<div class=”d4p-bbt-quote-title”>sticker wrote:</div>
Let me just reiterate that Murphy is not impressing me. I counted 4 turn overs from him in their own end last night.
Yeah, he has seemed to regress. I thought he was better the first time up, not sure what his deal is now.
I’m far from a hockey expert, but Ryan Murphy looks scared and wholly incompetent. There has to be a better option in the minors, or more minutes for the other guys already on roster.
I suspect the Wild are a being a little careful these last few games in lieu of Suter’s injury. None of them wants to put the team further in jeopardy by getting injured. I am sure there is some apprehension.
I suspect the Wild are a being a little careful these last few games in lieu of Suter’s injury. None of them wants to put the team further in jeopardy by getting injured. I am sure there is some apprehension.
The best way to get hurt in any sport is to think about not getting hurt.
X2 on the Murphy comments. I thought he looked really good in his first stint up and would be a great insurance policy in case of injuries. That’s definitely not the case anymore, it seems like he coughs up 3-4 unforced turnovers and whiffs on at least 1 shot every game.
I’m not saying they are being deliberately careful.
I’m not saying they are being deliberately careful.
Then we must have different definitions for “apprehension”. 
Andreoff is being a royal D-bag tonight! Hate that part of playoffs 
Takes away from the game and its only going to get way worse.
Murphy scores, isn’t that ironic 
On the other hand, maybe we should rename the team the MN Snowflakes. Other than Seeler I havent seen anyone use the body tonight. What’s with Greenway. Big stud like that should be an asset against a team like this.
When the compition levels step up
The wild step Back. No one shows it more than the boy,now boys from Boston U. Might be to early to hang that on Greenway,yet he looks like he will be on the bench during the playoffs.
Charlie Coyle is the poster child for all that is the persona of the Wild.
Buy the time they are done patting themselves on the back for making the playoffs they will be out of the playoffs.
Good to see the boys finish with a victory!! Seemed like they were trying pretty hard to get Stahl his 42 goal and it worked out in the end. Wednesday is going to be interesting!
I loved the “celly” by Cullen after his goal. He missed a WIDE open net just seconds before only to get the puck again due to some hard work by Ennis and finished it off. Cullen just kinda shrugged his shoulders as if to say “I had to redeem myself”.
Not excited about playing the Jets, but then again, to get anywhere you have to beat better teams along the way.
Should be a good series, the Wild played really well on Saturday.
The lineup will be interesting. I would suspect that Greenway gets the nod over Ennis. Hopefully if Spurgeon comes back he is ready and nearly 100%. I would rather he didn’t play at all if he isn’t.
I wouldn’t hate to see Soucy spend some serious minutes out there. Lord knows we need more beef in the lineup with some of the hosses that the Jets have.
Buy the time they are done patting themselves on the back for making the playoffs they will be out of the playoffs.
Hot dish might not be the best meal in the world, but it’s a meal.
How are you doing? Not to bad. Things could be worse.
Minnesota, the state where mediocrity is not only expected, but willfully embraced.
How have the wild been doing? Well they keep making the playoffs and loosing in the first round, and that’s not to bad, so we will take it. It’s not the best, but it could be worse, lord knows we can’t ask for to much. A cup would be, well, to much and what we got ain’t to bad and it definitely could be worse.
Look, I hate to interrupt a perfectly good “Woe Was Us / Dammit, we made the playoffs again / Minnesota Mediocrity Moaning Session” with a bucket of cold reality water, but…
There’s something missing here: The NHL grew up. It’s a business and everything about how hockey operates has been engineered with an eye toward maximizing income for ALL teams every year.
Everything about professional sports like the NHL had been re-engineered to:
1) Produce parity among teams and spread talent evenly through the league.
2) Make it very difficult to have a team that is very successful over a long period.
3) Make it nearly impossible to buy your way to a winning team.
4) With so many teams in the league, talent is spread thin and competition is always high. There is now almost no chance of having a “one team division” where a single team is the runaway best in a conference or division.
Minnesota, the state where mediocrity is not only expected, but willfully embraced.
Not sure how you figure this at all. So everything except winning a cup is embracing mediocrity?
