MN Wild 2016-17 – Official thread.

TheFamousGrouse wrote:

<div class=”d4p-bbt-quote-title”>sticker wrote:</div>
Agreed, Caps are going to have a tough time coming back after losing the first two at home, but you never know.

The Pens have gotten inside Holtby’s head and turned him into a twitching basket case. He may never recover. The Pens have once again turned it up to 11 when it really mattered.

If you think Wild fans have a complex about “that team” that we just can’t beat when it matters, well, we got company.

Grouse

Looks like the Capitals are 1-8 against Pittsburg in the playoffs (throughout their history).

mplspug wrote:

Niskanen gets Crosbied. BS call.

Receiving a crosscheck to the face qualifies as getting Crosbied? So you’re saying it’s a Crosby embellishment and he leaned his face into Niskanen’s stick shaft while he was awkwardly falling over backward? And then just to complete the embellishment, he left the game for good?

IMO what’s BS is the sheer number of crosscheck no calls that go on in EVERY game. Parise takes 10 crosschecks to the back per game away from the puck with zero calls on average. That makes calling the crosscheck so wildly inconsistent that you end up with this situation where when it does finally get called…

Problem here is you have 2 of those brand name teams that are the beneficiaries of 90% of the no calls when they are the offenders and on the other side they get constant soft calls. Ovechkin got away a First Degree Grand Slash Felony 10 seconds before, which is completely typical of these teams “brand name” teams that the NHL wants to protect. You just happen to have two of these protected teams meeting each other here, so what’s a ref to do?

Talk about a motivator for the Pens. Look out Caps, there aren’t going to be any non-finished checks in the next game.

Grouse

Crosby out game 4 w/ the predicted concussion…Day to day after that. Personally i’m not too sure that concussion didn’t come from #8 but who knows (based on Crosby falling down after the tomahawk slash he took to the melon…) Glad Niskanen didn’t get anymore punishment…

TheFamousGrouse wrote:

Receiving a crosscheck to the face qualifies as getting Crosbied? So you’re saying it’s a Crosby embellishment and he leaned his face into Niskanen’s stick shaft while he was awkwardly falling over backward? And then just to complete the embellishment, he left the game for good?

Crosbied can mean a number of things, but it is basically any call or non call where Spud is involved where bias overrides reality.

In this case Crosbied is getting 5 minutes and a match penalty for doing nothing more than having Spud fall into your stick. Niskanen isn’t even looking at him, he’s following the puck. To me it looks as if he is aware Spud is headed his way in his peripheral vision and he is raising his stick to block Spud from running into him.

And it appears the NHL is going to do a reverse Crosbied and not even review the play.

mplspug wrote:

And it appears the NHL is going to do a reverse Crosbied and not even review the play.

Ok now you’ve crossed some sort of line. That doesn’t even resemble marginal English.

Btw, I didn’t see the game or hit but I understood exactly what you meant by “Crosbied”. Isn’t this the same crap that happens in the NBA?

Yes, I will grant you that it happens in all sports that have a lot of contact. For example, in baseball I have never seen anybody get Maurered.

But the bottom line is sports are entertainment and every story needs a villian. For me it is Spud.

If I ever saw him in a bar I would buy him a drink and say I love watching you because I hate you so much.

Then I might ask if he’s had all the slivers from Niskanens stick removed from his gums yet.

I agree. Hockey needs more PK Subbans and less Spuds.

Also, Milbury is an idiot, but we knew that already.

What does ‘spuds’ mean (serious question)? Never heard that before…

It’s my name for him. It doesn’t mean anything, it just came to me one day when I was hating on him.

On a side note to all this hockey chatter, me, Dave B and buddy Craig with the Stanley Cup yesterday afternoon! The cup made an appearance at the company I work for here in DT St Paul.

-J.

Attachments:

1. 

   Stanley-Cup.jpg
   

Thanks for touching it. Looks like it’ll be another 7 years before the Wild even gets a shot at the cup.

mplspug wrote:

In this case Crosbied is getting 5 minutes and a match penalty for doing nothing more than having Spud fall into your stick.

There is no distinction between an unintentional and intentional penalty in the NHL. The refs do not judge intent. It doesn’t matter if you MEANT to trip a guy or not, if you trip him, then it’s tripping. Same applies to crosschecking, plus if you crosscheck someone in the face, then you’re going to get a major and get tossed out. Whether or not you “meant” to do it is not relevant.

Also, clearly from the video, it can be seen that Crosby is not falling into Niskanen’s stick. The fall is precipitated by Niskanen’s contact. Whether or not he meant that contact to be a crosscheck is not relevant.

The only place intent comes in is in player discipline hearings and in this case I think the NHL got it right. I don’t believe beyond the penalties given during the game, that a hearing was warranted. For that play…

Now the Ovechkin MegaSlash, well, that’s different.

If the Pens get on a roll tonight and get up by more than 2, the Great 8 better have his head on a swivel. Oh to have a player like Scott Stevens in a situation like this where a message needs to get sent…

Grouse

mplspug wrote:

It’s my name for him. It doesn’t mean anything, it just came to me one day when I was hating on him.

Jon concerning touching the cup. Very nice! I for one have had the chance twice to do so (once would have been drinking Hamms beer out of it!) but I have always said I would not do it until it was a North Star (now Wild) won Stanley Cup. I have been waiting a while

If that were true, there would be no Lady Bing trophy and Granlund would have amassed 100 minutes in cross checking penalties alone.

NHL.com

Cross-Checking
The action of using the shaft of the stick between the two hands to forcefully check an opponent.

