MN Wild 2017-18 Official Thread

Sorry, but Stewie is going nowhere. And where is this log jam? The 4th line is up in the air.

I forgot I also like the rule that if you ice the puck you cannot use a timeout to rest your players.

mplspug wrote:

I forgot I also like the rule that if you ice the puck you cannot use a timeout to rest your players.

I like that rule, but the offsides challenge loss getting a minor penalty I think is penalizing teams for questioning an official to get it right. They already stayed the course with the original call two thirds of the time costing the team challenging a timeout. Now egregious calls probably won’t get challenged at the fear of a penalty. I don’t like that change.

I don’t mind the penalty for several reasons.

Hopefully it cuts back on the challenges. Goalie interference is called on the scoring play. On an offsides challenge, you can enter the zone, control the puck for a minute and then score. When challenged we have to go back a minute in time and if successful reset. To me it just ruins the flow of the game where a player could be offside by inches.

Went to the last preseason game last night against the Texass Team Rustlers. A couple of observations:
– Coyle looked great. Now do it in the regular season! That’s all I ask. Staal also was firing on all cylinders, his tape to tape cross ice pass to Coyle on a 3 on 2 was just beautiful.

– When is the league going to do something about this BS where a defensive player pushes an offensive player on top of his own goaltender and then it’s called goaltender interference on the offense? What a crock! The Wild had a goal waived off last night and the ONLY reason there was ever any contact at all was because the defensive player initiated it and pushed the Wild player into the goaltender.

This needs to be made a penalty. Call it delay of game or whatever, but it’s a total crock.

– I don’t think the league is going to back off of the new faceoff and slashing rules. Dallas was getting booted out of the circle left and right. The Wild had a team meeting with the refs last night before the game and obviously this resulted in a better handle on what the refs are looking for in the circle. IMO this is going to be a change like when they went away from allowing the freezing of the puck in corners. It’s not going to be reversed so IMO it’s time to get used to it. Same with the glove slashing. I think we had 5 slashing calls last night and they went both ways.

– The Wild have 2 very potent lines. There’s a lot of passing and shooting skill out there and Dallas struggled with thier lineup last night to keep pace. The other 2 lines need to find it because that’s what made the wild so dangerous last year, balanced attacks that could burn an opponent from any line. There are lots of teams with one supserstar line but there’s no way to match what the Wild had last year.

Grouse

Today’s Parise news really doesn’t sound good, Fletcher trying to paint a picture of optimism, but if he can’t even practice with the team, he’s can’t be close to playing actual games.. The salary cap smoke & mirrors starting already sucks, I just don’t see how the Wild will ever get out of it with the future contract demands this team will have…sounds like a trade might be needed to loosen the purse strings enough to at least be flexible…

Meanwhile Kaprizov has 6 goals and 11 points in the first 12 games of the KHL season, it will be fun to watch his progress this season, see how he handles the pressure of playing for a “Yankees” type of team in the KHL…

JoeMX1825 wrote:

Today’s Parise news really doesn’t sound good, Fletcher trying to paint a picture of optimism, but if he can’t even practice with the team, he’s can’t be close to playing actual games.. The salary cap smoke & mirrors starting already sucks, I just don’t see how the Wild will ever get out of it with the future contract demands this team will have…sounds like a trade might be needed to loosen the purse strings enough to at least be flexible…

X2, especially next year when Zucker and Dumba will need new deals. Fletcher will keep up with the charades this season but looking at this, I can’t see a way into any cap space unless they make some trade.

https://www.capfriendly.com/teams/wild

The cap is going to get a big boost next year. Or at least thats the thinking and the league will go along.

Also I think the Wild are going to make a big trade this year.

Grouse

Wow! Quite a few empty seats in a brand new Joe Louis Arena.

I just noticed that myself! I’ve been watching the whole game but honestly just now looked above the ice at all those empty seats. I was actually expecting hostile territory since I believe this is their first ever game in the Wings’ new arena, but more empties than occupied seats.

I can see the first goaltender interference call on foligno….but the granny one…he was pushed into howard…and look at this it’s 2-0 as I type this….????

He was pushed, but his elbow came out. If he doesn’t extend the elbow it’s a tougher call.

Seemed like a weird game to me. I had a bad feeling when Detroit killed the 5 on 3.

Well it’s going to be a while before I see another game.

I thought the Wild played a good game, they were buzzing from the opening whistle…Like last years argument, they just need to finish their chances…It boggles me that this team still looks completely lost on the powerplay…Coyle playing from the point? wtf came up with that decision?

Howard played well and Dubs looked like he let in a few soft ones too…

JoeMX1825 wrote:

Like last years argument, they just need to finish their chances

Can’t wait for the slump

I thought Dubes looked good except that last goal, but in his defence, he had little chance on the first 2 and Zetterberg gets a gift bounce that finds him literally all alone about 20′ in front of the Dubnyk. On that 4th, I love Doc Emrick, but a laser? Come on.

