Let's Go Wild!

I’m not giving up on Kemps yet, remember, I think he’s only 24 or so. I think he’s going to be a horse, he just needs to get though the pony stage.

I’m not giving up on Kuemper either. When he is on his game, he looks elite. He has the same problems now that most young goalies and defensemen have, and that’s consistency.

I think the couple of injuries he has had has set back his development, so I am willing to be patient.

In retrospect I think this is a subtle great move. Will it cure our ails, probably not, but it could pull them out of the funk. We didn’t give up much for him and although he’s not an elite goalie, which would be impossible to nab at this point of the season, he’s about as good as we could hope for.

He’s outplayed Smith who was elite. His stats are skewed from playing in Edmonton. His worked with Sean Burke this year and that may have helped him improve. The only reservation I have about his stats is he played in Arizona and should have good numbers under Tippett and maybe those decent numbers are skewed too?

Time will tell, but at least I don’t have to feel dirty about watching the game tonight. I actually have a legit reason.

And people say I’m a gluten for punishment for watching the Twins!!

Tough sell. He was the backup goalie for a bad team, but from the looks of it probably should have been getting more playing time than their (Coyotes) current starter.

Will it be enough to turn it around? Probably not. Enough to pull them out of a funk the rest of the year? I have a feeling Fletch and Yeo better hope so or the unemployment line might be a popular place.

3 positives from the first period

1-taking care of the crease area in front if the net

2-finally finding Vanek again on the PP when he finds the soft spot in the zone

3-Dumba, a middle weight, taking on a heavy weight and sticking up for a teammate. Although with our thin D situation, I dont think Yeo will be happy.

Fun to watch but man, Buffalo is bad.

OK, we made a decent game out of playing for a bad team, so hopefully that eases the snake bitten feeling for a while.

Honestly, the goaltending situation is one that I can’t say there was an easy way to foresee it or get out of it. So adding Dubnyk was probably one of the best moves available for what we want to give up at this point.

I agree with Pug, the D looked much cleaner and more organized last night. We need players like Dumba to find his full-time pro game and turn into a producer the way he did last night.

Let’s hope they can use this streak of easier games to get the ball rolling again.

Oh, and Yeo still must go.

Grouse

Don’t get too used to watching Dumba. I like the kid too and can’t wait for him to turn pro, but too many D guys get hurt by being rushed. We are very fortunate that Scandella was able to turn it around after being rushed a bit.

He is certainly going to be a fun guy to watch. A lot of heart and character in that kid, something people accuse the Wild of lacking. Also a giant personality with a big smile. He reminds me an awful lot of PK Subban. A couple of guys who are a lot of fun to watch because of their enthusiasm.

He’s always going to be a bit of a risk taker and liability. I don’t see that going out of his game completely. So he’ll never be a top 2 D, but he will bring a lot of energy and help the PP and 4 on 4 situations. That’s the mold I kind of see him, a puck carrying defenseman who will specialize on the PP.

Let’s take it one game at a time and be grateful we aren’t talking about a loss to the Sabres!

Dumba scored more points last night than Suter has in how long??

Gundy

Suter and Dumba aren’t even in the same hemisphere as far as I’m concerned. Although Dumba did play a better game than he ever has for us, I don’t think he is anywhere ready to play in the NHL yet. I think at best 2 years unless he matures quickly. He does have a good shot, but last night was the first time he has ever shown it. The wild have brought the young players up too soon because of desperation, and call the lineup deep. I think there is a lot of potential, but bringing up Coyle, Haula, Granlund, Folin, Kuemper, and even Nino too fast has slowed their development. Brodin was brought up right away too, but he is a freak of nature being so good at his age for a defenseman. The D being brought up are due to injury though. I hope we get healthy soon.

gundez-71 wrote:

Dumba scored more points last night than Suter has in how long??

Gundy

I think Dumba could be ready next year. The flip side is sometimes guys get left in the minors too long. I think best case scenario is next year he spends about half his time up here and half down there as a first call up. Like I said, I don’t think he’ll ever be a defensive stalwart, so the coach will need to make room for him on the PP. Quite frankly, I don’t think Suter should be on the PP, the 1st PP at least. He is way too deliberate and shifts sides of the ice too much, wasting precious seconds off the clock.

stalwart:

adjective: stalwart
1.
loyal, reliable, and hardworking.

I agree with Suter on the PP. I was disappointed that Yeo never put Scandella on the PP at all let alone the 1st PP. One thing I really don’t like about Yeo is how he coddles the veteran players and is too afraid to switch them out when things are clearly not working.

Where do I join the Dubnyk fan club?

Too soon?

Kemper had back to back shut outs to start the season.

Yes, to soon.

Coyle was a beast last night.

Coyle needs to play like that every night. I think his game has slowly gotten better as the season has rolled on. My favorite quote was when one of the announcers said Yeo wants Coyle to hold onto the puck. But he’s not real puck strong and he doesn’t have great stick handling. If that develops though, could be second coming of John Leclaire.

Don’t bite my head off, but despite a tough loss, I liked what I saw. Just about everyone worked their butts off out there. I don’t know, but to me they seem to have a lot more fire and confidence.

Much of the same. Good effort, outplay the opposition, lose the goaltending battle. It’s not a coincidence.

Although, Columbus played very well, our D actually looked pretty strong and D-dub made some fantastic saves.

Yeos reason? “Bumpy Ice”

Are we poor shooters or is every goal tender we face that good?

Gundy

gundez-71 wrote:

Are we poor shooters or is every goal tender we face that good?

Gundy

My answer is always that it’s not a coincidence. Not every team has a hot goalie.

Bob is good, but we had a couple pipes and a couple whiffs. I am sure Matt will tell us as a goalie, we hit the pipe because the goalie had everything else covered.

mplspug wrote:

Bob is good, but we had a couple pipes and a couple whiffs. I am sure Matt will tell us as a goalie, we hit the pipe because the goalie had everything else covered.

Absolutely! And a pipe doesnt even count as a shot on goal.

Wow, these redwing ballwashers, I mean announcers are even worse than the Blue Jackets last night. You’d think every wing was Gretzky. And they have absolutely nothing but negative comments when mentioning the Wild players.

mplspug wrote:

Wow, these redwing ballwashers, I mean announcers are even worse than the Blue Jackets last night. You’d think every wing was Gretzky. And they have absolutely nothing but negative comments when mentioning the Wild players.

WE hardly say anything good about them!!!

I’m guessing they think Patrick Kane is selfish and overpaid too.

I mean the Jackets announcers said the same clog the neutral zone trapping wild…which is exactly what the jackets were doing, not us. That’s not uncommon. Almost every opposition announcers say that.

Newsflash, Lemaire don’t work for us anymore.

mplspug wrote:

I’m guessing they think Patrick Kane is selfish and overpaid too.

I mean the Jackets announcers said the same clog the neutral zone trapping wild…which is exactly what the jackets were doing, not us. That’s not uncommon. Almost every opposition announcers say that.

Newsflash, Lemaire don’t work for us anymore.

Maybe he should.

No thanks. His time came and went.