Wild 2015-16

Tick tac toe

3 in a row.

Confetti for Torchetti! Lord Stanley’s Cup here we come!

The PP looked better than it has in as long as I can remember. Part of that is the Oilers cannot defend a wet paper bag, but still, moving the puck INSIDE to work OUTSIDE and lookie here, a PPG for Pominville. That was actually a sweet shot he took.
I have dogged, ragged, chastised Pominville for 2 years now, but the fact remains he CAN score and in bunches when he is on his game. I hope we see that again. It would sure balance things out a bit and have another potential threat.
I cannot stop talking about Coyle. He is definitely showing the growth people hoped. Leads the team in goals. Nice.
Prosser is terrible. Its nice that Reilly and Folin are playing somewhat decent so that when Scandella and Brodin are back they wont have to play him.

If Scandella is out for awhile, they should replace Prosser with Olofson asap…

Now we’ll see the Wild play some good teams coming up, let’s see if this re-energized team is for real..

The PP is moving the puck faster. I was all for removing Suter from the PP because he seemed so deliberate, but not anymore.

Now they are all moving the puck and shooting, even one timers, instead of running 20-30 seconds off the clock throwing the puck around the umbrella.

They seem to start setting it up the exact same way as they have, but after a few quick passes, the forwards and off side D appear to collapse in anticipation of a shot. Wasn’t Pom manning the point on his goal?

I sure hope the PP continues, they badly needed it. Bread and butter. It’s hard to score more than 2 or 3+ 5on5 goals a game.

The only thing that pisses me off about Suter on the pp is that he always stays out there much longer than his pp line. He did it again last night and I think greenlay picked up on it and said that Reilly is usually with that line.

It pisses me off because he skates the longest distances yet he still feels obligated to follow the rush up the ice several more times.

3 bad teams
We will see how Saturday goes. I will give Torch sometime to put his spin on things. ONce he gets more time he will make more changes noticable. We beat 3 teams we needed to beat and should beat.

Saturday I hope we can get a win against a good team.

Hoyt4 wrote:

Saturday I hope we can get a win against a good team.

The alumni game does not count in the standings

biggill wrote:

It pisses me off because he skates the longest distances yet he still feels obligated to follow the rush up the ice several more times.

Its annoying. At least he isn’t being deliberate skating up the rink anymore. I guess as long as they are on a 20-25% PP conversion rate, I’ll be less annoyed.

Great article by Russo in the Star Tribune today. Speaks to the “Why did it take a coaching change to make you play hard” issue. Check it out…RR

It’s only been 3 games…

BTW, guys, I’ve developed an app that inserts that “It’s only been X games…” comment automatically at the start of each post. This saves a lot of time. I’ll have it on the app store and Google play this afternoon for $29.99.

OK, on to the game. They looked really good last night. The Oilers are defensively weak, but as we saw in the first, go all in once too often on offense and they will burn you. We were one terrific Kuemper save away from it being a lot closer than it should have. They are dangerous as heck on offense, McDavid is the real deal.

Power play is just night and day different. In addition to the faster passing and more movement, they Wild are pushing forward rather than constantly backing up to create passing space.

Let’s talk about the Haula / Pominville pairing for a minute. Brilliant. Haula has been improving all year and can it be more obvious that he’s more relieved than most at the departure of Yeo? Keep this line together.

Defense. We’re a little banged up there. Even Prosser doesn’t look right, is he coming off of an injury or something? Agree, bring up Olafson there’s nothing to be gained by NOT doing it, although against Chicago seems a bit cruel. Welcome to the NHL, now go out there and defend against the second best team in hockey in an outdoor game. Have a nice day. Do you think Olafson has ever played outdoors in his life? Yikes.

Grouse

Sorry meant Sunday

19 goals in the last 11 periods.

It’s only been 4 games.

Putting it on the Blackhawks so far. 4-0 after 2. Lets see them finish. Hope Zucker is OK, his head really bounced off the ice.

