MN Wild 2016-17 – Official thread.

How many cups do the Hawk’s have? How many time’s have the wild lost in the first round? Not trying to be a downer but this team has to be firing on all cylinders and that was proven today. The Hawk’s can get out played and win. The wild can out play a team and still loose. The experience level of Chicago’s top players blows the doors off the wild’s whole team. Cup credit and going deep in the playoffs is not a strong suit of the wild. I hope I’m wrong but I’d be greatly surprised if they get passed the second round. Something has changed with the team and it ain’t good. Hopefully it gets turned around, not a good time to start putting L’s up. Moral victories and patting them on the back for out playing teams in a loss is pure looserville bs that Minnesota sport’s is infected with. The history and pattern for what Chicago is known for heading into the post season is proven. The wild’s is as well, but more syndemic.

I understand that the wild need to prove themselves, but watching the team all year compared to the last 4, this team has made a big move forward. I won’t put a lot of stock in one game out of 82. Especially one where they looked really good, but things didn’t go their way.

Where was the Big guy #19?they trade all those draft picks for him and then not even put him on the ice, it was that very reason they acquired him.
The closer we get to the playoffs the clearer it gets, the Wild are in trouble if they face the Hawks.

jeff_huberty wrote:

Where was the Big guy #19?they trade all those draft picks for him and then not even put him on the ice, it was that very reason they acquired him.
The closer we get to the playoffs the clearer it gets, the Wild are in trouble if they face the Hawks.

Now you are a Packer fan and a Blackhawks fan? I sure hope you don’t twist and ankle jumping on and off the bandwagon

jeff_huberty wrote:

Where was the Big guy #19?they trade all those draft picks for him and then not even put him on the ice, it was that very reason they acquired him.
The closer we get to the playoffs the clearer it gets, the Wild are in trouble if they face the Hawks.

He was sick…so there is that.

sticker wrote:

Now you are a Packer fan and a Blackhawks fan? I sure hope you don’t twist and ankle jumping on and off the bandwagon

Probably a Cubs fan too.

The Wild absolutely dominated play for large stretches. Those 2 goals on 2 shots really took the wind out of the sails.
The Wild have more balance than the Hawks, but agreed, they lack a guy that can take over a game, but the way Granlund has been playing he just might be our guy.
I am counting on Crawford getting worn down the stretch here. Since Darling is out he will be pressured much more than before.
Yeah, we have lost the last 3 head to head matchups with the Hawks, but we are still up in points and have that game in hand.
The play the last 2 games has been much improved so that is a positive sign, but our D zone coverage is lacking.
The White play was just plain dumb. You don’t give up on a play, but 9 out of 10 times when a player does that it doesn’t result in a puck in your net either so it is hard to fault him too much.

I was surprised that White touched the ice after that play.

The last 5 minutes of the 2nd period was some of fun hockey to watch.

mplspug wrote:

<div class=”d4p-bbt-quote-title”>jeff_huberty wrote:</div>
Where was the Big guy #19?they trade all those draft picks for him and then not even put him on the ice, it was that very reason they acquired him.
The closer we get to the playoffs the clearer it gets, the Wild are in trouble if they face the Hawks.

He was sick…so there is that.

Ok so he was sick, even so the trade so far has not provided the Wild with what they were banking on.
Has it been an improvement over what they had, NO.
Boudreau had a brain fart yesterday pulling Dubes, why yank your #1 goalie against your #1 Stanley Cup obstacle, in a game that had so much to gain. He should have been left in to fight it to the end.:???:
Boudreau through in the towel on his #1 asset for the playoff run.

sticker wrote:

Now you are a Packer fan and a Blackhawks fan? I sure hope you don’t twist and ankle jumping on and off the bandwagon

I tried the Packers, another bust..I am now a Patriots Fan.

I have always had huge respect for the Blackhawks don’t get me wrong I am and will always be a Wild fan.
Though I just recieved season ticket renewal and playoff pricing,”YIKES”

jeff_huberty wrote:

He was sick…so there is that.
Ok so he was sick, even so the trade so far has not provided the Wild with what they were banking on.
Has it been an improvement over what they had, NO.
Boudreau had a brain fart yesterday pulling Dubes, why yank your #1 goalie against your #1 Stanley Cup obstacle, in a game that had so much to gain. He should have been left in to fight it to the end.:???:
Boudreau through in the towel on his #1 asset for the playoff run.

