MN Wild 2016-17 – Official thread.

Wow. The Bruin’s send Claude Julien packing! Man, I look at decisions like this and wonder, like I did with the Ducks firing Boudreau, and wonder just what do they think the coach was missing?

I mean, look at the Blues. They fire Hitchcock for, ummmm, for Yeo??? Basically, what we have in many of these cases is GMs that think they are better coaches than the coach. Obviously, firing Bruce was a major boost to Anaheim. Not! It’d be freaking hilarious if they didn’t make the playoffs after firing Bruce for not making it to the finals!

The Vegas expansion team has incredible luck. Hitchcock’s on the market, Julien’s on the market, and we’re just past the mid-season mark! There’s going to be 5 top tier coaches on the market by the end of the season. Talk about luck.

The Wild have a should win game tonight, which is always dangerous. Here’s a chance to rack up 2 more points on Chicago AND then get the Hawks in town for a mano on mano battle on Wednesday. These games in hand against Chicago are a nice boost. Unfortunately, we are not getting much help in the Central from other divisional teams. WTH happened to Dallas? They should be a lot better than they are. So should Nashville.

Grouse

The Jets are always a tough game on the road…

Cant remmeber who said it on KFAN but they said “NHL head coaches get hired to get fired”

I know one thing im sure glad the Ducks fired Bruce!

TheFamousGrouse wrote:

<div class=”d4p-bbt-quote-title”>mplspug wrote:</div>
What is wrong with some people.

The Flyers front office staff created that situation deliberately. They knew full well that if you hand a Flyers fan anything, they’re going to throw it on the ice. It’s part of the jackass culture of being a Flyers fan.

We had these 2 guys from New York sitting next to us one time when we were playing the Pens. They must have bought the tickets on stub hub or whatever.

One of the guys commented, “God the fans are so quiet. Where’s the yelling at the refs or the “Sid Sucks” chanting?”

The guy behind us said to the New Yackers, “This is Minnesota. We don’t have to be a-holes here.” Summed it up pretty nicely.

Grouse

I must have missed this one. Did Santa show up at a Flyers game?

mplspug wrote:

I find the PP “SHOOOOOT” annoying though.

Even better when they’re on their backhand at the blue line. We had a couple sitting in the row behind us that were always yelling SHOOOOOOT. Drove me up a wall.

Per Russo, the Wild are going to be playing with the lineup a bit over the next 3 weeks. I just hope the keep the Koivu, Zucker, Granlund crew together.
Coyle to play center tonight. Maybe that will get him going. Though, I doubt it. Stats-wise he isn’t having a terrible season he just needs to be more consistent.
Gotta love how the Hawks are sitting at home for 3 days while the Wild play a game on the road (tonight) and then travel home for a game tomorrow night against the Hawks!

tegg wrote:

<div class=”d4p-bbt-quote-title”>mplspug wrote:</div>
I find the PP “SHOOOOOT” annoying though.

Even better when they’re on their backhand at the blue line. We had a couple sitting in the row behind us that were always yelling SHOOOOOOT. Drove me up a wall.

Strategic use of the “shooooot” call does have its lighter moments. 2 years ago during the playoffs against St. Louis, the Blues softly flipped the puck into the Wild zone to get a change. Kuemper skated out to stop the puck with his stick just below the dots.

Darcy stopped the puck and looked up to see that both teams had almost completely left the ice and were all clustered against the bench-side boards changing. It was kind of a blown change, for some reason there was literally nobody between Kuemper and the Blues netminder.

So from the stands, several people all at once yell at Kuemper, “SHOOOOOOOOOOOOOT!!!!”

He didn’t shoot, instead he handed off the puck to one of the Wild players coming off the bench, and then we missed the chip in and it was icing.

Just by chance, that icing prompted a TV timeout, so it got kind of quiet. That prompted some wiseacre with a really loud voice down in the first deck on Kuemper’s end of the ice to yell:

“Come on Darcy! You gotta take that shot!”

