2024/2025 NHL/WILD Offseason-Season-Postseason Thread

The gas tanks been on empty for to long and they are outta fumes. And can’t blame them. The 4th line has been brutal. Gus gave them a chance. Hung with them but there’s nothing left in the tank in 3rd.

Hope we don’t get Vegas in the playoffs, they bullied us all over the ice tonight… Jiricek put up another decently good game, no glaring mistakes other than he’s a little too aggressive with his pinches and we know he can take a bad hit from behind and yet still stay in the game

We desperately need at least 1-2 of the hurt guys back on Wednesday…

basseyes wrote:

The gas tanks been on empty for to long and they are outta fumes. And can’t blame them. The 4th line has been brutal. Gus gave them a chance. Hung with them but there’s nothing left in the tank in 3rd.

I don’t see how they could be out of gas/tired though, if you look at the TOI the past few games, its all split up pretty evenly, nobody is playing big minutes (Middleton lead them with around 25) I think the issue is some guys are just overwhelmed being put in positions they aren’t good enough to play in, Bogosian and Merrill defending a 5-3, Chisholm QB for the PP1 unit, Dermott on the PP2 group…

The 1st line getting ALL of the top D coverage and still producing offensively has been a good sign at least…we just need to tread water until we get guys back…

JoeMX1825 wrote:

we just need to tread water until we get guys back…

I agree. The other issue too is the opponent. Clearly there is a massive difference playing someone like the Avalanche or the Knights versus playing someone like the Blues or the Sharks.

gim wrote:

The other issue too is the opponent. Clearly there is a massive difference playing someone like the Avalanche or the Knights versus playing someone like the Blues or the Sharks.

amen…apparently there’s a “narrative” going around about it, but we couldn’t beat those teams when we were fully healthy so we can’t fault our partial JV team for losing… the crazy part is we were in the game last night despite shooting our own feet off with stupid delay of game penalties leading to PP goals, some of that is guys being overwhelmed with the position they are forced to play in due to injuries…

Shore and Jones need to be swapped out with other Iowa Wild guys, we know what they can/can’t do after 24+ games, time to give other guys a shot to see if they can spark anything on the 4th line…I thought it was quite telling that none of them did anything against Kolesar when Jiricek was hit from behind, typically the 4th line AHLers will do ANYTHING (fight/cheat/steal) to get the coaches attention and show they want to stay in the league…Foligno then needs to get involved and sits in the box for 5 minutes…

JoeMX1825 wrote:

when Jiricek was hit from behind…

And once again, no penalty. How? The Wild would get called on that hit 12 out of 10 times. The fact that he tried to back off the hit is no more relevant than a player saying he tried to minimize the contact when he high-sticked someone.

And the Officiating Baffoonery wasn’t done there. The Wild finally do get a call and freaking moron referee blows the play dead with the Wild in possession of the puck and no Vegas player within 30 feet of it. What the ####? This is the second time this season this has happened to the Wild. What in the hell is wrong with these officials? I’ve never even seen this call botched in youth hockey.

There should be some remedy for this. It’s no different than letting a player out of the penalty box early. There should be an offensive zone faceoff for the team that was robbed of the man advantage time.

TheFamousGrouse wrote:

<div class=”d4p-bbt-quote-title”>JoeMX1825 wrote:</div>
when Jiricek was hit from behind…

And once again, no penalty. How? The Wild would get called on that hit 12 out of 10 times. The fact that he tried to back off the hit is no more relevant than a player saying he tried to minimize the contact when he high-sticked someone.

And the Officiating Baffoonery wasn’t done there. The Wild finally do get a call and freaking moron referee blows the play dead with the Wild in possession of the puck and no Vegas player within 30 feet of it. What the ####? This is the second time this season this has happened to the Wild. What in the hell is wrong with these officials? I’ve never even seen this call botched in youth hockey.

