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

JoeMX1825 wrote:

Boldy needs to take about 10,000 1 timers this offseason… he’s missing out on 10+ goals a year because he either whiffs or misses the net on 1 timers…

Been saying that for years now and he’s just not improving…

Yep, he’s so talented but so brain dead at the same time.

Can a team turn down home ice in the playoffs? What a difference between home and away.

Good effort from the team as a whole. Gus was definitely not fighting the puck tonight. Marat’s effort has always been there, but definitely helps him having his line mates finally start doing something. Not loving Spurgeon and Chisholm together. Not Merrell’s biggest fan and he’s got his warts, but he’s been,..and I hate admitting it…he’s been tolerable at times. Love Rossi and Ek’s willingness to get in front of the net. Ohgren is slowly looking better. Defense pinched a touch to much tonight for my Swedish genes liking. But a win’s a win. A couple lucky bounces and will take them and yet again another road win.

Charlie W wrote:

<div class=”d4p-bbt-quote-title”>JoeMX1825 wrote:</div>
Nice to see Gusbus get back on track!

He had a great game with many chances point blank. Lapanta made a comment about him playing well tonight and was scored on about 2 seconds later. Announcers making those calls are the equivalent of saying shutout out loud.

X2!

It’s like clockwork!

basseyes wrote:

<div class=”d4p-bbt-quote-title”>JoeMX1825 wrote:</div>
Boldy needs to take about 10,000 1 timers this offseason… he’s missing out on 10+ goals a year because he either whiffs or misses the net on 1 timers…

Been saying that for years now and he’s just not improving…

Yep, he’s so talented but so brain dead at the same time.

Can a team turn down home ice in the playoffs? What a difference between home and away.

Good effort from the team as a whole. Gus was definitely not fighting the puck tonight. Marat’s effort has always been there, but definitely helps him having his line mates finally start doing something. Not loving Spurgeon and Chisholm together. Not Merrell’s biggest fan and he’s got his warts, but he’s been,..and I hate admitting it…he’s been tolerable at times. Love Rossi and Ek’s willingness to get in front of the net. Ohgren is slowly looking better. Defense pinched a touch to much tonight for my Swedish genes liking. But a win’s a win. A couple lucky bounces and will take them and yet again another road win.

I’ve been thinking the same lately. Maybe putting KK on IR was some genius plan to make the playoffs but at a lower seed to ensure they’re on the road most games where they shine

basseyes wrote:

Good effort from the team as a whole. Gus was definitely not fighting the puck tonight. Marat’s effort has always been there, but definitely helps him having his line mates finally start doing something. Not loving Spurgeon and Chisholm together. Not Merrell’s biggest fan and he’s got his warts, but he’s been,..and I hate admitting it…he’s been tolerable at times. Love Rossi and Ek’s willingness to get in front of the net. Ohgren is slowly looking better. Defense pinched a touch to much tonight for my Swedish genes liking. But a win’s a win. A couple lucky bounces and will take them and yet again another road win.

I agree with all of this. I know its only one game, but it was against a division leading Leafs team. Gus Bus looks to be back tracking the puck like he did the first third of the season. It was also the best I’ve seen that 4th line play all year! Finally seeing (noticing) how fast the Pi$$ Missile can be. We will definitely need more of that down the stretch here. Great way to start off the Canadian road trip!

Big Finale for Fleury in Montreal tonight! He seems to be on point and winning the “nostalgic” games in this final season of his. Hope that continues!

I loved Biz’s comment last night on Utah’s final 3 choices for a team name that their fans will be voting on the next few homes games…

1) Utah Hockey Club
2) Mammoths
3) Utah Wasatch (which apparently is some mountain range in Utah)

Biz said “of course its going to be Mammoths, the other 2 choices are just there to force everybody to vote for Mammoths” lol

Apparently they recently lost a patent dispute with Yeti coolers, so Utah Yeti’s is no longer a choice (Its obvious this is what they wanted to be called since day 1 and likely the reason why they went with “Utah Hockey Club” this season as they tried to come up with an agreement with the Yeti coolers company the past year or so)

There’s already several hockey teams (Pro leagues and Youth Leagues) in US and Canada named “Mammoths” so we’ll see how that plays out too…

funny

I thought the Utah Outlaws was a choice at one time too. That would be better than the Mammoths. Be some pretty cool logos that could come out of Outlaws to choose from.

Mammoth singular version, not Mammoths. Small detail but can be awkward trying to figure out what to call the singular mascot teams or players on those teams… like the Wild. At least the Avalanche have the “avs” and Lightning have the “bolts”

I like Outlaws too

Ice Cap wrote:

I thought the Utah Outlaws was a choice at one time too. That would be better than the Mammoths. Be some pretty cool logos that could come out of Outlaws to choose from.

yeah, that was one of the original 6 choices…

Utah Blizzard, Utah Mammoth, Utah Outlaws, Utah Hockey Club, Utah Venom and Utah Yeti

Saints would work, as in latter day. Then they could have some savage with a black hat and burlap facemask as a mascot. See American Primeval for reference.

tswoboda wrote:

Mammoth singular version, not Mammoths. Small detail but can be awkward trying to figure out what to call the singular mascot teams or players on those teams… like the Wild. At least the Avalanche have the “avs” and Lightning have the “bolts”

I like Outlaws too

Mamas?

wormdunker wrote:

Saints would work, as in latter day. Then they could have some savage with a black hat and burlap facemask as a mascot. See American Primeval for reference.

