Wild 2015-16

They had such a good PK before that too, with Spurgeon being bludgeoned stopping pucks.

I said a lot of “F” words after that loss.

mplspug wrote:

I didn’t notice. I did notice all the Wild defenders on one side of the ice on that last goal.

They do this crap all the time, tunnel vision for the puck. The two defensemen in front of the net did the same thing on the tying goal and there was a guy standing there waiting to bang the puck home. Pee wee hockey and they struggle to figure it out. This team is really starting to get to me..
Wallster ><((((>

It appears the team has given up and I am very close to doing the same. I don’t know how much more of this I can take

Fire Suter, Parise, Koivu, Scandela, Vanek, Stoll, oh nevermind. Cant fire the players, but what a crapshow.
Ottawa had no business being in that game. Dubnyk gave up his patented softy to tie the game at 1. Then just a bunch of amateurs chasing the puck and allowing the free guy, biggest weapon on their team to tee one off TWICE! Too bad he didn’t break his stick on the first shot because there wouldn’t have been a second.

I’m not sure what game you were watching, but the wild were playing a good shut down game in the 3rd. Yes that was a soft goal, but that isn’t on the team. They held them to one shot at the 14 minute mark in the 3rd. The tying goal I thought was a bad bounce of of the glass. It is frustrating that they are so bad in OT. Koivu taking a bad tripping call doesn’t help either. They look much better than any game they have played at home the last month. It is a crap shoot now if they make the playoffs or not. I don’t see them winning more than 2 games in the playoffs though.

I like how Koivu was puzzled by his tripping call. LOL

That game didn’t bother me as much as others. The difference ended up being the PP not converting, but its the first time in a long time. They had them, but it slipped away.

Looking at the Avs schedule, the team might end up getting in the back door if nothing else. This is the Avs final games…

AVALANCHE	PREDATORS	 
AVALANCHE	BLUES 
CAPITALS	AVALANCHE
BLUES		AVALANCHE
AVALANCHE	PREDATORS	 
AVALANCHE	STARS	 
DUCKS		AVALANCHE

All those teams are tops in their division and will be jockeying for playoff position.

We play them the last game before this stretch. The Wild will have to give them a good send off.

The thing that’s bugging me about the Wild isn’t that they’re playing badly. They’re just not playing well. Or consistently.

Last night was a terrific example. It’s almost like some fortune teller told the team, OK boys you need to score 2 goals tonight for a win. So they bought it and went out there and played just well enough to score two goals and prevent the other team from scoring more than one because that’s all Madame Future told them they needed to do.

Well, time to find a new 1-900 number psychic to call…

Things to like:
– Grandlund coming to life.
– Haula’s good play continuing.

They can’t prevent everything, there’s a reason why you pull the goalie when you’re down by a goal–Because sometimes it actually works.

But the rest of the team just looks so lackluster. What is it? If I had to guess, I’d say look at the rest of the league and how much better other teams have gotten while the Wild have stayed the same. It’s basically Playoff Depression Syndrome.

I would argue that compared to last year, St. Louis, Dallas, and Nashville are all significantly better than last year. Chicago and Anaheim are at the very least, just as good as they were last year. Which is to say really damn good! Yikes. I don’t see the Wild being able to beat any of these teams in a 7 game series.

Then looking out east, you’ve got the Caps who I think are the best team in hockey. The pundits point to “on paper” shortcomings for the Caps and I’m saying none of those will matter when you have to beat the Caps 4 games out of 7, the strengths are just so overpowering. Then add the Rangers, the (never thought I’d say this) Islanders, etc, etc, I mean add it all up and there are 5-6 really, really tough teams out east as well. Ouch.

Being honest, the Wild are an upper third team in the league at a time when there are a tremendous number of very, very talented and equal teams at the top that are simply not beatable by the teams that occupy the next level down as the Wild do.

That doesn’t stop me from enjoying the hockey, you just have to be realistic. The Wild need new blood, a new system in some areas, and new chemistry. All that doesn’t happen overnight.

Grouse

Is granlund worth a first round pick in a trade? I’m almost willing to give him up for a second round pick.

For the first time I have heard the homer announcers actually call out the leaders for this debacle.
So embarrassing.

biggill wrote:

Is granlund worth a first round pick in a trade? I’m almost willing to give him up for a second round pick.

Based on this game there are plenty of guys ID trade for a sack of pucks.

I think my goal differential theory may hold up at this point.

If they keep this effort up we’ll get a shot at the 1st round pick… Embarrassing effort all around…

I had a meeting at 6pm an hour away from my house so I didn’t watch any of the game. Sometimes things work out in my favor. That performance almost guarantees I won’t be able to sell my tickets for Saturday, and I will be at the game. Crap. Oh and the wild want me to pay for playoff tickets, and renew my season tickets that they raised the prices on.

Is Doobs Backstrom Part II

Were the goals soft?

biggill wrote:

Is granlund worth a first round pick in a trade? I’m almost willing to give him up for a second round pick.

I would say yes. Granlund was drafted in 2010. Looking back at the drafts between 2006-2010 there are only 14 players drafted in the 2nd round (in all those drafts combined) that currently have more points.

As we’ve seen, it can be a crap shoot beyond pick 5 in the 1st round.

At this point, an even trade for Drouin or a first round pick would be great.

For someone like Granlund you have a 24 year old player that already has 200+ games in the NHL. I think you’d want to look at a player for player trade.

