MN Wild 2017-18 Official Thread

TheFamousGrouse wrote:

I’m not sure I would characterize Fletcher’s dealing Scandella as a package to get us out of the Pominville contract as “getting nothing”. Since all teams are under the same cap, cap space is as valuable as money because without cap space you have no options. What we “got” for Scandella is the ability to keep other players and still be under the cap. Somebody had to go and options were pretty limited.

I said get anything of value and I wasn’t actually referring to Scandella trade because I actually think that trade helped us in the long run regardless of how Ennis and Foligno work out because without it we wouldn’t have been able to sign Granlund or Nino (at least not both).
I was referring to the much talked about rumors for trading Brodin to Boston last year trade deadline OR the Dumba to TB for Drouin deal OR Dumba to Edmonton for Hall. Those were deals that Chuck couldn’t get done. he wanted to keep Dumba for Lord knows what reason because he is not a great asset IMO.
Now we need D more than anything after losing Scandella, Folin, Prosser from last year’s team. All of which played significant time over the last couple years. I get the Scandella one, that had to happen, but those 3 guys were replaced by Quincey as a FA (at nearly 500K more money that Folin signed for in LA mind you) and are pressing Olofsson and Reilly to play more which they are both clearly not ready for.

I believe MN has no play other than to dump players at the trade deadline this spring. They need to be sellers not buyers.No cap space, and no playoffs will bring on a complete rebuild during the off season.

reelman wrote:

I believe MN has no play other than to dump players at the trade deadline this spring. They need to be sellers not buyers.No cap space, and no playoffs will bring on a complete rebuild during the off season.

Wouldn’t it be interesting if Vegas were buyers (as an expansion team) at the deadline and the Wild are sellers?
It would be irritating for sure, but it would be a big dang kudos to McPhee and the rest of the boys in Vegas. They really assembled a heckuva balanced team and they had such issues with injured goalies. They played 5 different ones thus far and still lead the Pacific!
It will be nice to see Haula and Tuch come back Thursday night. Honestly, I hope they have big nights against us. I was always a fan of Haula. He was invaluable on PK and could score a few goals. Tuch I was hoping would turn into a beast, but jury is still out.

Picked up Nate Prosser of waivers today. Got one back.

The climb out of the cellar has begun? Lets hope so.

Was there last night for the 2-1 OT win vs the Blues.

The good news is obviously the better D play has continued. Bruce obviously lit a fire under the butts of a few vets, the poor D play was clearly not just an issue with the D guys and so far it seems to have worked. A lot better forecheck and lots of contact and finishing checks. Even Grandlund was throwing his weight (!) around.

It’s hard to really blame the Wild for the flat spot in the 2nd when they had very little O zone time. The Blues have a ton of talent and for 1 period they did what they should have done all game. It looked to me like they expected to be up by 3-4 goals at any moment and when it didn’t happen by the third they didn’t know what else to try.

The refereeing was ABSOLUTELY miserable and a total embarrassment to a professional league. The holding the stick call against Winnik while he had 2 hands on HIS stick handling the puck was possibly the worst call in the NHL this season. I have no idea what that ref thought he saw there.

Then, the faceoff debacle in the third. Again, was that ref drunk or just stupid? He comes in and tosses Staal, then he jerks the puck back on the second try and causes both players to jump, but tosses only the Wild player? WTF???? He clearly didn’t realize that the second jump he caused was going to
be a penalty because the linesman had to skate in and inform him of the rules. This was stupid beyond belief and is yet more proof that the league and the refs have no clue about what, exactly is supposed to happen in the faceoff circle. What a goat rodeo.

Grouse

That faceoff infraction was ridiculous. Clearly we jumped, but it was because of how the linesman was dropping the puck, both players jumped. DROP THE PUCK!
No one comes to the game to see the linemen, they want hockey and those stupid delays are frustrating.
Overall a decent played game against a VERY good team that is struggling a bit right now.
Dubnyk had a ton of saves, looked a bit shaky early on, but like you said Grouse, the D coverage was really pretty good and cleared rebounds so there weren’t any easy goals for STL.

Well I for one only watch hockey for the art of the puck drop.

mplspug wrote:

Well I for one only watch hockey for the art of the puck drop.

That must have been why you were banished for Florida???

CaptainMusky wrote:

That must have been why you were banished for Florida???

That, and the curse.

It’s a good thing there are 2 teams down here so I can waste my curse on the Panthers.

You guys know that we aren’t in a all star break or anything, right? Let me boost the topic a little.

I don’t know who came up with this nitwit On the Bench series, but it is horrible.

The west coast games start after my bedtime so it takes me a couple of days to catch up.

Not sure what should be done differently, if anything, after the LA game. It seems to be team defense once again.