The yell resonated with surprising clarity and it was the only time I can remember ever seeing a player visibly react to something somebody in the crowd yelled. It was quite clear by the shaking of Kuemper’s head that he had heard that yell and was laughing. I think it was Suter that skated by then and said something to Kuemper and he clearly laughed again.

Grouse

That’s why I like the summer league in Edina called “Da Beauty League”. Goalies WILL take the shot.
DT

Doesn’t Kemper have an assist this year?

The boys scared me last night a little. Had a hard time breaking out of their own end again and didn’t seem to have the strong forecheck. 2nd and 3rd period had me on the edge of my seat

Kuemper had an assist against the Oilers. Giving him more points against Edmonton than McDavid has against us this season.

Grouse

That certainly wasn’t the prettiest game last night. I agree, I was worried about their play. Yeah, they were up 2-0, but that could have easily been tied. It could have also been 4-0 if Zucker poured the one in or Tuch finished off the chance he had, so I guess it goes both ways.
If Winnipeg ever gets solid goal tending and better D coverage they are going to be a serious contender.
Man, they were man-handling our guys all over the ice last night.
Pominville with 4 pts, Coyle with 3 assists. Boudreau’s magic potion just keeps working.

TheFamousGrouse wrote:

Kuemper had an assist against the Oilers. Giving him more points against Edmonton than McDavid has against us this season.

Grouse

That’s what I thought! That is awesome

You’re exactly right, Cap’n. Another way I described that win is “shaky”. That win belongs mainly to Dubnyk because with those weird D-zone turnovers, we were handing the Jets prime chances left and right.

I have to say there was a first in that game for me. I have NEVER actually seen a penalty shot awarded in the NHL for use of equipment to interfere. I didn’t even know that a penalty shot was awarded for that. Obviously the refs were a little unclear on what was to happen there as well because they almost gave the p-shot to the wrong guy. That was interesting.

Pomms, Pomms, Pomms. We love you! Whatever was going on, leave it behind and keep doing your thing.

We also had a few players sleep-walking on offense. Cripes, Zucker, if that net had been 33% bigger, you’d have STILL missed over the top with that wide open shot at half the net.

I have to take back those things I said about Coyle. Turns out we just needed to move him back to the center. Now excuse me if I say I’ve seen this movie before, but whatever it takes to get him going.

Another couple of positives. We continued to send opposing goalies on the Walk of Shame. Paul Maurice is a cagey coach and credit for seeing his guy was floundering and pulling him before he got run over.

Also credit to the Wild again for continuing their punishment of teams that pull the goalie. Don’t think for a second that this tendency to stick in the dagger won’t pay off in the playoffs. First off, other coaches KNOW that the Wild are deadly when the net is empty so that’s going to factor in to their decision of when to pull and that’s only good for us.

The Wild need to get the team into QuickieTune and get hitting on all cylinders by tonight. This is a golden chance to slam the door on the Hawks. They know very well that they need a W in every one of these head to head matches because we will continue to float ahead with 2-3 games in hand which makes us hard to catch.

OK, well, it was ugly, but it was a win and it could have been 6 to 2.

Grouse

TheFamousGrouse wrote:

I have to take back those things I said about Coyle. Turns out we just needed to move him back to the center. Now excuse me if I say I’ve seen this movie before, but whatever it takes to get him going.

Some guys need to be put on a line with other players to get out of their funk. Maybe Coyle is the kind of guy who needs to swap positions from time to time.

Olofsson is playing tonight to give him a look. I suspect the Wild may trade a Olofsson, Reilly or Folin for some depth at center so they don’t have to lean on Graovac and allows Coyle to move to wing if needed, not to mention giving them a little injury insurance.

Charlie Coyle played like a power forward tonight for sure. I’ll take more of that.

On to the Bolts v Wild. It’s going to be a fun Friday.