Minor Penalty – A minor penalty, at the discretion of the Referee based on the severity of the contact, shall be imposed on a player who “cross checks” an opponent.

Major Penalty – A major penalty, at the discretion of the Referee based on the severity of the contact, shall be imposed on a player who “cross checks” an opponent.

Match Penalty – The Referee, at his discretion, may assess a match penalty if, in his judgment, the player attempted to or deliberately injured his opponent by cross-checking

Compare that to the language for tripping

A player shall not place the stick, knee, foot, arm, hand or elbow in such a manner that causes his opponent to trip or fall.

Minor Penalty – A minor penalty shall be imposed on any player who shall place his stick or any portion of his body in such a manner that it shall cause his opponent to trip and fall.

The NHL better fine sonny Bonnino

Sure, they will. Just like they’ll fine Ovechkin for that slash he got away with in the last game. Sorry, the Caps had that one coming. Karma is a beeacth and they lose even with Crosby off the ice. Not looking good for the Caps again.

Just watching the Ducks come back from a 2-0 deficit in the first and the now lead 3-2 after the NBC crew wrote them off. Defensive lapses kill.

Grouse

Duck end up winning in OT to tie the series 2-2. I can see a high chance that this one goes 7 games. I don’t agree with the NBC crew at all, Millbury said the Ducks have, and I quote, “No chance at winning this series.” 2 goals ain’t much of a lead in the playoffs, Mike. It took the Ducks less than 8 minutes of the second period to erase that lead.

Ovechkin has to step up for the Caps. The Pens took a game despite Crosby being out of the lineup, the Caps lost WITH their best guy in the lineup. Fail. I don’t see the Pens doing anything on D that is obviously different, but it feels to me like Ovechkin never gets to shoot the puck. It’s like every time he gets the puck it’s two strides and a pass, two strides and a pass. Eitehr the Pens are exceptionally good at giving him no space, or he’s gripping the stick too tight thinking aobut yet another playoff exit.

Grouse

Getzlaf is playing at a level above which he has played previously.For the Ducks come back and win two on the road and tie the series up, you have to believe that the Oilers are in trouble. Not sure if the series evens goes to game seven.

Oilers and Ducks go to game 7. This should be exciting.

Now with the Blues easily eliminated, does this show how bad the Wild are?

In my opinion, yes. They showed depth during the middle of the season where the rest of the NHL was just trying to weather the doldrums of mid season and escape without injury. The Wild took advantage and built an impressive record.

The fact is that they were never built to play against physical teams. Look at Chicago, same thing. Both teams were eliminated in a combined 9 games.

I think the Wild just need to start adding some size with grit. It doesn’t have to be all at once but just start getting some of these pieces in place. Especially on D.

Sid was lucky to get up after taking the header into the boards.
DT

biggill wrote:

Oilers and Ducks go to game 7. This should be exciting.

Now with the Blues easily eliminated, does this show how bad the Wild are?

I wouldn’t say this at all… Allen came back down to earth this series, Predators were able to get their point shots to the net and bury their chances… Wild had more than enough chances to win their series, they just didn’t finish, bottom line…

deertracker wrote:

Sid was lucky to get up after taking the header into the boards.
DT

Ya that was nasty, the kinda’ play where a guy breaks his neck! Shows how tuff’ Crosby is…(Right Mplspug?)

I don’t know about that, but I know I don’t injury on anyone.

That being said, the snowflake did get a concussion from falling into someone’s stick and missed a game.

¯\_(ツ)_/¯

I don’t know how much you value you put into the Hits Stats as it relates to physicality, but the Wild out hit the Blues by a wide margin.

I think the reason they flopped is they went into the playoffs sputtering. I think the series was closer than it felt immediately afterward, but the Wild ended up playing from behind way too much and the Blues were committed to defense.

For some reason I am not as disappointed with the season as I’d expect myself to be. For me I take every playoffs individually. I was never someone who said they need to get passed the Blackhawks or they need a deep run. Those are obviously things I wanted, but I know that the playoffs are a different animal and anything can happen like when we knocked out the division champs 2 times in the first round when just barely making the playoffs.

mplspug wrote:

I don’t know about that, but I know I don’t injury on anyone.

That being said, the snowflake did get a concussion from falling into someone’s stick and missed a game.

¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Hypothetical for Pug…
If Crosby was acquired by your team of choice and that team used Prince for its goal music. Could you still follow the team?

…if they lost the prince crap. I’d just have to find a new villain.

Was it when they started playing the Prince music for goals that they stopped scoring? I didn’t make it to a single game this year so not sure when they started using that for a goal song.

mplspug wrote:

…if they lost the prince crap. I’d just have to find a new villain.

The MN Wild season ticket holder survey included this question:

Should the Wild keep Prince’s “Let’s Go Crazy” as our goal celebration song?
A. No
B. No

I guess that pretty much sums it up.

Grouse

looks like Ilya Kovalchuk wants back in the NHL, only way that would work would be a sign and trade with the Devils. He’s 34, but can still score… I think he’s definitely worth a look to see what he’s asking for…

sticker wrote:

Was it when they started playing the Prince music for goals that they stopped scoring? I didn’t make it to a single game this year so not sure when they started using that for a goal song.

They started using it during the playoffs in 2016 since it followed Prince’s death. They made the announcement at the beginning of the season they were going to continue using it.
Since they were what, the 2nd highest scoring team in the regular season I think the song was not the issue.
It makes me so angry to see these teams still playing and our team getting hernia surgery, playing golf or getting dental work done.
I will admit though, there is no way the Wild would have measured up against the level of play of the Caps/Pens series right now. That is a heavy series.