Dubnyk was not tracking the puck well at all. Yeah, it was only 2 shots, but 2 shots he should have made every day of the week and twice on Sunday. Boudreau knows the impact of that game which is precisely why he pulled him. It has nothing to do with trust.
What would you say had he left him in there and the Hawks put up 7 on him? I can hear it already “Why didn’t BB pull him?”
I was a bit surprised by it that early in the game especially considered by how Kuemper looked in his last start. Kuemper played just fine. It certainly wasn’t because of him that they lost.
Regarding that trade…Are they a better team with Hanzal and White? Absolutely! Do you not remember the revolving door at 4th line center Graovac? He cannot win a draw so BB was shuffling in someone else to take D Zone faceoffs. That alone will be key in the playoffs. If he cannot do it in the regular season, how are you going to count on him when it REALLY matters? I don’t trust him.

Hanzel wasn’t brought in to be a goal scorer. He gives us depth and an injury buffer at center that allows Granlund and Coyle to play on the wing. It’s going to be that much harder for opposing coaches to get a soft line matchup at home when they have the last line change.

And it also allows Boudreau to roll all 4 lines more. We arguably have the best defensive center group in the league. Something that will really come into play in the playoffs when teams actually start shadowing players like Kane.

CaptainMusky wrote:

Dubnyk was not tracking the puck well at all. Yeah, it was only 2 shots, but 2 shots he should have made every day of the week and twice on Sunday. Boudreau knows the impact of that game which is precisely why he pulled him. It has nothing to do with trust.
What would you say had he left him in there and the Hawks put up 7 on him? I can hear it already “Why didn’t BB pull him?”

It was a total panic move by the coach, Boudreau stuck his head up is keester it’s the worst place to make decisions from, Stevens helps him pull his head out of his rear and then out of anger Boudreau throws his #1 playoff asset, a top 5 NHL GAA under the buss.
Boudreau should have hopped on Dubnyks shoulders and went to the end of the bench also.
If you are Dubnyk would you want out? you know what that answer is.

jeff_huberty wrote:

If you are Dubnyk would you want out? you know what that answer is.

I know what the answer is, and I really don’t think you do. Have you ever played goalie? No matter how well you prepare, no matter how good you think you feel, no matter how good warmups went, there are days where it seems you are a step behind. And there are some days that the puck just won’t hit you. That just won’t go away either. There’s nothing you can do. The worst possible thing is to stay in net and get pummeled. It wrecks your confidence and destroys your motivation. It affects the rest of the team too.

You can try and be a “man” and say you want to stay in, but if you trust your coach at all, you’ll come ready for the next one.

To give me a sob story about these guys making millions either. It doesn’t matter.

And yes, a 10:30 am game makes a difference.

biggill wrote:

<div class=”d4p-bbt-quote-title”>jeff_huberty wrote:</div>
If you are Dubnyk would you want out? you know what that answer is.

I know what the answer is, and I really don’t think you do. Have you ever played goalie? No matter how well you prepare, no matter how good you think you feel, no matter how good warmups went, there are days where it seems you are a step behind. And there are some days that the puck just won’t hit you. That just won’t go away either. There’s nothing you can do. The worst possible thing is to stay in net and get pummeled. It wrecks your confidence and destroys your motivation. It affects the rest of the team too.

You can try and be a “man” and say you want to stay in, but if you trust your coach at all, you’ll come ready for the next one.

To give me a sob story about these guys making millions either. It doesn’t matter.

And yes, a 10:30 am game makes a difference.

Never said a thing about Money, or time of the game,which by the way is BS,I assume that everyone on both teams had to play at the same time, Correct?

Just because your pee-wee ego gets hurt makes you know how Dubnyk felt, You must have a closet full of Participation ribbons when you get to the NHL small egos get cut and sent to the minors.

Never said a thing about Money, or time of the game,which by the way is BS,I assume that everyone on both teams had to play at the same time, Correct?

Just because your pee-wee ego gets hurt makes you know how Dubnyk felt, You must have a closet full of Participation ribbons when you get to the NHL small egos get cut and sent to the minors.
[/quote]

I played keep for many years and biggill is right. Letting in the first shot is a killer, letting in the first two you know something is way off for the night. I’d bet money dubs was just fine with getting yanked.

Extremely difficult to get your head back into the right place after those first two go in. 100% right call in my opinion.

I already knew what you thought. I just figured I’d give you more fuel for the fire.

And big egos find themselves on the bench.

I’m sorry, you said you have or haven’t played goalie before?

The only thing that kept that from being a 6-2 Wild win was Crawford. The Wild totally outplayed the Blackhawks in 2 of 3 periods. Still a loss, but this is not 1-and-out elimination.

Even if that had been a Wild win, I’d have still be p!ssed off with White. Everybody older than 8 knows NOT to stop playing like he did. Dumb@ss. Hope Bruce reams him a new one for that.

Pulling the netminder is always a double edged sword. Risking messing with their head vs trying not to let them get the score run up on both themselves and the team, which potentially plays mind games with everybody.