I was lucky enough to get my buddies tickets last night , 11th row on the aisle behind the the goal the Wild shoot at twice.

They seemed to slow down at the start of the third period after playing fast and aggressive the first two.
Crawford’s a pretty good goalie and I think was the difference last night. I was surprised to hear we hadn’t lost to Chicago in the regular season since 2015, an eight game run.

Still loving my guy Coyle! And he’s only 24…
You watch, he’s gonna have the C on his sweater some day!

…for Las Vegas!

mplspug wrote:

…for Las Vegas!

NO!

I don’t know why so many people were blowing up Twitter about Boudreau starting Kuemper over Dubnyk last night. I think it made perfect sense. Dubnyk had started a couple in a row and you knew he was going to sit one of the 2 in the back-to-back, play Dubnyk against the Jets since he was playing well, then rest him against the Hawks. I have no problem with it at all.
Roenick sure seemed to think it was a dumb idea. That game meant far more to the Hawks than the Wild and we will got 1 out of the deal with our backup.

Kuemper kept us in it, there were a couple defensive breakdowns in front of him that lead to goals he had no chance at saving.

And I would say we will see more of Kuemper down the stretch with our CBA mandated 5 days of rest at the end of the month. We play the Hawks again on the 21 and then do not have a game until the 27 and I think there can be no organized hockey activities during those 5 days.

Bruce got 3 of 4 points out of 2 back to back games, within the division, the second game being the first coming off a road trip against your biggest rival. I think he did well.

Grouse, did you hear Doc Emerick mention that they have gotten a lot of complaints about not talking about the Wild? Doc said, “With the next 3 games all being Wild games I think we will be able to provide”, I am sloppily paraphrasing. They were definitely talking up the Wild last night. I believe Jonesy afterwards remarked that even though they lost the game in OT, the Wild are clearly the better team.

It’s pretty hard to find fault in Kuempers game last night. The third goal he probably overplayed, but he made many other saves to keep it close.

I can’t believe that offsides was in conclusive and I am surprised Staal wasn’t called for interference on the 3rd Wild goal.

Meet the triplets

Poor Tampa has just been injury prone the last few seasons. I think Palat plays Friday, but with Callahan and Stamkos out, I don’t know if these 3 will play together.

mplspug wrote:

Meet the triplets

Poor Tampa has just been injury prone the last few seasons. I think Palat plays Friday, but with Callahan and Stamkos out, I don’t know if these 3 will play together.

How’s the support down there pug?

mplspug wrote:

Grouse, did you hear Doc Emerick mention that they have gotten a lot of complaints about not talking about the Wild? Doc said, “With the next 3 games all being Wild games I think we will be able to provide”, I am sloppily paraphrasing. They were definitely talking up the Wild last night. I believe Jonesy afterwards remarked that even though they lost the game in OT, the Wild are clearly the better team.

I can’t believe that offsides was in conclusive and I am surprised Staal wasn’t called for interference on the 3rd Wild goal.

I totally heard that and it’s about time they picked up on the fact that every Wild game they covered they would sit there and talk about the other team and how great they were right in the middle of a game where the Wild were in the process of whipping that other team’s ass. I give Emerick credit for finally realizing it.

RE the alleged offside play, this is the second time this season that the announcers and the crowd have missed the point on a play that they thought was offside. Even the announcers were, again, missing it last night, thankfully the refs know what the rule states.

What triggers an offside call is NOT the puck crossing into the zone before all players are on-side. What triggers the offside is the TOUCHING of the puck by the offensive player once it enters the zone, but BEFORE all offensive players are on-side. People get this wrong all the time.

This happened earlier in the season with Koivu. He pushed the puck in the zone clearly before another of our players got back on side, but he did NOT touch the puck after it went across the blue line and into the O zone until that other player crossed back out of the zone and got on side. Koivu then touched the puck and the refs rightly ruled that the play was on side.

