Let's Go Wild!

The only thing we have to fear is fear itself. Thus concludes the FDR moment of the day.

I’m pretty confident that the Wild can do as well as any other team in dealing with injuries and we are probably better than most. Keep in mind, we’re missing some A-grade players right now and we seem to be doing OK.

On the goaltending side of things, I’m not going to give up on Kuemper. He’s a very young guy and he showed last year he’s got skills in the net. He’s not a washup, he’s inexperienced and he needs time to learn how to bring consistent play into his game. Who’s to say he couldn’t start tomorrow and look awesome like he did at the beginning of the season?

Grouse

Wild got LeopOLD Good insurance.

GO GOLDEN GOPHERS!

I’m not giving up on Kuemper, but I was really high on him. I thought he could be a top tier goalie. But his inconsistency this year has downgraded my enthusiasm for him. And as of now we are looking at Kuemper/Backstrom heading into next year.

I think the last 2 years have told us more about our defense than our goalies. We’ve had a lot of goalies put up nice numbers here when they were healthy. But when a goalie starts letting soft ones in, that’s where the team falls apart. The team starts playing differently.

I hope something can be done with Backstrom so we have a decent back up that can come in and also push Kuemper.

Interesting. Leopold in, Falk + draft choice out.

It looks like the NHL will slap fines on the Patrick Roy, Gabriel Landeskog and Cody McLeod. More important than the fines, this puts all 3 of them on the offender list, so from here the suspensions and fines can be ramped up fast if they keep this cr@p up.

Hopefully the league will be paying attention to these d-bags when they play the Wild next.

Grouse

Wild get Chris Simon, I mean Chris Stewart. Glad to see we got some toughness to throw in the line up to go after guys like McClown & Backes. The way the team is playing now I hope they just swap out Bergenheim.

Well this one takes the cake. Wild end up with Leopold. Why? Well, his daughter did write to the Wild management asking them to trade for him. Yes. She really did.

Grouse

She didn’t close the letter with xoxoxo’s it must be fake.

Now stop that, Dutchboy. This is so cute I want it to be true.

Grouse

In this day and age I’m surprised (and happy) she can write instead of tapping out a text or e-mail.

Fletch expects them both to play tomorrow? Who deserves to come out for Stewart?

Schroeder & Prosser or Folin will get taken out tonight, we need to see what these new guys can do…Stewart has the ability to be a huge offensive plus if he has his head on straight…being in a contract year with the stigma of being a locker room issue, he has 2+ months to prove to everybody he’s grown as a person/player and worthy of another big contract next year..Bergenhiem will eventually be a good 4th line guy (Think Veilleux but with offensive upside) but we want to ride our current 4th line magic until it fizzles out…

I just hope we don’t burn out Dubnyk this month…you’d think his only chance of sitting is against an Eastern conference team on a back 2 back night (we have 4 this month alone) so i’m guessing he sits Friday vs Canes and then the Islanders on 3/24

We need as many points we can get right now, so hopefully the race doesn’t come down to the last week of the season, because our final 3 games in 5 nights are BRUTAL (Hawks/Preds/Blues) Hopefully the Preds/Blues have everything locked up and sit some guys before the playoffs…

Schroeder is the lone healthy scratch tonight.

Man, I’m not sure about this.

Nice to get more size up front with Stewart, but holy cow this is a LOT of line shuffling to be doing when you’re in a playoff race. Anything could happen, though. I suppose at the end of the day you’re as likely to discover a dynamite combination as you are to hit a total bust.

Totally agree, whatever you do, don’t mess with #4. Both the Preads and the Avs didn’t have an answer for that 4th line, they were chasing and leaning toward the D-zone all night. The Wild really benefit from being dangerous like that.

I agree with Joe, there has to be a “Rest Dudnyk” plan in the works.

We’ll have to see how it goes. I’m a little nervous about tonight, lots of moving parts and the Wild need wins.

As an interesting twist, the Wild play the Sens tonight. The Jets play them tomorrow.

You guys think the X will be rocking when the Avs come to town on Sunday? Welcome to St. Paul.

Grouse

Grouse

Can someone explain why a goalie needs rest? By far the least demanding position physically, and the way these guys travel they should have plenty of opportunity to rest imo. Plus weren’t some of the best ever, i.e. Hasek and Belfour, play nearly every night their whole careers?

I see both sides. I want to keep rolling him since everything is clicking. He has about 15 less starts then other top goalies this point of the season from coming on later in the season. I can understand giving him a day off in a back to back (maybe) but other than that he better be in the net!

