MN Wild 2018-19 Official Thread

Let me help you yankees out. I won’t be contributing much.

I think Greenway will have a big year, 20 goals.

mplspug wrote:

I won’t be contributing much.

You and Coyle have a lot in common.

You can take the rink away from the boy but you can’t take the boy away from the rink.

How the hell can we have a “curse” without ya?

Hopefully a better start than the vikes. A guy would like to have someone to root for.

Gill you have been on fire lately. Lol

You won’t miss me. I already dialed it back last year. I’ll have more questions this year.

No I did not laugh out loud. I snickered though. STM…snickered to myself.

Should be a good season with all the new faces and all. Barry Melrose even predicted that the Wild will make it into the second round this season.
But what the who does he know.

The State of hockey is in for a early season quartet of hockey games this weekend to start the season off.

Wild-Avs Thursday
UM-UMD Friday
UMD-UM Sat
Wild-LV Sat

If Sutter can return to his usual greatness, a cup isn’t out of reach. GAL (giggled a little).

jeff_huberty wrote:

UM-UMD Friday
UMD-UM Sat

What channel can I catch these on?

biggill wrote:

<div class=”d4p-bbt-quote-title”>jeff_huberty wrote:</div>
UM-UMD Friday
UMD-UM Sat

What channel can I catch these on?

FOX 9+

I don’t have much confidence with this team.

I’m excited to see Greenway this season…I also hope Coyle can finally figure it out so we can stop talking (complaining) about him…if the core of Zucker, Nino, Dumba, Brodin and Granny can all take that next step and be CONSISTENT impact players then we have a shot at doing some damage in the playoffs..

but my mind drifts to the future with Kaprizov…with our cap situation the next 3-4 years, he’s the only game-changing offensive impact we can look forward to…

They should be in the playoff hunt, just depends if they can stay healthy cause the West is a bloodbath – at least 11 teams are good enough to make the playoffs and two or three more could make a reasonable case.

If the Wild stay away from the injuries, they should be in; if not, there’s too many good teams otherwise.

duplicate post

There’s a lot of comments about the lack of changes on the Wild roster in the offseason, but I think the NHL, in general, is gridlocked. With the salary cap as it is, no team has enough cap space to just add big money talent without a chain of events allowing for the cap space. You either need a big dollar contract to end with a retirement or a free agent leaving, or you need to move multiple mid-level players. Otherwise, you have to engineer a big money/big name trade for the same, basically just swapping salary. Again, very hard to pull off.

Fehr was an interesting acquisition and we’ve added some beef to the D so there a bone thrown to the perennial complaint that the Wild are “too small”.

In the preseason, I saw something that is not likely to be repeated in my lifetime. Coyle scoring a hat trick. No, you don’t understand. Like it was 3 goals in one game, not a “Coyle Hat Trick” which would be 3 goals in a month, but a hat-hat trick. No, really, I saw it and I had only been moderately drinking.

The problem I see with the Wild is that the rest of the Central division is getting better. Colorado is back from the Roy expiriment, the Texass Team Rustlers have a lot of attitude problems, but they’re going to be good, the Jets of course are going to be very good, and then of course last but probably first will be Nashville. Again. The only question mark team is the Blues with Mike Yeo. This will be Yeo’s last year with the Blues unless he finds a way to make a roster that’s that talented perform like it should.

IMO the Wild HAVE to get more out of our scant roster of R1 picks this year. Ek, Greenway, Olafsson, they all need to become full on contributors this year with no more “on a learning curve” excuses.

Also, from the pre-season, there seems to be a shift toward the “NHL Usual” power play formation with a RH shot on the left circle. They spent a lot of time setting Dumba up for the big blast from the Ovechkin Office so hopefully this PP look produces and starts to open up the rest of the ice as teams try to cover the weak side better. The other benefit to letting Dumba loose with more big blasts is shot blocking is going to hurt real, real bad.

Hey, it’s not perfect, but it’s the team we’ve got.

Grouse

The powerplay will continue to suffer as long as we don’t have anybody who can reliably shoot from the right side boards (Koivu) I read they might try Zucker this season so maybe that will improve? Opposing penalty kills will just continue to shade Dumba’s side making the Wild settle for plan’s B & C…

I think our best bet is to move the puck quickly to open shooting lanes and just throw it to the net with Nino and Greenway bashing bodies around for Parise and Granny to get loose pucks in the slot…If we go back to the old ways of Parise coming out of the corner trying to stuff it or Suter’s blocked snapshots from the point we’ll be screwed…

I’m looking for a big year from Greenway. Staal to regress a bit, I mean really, no one saw 40 plus goals coming last year. Zucker to possibly inch up, but we have to imagine that Nino and Coyle are more productive because of their injury plagued seasons.

The “tweaks” made, did improve the bottom of the roster which what a crap show our bottom D pair was at the beginning of the season with that experiment we had ultimately leading with one getting cut.
Patteryn is solid and really looking at Seeler to be steady and consistent.

Wild trade oft-injured Gustav Olofsson to Montreal for Will Bitten a 2016 draft pick.
In doing so, if Bitten plays in Iowa (likely) they will be saving $800,000.
I am not concerned about not getting someone who can contribute right now in return, but VERY happy they freed up some space. I like this move.

I really wanted him to amount to something, but he is just always injured. He will be joining Mike Reilly who both should get some playing time as there are a lot of injuries in MTL.