I guess I’m hesitant to say we need to make a ton of corrections. Let’s see how the next game goes. Problem being the whole west has a lot of good teams right now so there’s very few games where the Wild can get their sh!t together against a should-beat team. It’s full tilt every night.

I have to say I’m starting to wonder if the dressing room downers aren’t dragging down the team at this point. Lots of strong/silent type of player in the leadership roles on this team. I just wonder if team attitude isn’t flat as 3 day old beer…

Grouse

Grouse, if by “team defense” you mean “bench Dumba” then I agree that is the issue.
He single-handedly caused that game to turn. The Wild were up 2-1 after 2. Around 8 minutes in he makes a series of bonehead plays on one shift that led to Gaborik getting the tying goal.
Tide turned after that. A couple fluke goals and then boom, 5-2.

TheFamousGrouse wrote:

I have to say I’m starting to wonder if the dressing room downers aren’t dragging down the team at this point. Lots of strong/silent type of player in the leadership roles on this team. I just wonder if team attitude isn’t flat as 3 day old beer…

Grouse

That’s what I’ve been saying also. Not impressed with the supposed team leaders. No heart, no spunk, nobody to lead them. And it’s not recent either… probably the reason Yeo was let go because even he couldn’t fire them up. Pathetic really.

Funny thing is when people talk about the silent team leaders many are quick to point to Suter. Following the loss to the Kings, apparently Suter was quite vocal in the locker room criticizing the effort.
What I would like to know is, was he critical of his own effort or just everyone else? There is a big difference.

We’ll see what happens the next two games. They have a history of losing the first game on the west US and West Canada trips, but salvaging it the next 2.

mplspug wrote:

We’ll see what happens the next two games. They have a history of losing the first game on the west US and West Canada trips, but salvaging it the next 2.

Nailed it!
I thought they were going to blow it last night. 3-0 lead and head to OT. well it ended up a W, but it sucks they had to give a point to someone they may end up battling for a playoff spot with.

Wild just keep getting it done. Tough road trip against good teams and still manage to go 2-1.

Re previous comments about Dumba…

Errors lead to goals sometimes, no doubt. But Dumba is hardly the only one making mistakes out there. Also, as we saw in OT against the Blues when Dumba totally burned Teresenko for a goal after Teresenko made a defensive lapse, the ledger tends to even out. Dumba’s offensive upside is more than worth it and as a player he’s still young and learning the game.

The biggest remaining hurdle is the Wild are still not playing 60 minutes. Bruce looked p!ssed off the whole OT just because they were there in the first place, I’d think.

Although it could have been the 7 second holding that Thornton put on Suter in OT that, once again, didn’t get called by useless POS refs. Or the OT slashing on Grandlund’s hands that gets called every time now. Except on OT, of course.

Obviously, having a much more experienced coach and staff has finally gotten the Wild feeling confident in 3-3 OT after the disasterous start during the Yeo era. Experience pays. The 2 defensemen strategy is absolutely the way to go, play for possession and play NOT to lose first, the longer it goes the better our chances are.

Grouse

TheFamousGrouse wrote:

The biggest remaining hurdle is the Wild are still not playing 60 minutes. Bruce looked p!ssed off the whole OT just because they were there in the first place, I’d think.

Obviously, having a much more experienced coach and staff has finally gotten the Wild feeling confident in 3-3 OT after the disasterous start during the Yeo era. Experience pays. The 2 defensemen strategy is absolutely the way to go, play for possession and play NOT to lose first, the longer it goes the better our chances are.

Grouse

Agreed 100%. Earlier it was lapses in the 2nd period that were burning the Wild, not its been 3rd period issues (Kings and Sharks). If they play nearly 60 minutes they are a very good team, but they are less than average if they have a lapse thrown in there for a period.
Its surprising how the team has actually won their last 3 OT games, plus another in a Shootout. This team was so bad in OT a year ago and clearly this new strategy is working.
PP still rolls along nicely, but we just do not get the opportunities other teams do. It isn’t for a lack of deserved penalties, there are just missed calls so much.
Stalock played pretty good last night. Its nice to have a guy you can count on to rest Dubnyk. With Kuemper you never knew which guy you were going to get. He does seem to be putting it together in LA though. Ironically that is the team who he always seemed to play extremely well against.

CaptainMusky wrote:

Its surprising how the team has actually won their last 3 OT games, plus another in a Shootout. This team was so bad in OT a year ago and clearly this new strategy is working.

Confidence is everything in OT. Yeo’s total inability to devise a workable system when 3-3 was first came in completely wrecked the team’s confidence. Even the fans were traumatized, it was so bad.

One more comment. What was Carolina’s problem with Ryan Murphy?

