Wild tonight

Not a very good game for the Wild tonight. D-men need to stop giving up the puck in our zone. Way to sloppy with the puck.

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Not a very good game for the Wild tonight. D-men need to stop giving up the puck in our zone. Way to sloppy with the puck.

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It was a horrible game to a man except Backstrom. They were out skated, out hit, out battled and completely outplayed.

It should be interesting to see how they answer in Phoenix on Monday. If I were a betting man I’d say that 1st line is going to blow it up on Monday.

Should be interesting to see what happens if Cullen is hurt. They might have to bring Zucker up.

To an untrained eye, I thought they looked horrible. Absolutely no drive last night. You just knew eventually the Ducks were going to pull away. I missed the first period so I was a bit surprised they lead 1-0 when I saw how they were skating.

Do they ever play well on the West Coast?

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To an untrained eye, I thought they looked horrible. Absolutely no drive last night. You just knew eventually the Ducks were going to pull away. I missed the first period so I was a bit surprised they lead 1-0 when I saw how they were skating.

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we were very lucky to even get a goal.their goalie gave up a soft 1 early.

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To an untrained eye, I thought they looked horrible. Absolutely no drive last night. You just knew eventually the Ducks were going to pull away. I missed the first period so I was a bit surprised they lead 1-0 when I saw how they were skating.

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I don’t know. I know there was a little controversy in the morning because the Zamboni guy was delaying there practice. But that obviously is not an excuse. I sure hope they go to realignment next year. 1 thing to watch out for this year is the wild have the most miles traveled on their schedule.

Not trying to sound negative but beside Parise and Suter this is basically the same team as the last couple of years so I don’t expect any more out of them. And by the way Heatley is just about the laziest hockey player I have ever seen.

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And by the way Heatley is just about the laziest hockey player I have ever seen.

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You might want to watch closer. He’s slow. He’s not good handling the puck, but he does play hard in the defensive zone as much as he does in the offensive zone. I’ve seen him break up a lot of plays with his back check.

Man, I like Brodziak, but he has had the worst start of all the Wild players.

This team is horrible at fore-checking and getting offensive zone time. They are just not very good at playing below the opposing team’s red line.

And that PP. I am beginning to realize why Pittsburgh ran Yeo out of there. There is no creativity. After the first few games teams realize you tie up Heater and take away the lane between him and the puck, especially if Parise or Koivu have the puck, and the Wild don’t know what to do.

On a positive note, if they ever pull their heads out of their rears, Backs is playing solid, so we should start winning again…

..provided they can figure out how to score more than 1 goal a game.

Well maybe the line shake up will get them going. I thought Bouchard had a nice game. He is working hard both ways. Hope he can stay healthy. We better hope Backstrom stays healthy Harding is sure struggling. You’re right though they need some sustained offensive zone time.

Granlund and Setoguchi sure looked good with Konopka. I think they need to keep Granlund at wing this year to take away some responsibility. He seems a bit overwhelmed before tonight.

Torrey Mitchell had a heck of a game. He was flying tonight.

I almost feel like Yeo was painting the line changes as a demotion to light a fire under Granlund and Setoguchi. but the 4th line played as much if not more than the 2nd and 3rd lines, except Konopka who has over 12 minutes. I think he may have planned on playing those 2 14-15 minutes despite the demotion to the forth line.

Im pretty new to hockey, started following the wild last year and after the the suter and parise pick ups i decided i would follow a little closer this year! (calling me a bandwagon fan is fair) but anyways, what do you think of the new guy, rupp? all i have really heard is that hes a tough vet.. I have no idea who he is or what he brings to the team.

He brings toughness, as you said, and can make it harder on other teams who want to beat us by being physical.

We have guys who can check and drop the mitts (Konopka), but guys like Cluttterbuck, Konopka and Setoguchi (who has brought physicality this year) are not really imposing on the ice. They are more pests than anything. Rupp brings a little more intimidating presence.

Like Chuck Fletcher said, teams have been physical with us on the road which has thrown us off our game. Hopefully he can mitigate that. Whether bringing in one guy can do that and make a big impact, remains to be seen. I am a bit skeptical. I believe to be physically imposing, your whole team has to have that mentality and play that way.

That being said, we have plenty of guys who can kill penalties. That made Powe expendable. So really it is a very low risk move that has more upside than downside. In that respect it is a good move.

It has become apparent that the Wild probably spoke to Konopka and have told him they don’t want him dropping the mitts unless he needs to. After getting in a few fights early in the year that were pretty much the staged variety, he has not been able to find a willing partner. And I think the Wild don’t want to be without him for 5 minutes and removing him as an option for important draws. Konopka has actually played well and not been a liability.

So enter Rupp who can drop the gloves at anytime. Konopka is also only 6′, were as Mike Rupp is 6′ 5″. He is a bit more imposing just to look at skating around on the ice.

From what I hear, Rupp is also a good character guy in the locker room who speaks up when needed. I obviously don’t have firsthand knowledge, but the guys we have in the locker room are not exactly the most vocal, although after the game last night they did have a closed door players only meeting. Not sure how much yelling a guy like Koivu or Parise would do. Certainly soft spoken Suter probably whispered some angry words.

So hopefully Rupp is the kind of guy who can come in a tear up guys who are not playing hard like what Owen Nolen used to do. And he has the clout to do it being a grizzled vet who has won a cup.

Tonight’s game has the making of either a great turn around game or big disappointment.

The Canucks are in town. Yeo has done some switching moving rookie prospect Coyle to the top line. Mike Rupp makes his debut. Should be a game where the boys come to play, emphasis on should.

My late father said it best. It’s time to either poop or get off the pot.

There will be a fight in the first 5 minutes to get the crowd fired up. Then it will be a Vancouver / Wild close checking low scoring game. Canucks 3-2.

They are a much better home team when they get the final line change. That way they get the right matchup for the first line. If they can’t get a couple lines scoring it is going to be a long shortened season. I will be there. Too bad Luongo isn’t playing.