If any of this comes true in the AHL or remotely the NHL level about Bitten, we stole him IMO:
“A smart offensive catalyst that consistently displays outstanding work ethic, elite hockey sense, and an ability to stay ahead of the play in all three zones. Very naturally gifted skater who moves around the ice with ease. Excels in pressure situations and uses his vision to predict where the puck is going to be, and proactively gets his body into a position where he can either take it away or take off up the ice. Offensively, he has a very creative streak, and knows what kinds of plays he can make in all situations; he also has an exceptional release on his shot, which he can get off quickly. Defensively, he is a buzzsaw that will not let up on the opposition, creating problems for them by causing turnovers and playing strong positionally. Will Bitten has all of the tools to become a very dangerous two-way forward that can produce strong numbers at the next level.”

After watching this highlight clip, I getting a Bitten Tramp Stamp

He certainly has a knack for going to the net and anticipating.

Jesus, was that written by his mom?

mplspug wrote:

Jesus, was that written by his mom?

Classic!
He has been around a point per game at every level. He has the look of a young right shot Zach Parise. Similar stature and seems to skate well based on the videos I’ve watched.
We will see, literally the day after Olofsson gets medically cleared, he gets traded.

20 games for Wilson…ouch…

i figured we would see them ditch a d man… at least they got someone with some possible potential instead of nothing or a bandaid for a quick fix or a rental if you will…i don’t know how one should feel about this team this year…you can’t expect staalsy to put up the same numbers even tho it would be cool to see him do…coyle unfortunately will most likely just be coyle…if Nino and zp stay healthy a full season it could be interesting…not holding my breath on the later of the 2…i think granny and zuck are goong to need to take that next step in order for them to be taken serious in their division…and even those 2 alone stepping up I’m not sure it will be enuf unfortunately…time will tell i spose…not going to get my hopes up to much but just making the playoffs is almost frustrating any more just to watch them not show up

CaptainMusky wrote:

“A smart offensive catalyst that consistently displays outstanding work ethic, elite hockey sense, and an ability to stay ahead of the play in all three zones. Very naturally gifted skater who moves around the ice with ease. Excels in pressure situations and uses his vision to predict where the puck is going to be, and proactively gets his body into a position where he can either take it away or take off up the ice. Offensively, he has a very creative streak, and knows what kinds of plays he can make in all situations; he also has an exceptional release on his shot, which he can get off quickly. Defensively, he is a buzzsaw that will not let up on the opposition, creating problems for them by causing turnovers and playing strong positionally. Will Bitten has all of the tools to become a very dangerous two-way forward that can produce strong numbers at the next level.”

My Bitten jersey is on order!

Interesting news on the Olafsson trade. Never any way to really tell on a player like Bitten, is he as good as he gets or can he take it to the next level in the big league? We’ll see. Still, not a bad trade as Olafsson was clearly surplus to requirements.

I’ve never understood this Minnesota sports fan thing of questioning if getting to the playoffs and losing in round 1 is worse than not getting to the playoffs at all. Unless you want your team to pull a Buffalo, Edmonton, or Chicago and suck for years and years, then YES winning and going to the playoffs is obviously better than having your team sitting at the bar at the golf course watching round 1 on TV.

Strange stuff happens in the playoffs and for those who don’t really pay attention, it isn’t always the teams with the best reg seasons record that win in the playoffs. All it takes is a goalie getting hot or a couple of wins pulled out of thin air, and it can be a totally different deal. If you’re not in it, you can’t win it.

Grouse

Look no further than the Caps last year and Holtby riding the pine going into the playoffs.

TheFamousGrouse wrote:

I’ve never understood this Minnesota sports fan thing of questioning if getting to the playoffs and losing in round 1 is worse than not getting to the playoffs at all.

After being involved in both Twins & Wild tickets I can attest this concept is patently false. Not making the playoff may be better if your idea of fun and entertainment is sitting around a bunch of whining fans.

3 things I took note of last night:

1) The Caps are really good That we are the Champions video was awesome!
2) Austin Mathews is really really really good
3) OMG the powerplay group that the Sharks can put out is just ridiculous

Excited for tonight!

Tonight’s the Night!! I’m optimistic (as always) for this team. I think a couple of the additions they added will help rather than hurt the teams chances of getting to the playoffs. Its going to be tight in this division. But, if the Wild can escape the injury bug and get through the whole season relatively unscathed, I think they’ll do good. If the injury bug hits and we start missing any of the top 10 guys (top 6 Forwards and top 4 Defense) for any good length of time, they will struggle. Either way, I’m glad hockey is back!!

Wild Win tonight 4-1

IceNEyes1986 wrote:

Tonight’s the Night!! I’m optimistic (as always) for this team. I think a couple of the additions they added will help rather than hurt the teams chances of getting to the playoffs. Its going to be tight in this division. But, if the Wild can escape the injury bug and get through the whole season relatively unscathed, I think they’ll do good. If the injury bug hits and we start missing any of the top 10 guys (top 6 Forwards and top 4 Defense) for any good length of time, they will struggle. Either way, I’m glad hockey is back!!

Wild Win tonight 4-1

Agreed on all accounts except the score for tonight. Wild win 4-3.

TheFamousGrouse wrote:

I’ve never understood this Minnesota sports fan thing of questioning if getting to the playoffs and losing in round 1 is worse than not getting to the playoffs at all. Unless you want your team to pull a Buffalo, Edmonton, or Chicago and suck for years and years,

Yea;
5 years of first round playoff loses is far better than Chicago with 6 Stanley Cups and Edmonton with 5 Stanley Cups.