So what was inconclusive last night was NOT that the puck crossed the line before Parise came back out of the zone and therefore got on side. The inconclusive part was did Coyle TOUCH the puck in the zone before Parise got on side? Because of the black tape and black blade of Coyle’s stick you cannot conclusivly see from any angle when Coyle actually touches the puck and that is what must be visible in order to overturn the play. Therefore the correct call was made. Good goal. Again, the booth announcers got it wrong.

Tough game last night, but IMO nothing to be worried about. We were playing a backup goalie in a back-to-back game, with the previous game being an away game. And it still took Chicago until overtime to beat us and only then with Chicago’s best goaltending being provided not by Crawford, but by the crossbar and the post and a very questionable call on Suter who was holding Hossa after Hossa interfeared with him getting to the puck. Both should have gone off for 2.

Kuemper got beat by our own D lapse on one goal that you just can’t let happen against a team like Chicago. That was the difference maker. Serve up Chicago again, we’ll be back on top next game I’m very confident. We still get points and we still have 2 in hand, so time to do just what Bruce has been preaching the whole season, focus on winning the next game.

Grouse

Fan support?

It’s a little hard to gauge living in Orlando, but support seems strong. Their attendance numbers are the same, if not better, than the Wild (Wiki Attendance #s.

Tampa has some hockey themed bars and I am sure that the sports bars are better at having games on than around here. You also see a lot of cars with Lightning stickers over there and a lot of billboards.

The one game we attended, there were a ton of Canadians running around. So I am sure the attendance figures are good with out of town attendees.

The arena is pretty cool. They have a place outside the arena called Thunder alley where you can get a some beer and booze pregame. IT’s more like what the Vikings do (or at least used to at the dome). They have live music and food vendors too.

The announcers initially weren’t explaining it correctly, but then someone in the truck must have corrected them because they eventually started talking about touching Coyle’s stick. You are right that it was inconclusive, but I’m 98% sure he touched the puck before Parise touched up.

Win the week, that is the goal. It was a pretty intense game for regular season last night that is for sure.
I have a high confidence that Coyle did touch that puck, but agreed, you cannot confirm when it actually happened and where Parise is at that point.
My buddy and I were texting back and forth right after the goal, before it was reviewed even and both said it was offsides. Then, as the review happened and was going on for a long time I said, “the longer this takes, the better it is for us!”.
There was plenty of sloppy officiating both ways last night and the last several games actually.

mplspug wrote:

…weren’t explaining it correctly, but then someone in the truck must have corrected them because they eventually started talking about touching Coyle’s stick.

Puck Daddy and other online hockey sites are AGAIN using this as an example of a blown replay review, but now I see 2 reports have pulled down their lengthy criticism because they were wrongly using the position of the PUCK to claim it was clearly offside because at the point where the puck enters, Parise had clearly not cleared the zone.

Wasn’t it the NBC crew who got it wrong as well earlier in the season with a Koivu play? It was crystal clear on that review that he did NOT touch it until all Wild players were on side, yet the broadcasting crew was saying it was “obviously” off side until their earpieces started ringing with no, no, no that’s not the rule and then they did a 180 without explaining that clearly both booth guys did not know the rule.

I would agree, there is a strong chance of a touch by Coyle, but there is no conclusive angle. A direct overhead shot would be needed and none was available.

Grouse

@ 0:45 it sure looks like Coyle stops the puck while both the puck and Parise are in the offensive zone. Now don’t get me wrong, I like when the calls go the Wild’s way but this one is close! Bring on the Bolts!!

LaPanta was explaining it on KFAN that it was originally offsides, but Coyle pulled the puck back out of the zone and upon re-entry it wasn’t conclusive if they were offsides. The review can only go to the most recent entry, and nothing prior (when they were offsides) because teams would be able to then challenge a previous zone entry from 2 minutes prior to the goal.