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

Its nice to finally win again, but the next few games will be telling, teams always play well in the first game with a new coach… Boldy’s now 1/21 picking corners this season?

Ripjiggen wrote:

Must have been the coach.
Bagosian is a good Wild on 7th.

Did he talk about his time being the caddy for Happy Gilmore?

Not sure missed some, but guy is just a grinder his whole hockey life. Put it this way his best buds is big buff.

Unfortunately it usually doesn’t last for one game when there is a coaching change in NHL it usually gets them going enough to finish in the middle or in blues case takes them to the cup. I am guessing more my first suggestion on this one.

Another close call with a skate blade last night! Another example on how a leg than doesn’t have weight on it can do crazy things when the body gets hit and twisted…

https://x.com/canucksarmy/status/1729728067914944703?s=46&t=uoRWUp28rKzoSODmtmr3Lw

Watching the recap of last nights game and one thing was pretty clear, GusBus was making saves he or Flower haven’t been making the last 18 games, that was the difference, that and it helped St Louis’s Powerplay is one of the worst in the league (especially lately)… There were 4-5 point blank rebound chances GusBus stopped (and 3 hit posts) that kept the Wild in the game in the 1st period and combo that with a mostly lazy Binnington effort game and the Wild got a much needed victory, but there were still alot of the same issues that Hynes will need to beat out of this team (overpassing on the 1st line, miserable JoJo on the 2nd line, Freddy’s game is still mess on the 3rd line (his floater goal is stopped 99.999% of the time) 4th line actually looked really good with Dewar and Duhaime getting tons of shots and mostly playing in the offensive zone all night…

Boldy almost splits himself into the ice on his breakway…wtf…

Tomorrow nights game will be tough as Nashville seems to always have our number when they play at home…The next 3-4 games will show how this team reacts to Hynes’s tweaks…we’ll see

When did Teemu Salane start acting? I get Brett Hull doing something like this though….

If Lacombe was a few inches shorter, that would have been a much different reason for a highlight clip. Man, that was close.

Gus has been pretty good for about 4 games now, since Sweden really. The team was playing OK since the Sweden games, just still finding ways to lose and no oomf. Last night they won, thank you John Hynes.

tswoboda wrote:

Last night they won, thank you John Hynes.

Biggest change I noticed was that Brodin and Faber were playing with the 1st line more often vs Deano who seemed to always have the 3rd pair out with them that really made no sense…it also seemed like there was fewer pucks just lifted out of the zone thus giving the puck up by our defense (maybe it was just because Merril wasn’t playing)

JoeMX1825 wrote:

Biggest change I noticed was that Brodin and Faber were playing with the 1st line more often vs Deano

First thing I noticed too. They were out there with them for double the normal ice time vs Dean. I always wondered why they didnt put their best pair out there with the best line especially since they are much better defensively and that line tends to cough the puck up a lot.

One prospect that never gets talked about, Rieger Lorenz, is quietly starting to take off… The Wild took him in the 2nd round #56 in the 2022 NHL draft…He was a rare 18 year old true freshman last year for Denver University (a team that typically doesn’t play freshman very much) who’s now getting the icetime and opportunity and is running with it. The kis is a beast power forward (6’3″ and 205 lbs) and still is only 19 years old…He currently has 6 goals and 4 assists in 14 games, expect to hear more about him over the next year and half (The Wild will likely sign him after his Junior year at DU or risk him going the UFA route as a Senior)

off Wild topic, Youtube podcaster Theo Vonn (I think as a kid I remember him on one of the MTV Reality Shows???) not sure…. but anyways he interviewed Gretzky the other day…keep in mind Theo’s a moron regarding hockey, but its such a different type of interview for Wayne that you’ve probably ever seen, he’s such a special person…

It looks like the NHLPA is investigating the Blackhawks ability to terminate Perry’s contract with no alledged laws broken and just what Chicago says is a breach of their internal team policies…Perry’s situation isn’t that impactful because he’s 38 years old and it was only a 1 year contract, but their argument is that what happends if this same situation is applied to a player 23 years old with 7 years left on his contract? what happends with the salary cap impact?

all great questions, it will be interesting to see what comes of this…

JoeMX1825 wrote:

off Wild topic, Youtube podcaster Theo Vonn (I think as a kid I remember him on one of the MTV Reality Shows???)

Yes he was on that show where it was a bunch of random people living together that usually turned into a crapshow. Forget the name however.

For the Rossi is our best player crowd… in the words of CC – C’mon Maaann

It does seem like Rossi is starting to tail off a bit. Maybe tired with the amount of games, or starting to feel the bumps and bruises of actually playing hard. Hope he can turn it up a notch again.

Helluva exit interview from Russo with Evason. He just seems like a great guy. Feel bad for him. But here’s the most interesting part I read from it. Russo asked him about Kirill being injured:

Is Kirill Kaprizov hurt? What’s gone on with him?