There should be some remedy for this. It’s no different than letting a player out of the penalty box early. There should be an offensive zone faceoff for the team that was robbed of the man advantage time.

yeah, no idea on those 2 Ref “calls”

The 2nd one I thought they were calling a 2nd Vegas penalty for tripping Boldy after the first call was made… Hynes said he got no explanation on either… NHL Refs do get graded on their game performance, so this group will likely get docked for last night…it ultimately results in them reffing playoff games or not…

at least we got what 2 powerplays last night? I think that makes 3 in the last 5 games? That’s pretty hard to do, but another take on it could be the guys we currently have playing aren’t pressuring offensively enough to force penalties…

JoeMX1825 wrote:

yeah, no idea on those 2 Ref “calls”

The 2nd one I thought they were calling a 2nd Vegas penalty for tripping Boldy after the first call was made… Hynes said he got no explanation on either… NHL Refs do get graded on their game performance, so this group will likely get docked for last night…it ultimately results in them reffing playoff games or not…

Understanding that by so posting this, I am placing myself at grave risk of turning this into one of the much-loathed “narratives” , what the hell is happening here?

No calls are one thing, but what in the hell is with these botched calls blowing the play dead when there’s a delayed penalty? I can’t recall ever seeing this before, much less three times in a season?

Has anyone else seen this blown call in any other NHL games? It’s almost like the league tried to clarify something about the delayed penalty call and caused even more confusion in the process.

I’ve seen it called a few times in other games when surfing through ESPN+ games, only thing I can think of is that one of the Refs “think” they see a defending puck possession and blow the whistle…otherwise there’s no other explanation… I don’t remember the on ice situation in last nights game (other than I thought they were going to call a 2nd delayed penalty on the guy who tripped Boldy) and then they immediately went to a TV commercial break and never showed a replay when they came back they only mentioned Ek was arguing with the Refs all break… If it was deemed an “officials mistake” they would have had the faceoff at center ice, but i’m not sure if that rule applies when its a delayed penalty and they would be taking away an in-zone faceoff for the PP team?

JoeMX1825 wrote:

I’ve seen it called a few times in other games when surfing through ESPN+ games, only thing I can think of is that one of the Refs “think” they see a defending puck possession and blow the whistle…otherwise there’s no other explanation…

Last night’s call was especially bizarre because the Wild had possession of the puck in the neutral zone with no defending player anywhere near it and “tweet”. The whistle blows.

The last time it happened, the opposing player hit the puck out of the air with a high stick, but the Wild recovered the puck. Clearly this high stick play does not qualify as gaining possession, but the ref blew the whistle.

Interesting you’ve seen it on other games because I can’t recall seeing this call blown this badly in any Wild game, much less 3 times in a season. That’s what makes me suspect that the officials received some “league guidance” on this call and it’s got it all muddled in their minds now.

Officials in all sports call what they think they see all the time.

Officials suck in every sport at every level. Pro sports officials are also the best in the world at what they do, but they’re still going to make mistakes. No sense in dwelling on it. Never see winners crying about refs.

I remember years ago when the NFL refs went on strike. They put replacments in there for a few weeks and it was disastrous. It came to a head when the Seahawks beat the Packers on a “fail mary” on MNF.

The very next week the regular refs were back on the field.

I’m sure Refs just love the 100″ TV screens with 4K HD and Super Slow motion replays that fans can get nowadays, meanwhile the NHL Refs are making millisecond decisions in the fastest game on earth and then squinting at a 10″ Ipad to help make a challenged call (Seriously they should just have Toronto make EVERY challenged call, wtf are the refs looking at the small screen for in the arena?) at least NHL refs have a means of admitting they were wrong with the center ice faceoff on icing and line calls that were obviously wrong…

TheFamousGrouse wrote:

That’s what makes me suspect that the officials received some “league guidance” on this call and it’s got it all muddled in their minds now.