It was all the Blackhawks could do to get out of their own zone in the 2nd and third periods. Kuemper needed to make that stop on Hossa, but unfortunately, it didn’t happen.

The Blackhawks are in the Wild’s heads, but that can change as quickly as the wind. The Blackhawks are now 2 wins and 8 losses in the last 10 against the Wild.

Grouse

mplspug wrote:

I was surprised that White touched the ice after that play.

I was surprised as well, surprised that Boudreau tolerated that kind of lack of discipline.

biggill wrote:

I already knew what you thought. I just figured I’d give you more fuel for the fire.

And big egos find themselves on the bench.

I’m sorry, you said you have or haven’t played goalie before?

Mr Huberty is just here to stir the pot now that the team is having a tougher time of it.
BB just got done singing the praises of Dubnyk the game before saying essentially he was bringing in the “closer” to get that win against FLA.
Dubnyk is just fine. Boudreau did the right thing. That game could have totally gone pear-shaped in a hurry and that would have been bad for a goalie and the rest of the team.

biggill wrote:

I already knew what you thought. I just figured I’d give you more fuel for the fire.

And big egos find themselves on the bench.

I’m sorry, you said you have or haven’t played goalie before?

It was the time change
Bruce did the right thing, Kuemper only gave up two in almost three periods. Crawford won that game.

Need a win against the slumping Capitols.

biggill wrote:

If you’re speaking solely on numbers, I agree. But I really don’t think that Zucker is a top defensive forward. When your line control the puck 90% of the time, you don’t have to defend.

Wouldn’t offense be your best defense? Remember a few years back when Ovechkin was leading or near the lead in the NHL is scoring/pts and he was a -36? There were multiple years of that.
I think what the Zucker, Granlund, Koivu has done is tremendous. All 3 of them have a wondering +/- and are putting the puck in the net fairly regularly. That isn’t always the case with lines that score. Typically they don’t play well defensively and that is where the +/- comes in. These guys are scoring and now giving up much.

CaptainMusky wrote:

Wouldn’t offense be your best defense?

Yep, absolutely. I didn’t mean to downplay his effectiveness, I just don’t think he is elite when defending. I think the major difference between Ovie and Zucker is that Zucker does have 2 elite defenders on his line.

biggill wrote:

Yep, absolutely. I didn’t mean to downplay his effectiveness, I just don’t think he is elite when defending.

Whoa, slow your roll. I never said Zucker was now elite and competing for the Selke. I was just pointing out he has come a long way defensively since first coming into the league.

belletaine wrote:

I was surprised that White touched the ice after that play.

I was surprised as well, surprised that Boudreau tolerated that kind of lack of discipline.

I believe he did miss the first shift after that, but that was all.

Come on now we can all use a little Huberty in this topic. After all, we need someone to throw the cup in their face when all is said and done.

I just wish Dutchy came back.

mplspug wrote:

Whoa, slow your roll. I never said Zucker was now elite and competing for the Selke. I was just pointing out he has come a long way defensively since first coming into the league.

Well I think a lot if not all of that has come this season. Mainly due to a new coach that finally is giving him a chance to play the way he can play. I think if he’s put on a different line you’d see him be a less effective defensive player.

Have you noticed that I’m not at work today???

So Dubes was happy to quit? Now you have your heads up the keester.
From that vantage point you missed that the Wild have a huge disadvantage against the Hawks.

Towes
Kane
Crawford

Just one question for you. Are you going to use those playoff tix or not? You can get am much closer look at your boy toys on your tv anyway.

Tough to give a small market team so much money for tickets.

I hope the wild plan a couple loops around Jeff’s house for the Stanley cup championship parade.

CaptainMusky wrote:

The Wild absolutely dominated play for large stretches. Those 2 goals on 2 shots really took the wind out of the sails.
The Wild have more balance than the Hawks, but agreed, they lack a guy that can take over a game, but the way Granlund has been playing he just might be our guy.
I am counting on Crawford getting worn down the stretch here. Since Darling is out he will be pressured much more than before.
Yeah, we have lost the last 3 head to head matchups with the Hawks, but we are still up in points and have that game in hand.
The play the last 2 games has been much improved so that is a positive sign, but our D zone coverage is lacking.
The White play was just plain dumb. You don’t give up on a play, but 9 out of 10 times when a player does that it doesn’t result in a puck in your net either so it is hard to fault him too much.

Darling will be available tomorrow night in Montreal. “So theres that”.

I agree wild dominated play for large chunks of time yesterday but i disagree about depth. Hawks can beat ya w all 4 lines.

Oh and Darling is 2nd only to dubnyk in save% this year btw. Not a whole lotta relief there either.