MN Wild 2016-17 – Official thread.

Huh, imagine that.

That was the best goal of the season this season!!

Are you effing kidding me?

Jared Spurgeon disagrees. Just had to stop the most predictable nhl power play play in the NHL once.

Well we can always count on Dunyk to come up with a big save when we need it.

Not tom mention Coyle out too long and terrible coverage on Oshie.

Dubs has got to get back on track, looks likes he’s phoning it in right now…from the behind the net puck gaffs to being late sliding over on Ovi’s shot when the entire arena knows where it’s going…

Still seeing alot of bonehead plays by players typically immune to them like Spurgeon…

They have 2 weeks worth of games against beatable teams to figure it out…

Can we sign Bryz?

Suter and Staal said they had a plan to defend Oviedo on PP. Was that plan to leave him so wide open to the net and hope he choked?

And what was our PP, 0 for 5?

Luckily I am tired or I might break the site with this thread.

Radio guys a while back said that when Dubnyk was pulled early on in the Blackhawk game that it was interpreted as an insult by him (Dubs).

I think there is bad chemistry in that locker room, they play when they want to. Hopefully they have a mental reset by April 12th.

Most people when insulted set out to prove the other wrong.

INSANITY: doing the same thing over and over and expecting different result…. 2 things last night

First off EVERYONE who has ever even watched 5 minutes of hockey knows Ove is going to be in the circle on the PP. We did NOTHING to stop that 3 flippin times. WTH??

Second is keep running Doobs out there even though he has been playing terrible, again WTH?

Bruce must have gone insane on the bye week.

I am not sure how much more of this I can stand to watch

Something we seem as fans to lose sight of……the other team gets paid also and they make plans. This Caps team isn’t a bunch of high schoolers. They are a highly skilled team who know how to win. Ovie is a skilled goal scorer, one of the very best in the world. We can say the Wild were horrendous and got outplayed, outcoached out everything. Or you can say they hung in there and played a pretty good game against a very good team from the East. They only gave up 20 shots again and a World Class player was the difference in the game.

Disappointing loss……yes. As bad as some of the recent losses, no way. The light is at the end of the tunnel and it’s not a speeding freight train either.

Come on Dutch, here is the plan. Ove you stand in the circle, we will distract them and pass to you and you drill it past the goalie. They do it to every team in the league and no one stops it. Play 3 on 4 with everyone else and stick one guy right in Ove’s back pocket. Problem solved.

I agree, they played very well with a super high powered team, I will for sure give them that. The Ove hat trick drives me absolutely NUTS though

sticker wrote:

Come on Dutch, here is the plan. Ove you stand in the circle, we will distract them and pass to you and you drill it past the goalie. They do it to every team in the league and no one stops it. Play 3 on 4 with everyone else and stick one guy right in Ove’s back pocket. Problem solved.

I agree, they played very well with a super high powered team, I will for sure give them that. The Ove hat trick drives me absolutely NUTS though

Umm, if nobody stops it. I understand the frustration but lets give him some credit also.

CaptainMusky wrote:

I think they are sleepers. They just need a bit a luck and harder work to get back to their game.

I nominate this statement as the one that sums it all up the best.

They are all sleepers,for 35-40 minutes a game.
Problem is, in the NHL you can’t win games playing from behind for the remaining 15-20 minutes.

This is BS, we made a furious come back and tied em up at the end, but still lost, so now pat me on the back and call me ready for the playoffs.
this team is in serious trouble.

ganderpike wrote:

Radio guys a while back said that when Dubnyk was pulled early on in the Blackhawk game that it was interpreted as an insult by him (Dubs).

X2

Check a few pages back, I called that out and was soundly called a traitor

Ganderpike;You have to watch out for all the former NHL caliber goalies on this site, they are like a pack of dogs, if you kick one they all bark!

Hanzel continues to look more and more comfortable and is playing better with each game. It also appeared that Stewart was motivated yesterday. If only a goalie being pulled could find such motivation.

The problem wasn’t that he pulled him in 2 minutes, the problem is he put him back in at all the next game! Doobs has issues that need to be fixed before he goes back in the net. He obviously can’t work thru it between the pipes. He needs several games off!

Not being a goalie expert I have to ask. Isn’t what we are seeing from Doobs what the Coyotes traded? Wasn’t his past reputation that he was inconsistent? So who is the real Doobs?

Dutchboy wrote:

Not being a goalie expert I have to ask. Isn’t what we are seeing from Doobs what the Coyotes traded? Wasn’t his past reputation that he was inconsistent? So who is the real Doobs?

He was in the past, but he played 75% of the season in top form, but both him and the Team seem to have taken the entire month of March off this year….

They have a cake April schedule, so hopefully they can get out of this funk before playoffs start…

I think it’s all between his ears…and it snowballs after 1-2 goals…but even last night I saw 4 or 5 really dumb plays by Suter & Spurgeon of all people, so it seems to be effecting everybody…

It’s kinda funny, how many times during the March games have you noticed we make a mistake (like we can’t chip it out of the zone, or we create a neutral zone turn over) and 20-30 seconds later it leads to a goal against? I know last night I swore at the TV saying “Here comes a goal” right after Joe Dirt (Ryan White) tried to glove the puck and misplayed it…sure enough Oshie scored 20 seconds later…

They are playing better the last two games, but still can’t stop shooting themselves in the feet…

mplspug wrote:

Hanzel continues to look more and more comfortable and is playing better with each game. It also appeared that Stewart was motivated yesterday. If only a goalie being pulled could find such motivation.

