duhaime line was great to start the season but they have been pretty terrible for a little while now.

I have noticed this too and thought about posting about it but didn’t want to sound so negative during a 6 game win streak…for as well as Bjugstad played the first 18 or so games, he’s looked really bad the last 4-5…Sturm has taken about 15 slapshots to the boot the last 10 or so games so maybe he gets a small pass, Duhaime has looked like a typical rookie who hits the 20+ game funk and needs a kick in the arse to get going again, perhaps he sits a game in the press box as a wake up call??

Tavares was a -1 with 6 shots
Nylander was a -2 with 7 shots
Kerfoot was even with 1 shot.

Bjugstad was even
Sturm was even
Duhaime was a plus 1

So I wouldn’t say they were destroyed considering they are a 4th line going against a 1B line.

Toronto scored 1 5 on 5 goal which was against our 1st line.

They were not particularly great against the devils and the yotes, but were pretty good against Tampa Bjugstad had a sick goal set up with a break out from Sturm, and the Jets before that.