I agree wild dominated play for large chunks of time yesterday but i disagree about depth. Hawks can beat ya w all 4 lines.
Normally I’ll disagree with you there, but I didn’t see our 4th line dominate on Sunday like they usually do. If you don’t follow or watch the wild you probably don’t know how deep they really are. The same can be said about myself and the hawks.
I watch a ton of hockey, wild, hawks, heck any hockey I can get. Top to bottom wild have as balanced a lineup as anyone and yes that includes the hawks. They lack superstars like kane or toews but if you can shut those guys down it doesn’t matter.
Tonight I’m watching the wilds opponent after the caps tomorrow out up 8 tonight. Buckle up kuemper!
The wild have very balanced scoring. Look how many guys they have with 20 pts, heck 20 goals. Not many teams have more.
The wild are second in the league in goal differential. More goals scored for and fewer against than the hawks. Yes, we can score and do it from top to bottom even better than the hawks.
Come playoff time throw that all out the window but give credit to what the wild have done because it has been impressive. Where that leads them is yet to be seen but this is uncharted ground for this team and it’s quite exciting.
The Blackhawks have proven year after year that their core is so good that it makes their supporting cast look better. My God, they have Tootoo who shouldn’t even be in the NHL anymore. They get rid of guys like Saad and Sharpe and it doesn’t seem to affect them.
The Wild may end up with a 3o goal a year player or two still. Niño, Granlund and Zooker are still young and their best hockey is ahead of them.
Superstars get paid the big bucks because they produce when the pressure is on the line. The Blackhawks were terrible for years, thus they were able to pick Kane 1st overall and Toews 3rd overall, they also grabbed Keith in the 2nd round. When you can draft 3 players who made the all time top 100 players list, you’re going to have success…
Wild fans can just hope that the Hawks fade a bit when Kane and Toews 10 year contracts are near the end, but even then they won’t be nearly as old as Parise and Suter will be at the end of their contracts…
When they play 20+ minutes a night including all powerplays and penalty kills, you can hide the minimum salary guys alot easier.
I REALLY like the makeup of the Wild, especially in a 7 games series, rolling 4 lines can pay dividends in games 6 or 7…The problem is the Hawks are built to win series in 4 or 5 games…if they get rolling, they are almost impossible to stop…
A page from the book of Coach Burrns; Our Fr^&%$ big knockers have to step up and play if we are Fr^&$% going to win.
A page from the book of Coach Boudreau; Fr^&%$ our big Knockers! I will yank thier Butts.
A page from the book of Coach Quinn; Our Fr^&%$ Big Knockers will be on the ice for every minute they are able.
Big Knockers: Wild 0
Hawks 3+
I can’t wait to see Martin Hanzel drink water out of the cup from Jeff’s Koi pond.
I wish I could say this with a straight face…
I can’t wait to see Martin Hanzel drink water out of the cup from Jeff’s Koi pond.
I honesty hope your right,their past and most current performances indicate your not.
Maybe you 2 can skip to Koi water and drink some Crown on the rocks out of it.
Anyhoooo…
Big game tonight. I’ve been waiting for this matchup against the Caps. We’ll see how the Wild match up against Ovechkin & Co.
I hope Dubnyk is back in the net and back on his game. He needs to just get out there and have a good game.
Let’s go WILD!
Grouse
two teams who are not playing their best right now…this should be interesting…I predict a lopsided score…hopefully the Wild come out on top…
Jeff, any thoughts about Ovie Oshie and Holtby or are you still drooling over Kane Toews and Crawford?
Jeff, any thoughts about Ovie Oshie and Holtby or are you still drooling over Kane Toews and Crawford?
No worries there, “if the Wild” can’t get past the Blackhawks, a series against the Capitols never happens. 
But a loss tonight could mean the wild move out of first place.
“if the Wild”
What do you mean “if”? Starting to have doubts about the hawks?
Down 3-0 after 2. We got them right where we want them. 
Down 3-0 after 2. We got them right where we want them.
3-2 
For as good as the first period was to watch, that second was plodding.
Not to brag but the emoticon was kinda tongue in cheek. I really expected some kind of comeback while the caps start playing on their heels.
