2023/2024 NHL/WILD Offseason-Season-Postseason Thread

They bought it for pride month, they wanted the name.

Will Demidov fall victim to the “Russian Factor” slide? If so how far? Do the Wild jump on him if he lasts to 13?

Yurov was a projected top 10 pick and slid alot…

Demidov draft stock is way closer to Michkov than he is to Yurov. And Michkov only fell all the way to 6 only because he straight up told teams he wouldn’t sign with them if they drafted him. Yurov draft was also the first draft after Russia invaded Ukraine and the Wild passed on him at 19 because they knew no one was taking him.

Edmonton has a whopping 7 shots on goal through 2 periods. They are lucky to be tied 1-1.

gimruis wrote:

Edmonton has a whopping 7 shots on goal through 2 periods. They are lucky to be tied 1-1.

Yeah, now that’s a game where Edmonton can get the panic button ready

its just unreal how players come back from injuries during games in the playoffs…the numbing shot budget must be crazy…

Florida is just too damn good up and down the lineup for Edmonton to handle. The Panthers have totally shut down that top Oiler line and they are giving them nothing to work with.

McJesus, Leon, and Hyman have one pathetic assist between the 3 of them for 2 games despite multiple PPs, 4 on 4 opportunities and an extended 6 on 4 late in G2. That’s not going to work, boys.

Florida needs Barkov back, Rodriguez really carried the team yesterday.

Edmonton also needs to stop playing so fancy. Last night they continually passed up shots from the slot to make a pass to the faceoff dots. Shoot the puck already.

It will get worse for Edmonton as the series progresses, they missed their opportunity to steal a game early…Florida’s physicality is starting to wear down the Edmonton skilled guys…McDavid and Leon are getting tired of having every check finished on them, extra punches to the face in scrums, the odd crosscheck to the ribs, etc…

Florida just leans on teams and wears them down…this series is over imo, the only shot the Oilers have is if the Panthers can’t get their injured players back on the ice…

It is easy to say this one is over but so often we see the home teams win and the narrative changes again. I would not be surprised if Edmonton takes the next two at home.

With that being said, Paul Maurice has the panthers firing on all cylinders and the oilers have no answers. They are getting smoked – time for Knoblauch to make some changes.

Edmonton has no answer for the Panthers. I mean they really dominated game 1 for most of the game and lost 3-0 that is crushing. I didnt catch any of the game last night, but sounds like it was a good game, but Edmonton just wasnt taking many shots.

CaptainMusky wrote:

Edmonton has no answer for the Panthers. I mean they really dominated game 1 for most of the game and lost 3-0 that is crushing. I didnt catch any of the game last night, but sounds like it was a good game, but Edmonton just wasnt taking many shots.

Florida just eats space on the ice, if you want to get a shot on net, it needs to go through 2-3 Florida players EVERY time..

Is it worse to dominate a game and lose? Or to get dominated and lose? Because the Oilers have now done both.

To be fair the same exact thing happened to Florida in games 2 and 3 against the Rangers.

Personally I think it’s more demoralizing to dominate and lose vs just getting your butt kicked. Easier to move on from a terrible game I think vs one you played great but still lost.

So can somebody explain to me wtf is going on with the MN Women’s hockey franchise? I’ve paid no attention to it at all…

My understanding is the coach and veteran players went to the owner (the league) and got the GM fired. I have no knowledge or opinion on any of them but the GM is #oneofus so you can guess who the fans are backing.

Oh and they drafted a young woman who liked some conservative political tweets and apparently that might actually be worse than the GM getting fired ??

I think the whole thing was orchestrated by Kendall Coyne Schofield. She didnt like Darwitz for some reason, but the rest of the players have said great things about her. Very strange.

Nat tried trading Coyne midseason. Truth is Coyne is a waterbug but not terribly productive anymore but gets a lot of ice time due to her status. Had that trade gone through, the team would have been BETTER but it would have undermined Coyne’s plans to run the show. Also her Ego would have taken a hit. So get rid of the origin of the trade and put your puppet in her place.

Nats trade Tapani for Jacques was a Home run, Jacques was the best player on the team. The Coyne trade would have been equally impactful. PS the team took a nose dive for 5 games, there was a reason.

CaptainMusky wrote:

I think the whole thing was orchestrated by Kendall Coyne Schofield. She didnt like Darwitz for some reason, but the rest of the players have said great things about her. Very strange.

There’s an article that named all the main vets… Coyne-Schofield, Stecklein, Pannek, and Hensley

good lord…

wormdunker wrote:

Nat tried trading Coyne midseason …. So get rid of the origin of the trade and put your puppet in her place.

This makes way too much sense. The drama in women’s pro sports is next level right now

Did they name the puppet yet?

The current coach was also in the running for the GM job originally so guessing that played a part. Meanwhile the original coach suddenly departed right before the season.

Ripjiggen wrote:

Meanwhile the original coach suddenly departed right before the season

Did they ever say why that happened?

Not that I have seen.

tswoboda wrote:

Did they ever say why that happened?

Charlie Burggraf, the first head coach appointed by the league left for “personal reasons” right before the season began. Ken Klee was then appointed to the HC position after he originally interviewed for both the MN GM position and HC position and was turned down for both.

I think there is a tendency to read to much into what is going on. All of women’s hockey is a very small village compared to the huge city that is the men’s game. The current iteration of the league came to being through a lot of work in a short timeframe, by some very strong personalities. Conflicts are going to be inevitable as a league like this starts and then grows.

The PWHL has an additional oddity because of the fact that all the teams are owned not by an individual franchise owner, but by the league and therefore the GM position is not the same as the GM in the NHL. There is no owner between the PWHL GM and the league, the league IS the owner. So the league is really calling shots not just for the league itself, but also the league office is charged with making decisions that directly impact the team.

^^^ which is why it is even more strange that they would fire one of the biggest names in women’s hockey of all time after she won the title.

to me it just sounds like there’s a core group of experienced National Team members (likely across all teams) that have alot of influence on what’s going on in the league and are likely threatening International Tourney participation (what other leverage do they have? USA Woman’s National Team success is the sole popularity driver) unless they get what they want (likely more money)…The MN team’s case is a bit unique in that the guy who wanted to be GM was passed over for it and then last minute took over the coaching position and won a title thus giving him some leverage to push back…

Natalie Darwitz not being GM isn’t going to stop people from buying tickets, but if the star players of the league start boycotting games or join the new 3-3 summer league the fans will revolt and not support it anymore…

So the league has to take the players side…all of this is happening basically in a vacuum as the press could care less about the PWHL, it’s not even a story in the MN press anymore…The only time Woman’s hockey gets any press is when Canada plays USA in a big international tourney…

Looks like the Panthers had some trouble getting out of Sunrise for game 3 in Edmonton due to storms/flooding.

I’m wondering if game 5, should it occur, will be played back in Sunrise though given that the area has been inundated with rain. Maybe they’ll just win both games in Edmonton and it won’t be necessary.

Barkov expected to return tonight. No broken jaw.

McDavid and Leon will now spend the rest of the series trying to sell every hit as being a late and/or high revenge hit.

Will the home crowd make the difference for Edmonton?