I don’t see any advantage/disadvantage with blowing the whistle early in those rare situations? The delayed penalty is a unique NHL experience trying to score without having the other team touch the puck all while having the rare opportunity that the puck could somehow getting passed back towards the empty net go in (thank you Capitals vs the Wild a few years ago)

I don’t see any reason why the NHL would want to remove that? if anything they should add the rule that IF you can score on the delayed penalty, you should still be rewarded with the powerplay afterwards (Doesn’t the PWHL do this? or am I just thinking of the Jailbreak)

Yeah delayed penalty is the defensive offsides of hockey… free play. Used to still get the powerplay even if you scored in the NCAA, I like that rule. Blowing the whistle on a touch or possession or whatever has always been a gray area and likely always will be. And there will always be blatant missed calls too.

tswoboda wrote:

Yeah delayed penalty is the defensive offsides of hockey… free play

Good analogy except you can still get burned by the play in the NHL vs the NFL rule is truly a free play and done, no repercussions for the offensive team…The NFL also has the option for the Refs to blow the whistle anyways if they feel there’s a “possible” free shot on the QB, we see that being done more and more now…

I wonder what the reasoning was for why the NHL never adopted the delayed goal + Powerplay rule, its much harder to score on the 6-5 than it is 5-4, it should be rewarded, aren’t they always trying to get more goals in the game?

Not going to argue the 4th line guys lack of productivity but i also dont think it can be overlooked how little they have hurt the team. Last night they were exposed because we dont have any puck moving d out there with them. Pucks got reversed on the way out of the zone or the breakout pass never occurred leaving them in a vulnerable spot. Bogo had particular issues with the puck and Middleton and Chisolm struggled too. I think they were trying to do too much to make up for the missing starters. Back to the 4th line, I would much rather have their safe low offensive production than a Duhaime. The Wilds biggest issue when the Duweys were here was odd man strength situations, a lot of them!

Duhaime avg’d 64 games 12 points and 77 pims, he is still on a similar path with Wash. Dewar avg’d 57 game 19 pints and 33 pims. Shaw 30 gms 3 pts and 30 pims. Lets remember some names: Petan, Luchini, Beckman, Khaira, Walker, Raska.

2025
Devin Shore has one point, 3 PIMS over 24 games.
Jones 0 points 10 PIMS in 25 games
Marat 41 gms 4 points and 12PIMs.

Gonna stop regurgitating stats but Lauko and Trennin aren’t near the damaging numbers that dewys/beckman/sahw were.

Given the $15 mil cap issue, i think the 4th line is doing what is needed of them given their limited capabilities on ice. They arent getting the Wild into trouble. The record speaks it.

wormdunker wrote:

Not going to argue the 4th line guys lack of productivity but i also dont think it can be overlooked how little they have hurt the team.

I agree, its just that they should provide “SOME” offense every now and then, they’ve done NOTHING offensively for the 24+ games Shore and Jones have played (combined 1 assist) even Marat’s lone goal was on the PK…Once Lauko gets back I think the 4th line improves a bit, but yeah don’t expect too much, but a goal scored for every 3-5 games would be nice…

I know the underlying metrics say differently, but I do think Marat has alot more to offer offensively than the 1 goal 3 assists he’s shown sofar. I think some of it is just learning the NHL game, some is the linemate shuffling the 4th line gets and another part is a fear of making mistakes and getting dumped in Iowa, He’ll continue to get better with more games played (he’s still only 57 games into his NHL career)

Marat is being throttled back. He is also doing everything he can to not make mistakes. He is passing too much. Someday the cuffs will be taken off.

With AHL players sometimes nothing is better than something. Those two have been scored on 6 times (5v5) in 25 games, not anything to celebrate but not losing them games either. For AHL players I’ll take it – no they won’t do anything to help win a game but just hope they can play 10 minutes without losing the game. I think the less we hear their names the better. There’s been like 6 other forwards to get games, so not sure which one you liked better but hopefully none of them are needed soon.

Yes Lauko brings energy and speed and can fight and kill penalties, just like Duhaime and Dewar did. But like WD said that “something” can come at a cost. For reference Lauko’s been scored on 10 times (5v5) in the same amount of games as Jones and Shore.

Big drop off from the 3rd to the 4th line this year – no surprise the team with $15m dead cap doesn’t have any depth.