Yeah no need to rest him….hes fresh from not playing much this year. And he seems to never waste energy. Hes calm cool and collected.
Ill be shocked and disappointed if he misses more than a game to be honest.

If goalies had no problem playing 2 nights in a row, then no coach would sit them. It is demanding on the whole squad, but you can’t take out 18 players. It all depends on the first night. If the goalie is hot, you aren’t going to sit him, but it could catch up to him by the end of the season. Every goalie is different. Doesn’t do any good to sit him if you miss the playoffs.

I like the thought of Vanek – Koivu – Stewart. Hopefully Koivu and Vanek don’t pass up shots.

If we get healthy come playoff time we are going to be sitting pretty with a lot of options. Zucker, Cooke and Carter will be ready at some point. Remember Yeo sitting Heater and Brodziak in the playoffs and last year and they came back with a lot of fire when put back into the line up.

One kid the Wild won’t be bringing up is Zack Phillips their #1 pick a few years ago. They traded him to the Bruins.

BigWerm wrote:

Can someone explain why a goalie needs rest? By far the least demanding position physically, and the way these guys travel they should have plenty of opportunity to rest imo. Plus weren’t some of the best ever, i.e. Hasek and Belfour, play nearly every night their whole careers?

It mostly has to do with the back-to-back games being tough. Players don’t get on the plane for the 2nd game until about 12:30-1:00am, then fly to the next city, get into your hotel around 3:30am, get some sleep, wake up and eat and then back at the rink the next day around 4pm…goalies also wear around 35 lbs of equipment all game and don’t get to sit on the bench for 2 minutes after a 40 second shift.. 20+ games in a row is alot, especially with the amount of back to back games we have this month…he should be good if we give him the 2 nights off I talked about (Eastern Conf back to back games)

Dutchboy wrote:

One kid the Wild won’t be bringing up is Zack Phillips their #1 pick a few years ago. They traded him to the Bruins.

By all accounts he was a top notch prospect at the time. For every player like Haula you are lucky to find in the 7th round, there’s also a few 1st rounders who are complete busts..It looks like we swapped Phillips with one of Boston’s high picks who got lost in the shuffle in their organization. Sometimes a change of location makes all the difference…

we just can’t GIVE AWAY anymore points like we did with Edmonton a few games ago…we’ll take a loss here and there on the road like any other team, we just can’t give up the easy points, because odds are the other teams in the chase won’t…I think we evened it out by winning in Nashville (as only 3 other teams have all season) but hopefully those 2 points don’t become season killers..

Yes Grouse, I’m excited for the Avs visit to St. Paul this weekend!I would really enjoy attending that one, it’s gonna be loud!
I just hope they stay focused and play hard. With the Avs being pretty much out of it it could be ugly and I hope the Wild don’t succumb to baiting and chippie play.
This is really getting fun and I like the energy that’s building. Come playoff time they should have some very fresh legs returning to the lineup and pretty good depth to keep it that way.
Hang in there Doobs!!

It’s funny because I look at it now like those 3 games are going to be tough ones for the blues, hawks and preds.

This thread will be fun to look back on after the season.

what a bunch of pot smoking losers

mplspug wrote:

what a bunch of pot smoking losers

Disgusting.

I see Dubnyk set a franchise record last night with his 21st straight start.
14-2-1 since the break, wow.

that was an interesting game, lots of mistakes by the Wild that we got lucky didn’t cost us the game…HUGE 2 points…

Regarding the new guys, I thought Leopold looked SLOW…i’m guessing/hoping he sits in the press box once we get our regular d-men back..Stewart looked really nervous, but showed glimpses of what he can do in terms of physicality and getting in front of the net, not sure he fits well on Koivu’s line though… Bergenhiem is like a wrecking ball out there, I really like his speed and physical play…

We just need the Kings and Sharks to start to fall off a bit from their hot streaks…With as good as they’ve been playing, thank god we’ve been the hottest team in the league since the all-star break or this season would be over by now…

Wild scored to go up 2-0 in the second so I go upstairs for a snack. Come back and it’s 2-2. and……….I didn’t even eat that much!

Great win, even if we get the extra point for the skills competition.

Ottawa has been very hot lately. They road a 5 game win streak including 3 road wins against the Ducks, Kings and Sharks. They beat some good (and desperate) teams on the road, 3 time zones from their home rink.

Lets hope they get back on track tonight and take care of the Whinepeg Jets for us.