Why trade a first and second, for a 4th line Center?
The beginning of the end for this team was the game against the Blackhawks on February 8th.
Chicago comes into town and Kane calls it a must win game for the Blackhawks.
Everyone in St.Paul disregards the fact that the Blackhawks are entirely focused on winning that game.

”There was some added meaning to it, for our team anyways,” said Toews, who also had two assists.
”It was a huge win,” Blackhawks coach Joel Quenneville said. ”We had to win the game to keep us within striking distance.”

So here you can see the difference between a Stanley Cup contender, and a team that has never experienced what it takes to do so.
The gap between these two teams has continued to widen, The Blackhawks have dominated the wild for the remainder of the season.

I compare it to the photo of Muhammad Ali standing over an undefeated George Foreman laying on flat on his back and Ali yelling at him who is the champion now. The Blackawks knocked out the Wild on February 8th and they have not been able to get up off the Mat since.

100% agree JoeMX1825, I saw that turnover too and thought the exact same thing!

Dutchboy wrote:

Not being a goalie expert I have to ask. Isn’t what we are seeing from Doobs what the Coyotes traded? Wasn’t his past reputation that he was inconsistent? So who is the real Doobs?

I’d say yes and no. His history of inconsistencies and having Mike Smith ahead of him made him expendable. And the Wild were desperate to try anyone. However since joining the Wild, he has been more consistent. Therefore I would take more recent history as the real Doobs. I personally judge someone on their more recent history.

jeff_huberty wrote:

Why trade a first and second, for a 4th line Center?

Because it is an upgrade adding defensive center depth without giving up a prospect. And he is more of a middle 6 (2nd, 3rd line) center. And we added a gritty fourth line winger as well. Hanzel means we hopefully, barring injuries, don’t have to depend on Haula and Graovac as our bottom 6 centers.

mplspug wrote:

<div class=”d4p-bbt-quote-title”>jeff_huberty wrote:</div>
Why trade a first and second, for a 4th line Center?

Because it is an upgrade adding defensive center depth without giving up a prospect. And he is more of a middle 6 (2nd, 3rd line) center. And we added a gritty fourth line winger as well. Hanzel means we hopefully, barring injuries, don’t have to depend on Haula and Graovac as our bottom 6 centers.

He’s also been a beast on faceoffs and that can be huge in the playoffs… nice signing of Kloos today by the Wild, center depth with some scoring punch for Iowa…

mplspug wrote:

<div class=”d4p-bbt-quote-title”>jeff_huberty wrote:</div>
Why trade a first and second, for a 4th line Center?

Because it is an upgrade adding defensive center depth without giving up a prospect. And he is more of a middle 6 (2nd, 3rd line) center. And we added a gritty fourth line winger as well. Hanzel means we hopefully, barring injuries, don’t have to depend on Haula and Graovac as our bottom 6 centers.

“Scoring Is what they needed”
The upgrade has not helped, the upgrade they needed to put them in Stanley Cup Contention was a top line player not a 4th line center.
2’s 3’s and 4’s will win you games in the regular season,not in the playoffs.

JoeMX1825 wrote:

He’s also been a beast on faceoffs and that can be huge in the playoffs… nice signing of Kloos today by the Wild, center depth with some scoring punch for Iowa…

Boudreau is calling him slow.

jeff_huberty wrote:

“Scoring Is what they needed”
The upgrade has not helped, the upgrade they needed to put them in Stanley Cup Contention was a top line player not a 4th line center.
2’s 3’s and 4’s will win you games in the regular season,not in the playoffs.

Who are you quoting, because I am going to have to respectfully call BS on that one. The Wild are 4th in the league in scoring. The Wild needed center depth and one who could play defence.

And bottom 6 lines are what win in the playoffs. It’s the exact opposite of bottom 6 win games during the regular season, not the playoffs.

You’ve heard of the term shadowing a player? Now the Wild have more options with the line matchups they’ll see in the playoffs.

Dutchboy wrote:

<div class=”d4p-bbt-quote-title”>sticker wrote:</div>
Come on Dutch, here is the plan. Ove you stand in the circle, we will distract them and pass to you and you drill it past the goalie. They do it to every team in the league and no one stops it. Play 3 on 4 with everyone else and stick one guy right in Ove’s back pocket. Problem solved.

I agree, they played very well with a super high powered team, I will for sure give them that. The Ove hat trick drives me absolutely NUTS though

Umm, if nobody stops it. I understand the frustration but lets give him some credit also.

Just to be perfectly clear Ove is a huge superstar, no question about it, and I give him a ton of credit for taking everyone they will give him.

My issue is the Wild and Bruce did nothing to stop it, NOTHING!!!! Just let him drill 3 PP goals in from the same spot, the same way.

Listening to Bruce today on KFAN, he said they spent alot of video review and practice time on how to stop that specific Ovi shot on the powerplay. He said once the puck starts moving around the umbrella, players get out of position and Ovi can burn ya, he joked how they spent all that time on it and he still scored 3 ppg’s, he said Ovi is by far the greatest shooter in the history of the NHL…hard to argue with him…Having Nick Backstrom setting Ovi up doesn’t hurt either… if we play them again, why not just stick a player on Ovi and take your chances 4 on 3 with the other players…

Our playoff success will all come down to if Dubs can get back on track in the next 7 games…