I think they are missing an opportunity to formally, or informally, call their arena the ‘church of latter day skates’…

wormdunker wrote:

Saints would work, as in latter day. Then they could have some savage with a black hat and burlap facemask as a mascot. See American Primeval for reference.

Good one!!! I just finished the series last night. I thought it was pretty dang good!

JoeMX1825 wrote:

I loved Biz’s comment last night on Utah’s final 3 choices for a team name that their fans will be voting on the next few homes games…

1) Utah Hockey Club
2) Mammoths
3) Utah Wasatch (which apparently is some mountain range in Utah)

Biz said “of course its going to be Mammoths, the other 2 choices are just there to force everybody to vote for Mammoths” lol

Apparently they recently lost a patent dispute with Yeti coolers, so Utah Yeti’s is no longer a choice (Its obvious this is what they wanted to be called since day 1 and likely the reason why they went with “Utah Hockey Club” this season as they tried to come up with an agreement with the Yeti coolers company the past year or so)

There’s already several hockey teams (Pro leagues and Youth Leagues) in US and Canada named “Mammoths” so we’ll see how that plays out too…

Stop the Presses!!

Utah announced today that due to OVERWHELMING feedback in the 1st night of Team Name Voting, they are removing “Wasatch” as one of the 3 options and replacing it with “Outlaws”

Didn’t Lou announce last year at the hs tourney that he’s done doing games? Or was that only for the tourney? Didn’t hear Edina last night or tonight yet.

Nice sprawl by Middleton… that was sweet

Charlie W wrote:

Didn’t Lou announce last year at the hs tourney that he’s done doing games? Or was that only for the tourney? Didn’t hear Edina last night or tonight yet.

Just the high school tourney.

Strange they would choose 7 minutes left in the 3rd with a shutout going to honor Flower?

JoeMX1825 wrote:

Strange they would choose 7 minutes left in the 3rd with a shutout going to honor Flower?

I thought the same thing! I was waiting for the video and sound to cut away to what was currently happening…. but as you said, they decided to do a tribute with 7 minutes left in the 3rd.

That said, very cool to see. To some extent and trying to think about parallels here, having MAF finish his career here reminds me of the Vikes having Favre or the Twins with Jim Thome. Guys whose best days are behind you but you get the distinction knowing every time you watch your team you’re watching a future HOF. Something to appreciate before it’s gone.

Fleury is a treasure! Pretty fun, cool game to watch! Hockey is so different than most sports.

I thought about that too. A true 1st ballot HOF 2nd all time in wins. Kind of hard to compare to someone else. Farve may be the closest recent example.
Looking at some stats online and Luongo has more games played so technically he is second all time. Marty still has over 100 more wins than Flower. Crazy stat Marty had 105 ties. Flower has 2. Even Luongo has 33 ties.

Wow, this celebration the fans in Montreal are giving to Fluery is incredible.

And now a curtain call!

Kudos to the Wild, back to back road wins after the gutpunch losing their superstar for another month+….

Kirill goes under the knife tomorrow morning…

Hard Water Fan wrote:

Wow, this celebration the fans in Montreal are giving to Fluery is incredible.

That was very classy. It’s his home town essentially and very fun to watch but poor guy had a game to finish LOL very good game up and down and the 4th line delivers again. Marat has had a fire lit under him since he scored. Love to see it

The nostalgia was definitely there. Great game. Respect to the fans in Montreal. Not going to lie, got some goose bumps a few times. Fleury still has it! What a game and a well earned shutout. Again, I love seeing that 4th line buzzing. Boldy needs to get the monkey off his back.. Maybe we need Joe to bash him a little bit? Seems to work for all the other players.

That whole game and tribute to Flower is one of the many reasons hockey is the greatest pro sport. For a brief moment I thought the tribute in the third was a ploy to get Flower distracted and off his game. My wife had the opposite take. She said he’ll be lazer focused and get the shut out. I’m really glad Louie was with Anthony because you know Walz would have talked over the post game love fest and he would have ruined the moment.

AK Guy wrote:

For a brief moment I thought the tribute in the third was a ploy to get Flower distracted and off his game.

That’s what I was referring to a few posts back, in the postgame interview Flower even said that semi-jokingly “I was tearing up a bit and maybe they did it on purpose to get me distracted a bit”

It was a great tribute, but they should have done it in the first few minutes of the game, not with 7 minutes left in the 3rd with a shutout going…

IceNEyes1986 wrote:

Boldy needs to get the monkey off his back.. Maybe we need Joe to bash him a little bit? Seems to work for all the other players.

He’s actually been getting his points lately (4 points in his last 5 games), I did rip into his terribly inconsistent 1 timer shot and lack of improvement over the years…

How about the improved play by Marat lately? He’s just a completely different player with Lauko on his line able to keep up with his speed. I know he hasn’t showed it much yet since he got to the Wild, but he has offensive skill to his game and I think he’s finally getting comfortable enough with his NHL game to start showing it more and more…and as soon as Kirill and/or Jojo get back, he’ll get Trenin or Hartman back on his line vs an AHL scrub…