I am loving it right now… That is 4 straight games with 5 goals… I hope this continues… I would love to see a shutout!

Did you really just say the “S” word?…..
DT

Shake it off Dube. That goal is @jbg1219’s fault…

Little fight in the boys!

That was impressive, not only because they played the Hawks, but the Hawks have been through the outdoor show a couple times.

Great game and the guys we don’t normally count on were amazing. Haula a stud. Carter HUGE game. Those two made the difference.
I hope Zucker is OK. I didn’t think a penalty was necessary because his head hit the ice. Looked like a clean check but whatever. Love how the guys are playing. Torch has them going. Lets keep this rolling.

That was very impressive for the reasons you mentioned, on such a big stage, against such a good team. After winning 3 on the road against lesser opponents, this was a real test and could’ve been a major let-down. They came out and controlled the game.

CaptainMusky wrote:

I hope Zucker is OK. I didn’t think a penalty was necessary because his head hit the ice. Looked like a clean check but whatever.

Zuckers head doesn’t hit the ice if he doesn’t get an elbow to the chin. It was a dirty hit plus it was interference. Rosival will miss at least 3 games, I assure you.

I didn’t think it was bad when I saw it, I mean I’ve seen worse, but he definitely elbowed his head.

That being said, on the replay you could see the elbow stunned him and hitting his head made it even worse. When he was falling to the ice he wasn’t moving.

I went to both the alumni game and the game today. The atmosphere for the game was fun, but the sight lines sucked even with a $250 ticket. I doubt there really was a good seat in the house for a hockey game. I didn’t have one person sitting by to me today that was there for the alumni game. There were plenty of drunks getting free tickets or buying them for $6 for the alumni game. I can’t remember being at any event that I have seen so many people falling down drunk before. It was a fun day, but if the wild ever get another one here, I think I will stay home and watch it on TV.

I’m a homer as much as the next guy and that hit on Zucker appeared clean to me. His elbow came up like a follow through after initial contact. Zucker was clearly stunned by the hit/knocked out, but the hit to the ice is really what did it.

Dutchboy wrote:

Little fight in the boys!

Hopefully now that Yeo is gone they can stop being one of the (if not thee) softest teams in the league. I also have noticed more fight and more of a willingness/desire to finish checks. Still a small sample size, but I like what I see.

Thing I liked was even with the game in hand they played until the horn.

Clean hit to me…

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I know it’s only been 4 games, but…

Are we now beyond the point where there is any possible doubt that Yeo had to go? Obviously, there were major locker room issues that were being swept under the rug in order to keep Yeo on the job and finally the elephant in the room could no longer be denied.

That wasn’t a win against the Blackhawks, it was an @ss whipping. The Wild completely dominated on both sides of the puck. It’s extraordinary that Chicago couldn’t muster a better effort, it’s like they were only planning to play D against the Wild’s #1 line because the other lines didn’t matter.

I listened to it all on the radio, so will have to watch the recording tonight.

That is a new franchise record, the first time the Wild have scored 5 or more in 4 successive games. We’ve witnessed a record that will stand for a long, long time.

Grouse

Dutchboy wrote:

Thing I liked was even with the game in hand they played until the horn.

All 3 of them

CaptainMusky wrote:

Clean hit to me…

Not to me. The picture shows the point of contact being the head. It does matter if you use your shoulder or elbow, it’s illegal.

I don’t know it a hit to the head is an automatic 5 and a game? If it is, then I guess I understand the call.

But I still don’t think it’s as viscious and wreckless as I’ve seen in other instances.

CaptainMusky wrote:

Clean hit to me…

I wish you were kidding. Clearly his elbow is buried in Zuckers chin. As pug said, the main and first point of contact was the head.

An NHL hockey players head does not hit the ice that hard if he wasn’t hit in the head FIRST.

According to Russo, coach Q agreed with the call. If I was a betting guy ID say he just gets a fine. But I could also see 1 game.

I also read Haula was a 7th round pick. He’s no Datsyuk, but still that’s some good drafting for a guy that should be in the league for some time.