Now that the shock has worn off, I have to say that I’m still somewhat stunned that Hartman didn’t sail his 2 on 1 shot 18 inches high last night. I don’t want to jinx it, but could it be that…

Not sure how to complain after they get 2 points against SJS and keeping it close against VGK without their top 3 defenseman. They can’t break a puck out or have a clean neutral zone to save their lives right now. And they’ll continue to struggle until they get a couple of those guys back. Just lots and lots of defending their own zone, which they’re doing well considering, and blocking shots and relying on their goalie.

tswoboda wrote:

Big drop off from the 3rd to the 4th line this year

Sadly, it’s not that big of a drop if factoring in TOI between the two lines…3rd line is pretty much the same story as the 4th in terms of they aren’t scoring much (They’ve picked it up some lately with Hartman) but also not giving up much… all of this has worked out the first 1/2 of the season with Kirill posting career numbers before he got hurt and Zuccy, Boldy and Rossi all playing so well…crazy that Zuccy is still a ppg player at 37 years old…

This team could do damage if the top 6 guys (Jojo needs to get replaced) stay close to their 1st half pace and the bottom 6 guys (Foligno/Hartman/Gaudreau/Trenin) get back to a more typical scoring pace they’ve shown they can do, hopefully the 4th line can provide something offensively every now and then…just a little uptick in bottom 6 scoring will help alot…

Lastly, once Kirill and Lauko are back the 4th line is a combination of Lauko – Marat – Gaudreau/Hartman, so hopefully we don’t need to worry about Jones and Shore anymore…

we also need to see this team put a friggin streak of games together where nobody gets hurt…Watching the game last night and seeing Ek limp off the ice after the first shift and then Jiricek destroyed in the corner a few shifts later was a WTF do we need to do to break this bad Juju moment…its been unreal…

bottom 6 guys (Foligno/Hartman/Gaudreau/Trenin) get back to a more typical scoring pace they’ve shown they can do, hopefully the 4th line can provide something offensively every now and then…just a little uptick in bottom 6 scoring will help alot…

Foligno and Freddy are both on pace with their career average. Trenin average is so low he is not really that far off. Averages 22pts a season. Has 7 now. Doubt 4 points would make a huge difference right now.
Hartman outside of his last 2-3 seasons where he was averaging 2-4 minutes more than what he is playing now in an elevated role is kind of just back to his career average.
This team is just not built to score a bunch. Built on defense and playing tight 5 on 5. Missing top 3 D makes that strategy tough to sustain.

If you are looking for bottom six guys to start producing points I think you may be waiting a while. Just not how they are built.

JoeMX1825 wrote:

<div class=”d4p-bbt-quote-title”>tswoboda wrote:</div>
Big drop off from the 3rd to the 4th line this year

Sadly, it’s not that big of a drop if factoring in TOI between the two lines…

If all you want to do is look at their point totals then OK sure have fun with that

There’s a massive difference between the Foligno/Trenin 3rd line and whoever has been playing on the 4th line. Foligno/Trenin pair are relied on against the other team’s best and haven’t given up anything all year. Wild have a shut down physical line the coach can trust for the first time in 3 years and the results are showing.

Ripjiggen wrote:

bottom 6 guys (Foligno/Hartman/Gaudreau/Trenin) get back to a more typical scoring pace they’ve shown they can do, hopefully the 4th line can provide something offensively every now and then…just a little uptick in bottom 6 scoring will help alot…

Foligno and Freddy are both on pace with their career average. Trenin average is so low he is not really that far off. Averages 22pts a season. Has 7 now. Doubt 4 points would make a huge difference right now.
Hartman outside of his last 2-3 seasons where he was averaging 2-4 minutes more than what he is playing now in an elevated role is kind of just back to his career average.
This team is just not built to score a bunch. Built on defense and playing tight 5 on 5. Missing top 3 D makes that strategy tough to sustain.

If you are looking for bottom six guys to start producing points I think you may be waiting a while. Just not how they are built.

The problem with that thinking is they were ALL signed/extended and expected to produce MORE than their previous seasons, thats all GMBG and the Coaches have preached since the extensions were signed, elevating their games to the next level, previous output isn’t good enough anymore for their new AAV…

Sure but you said getting back to a typical scoring pace that they have shown before. Which of the folks you listed is only Hartman. The rest are hitting their scoring pace that they have shown.

Sorry I didn’t give out the contracts but I thought those well planned out extensions were just holding spots for prospects anyway.

Yeah, I should have worded that better