As of the end of the season, 11 of the 16 playoff teams are above 100 points. The LOWEST point total for a playoff team is 95. So in that competitive of a league, the Wild are making the playoffs by embracing mediocrity? You have to be kidding me.
What the heck do you call what Edmonton, St. Louis, and Dallas are doing? ALL of these teams had so much on-paper talent that the beginning of the season had them all as practical shoe-ins for the playoffs. Are they embracing suckdom?
Grouse
Hot dish might not be the best meal in the world, but it’s a meal.
How are you doing? Not to bad. Things could be worse.
Minnesota, the state where mediocrity is not only expected, but willfully embraced.
How have the wild been doing? Well they keep making the playoffs and loosing in the first round, and that’s not to bad, so we will take it. It’s not the best, but it could be worse, lord knows we can’t ask for to much. A cup would be, well, to much and what we got ain’t to bad and it definitely could be worse.
The long winded version of “blow it up”
I’m not sure where enjoying making the playoffs and having a competitive team got turned straight into embracing mediocrity.
So would you rather be like Montreal or Toronto fans booing their own team every other night and the media basically running players out of town? How many cups do they have since 2000?
The first 10 minutes of game 1 will be insane! if the Wild can survive it, they have a good chance at stealing game 1 and putting all the pressure on the Jets…
This is the matchup I was looking forward to. I think this will ignite a bigger rivalry than Chicago or Colorado.
Win or lose, it’ll be entertaining.
I’m picking the Jets. Your welcome.
#You’re. 
The first 10 minutes of game 1 will be insane! if the Wild can survive it, they have a good chance at stealing game 1 and putting all the pressure on the Jets…
What will be insane is that crosschecking will suddenly completely cease to be a penalty. Unless, of course, the Wild do it, in which case it will be called immediately.
Grouse
I’m picking the Jets. Your welcome.
I’m picking the Lightning. YOU’RE welcome.
Look, I hate to interrupt a perfectly good “Woe Was Us / Dammit, we made the playoffs again / Minnesota Medi
Everything about professional sports like the NHL had been re-engineered to:
1) Produce parity among teams and spread talent evenly through the league.
So does 7 straight 1st round losses indicate parity? Or Pultry?
2) Make it very difficult to have a team that is very successful over a long period. Pittsburg? Boston? Chicago?
3) Make it nearly impossible to buy your way to a winning team.
Suter? Parise?
4) With so many teams in the league, talent is spread thin and competition is always high. There is now almost no chance of having a “one team division” where a single team is the runaway best in a conference or division.
Las Vegas?<div class=”d4p-bbt-quote-title”>basseyes wrote:</div>
Minnesota, the state where mediocrity is not only expected, but willfully embraced.Not sure how you figure this at all. So everything except winning a cup is embracing mediocrity?
Exactly;
The league is watered down to 16 teams in the playoffs for one reason only! Money!
If you can’t compete with the Top 8 teams in the league,and your only consistency is to loose in round one.
Then your theory of parity among the remaining 24 teams is true,then it would also be true that mediocrity applies.Grouse
If you can’t compete with the Top 8 teams in the league,and your only consistency is to loose in round one.
Then your theory of parity among the remaining 24 teams is true,then it would also be true that mediocrity applies.
The Wild finished 8th in the NHL in points… while playing in the same division with the two best teams in the NHL… the same division with 6 of 7 teams getting 90+ points (the bottom dweller being the freaking Blackhawks)… all while having injuries to 4 top 6 forwards and the 2 best defensemen.
But they haven’t won a Cup or made the finals so they’re a terrible franchise. Blow it up.
Normally I’d pick the Wild in this situation. I find teams that haven’t been in the playoffs for several years will flop no matter where they finished. Also the presidents trophy winner usually flops in the playoffs more than they excel.
I am having problems with them overcoming the injuries to Spurgeon and Suter. If the Wild was more healthy I’d pick them to go at least to the Conf finals.
Zucker, Granlund and Spurgeon all have huge targets on their backs and will get EVERY check finished on them, hopefully they can hold up…
Sit back and enjoy the next month and a half, it’s the best time of year!
If you can’t compete with the Top 8 teams in the league,and your only consistency is to loose in round one.
Then your theory of parity among the remaining 24 teams is true,then it would also be true that mediocrity applies.
This makes no sense to me.