Just curious on your guys thoughts that are more hockey educated than myself. I’m a Dubnyk fan, and he obviously saved our season 2 years ago. The guy makes some great saves…… but also let’s in some soft goals almost everytime I watch. (and I watched a lot of games last year). Just makes me wonder if he’ll ever be successful in the playoffs when it counts?

I think you watched the games that Kuemper started

He should be fine and what will really help is if he doesn’t have to play 60+ games. So hopefully Stallock plays well. Also hopefully the Wild don’t find themselves in a funk or battling to get back into the playoffs in the second half of the year forcing Dubes to play more games including back to back games. Not to mention mentally putting pressure on him to save the season.

Once again the Wild get screwed on a challenge call. Apparently, as long as you check a player into your OWN goaltender, the league still considers that interference. What a crock.

Wild and Doobs were a little rusty, but I like the intensity. Coyle showed troubling signs of resuming normal service, however. Let’s hope he goes back to the way he looked in the pre.

Grouse

Hey Pug, how are the local fans reacting to JT Browns actions? I do not want this question to turn into another heated debate…just curious. i’m guessing it’s being ignored, but it could just be the start. If anyone wants to reply to make it political, just click on…I don’t wanna hear it.

I caught the story on my phones news feed or something, otherwise I wouldn’t have heard about it. I don’t think it was a big deal because I personally think raising a fist to the flag, just like locking arms, isn’t really as offensive as kneeling or sitting.

It may have made Tampa Bay news, but nothing here in Orlando. They care more about succer and college football.

My reverse psychology on Stewart is paying off. 2 goals in 2 games!
Not the best start, but there are lots of new faces so it might take a bit for everyone to gel. Plus they get started on the road, game 1 is opening night for a new arena so there is some disadvantage there. I don’t understand this NHL scheduling. Now the Wild are off until Thursday? Pitt had back to back games then sits for what 4 days? Doesn’t make sense they can schedule this better than that. Same issue last year too.

I don’t know if this will work, but gotta tip my cap to Malone for sticking up for one of our prospects who was on the receiving end of some serious stick work in Iowa.

<p lang=”en” dir=”ltr”>Welcome to the @IAWild, Ryan Malone. Opposing teams, you should probably NOT mess with his teammates. pic.twitter.com/vMdoiykyOx</p>— Scott Reister (@scottreister) October 8, 2017

<script async src=”//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js” charset=”utf-8″></script>

CaptainMusky wrote:

My reverse psychology on Stewart is paying off. 2 goals in 2 games!
Not the best start, but there are lots of new faces so it might take a bit for everyone to gel. Plus they get started on the road, game 1 is opening night for a new arena so there is some disadvantage there. I don’t understand this NHL scheduling. Now the Wild are off until Thursday? Pitt had back to back games then sits for what 4 days? Doesn’t make sense they can schedule this better than that. Same issue last year too.

I thought the NHL tries to provide a few longer stretches between games early in the season to allow for more team practice time. Maybe I’m wrong on that.

I saw that video. The guy was giving the business to Kunin and I think he shat his pants when Malone stepped into the fray.

Since no one will join me in a Lightning thread, I’ll just post here for the rest of the members sakes.

So far they have been a little sloppy, as a lot of teams are the first few games. They have a 19 year old defenceman they acquired from the Habs for Drouin. This kid has a lot of moxie. We’ll see how good he is, but he’s been physical and mouthing off to the opponents a lot. He’s fun to watch for now, but they may send him back to the Jrs before burning a year on his contract.

tegg wrote:

I thought the NHL tries to provide a few longer stretches between games early in the season to allow for more team practice time. Maybe I’m wrong on that.

I have no idea what the reasoning is, but it stinks having these breaks in the first half which lead to marathons in the last 2 months with little breaks in between games for practice. That doesn’t help when they are slumping

Slump? Wild are what? 1-4 playoffs? 9-20+ since the slide began last season?
Seems like more of a trend.

reelman wrote:

Slump? Wild are what? 1-4 playoffs? 9-20+ since the slide began last season?
Seems like more of a trend.

A trend they were hoping to break from with new (old) blood…we’ll see how this plays out.

They trended right into 106 pts and second in division & conference. They may be trending in the right direction.

Lightning beat the previously undefeated high powered Caps last night. It’s interesting following a team that you have kind of followed, but not with a microscope like I did with the Wild.

mplspug wrote:

They trended right into 106 pts and second in division & conference. They may be trending in the right direction.

Lightning beat the previously undefeated high powered Caps last night. It’s interesting following a team that you have kind of followed, but not with a microscope like I did with the Wild.

But since you get participation points in the NHL is a 100 point season really good?

Dutchboy wrote:

But since you get participation points in the NHL is a 100 point season really good?

Second best in the West to be perfectly clear.

biggill wrote:

<div class=”d4p-bbt-quote-title”>Dutchboy wrote:</div>
But since you get participation points in the NHL is a 100 point season really good?

Second best in the West to be perfectly clear.

Second team to be bounced out of the West conf Playoffs to be perfectly clear.