I don’t post on here often but I always keep up with this thread as an avid hockey player and Wild fan. You can tell there are a lot of guys on here that have a solid hockey IQ and make valid points. Even though I shouldn’t be annoyed, I can’t help but be about your comments Huberty. Do you have nothing better to do with your time than stir the pot on an otherwise pretty sensible thread with a group of guys that love their Wild and just want to be able to talk about games? As another former goalie, your comments are completely off base about Dubnyk being pulled, and I’m beginning to wonder if you even played hockey at all? That doesn’t necessarily mean anything, but your comments suggest that you just want to argue and be a pain simply for the sake of being a pain rather than actually having a real discussion.
And this Jeff is why us skaters never talked to the goalies. They are a surly bunch of headcases
Ahhhh, the ripple affect of a slumping team….
I’ll preface by saying we knew this was not an easy road trip to start, 5 games in 8 nights on the road is tough, but if they can beat the Canes, it’s a salvageable 2-3 trip…
This team has a big lack of focus right now…they are not paying attention to the details and it’s killing them…errant break out passes in their own zone that eventually lead to goals, bad line changes, missed defensive zone coverage, lazy penalties…I think the Wild are due for one of those dreaded “Closed door team meetings”
Something needs to be reset with this team, get back to what made them successful before the 5 day break… Like players have said in the papers, there’s no need to panic and i’m sure Bruce has a plan to fix it…
The April schedule looks like an opportunity to pull away with the division playing bad teams, so setup for the stretch run…
Joe, agree on all accounts.
Dumba partially redeemed himself for his 2 stupid penalties by scoring early in the 3rd, but it just wasn’t enough to make the difference.
Ovie got going again and scored, everyone knew that wasn’t going to last by why is it that MN sports teams are the magic elixir for a slump? #slumpbusterUSA
I’m not too worried about the team yet. Still plenty of games, but they really do need to be playing at their peak at the end of the season. They are playing good to very good in long stretches of games, but a few mistakes here or there and they are down 1, 2, 3 goals. Glad that Staal seems to be finding it and Coyle is quietly getting his game back.
He had one move where it looked like he was just going to be forced into the corner only to force himself around the defender (I think Schmidt) and had a great scoring opportunity. That is what we need from him.
Hockey Commercials
If you ever hear me talk about a Minnesota or Midwest accent, listen to Pavelski…even though he’s a Sconi.
But a loss tonight could mean the wild move out of first place.
<div class=”d4p-bbt-quote-title”>jeff_huberty wrote:</div>
“if the Wild”What do you mean “if”? Starting to have doubts about the hawks?
As another former goalie,
“Former” 
is the key word in your 2nd string statement.
#1 goalies do not want to be yanked Five Minutes into the game.
#1 goalies do not want to be yanked Five Minutes into the game.
I told you they are weird. Who turns down that.
I should stop watching the Wild… Not a hockey fan at all, didn’t grow up in Minnesota, but a big enough sports fan in general and Minnesota sports fan (Huge Vikings and Wovles fan) that I want the Wild to be good and will join the bandwagon.
Last year after all the hype I watched their playoff series… fail.
This year, for the first time, I watched their game vs. Chicago on Sunday. Had to change the channel after 5 minutes.
Last night I watched some of the game against the Caps.
Moral of the story, I don’t know if the Wild have ever won a game I’ve watched on TV.
I should stop watching the Wild… Not a hockey fan at all, didn’t grow up in Minnesota, but a big enough sports fan in general and Minnesota sports fan (Huge Vikings and Wovles fan) that I want the Wild to be good and will join the bandwagon.
Last year after all the hype I watched their playoff series… fail.
This year, for the first time, I watched their game vs. Chicago on Sunday. Had to change the channel after 5 minutes.
Last night I watched some of the game against the Caps.Moral of the story, I don’t know if the Wild have ever won a game I’ve watched on TV.
On the bright side the Wolves have been fun to watch the last 5 or 6 games. 
Well that settles it. @mnrabbit is to blame for the losses. He has been watching the games. So as long as he discontinues watching the Wild we should be good right?
I’m as superstitious as they come and I wasn’t even a goalie, but I threw my “good luck” outfit into the wash this morning. Hopefully that will be the difference to put them over the edge.
I have noticed that my wife has been encroaching into my man cave and watching portions of the games recently too. I better put an end to that immediately!
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