Michael Russo seems to think it is an issue between the veterans and the younger guys. Obviously the coaching staff cannot get through to these overpaid, under achievers so when is Craig Leopold going to speak up and rip into Parise, Sutter, Koivu and Vanek? Also, why fold and hope to get a high pick? Look at Edmonton. They have had a lot of first picks and they are still bad. Yes they will be good eventually but if we want the Wild to tank and get a good draft pick it might take a while for that to pay off so then why not clean house and start over.

31lifer wrote:

Michael Russo seems to think it is an issue between the veterans and the younger guys. Obviously the coaching staff cannot get through to these overpaid, under achievers so when is Craig Leopold going to speak up and rip into Parise, Sutter, Koivu and Vanek? Also, why fold and hope to get a high pick? Look at Edmonton. They have had a lot of first picks and they are still bad. Yes they will be good eventually but if we want the Wild to tank and get a good draft pick it might take a while for that to pay off so then why not clean house and start over.

I believe the NHL instituted some type of draft lottery. I don’t believe it’s to the extent of the NBA but a lottery for the top draft pick none-the-less. The worst record is not guaranteed the top pick. There’s also no guarantee of getting an impact player if you draft 7th, 10th or 12th in a 2-5 player “best bet” draft.

It’s true. Edmonton didn’t always have the worst that cord, but lucked out and got #1.

mplspug wrote:

Is Doobs Backstrom Part II

Backstrom played for the first time in a year yesterday and won.
DT

31lifer wrote:

Michael Russo seems to think it is an issue between the veterans and the younger guys.

Yeo said the same thing when he was interviewed a few days after his firing. There were the veterans and then there were the young guys.
Nice that they picked up the full 2 pts last night. Desperately needed that because Colorado continues to take care of business.
Torch is sure setting a message to Vets, sitting Vanek for 3 games.
It was pretty ridiculous at this stage of the season and their careers that guys still make blind backhand cross ice passes. I saw Zucker, Suter, Coyle all do this multiple times. Zucker gave up a grade A scoring chance with his and he also had a play where he had a chance to get the puck deep, but didn’t that came back the other way. These guys better pull their head out quick.
He did redeem himself a bit by hustling to beat out the icing call in OT though. That was good.

I’m starting to feel bad for Parise. This is quite the funk.

Nino, Haula and Fonzie are carrying this team right now offensively. The rest of them better get their crap together.

If the Avs beat us out for the last playoff spot, they’ll have earned it.

…ps

Who else here was giddy after seeing Kane get leveled by Dumba! Don’t get me wrong, I was happy also to see that Kane was OK.

mplspug wrote:

…ps

Who else here was giddy after seeing Kane get leveled by Dumba! Don’t get me wrong, I was happy also to see that Kane was OK.

For sure. Not that I hate Kane, but a highly skilled player with his head looking down in that place on the ice should get leveled. It happens in bantams every time, an nhler should know better.

mplspug wrote:

I’m starting to feel bad for Parise. This is quite the funk.

Nino, Haula and Fonzie are carrying this team right now offensively. The rest of them better get their crap together.

If the Avs beat us out for the last playoff spot, they’ll have earned it.

The AVS have 4 more wins than the wild if the NHL point system made sense the wild would be pretty much out of the playoffs now.

mplspug wrote:

…ps

Who else here was giddy after seeing Kane get leveled by Dumba! Don’t get me wrong, I was happy also to see that Kane was OK.

I was for sure, and yes I am happy to see he’s ok, but he sure can stick handle and embarrass guys, so it’s nice to see he isn’t perfect.

I hope Dumba doesn’t get a suspension for that! It really wasn’t a bad or cheap hit. A veteran like Kane has to know better than trying to enter the offensive zone head down. He got what he deserved and if Dumba has to suffer that would not be good.

not sure if it was talked about yet in this thread, but have you read about the possible Expansion Draft rules being proposed? (Russo and others have written about it recently) If 2 teams are granted (Vegas and Quebec City) The Wild would likely lose 2 of it’s top 6 defenseman…I expect to see alot of trades this offseason/draft as teams unload players they would likely lose in hopes of at least getting something back for them…What’s worse is that players with no trade clauses will likely fall under the team’s limited protected list by default, so no dreams of having Pomminville/Vanek/Koivu terrible contracts picked up, you’ll likely see Zucker/Nino/Granlund gone)

I don’t remember the Wild having ANY type of skilled player pool available to pick from when they drafted in the expansion draft (wasn’t Geoff Sanderson the best available and Columbus took him 1st?) These new teams could be stacked from the start…

Nashville is in the same boat as the Wild (Weber, Josi, Ellis, Ekholm) and would also likely lose 2 top 6 defenseman, so the expansion teams come in to start with legit top 4 defenseman? doesn’t seem right?

I don’t know what the rough draft is, but they should just do it like they always have or at least the last time.

the two options being proposed are:

Option 1 – 8 Skaters (Forwards & Defenseman combo) and 1 Goalie

Option 2 – 7 Forwards, 3 Defenseman and 1 Goalie

1-2 year pro’s excluded (Wild or Iowa Wild) and unsigned prospects excluded. They are still trying to figure out if no trade clause contracts will be excluded, you can bet the farm they will be…

excluded players would be Koivu, Dubnyk, Suter, Parise, Pomminville and our college prospects, You protect Dumba, Coyle, Brodin, Scandella and ?? so that gives an idea of who would then be exposed..