The Wild finished the season with the 4th most points in the Western Conference and more points than the defending Stanley Cup Champions. Even if we embraced your theory that any team that finishes out of the top 8 is “embracing mediocrity” and should not make the playoffs, the Wild, err, would still have made the playoffs.
Minnesota’s problem in hockey doesn’t appear to be this “embracing mediocrity” thing. It appears to me to be more a weird Minnesota fan loathing thing where some people who call themselves fans have to hate their own until the team proves their love for the fans by winning it all.
Seeing how badly some suffer from Minnesota Fan Loathing Syndrome (MFLS), can it be more than a week before we’ll see commercials telling guys to ask their doctor about if some pill is right for them?
Grouse
Two things:
1) The problem is the whole body of MN Pro Sports. Sure, we’ve had some good teams and playoff appearances. But we’ve also had a boat-load of disappointment to last an entire LIFETIME. I think just ONE of the Pro teams to win it all would go a LONG way around here (sorry I can’t cling to the ’87 or ’91 World Series anymore).
2) I listened to Bruce Boudreau on PA 9-Noon this morning. Granted, he had some tough questions to answer, but the overall impression I got was he’s not very confident.
If pressed, I think the Wild will be bounced in the first round (again) and chalk up another season to excuses,failures, injuries, blah, blah blah. Sure hope I’m wrong…..
OK on to Round 1. IMO, the keys to the series are…
1. Let’s get this one out right away. The Wild have been robbed blind in the playoffs by terrible refereeing that is beyond the typical “let them play” playoff rules. Anyone remember the Colorado series? Yeah, that has to end. Make the damn calls, Refs.
Bruce and the coaching staff need to go absolutely apeshit crazy on the Refs the first time they fail to call all the interference and crosschecking that the Jets LOVE to pull. If we get calls that SHOULD be made, we’re going to get PP goals. If we get the Ray Charles refs like we’ve been screwed by in the past, it’s going to be almost impossible.
2. Saint Devin needs to save us again! We need Doobs to take away goals every game. That’s the honest truth. Playoff series are won by hot goaltenders. I know it’s not sexy and everybody wants pretty McDavid dance and prance goals, but for the Wild to win, we need to win 3 to 2 or with similar low difference scores.
3. Stay out of the box. The Jets have too many offensive weapons, we’ve been good on the kill but if we hand them chances they will score.
4. Something’s got to give with Coyle and Nino. We need production out of these two. We got to the playoffs with damn little help from either of these guys, it’s time somebody dope slapped them, give them a cup of coffee, and tell them to wake the hell up and start scoring.
5. Keep hammering that puck on the net. Dumba especially needs to be cranking it up and either the puck gets on net or a chunk flies off a Jets player and he feels the pain. Either way, hard shots on net are a good thing.
Grouse
All that is fine…. but really our only chance is if Dubnyk plays lights out and carries us. IMO
And I do hope that happens. I will be watching!
The Wild finished the season with the 4th most points in the Western Conference and more points than the defending Stanley Cup Champions. Even if we embraced your theory that any team that finishes out of the top 8 is “embracing mediocrity” and should not make the playoffs, the Wild, err, would still have made the playoffs.
This makes no sense to me.
In a watered down league of teams considered equal,(parity in your own words), the odds would then “with all things being equal” tend to favor your team to advance further than the 1st round for seven consecutive years.
You have acceptable play during the regular season and then the end result is you are not good enough to move past the first round.
That is the meaning of mediocre, no matter how much you white wash it.
2. Saint Devin needs to save us again! We need Doobs to take away goals every game. That’s the honest truth. Playoff series are won by hot goaltenders. I know it’s not sexy and everybody wants pretty McDavid dance and prance goals, but for the Wild to win, we need to win 3 to 2 or with similar low difference scores.
I say it every year. Every Stanley cup champ needs their goalie to steal at least 1-2 games every series in order to win a cup in this modern age.
With exception of last season, look back on the other 3-4 playoff appearances. If our goalie would steal 1-2 games, we move on. Plain an simple.
With exception of last season, look back on the other 3-4 playoff appearances. If our goalie would steal 1-2 games, we move on. Plain an simple.
Plain an simple
It Hasn’t happened
And with Suter out, highly doubtful it will
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