“I think his injury took a lot out of him. He comes back and plays two games and then the playoffs, and he’s still in recovery mode. He’s had it looked at again this year. I don’t want to give secrets out, but that’s a hard injury to recover from. Has that affected his ability to have the pace? Yes, 100 percent. I do believe that. Kirill Kaprizov is trying his ass off. He just hasn’t found his skating pace that we are accustomed to.”

Think its a groin that’s still bothering him? The fact that he’s still having it looked at scares me a bit. Remembering the hit that’s what I was thinking but you’d think a full off season would’ve healed that up.

I find it really interesting he gave out that type of health information on a current player in an interview, especially for a guy looking for another coaching job…If there was any chance Kirill wasn’t fully healed the staff would keep him out of games to get it right, you don’t risk the future health of your franchise player making $9 million for 3 more seasons…

mahtofire14 wrote:

It does seem like Rossi is starting to tail off a bit. Maybe tired with the amount of games, or starting to feel the bumps and bruises of actually playing hard. Hope he can turn it up a notch again.

He setup Kirill and Zuccy multiple times last night and they didn’t bury the chances, he’s playing just fine…if anything, he’s playing against the other teams top defensive matchup so everything will be tougher now…he’s also playing between two guys that at times can completely forget about the 3rd player on their line, so it will take 10 games or so for them to get used to each other and trust Marco can make the high skill level plays Hartman never could…if anything has detracted a bit since moving upto 1C, I’d say its his faceoffs…he’s been getting out-techniqued against the more experianced centers, but that will improve over time just like Ek has been doing…

I think it’s been pretty clear KK isn’t running at 100%. You can tell he doesn’t have the same jump and get up as he normally does. And I don’t take him for a guy that is going out there and just coasting. The whole thing gives me flashbacks of Gaborik and his groin. It seemed like his never got fully healed. Hoping this isn’t a similar deal.

Russo was on PA this morning right at 9am for about 20 mins. He said after MN was eliminated by Dallas last season mostly due to poor special teams play, Dean called BG into the film room and showed him all 8 goals given up on the penalty kill in the series. At the time, BG wanted to get rid of Bob Woods. Well apparently Dean talked BG into keeping Woods which essentially tied Dean to Woods continued failure on the PK this season thus far, and was ultimately his demise. I think the term he used was “falling on the sword for Bob.”

I found out listening to Russo on kfan tonight that Darby doesn’t have a specific job responsibility with the Wild and that’s why he wasn’t fired.

So that leads me to ask wtf is he the one drawing up the plays at the end of the game when we’re losing? Why isn’t Jason King doing it?

If Jason King is the one running the pp I don’t think I would have him trying to draw up a game winning scenario either.
I didn’t think it possible but the pp looks worse this year.

tswoboda wrote:

For the Rossi is our best player crowd… in the words of CC – C’mon Maaann

I never once said he was our best player but he and Faber have both been the most consistent. I probably overlooked Ek in that comment because we just are so accustomed to him being solid which wasnt a fair assessment but yes, he has been great too.

CaptainMusky wrote:

<div class=”d4p-bbt-quote-title”>tswoboda wrote:</div>
For the Rossi is our best player crowd… in the words of CC – C’mon Maaann

I never once said he was our best player but he and Faber have both been the most consistent. I probably overlooked Ek in that comment because we just are so accustomed to him being solid which wasnt a fair assessment but yes, he has been great too.

I still think Rossi has been our best player, Ek gets the PP1 time and that’s boosting his numbers, his line has been a trainwreck 5-5 with Boldy and Jojo, yes they’ve personally been terrible, but as the center he hasn’t been producing much opportunities for them and that’s the job of a center…Of course i’ll agree Ek is our most important player, the guy does it all for us, I’d just like to see him carry his line more when 5-5 is all…

JoeMX1825 wrote:

I found out listening to Russo on kfan tonight that Darby doesn’t have a specific job responsibility with the Wild and that’s why he wasn’t fired.

So that leads me to ask wtf is he the one drawing up the plays at the end of the game when we’re losing? Why isn’t Jason King doing it?

LOL Russo mentioned that during morning segment too and I thought the exact same thing. He was spared because none of the “problems” were his responsibility. Makes a guy wonder what he’s doing there other than giving intermission interviews.

Well he took an awful lot of punches from Dean after big wins.

CaptainMusky wrote:

Rossi is their best player night in and night out all year this year.

I’m sorry I hate that I had to do this

no posts yet regarding Russo’s recent Evason article mentioning Freddy texting Deano after he was fired saying he needs to see him in person? and Deano texting back no, he’s all good…

I don’t know, to me that sounded a bit strange…

tswoboda wrote:

I’m sorry I hate that I had to do this

I figured you would dig deep, but I didnt mean it as their actual best player because we all know there are more skilled players on the team than him, but he has absolutely been playing very well all year and that is what I was getting at because he has. He has been consistent night in and night out and you forgot the part where I mentioned that two rookies were the best players on the ice each night. Doesnt mean they are they best players just that we have been able to count on them not making mistakes. Id rather have KK and Boldy kicking ass every night but that hasnt been happening.