MN Wild 2016-17 – Official thread.

mplspug wrote:

The 3rd go he again was slow in tracking the puck and when he got over he was back in his crease more than he should have been.

This! That is really what happened. He made his move, was in great position BUT was too far back in the crease. Goalies do this from time to time to adjust for slower reaction times by moving back in the crease instead of moving laterally across. The other thing about the play and one thing I have noticed him doing with some frequency lately while he hasn’t been playing real well is rather than catch the puck with his glove he “shrugs” his shoulder to block it with his body. The puck went right over his left shoulder. Had he been out 4 more inches he stops it. Had he used his glove instead of shrugging he probably at minimum deflects it over the net or something.
I am not sure if its a tracking issue, confidence by not “taking his ice” and being at the top of the crease or what, but that should have been saved. Those type of goals are ones the goalies have to stop for you to go far in the playoffs.
After that period though he was very sound. Commanding his ice and moving laterally a lot better. He made some huge saves that really kept the game in hand, but it really shouldn’t have come to that. After starting 3 goals on 6 shots, he saved 18 in a row to close it out. That is more like the Dubs we love.

Dubs looks good tonight

Not that he’s been tested but he looks much better tonight. He’s swallowing pucks and playing at the top of his crease.

Update:
Doobs doesn’t seem to be moving to his left well. He doesn’t get all the way over.

By the way, the NHL again exposes themselves as a joke by only suspending Marchand for only 2 games.

I’ll say this, at least they are scoring goals again… but their defense must tighten up for the playoffs. This little win streak is nice going into the playoffs…

Get Dumba off the ice and that cuts goals against in half! Man he turns the puck over in their end ALOT!

Yes, nice to see them scoring again. Granny needs a couple to boost his confidence.

How’d they look in the 3rd? I went to bed.

I heard good, but I went to bed after 2 also. 4:30am comes early for an old fart like me

You guys missed a heckuva 3rd. We scored twice, Avs scored twice (with an asterisk). With under 2 minutes to play Wild up one the Avs “scored”. Initial call on the ice, refs waived it off and blew the whistle. It was reviewed by Toronto and called a “good goal”. No idea how if the ref had blow the whistle, but it was. Then Boudreau challenges it for goal tender interference and it was reversed! LOL
On the play, McKinnon pushed Brodin backwards into Dubnyk who looked like he got shot on the play and feel to the ice in a heap.

I really shouldn’t have even watched the game at all. My allergies were killing me, but I can’t help myself.

That was the dumbest NHL goal review ever! I mean, what the hell were those morons in Toronto thinking?

The Avs got a puck to trickle in the net late in the 3rd and it would have been the tying goal, but the referee waved off the goal immediately, and in fact, none of the officials ever indicated a good goal.

Then, apparently, Toronto called and took control of the game because the mothership morons thought they saw a good goal. So they overruled the refs on the ice and gave the goal to the Avs.

Now this is where it went from dumb to dumber. In the process of “reviewing” the goal, Toronto ignored the fact that the goal was caused by McKinnon pushing Brodin into Dubnyk! Blatant goalie interference.

So for those of you keeping score, the Wild had to challenge to overrule a call that the NHL morons in Canadaland had just overruled by overruling the call on the ice. Apparently, the NHL control room calls anything that goes across the goal line a “good goal” regardless of what else is going on in the picture.

I don’t care if it’s the Wild or any other team, this is the kind of stupid stuff that Toronto pulls that drives me crazy.

Wild get the win, but I agree the D is looking sloppy. They are allowing long cross-ice passes to connect and that needs to stop. They are just lacking sharpness overall in the D game, there are bright spots, but they are not in the lock-down mode that they were back in December/January.

The good news is the offense is unloading again on the weaknesses of the opposing goaltender and defense. The Avs are very weak in the D zone and the Wild should have exploited it even more.

But hey, laying a beating on the Avs is always awesome. Just another reminder for the Avs of how bad they suck. I only wish Roy was still there to be on the receiving end of it.

Grouse

mplspug wrote:

By the way, the NHL again exposes themselves as a joke by only suspending Marchand for only 2 games.

Yep. Another example of how the NHL will NOT punish sacred cow teams. It must be awesome to have an endless stack of “get out of jail free cards”.

Can you imagine the uproar there’d have been if a member of a team like MN or AZ had pulled that? 10 games would have been the minimum.

Grouse

I think it had more to do with him being the #3 goal scorer and top 5 point getter this year, than him playing for Boston. The thing is he has pulled so much BS in his career that this was easily a 5 game suspension at least. If it was a first time offender, I’d be ok with 2 games.

The problem is when you compare it to other suspensions. It ends up putting this on the same scale as Nyquist’s high stick to Spurgeon. Nyquist’s stickwork on Spurgeon was nasty, but that’s not the type of player he is and if you believe like me, it was an accident. Compare that to Marchand spearing a guy in the nuts on purpose, poking him in the face when he is down, all from a goofy looking ahole with the wrap sheet that is long. He should have at least 5 games to sit.

Seems real remorseful and apologetic. I hope his career ends soon compliments of karma.

I hope he blows out a knee trying to pull one of these stunts before he ends someones career.

