Let's Go Wild!

Hmmm. So what you’re saying is that you foresaw the Wild’s goaltending woes BEFORE the season started and you totally predicted that Dubnyk would turn from a backup benchwarmer with Phoenix to a starting sensation with the Wild? I must have missed the posts where you called all this out. Or is the view just that much better from the bandwagon you just jumped on?

My comment about the goaltending was 100% correct. Based on the strong performance the Wild had in the playoffs last year from Kuemper and Bryz, goaltending was not the concern that it ended up being when the Wild hit the skids in the middle of this season.

So I said that Dubnyk was a good move considering what the Wild were willing to give up. What was wrong about that statement? As it turned out, he was a great move, but that doesn’t change the fact that the Wild were unwilling to give up a top tier player + draft pics for a goalie at that point, so their options were strictly limited. Even Yeo and Fletcher have said that what happened with Dubnyk was pure luck and nothing that either of them expected or foresaw.

Yeo is a prime example of limited expectations in MN sports. Take a look around the league at all the coaches that have lost jobs after having far MORE success in the playoffs than Yeo has mustered so far. Like Ken Hitchcock for instance. My God, compare his resume to Mike Yeo’s. Several teams have fired Hitchcock for things that Yeo supporters are claiming to be great achievements. 3 playoff appearances in a row? That’s only cause for Coaching Sainthood in MN.

Grouse

Talking about Yeo and nothing else…Remember how many posts you said “Yeo must go…”? Funny your not saying that now. Bandwagon jumper. Fans that stand behind their teams don’t call for the coaches head mid season when the team is playing .500 hockey. Yeo is a damn good coach. His job is to put the puzzle together. Sometimes the edges don’t mesh correctly and its his job to make that happen. I just hate it when the first thing uneducated hockey fans do is call for the coaches head when times get tough. Wild went through a terrible 15 game stretch when they let their record get back to .500. If pro teams fired head coaches every time teams went on those kinda’ streaks major league baseball would have new coaches every other week. Stand behind the club (and the coaches…) and in the immortal words of Mike Tice, “Enjoy the season…”

Like I said, us true fans have room on the wagon but we don’t mind kickin’ you off next year when we are sitting at 23-20 and you want blood…RR

Oh, one more thing. Missed the part where you said I JUST jumped on the bandwagon. Been a season ticket holder since day 1 junior and have been wearing the green n red proudly ever since those tough first days. Can’t call this fan (er true fan…) a band wagon jumper! …RR

But it’s so damn catchy.

Yeo must go. Yeo must go.

Anyway. For a coach to:

Year 1 – miss the playoffs
Year 2 – lose first round
Year 3 – lose second round
Year 4 – win cup

How could you fire the guy?

Whoah, are we trolling each other now?

Calm down.

How can grouse be a bandwagon jumper when he’s been following the team all year and I believe he also has season tickets? not sure if I should say, bandwagon, I think your using it wrong or you spelt “has an opinion” wrong.

Stay focused

Hey I just jumped on the band wagon and thats OK with me. GO WILD!

mplspug wrote:

Whoah, are we trolling each other now?

Calm down.

How can grouse be a bandwagon jumper when he’s been following the team all year and I believe he also has season tickets? not sure if I should say, bandwagon, I think your using it wrong or you spelt “has an opinion” wrong.

Yes, I’m sure that’s what he meant. Gotta keep a constant eye on that autospell.

I’m even open minded about Yeo. I proclaim here and now that I will become a card carrying member of the Mike Yeo fan club for a full 365 days. Just as soon as the Wild make an appearance in Game 1 of the Stanley Cup Finals. You heard it here first.

Grouse

The easy out for uneducated jumpers (season tix holders included…) is to call for blood when things head South for a team (which every team in every sport goes through every season…). Hey, it’s in print (many times I might add…) that you called for Yeo’s head on a platter. NOT HIS FAULT is my only comment. Glad to see your on board with Yeo now (now that he’s winning I should say…). Wild over the Hawks in 6! Grouse come on over and visit. Section 105 Row 17…GO WILD. (Geez, sorry I called you out. Never do that again…)

I personally don’t think that criticizing a team makes someone a bandwagon jumper. Just not a homer. I do see what you are saying though, but when Grouse was calling for Yeo to Go, at least he was following the team. I can’t stand fringe players who just parrot what they are hearing.

I got an IM from an old coworker who during the game asked if Koivu still played for the team…I said, “Oh, you’re one of those” thinking it was sarcasm.

One thing I will say about Yeo is I better not see the same dang pattern as the last to years. It has to be an anomoly….right?

Come out of the gates playing awesome hockey, but only having a so-so record to show for it. Be at the brink of, for all intents and purposes, playoff consideration. Go on an astounding run in the second half to just get in.

Hawks say Crawford will most likely start in goal for Game 1. If his performance is similar to the series with the Preads, there will be opportunities to get pucks behind him and get inside his head.

This is it! The Wild have their chance here. This is not the Hawks team that has eliminated them in years past, IMO this is a beatable team with what the Wild have at their disposal.

The Hawks are different from the Blues, but I’m not sure they are vastly better except in one dimension. The Wild are going to have to watch the scoring threats across multiple lines. Hopefully the Wild can keep up the tight D and the denial of clean possession and opportunities across more shifts against the Hawks.

The Wild have won their last 2 against the Blackhawks so I hope in their heads they see this as do-able and come out hard with no hesitation. It would be huge to steal a game in Chicago and put them on the ropes early in the series.

I think the Wild can do it, but this is round 2 so I’m not going to predict an easy path. I think this comes down to a one game series, winner take all in G7.

Grouse

Gotta eat some crow over that Blues series. Doobs was amazing combined with their poise and ability to out skate them.