OK, he’s obviously offensively minded and tempted to jump up into the play a little far sometimes, but obviously somebody has told this to the Wild forwards because last night every time Murphy went up, the centerman was going back and Koivu or Staal clearly was yelling “no” on one play and Murphy immediately broke off the chase and circled back.

Can’t see what the big issue was to just dump a R1 pick off like that. OK, so we cannot be mixing Murphy with Dumba on the same line as that would probably lead to multiple situations where they both found themselves below the faceoff dots in the O zone, but other than that I’m not seeing the problem.

Oh well… We’ve got a lot to thank Carolina for lately.

Grouse

I think Murphy is playing pretty dang good. Honestly, I didn’t notice the play you are referencing last night and for the most part I think he has done a pretty good job staying home.
He seems to play pretty smart, but admittedly I don’t spend a ton of time just watching him, but when I do I have been pleased. Certainly an upgrade over Quincey!

What a game from Stalock.

Stalock played pretty good, but man, Calgary had more than enough yawning cage chances. They certainly should have won that game. Reminded me of all the games where the Wild would miss the net! They had like 5!
Quietly the Wild are 11-4-1 since Nov 9th. They have the most points in the NHL during that span. Where are all the negatives now?
Admittedly they still have a ways to go, but they are winning games and that is what is most important. I don’t like them giving loser pts to teams they are competing with (Ducks, Sharks, Flames, etc), but a W is a W.

Yeah, it should have been 5-1 Flames. I was not impressed with the play of the Wild at all, but they got the W. I also thought Stalock play pretty darn good and Murphy was on his game, the rest of the team was terrible. Did they really start the shoot out with Suter or was I imagining that? Got the W and that is the important thing. I hope they show up tomorrow.

sticker wrote:

Did they really start the shoot out with Suter or was I imagining that? Got the W and that is the important thing. I hope they show up tomorrow.

LOL, you didn’t imagine Suter in the shootout, but Coyle went first. I still shook my head when I saw him out there.

I was at the game last night, apparently, but I have no recollection of it. I have been told that I became comatose shortly after the Wild’s first shot on goal at 10+ minutes into the first period (!). I remember the crowd gave a sarcastic cheer and then I must have dozed off…

It was just a gawdawful dumpster fire of a game to watch. The Wild were pinned in their own zone for minutes at a time, it was like we were on the PK. Then when the Wild finally gained possession, the line was gassed and had to dump the puck off and change, which resulted in another turnover and more defensive zone play. I said at the end of the first period, I could NOT believe Calgary wasn’t up 3-0. We had a stretch of over 7 minutes in the 3rd where we did not keep clean possession of the puck in the O zone for more than 10 seconds at a time.

Sticker, Coyle lead the shootout and of course did not score. If Coyle were placed on a Squirt B team, he might be able to put up a goal and 2 assists if he played more than 10 games.

What happened to Dubnyk? Team says the cryptic “lower body” of course, but I have to watch the recording tonight and see if there’s a play that visably hobbled him.

Staylock was good enough for the win, but to be fair, the Flames total inability to put a puck in a 4×6 foot space helped him a lot. Especially in OT.

That was one of the ugliest “wins” I can recall seeing. Bruce must be tearing his figurative hair out, there’s winning ugly and then there’s winning really, really, really ugly in a shootout.

Grouse

TheFamousGrouse wrote:

What happened to Dubnyk? Team says the cryptic “lower body” of course, but I have to watch the recording tonight and see if there’s a play that visably hobbled him.
Grouse

Dubnyk was hobbled after making a save on Tkachuk. I noticed it at the time but seeing him play the rest of the period I didn’t even think anything of it. He got up gingerly.
He has had a history of knee issues so that is probably it, scheduled for MRI today.
It was pretty cool for the old North Star fan in me to see that Beaupre’s son was the emergency backup. He was even wearing his old man’s pads from the alumni game when we had the outdoor game a few years back.

CaptainMusky wrote:

LOL, you didn’t imagine Suter in the shootout, but Coyle went first. I still shook my head when I saw him out there.

OK, this was driving me nuts because for the life of me I couldn’t recall Suter shooting. So I watched the recording.

After fruther review…

BOTH of you imagined Suter in the shootout. It was Coyle, Stewart, Koivu, Staal, Grandlund

Suter came out to protest after that Calgary player appeared to drag the puck backwards, but he didn’t shoot.

Grouse

TheFamousGrouse wrote:

OK, this was driving me nuts because for the life of me I couldn’t recall Suter shooting. So I watched the recording.

After fruther review…

BOTH of you imagined Suter in the shootout. It was Coyle, Stewart, Koivu, Staal, Grandlund

Suter came out to protest after that Calgary player appeared to drag the puck backwards, but he didn’t shoot.

Grouse

Ha! That is right!!! I remember seeing him out there, but didn’t remember him shooting. WTF, I wasn’t even drinking during the game. LOL