Pug, though I agree with you on all accounts in your assessment of Marchand, the kicker here is timing. This latest incident came with only a few games remaining in the season. They were not going to suspend him into the playoffs. Typically its a 2, 5, 10 type escalation of suspension. At the least I would have liked to see him suspended 5 games, but with the weight of a playoff game vs regular season the NHL would never do that.
I cant stand that rat-faced twerp any more than you can. He should have been suspended earlier when he leg-whipped that guy and never even got a game let alone a penalty on the play.

Question Pug, do guys ever take runs at this guy? If not why not? You would think every team in the league would head hunt the crap out of him. That video clip I am sure is just a tiny fraction of what he has done. Even the announcers agree he’s an injury threat to every team.

There is a YouTube compilation video of him being hit hard. Mind you, they are all legal hits except one where Landeskog catches him high in a vulnerable position, but even then, he got up and literally sucker punched Landeskog.

Musky, the NHL has a history definitely has a history of not letting star players miss any playoff games or very few. The operative word being “star”.

Marchand has zero respect for the game of hockey or any of his opponents. I realize that his teammates have to like his production, but I would still hate to have to stick up for his horrendously stupid actions. The biggest thing for me is that you don’t see any of the other little guys play like that. Did you ever see Marty St. Louis pull stuff like this? Absolutely not. It’s just pathetic.

Even in the golden age of pests and agitators you never saw guys undercutting and slough footing as much as he does.

Wow. I guess I never knew he was such dbag. With so much history of this I’m outraged.

Wow! I kinda wanna hit him with my car…

belletaine wrote:

Wow! I kinda wanna hit him with my car…

ha!

Ok, I’m finally ready to say it.

Yeo Must Go!

should be an exciting series, I predict the Wild in 5

Let’s hope the Predators beat up on the Blackhawks in a 7 game series too…

JoeMX1825 wrote:

Let’s hope the Predators beat up on the Blackhawks in a 7 game series too…

No way. Bring on the Hawks. I’ll take a series agains the Hawks over a guaranteed visit to the finals.

The only way to get over the stigma of losing to the Hawks would be to beat them IMO.
Still, we have to get past the Blues before we worry about that. They have been great since Yeo took over. GAA way down and that is after losing their best DMan in a trade.
Now they get some Russian guy to play to add instant offense.
Will be an interesting series for sure.
I like our chances, but nothing would surprise me.

Not sure if you guys have been keeping tabs on the Brian Bickell story, but its so sad. He announced his retirement and then in his last game put him out there in a shootout and he gets the game winner! I always hated that guy when he was with the Hawks because he dominated us. Not that he was a bad guy, I just didn’t like him because he scored a lot.

biggill wrote:

<div class=”d4p-bbt-quote-title”>JoeMX1825 wrote:</div>
Let’s hope the Predators beat up on the Blackhawks in a 7 game series too…

No way. Bring on the Hawks. I’ll take a series agains the Hawks over a guaranteed visit to the finals.

I still think the Hawks will beat the Preds in 7 (They’ll pull out a few overtime victories like they always do…) I just want the Predators to punish them physically…

Here are my locks (Subject to Change )

Sharks over the Oilers
Caps over Leafs
Pens over Blue Jackets

/////////////////////////

Hawks over Preds in 7
Wild over Blues in 6
Ducks over Calgary in 6
Sharks over Oilers in 5

Montreal over Rangers in 7
Boston over Ottawa in 7
Caps over Leafs in 6
Pens over Columbus in 7

Wild over Chicago in 6
Sharks over Ducks in 6
Montreal over Boston in 7
Caps over Pens in 7

Wild over Sharks in 6
Caps over Montreal in 6

Caps over Wild in 6

Here’s are my picks:

/////////////////////////

Hawks over Preds in 7
Wild over Blues in 5
Ducks over Calgary in 5
Oilers over Sharks in 7

Rangers over Montreal in 7
Boston over Ottawa in 6
Caps over Leafs in 4
Pens over Columbus in 5

Wild over Chicago in 7
Ducks over Oilers in 6
Rangers over Boston in 6
Caps over Pens in 7

Wild over Ducks in 6
Caps over Rangers in 6

Wild over Caps in 7

Homer pick I know, but I think the Wild will return to playing like the start of the season and our depth wins us tight games. In the finals, we shadow Ovi with Erikson Ek (ala Geaton Duchene) make somebody else on the Caps beat us all series…

So I just heard on the radio that had the NHL had a 3 point system, the Wild would’ve been best in the west.

Just something to chew on when comparing the wild to the hawks.

biggill wrote:

So I just heard on the radio that had the NHL had a 3 point system, the Wild would’ve been best in the west.

Just something to chew on when comparing the wild to the hawks.

You mean 3 pts for a win right? They already do have “a 3 pt system” with their lame loser pt in OT/Shootout.
Id rather they just let games end a tie and only award 1 pt each, then 2 pts for a win in OT, it counts the same as a regulation win (except for tie-breakers).
I think this stupid rule actually allowed Toronto to make it in vs TB. I didn’t confirm by checking myself, but I just heard it on NHL Network Radio.