If Doobs remains smoking hot and goalie drama builds in Chi town, Wild could be moving on to round 3. Going to be a great series. The Wild team really redefines “team.” Everyone doing their part for the betterment of the team.

Go Wild!

Friday night, opening up the cabin and having cold ones while watching the WILD… life is good

It’s playoff hockey. No need to eat crow unless you were here annoying crowing about the Blues kicking Wild butt.

Crawford does have a little streakiness in him where he plays poor sometimes. Hopefully we can get into his head early. The problem is the Hawk skaters are pretty clutch. Every year I expect them to fall off a little and it doesn’t happen.

I think the Wild is a better team this year than last year. I remember last year the people in the know said that the Wild was go to be a stronger team against the Blackhawks if they were going to meet again in 2015. The Blackhawks have to get in from of your goalie to make the game more interesting!!!

GO BLACKHAWKS!!!!!!

Goaltending – Advantage Wild (Big advantage BTW…)
Coaching – Advantage Wild simply because Yeo makes good decisions on the fly…
Defense – Tie but our 3rd defense is better than Hawks 3rd…
Front line players – Tie (possible slight edge to Hawks…)
Intangibles – HAWKS! (hey, they win in the playoffs…)

All this equals a Wild win in 6…Chicago had their run over the last few years. Time to end that run and begin a new run!

just don’t let any games get to overtime, the Hawks seem to pull it out everytime in OT…

X2!!!!!!!!

JoeMX1825 wrote:

just don’t let any games get to overtime, the Hawks seem to pull it out everytime in OT…

X2!!!!!!

Goaltending – Wild

Defense – Wild
I actually think the Hawks defense is overrated. Keith is very good, but Suter is better. Rozsival and Oduya are horrible, especially Rozsival. We need to exploit them.

Forwards – Chicago’s whole team is clutch. They make the defense and goaltending look better. There are couple interesting stats out there. Wild lead the league in…PP%. Chicagos PK% is toward the bottom. MN had the least shots per game, but Chicago has given up the most shots per game. MN is top 5 in shots allowed while Chicago is 3rd in shots per game.

Looking at those stats I have no idea what to expect. I do suspect we are going to see a completely different flow to the game than we saw in the games vs St Louis. I expect it to be fast pace and more odd man rushes.

I was going to say Zucker and Fontaine and any of our other bottom 6 speedsters would have a big series, but then I read they split Oduya and Rozsival up. They are pairing with Seabrook and Keith. I still think those guys will be big in this series. If I am remembering correctly, their speed got them some breakaways last year….

Nope, just went back. Zucker was hurt. Haula played well against them and Fontaine. I still say the 3-4th lines come up big.

Puck Luck!

Just remember…

its always better to be lucky than to be good, but both is great!!

The Wild needs to finish EVERY check on Kane/Toews/Hossa/Sharp to wear them down later in the series, I think it goes 6 or 7 games with the Wild winning and then beating the Ducks to go to the cup and play the Rangers.

Kane is the X factor in this series as it will fall more on speed & skill vs checking. It boggles me how little Kane is hit during the game, it’s almost Gretzky like, Bickell isn’t an enforcer, so take some shots!

Other teams focus on getting physical with Granlund, Spurgeon & Brodin, it’s about time we do the same against other team’s small skilled players!

I remember when they thought Granlund was soft. I am amazed at how physical he is with that smallish frame, especially after suffering a concussion this year. The kid is tough for a Euro!

That’s one thing I haven’t liked about this Wild team. The don’t check near as much as they should. I realize it’s a team built for speed, but you have to knock guys off the puck sometimes, and they don’t do it near enough! Guys like Kane will skate all over you if you don’t knock them off the puck.

Actually the Wild as far as checking is as technically sound as you could be if you watched the Blues series.
If you are talking BIG show boating highlight film hits No the Wild dont have or need that in their game.
Funny how many said we had NO chance against St Lewey because they are so physical yet we out hit them and schooled them overall in 6 if the 7 games.

The recorded hit numbers are a joke, go rewatch the series,
every single time they had the chance, the blues forwards rubbed out our players on the boards. The wild is very selective when they decide to hit, even our supposed toughest player (Stewart) would just push off players a vast majority of the time….

Who on our team finishes checks? Cook (always when he plays) Coyle (sometimes) Nino (sometimes) Brodziak (sometimes) Stewart (sometimes) they all do the slash and circle/push away move the majority of the time…I’d put Zucker’s name near the top of our team’s list in regards to players who actually finish checks, that’s pretty sad… Chicago has more skill than us on the offensive side, we need to be more physical and slow them down otherwise it will be a clinic…

PB2 wrote:

Actually the Wild as far as checking is as technically sound as you could be if you watched the Blues series.
If you are talking BIG show boating highlight film hits No the Wild dont have or need that in their game.
Funny how many said we had NO chance against St Lewey because they are so physical yet we out hit them and schooled them overall in 6 if the 7 games.

You should ask Granlund/Parise/Spurgeon/Brodin how they felt after the Blues series was over…other than Parise (who’s got a motor that won’t stop) those other guys absolutely slowed down as the series went on…Spurgeon was practically invisible…. it takes a toll on the smaller guys..especially the deeper into the playoffs you go…

We dont have to change a thing. We have been the best in team in the NHL for a few months now.
And yes I did watch the Blues series and yes I did watch the wild absolutely destroy them in six out of seven games.
But Congrats to you on the Blues finishing their checks..LMAO.

mplspug wrote:

I remember when they thought Granlund was soft. I am amazed at how physical he is with that smallish frame, especially after suffering a concussion this year. The kid is tough for a Euro!

He’s tough until he get’s another concussion…. He’s paid to setup/score goals, not check… that’s how Vanek has managed to stay in the league all these years… I get nervous for Granny, don’t want him to be the next PMB…