Wild 2015-16

mplspug wrote:

That being said, there is close to 0% chance the Wild would even entertain any offer for either player. It was the greatest FA coup for the Wild. Being a part of that along with them being extremely marketable and with local ties, its not going to happen. And I don’t think it should either even if it were a reality.

Have you guys watched any other series? Philly/Wash & Detroit/Tampa, those are some serious playoff games. That is how it is supposed to be, intense.

Looking at last nights game and how they tanked the last 5 games of the year, it almost makes you wonder if they were hoping to miss the playoffs. That’s how bad it is.

I agree, but for those that have said it couldn’t be done or there wouldn’t be interest, there certainly would be and it could get done.
I would never entertain parting ways with both of them, but I would consider giving up one of them (Suter). Reason being he seems more expendable because he isn’t as popular with the fans and we have a glut of young D men.
The wild have signed a young crop of college kids, including Anas from Quinnipiac recently. Hopefully that will bolster Iowa for the next year and will have an impact with the big club soon.

bradl110 wrote:

I am so sick of Minnesota sports teams signing these long contracts with above average skill players and hometown kids. Joe Mauer was the first mistake, look how far back it has set the twins. You finally get pohlad to spend a lot of money on someone and look what happens, they suck.

Looking at the Ryan suter & Zach parise deal is not looking so good now. The amount of money you invest over a 10 year period is way to long. I wouldn’t even consider these guys elite level players anymore. Who know’s how Parise will recover after this back issue.

The twins issue isn’t Mauer. Yes he is over paid for what he has done the last few years. The twins are a cheap organization that got their stadium and haven’t done squat to bring in anyone of any great talent. They don’t spend money they are just cashing checks with the tickets sales from the new stadium hype. The wild are not the same. They unlike the twins are trying to win albeit it isn’t working, but not because the owner is hoarding his millions while rolling around nude on his money. How was that for a visual?

Minnesota fans are like roller coasters. A team wins a few games and they think they are to finals. A team starts losing and they think they need to completely rebuild. Now im a big Wild fan but people need to calm down a bit. Yes they played like crap last night but we didn’t have Haula or Parise. I think it would be a different series with those two but also it was just one game folks. Lets see how they do on games 2 or 3 when they get back here.

So you missed the previous 5 games with Parise and Haula?

If you are as big of a wild fan as you say you are then you would certainly see there have been problems all year and the reaction you are seeing is certainly NOT because of last night’s effort alone. There are major problems.
Problems in the locker room, problems with players underperforming/regressing, undermining the head coach (Oates PP help), and the list goes on.
This team can certainly win games and a lot of them when they play potential and within the system. The problem is they vacate the system and push/panic because they get caught behind and make big mistakes.
Some of the guys on my list that have regressed/underperformed this year: 1) Dumba 2) Zucker 3) Scandella 4) Nino 5) Spurgeon.
Scandella and Zucker are having a terrible year. Dumba has had moments but he turns the puck over far too often and is a huge liability on the defensive end. Sorry Torch, but having Scandella and Dumba as a pairing will kill us. It led to one goal last night. Scandella stepped up, Dumba didn’t cover and pretty much an uncontested goal.
We do not have a guy we can count on to score a big goal. Haula down the stretch here has been huge.
The scariest part of the slump this year is because it was NOT due to injury or illness like previous years. THAT is a bad sign and points directly at the locker room.

You guys ever think about starting your own group? For a general forum
33 pages seems a little much. As members you could go on for years.
Just a idea.

You don’t have to read it either…

We do go on for years. Every year we start a new thread.

Spurgeon regressed? I don’t agree with that one.

Dumba has had a tough second half, but he’s 21 playing his first full season (81 games), so I don’t have a problem with that.

@mwodziak Druin has looked good for the Lightning. I wonder what it would have cost us to get him.

I still say Twins win a game before the Wild.

mplspug wrote:

Spurgeon regressed? I don’t agree with that one.

defensively absolutely. Maybe not offensively but he makes far more mistakes now than he had. Heck. Last year I thought he was our second best d man. This year maybe third but thats because other guys dropped as well.
I don’t give dumba a pass. Yes he is young but he is more of a liability than Reilly at this point and he has far more games under his belt.

I don’t call it regression when it’s his first full season and he’s 21. Defense is the hardest position to learn and be consistent in the NHL.

Age
Reilly – 22
Dumba – 21

It’s not fair to get on their case. I’m not sure what you’re looking for out of these guys but certainly I don’t see the name Karlsson ln on the back of their jersey.

FYI. Plus/minus by player.
Spurgeon – +11
Dumba – +1
Reilly – -4

I can say I was as skeptical about Drouin as anyone else. My guess is the price tag was pretty high considering he never got moved.

The other thing about Druin is you know he is auditioning and not playing for almost 2 months has him highly motivated. We’ll see if it continues next year.

If Stamkos doesn’t resign, hell probably stay in Tampa.

IMO +/- is a useless stat in some respects.
I expect more from dumba because he was a first round pick. Have I given up on him? No. But he has certainly not kept the same level he was at the end of last season. He regressed big time. He was huge for us down the stretch and in the playoffs last year. Very solid play. Now I cringe when he’s out there because of his defensive liability.
In the Drouin thing I would avoid that like the plague. Since there was already attitude issues in the locker room I certainly wouldn’t add to it by adding more. Besides we don’t need more waterbugs on this team we need size and grit.
Some of our young guys just signed have that but I’m not sure they will make any impact on the nhl ever.
I am intrigued by Anas though, yep he’s small but maybe he can come in and replace zucker who seems to be fragile mentally or something. The guy is all over the place. One second you think he’s figured it out the next he’s watching from the press box because he keeps making boneheaded plays.
Its been referenced by others but I have a feeling the next couple years are going to be really tough. We might me wishing for backing into the playoffs this time next year.

CaptainMusky wrote:

In the Drouin thing I would avoid that like the plague. Since there was already attitude issues in the locker room I certainly wouldn’t add to it by adding more.

How could it possibly hurt considering the supposed situation now? I’m sure an even trade for Dumba would’ve been possible. On top of that Drouin was a 3rd overall pick.

CaptainMusky wrote:

IMO +/- is a useless stat in some respects.

In some respects?

For a defenseman, I’d think this is their top priority. You contribute to your team by not letting them score.

biggill wrote:

<div class=”d4p-bbt-quote-title”>CaptainMusky wrote:</div>
In the Drouin thing I would avoid that like the plague. Since there was already attitude issues in the locker room I certainly wouldn’t add to it by adding more.

How could it possibly hurt considering the supposed situation now? I’m sure an even trade for Dumba would’ve been possible. On top of that Drouin was a 3rd overall pick.

even trade for dumba was offered but Stevie Y wanted more. So, with the baggage he had before and he wouldn’t take Dumba straight up, he certainly wouldn’t do it now when they stand to lose Stamkos and Drouin is producing

biggill wrote:

<div class=”d4p-bbt-quote-title”>CaptainMusky wrote:</div>
IMO +/- is a useless stat in some respects.

In some respects?

For a defenseman, I’d think this is their top priority. You contribute to your team by not letting them score.

Here is what I mean… If a player scores 5 more points he’s instantly seen as a better contributer to winning than a guy who plays a much better two way game. Defense is just as important as offense. “It’s the defensemans job to play defense” is so 1980s. When you look at those stats of +/- at face value for each player listed you would immediately think one is a better defender over the other BUT what is neglected in that is who else is on the ice with them and do they play their role? Example, spurgeon sees lots of ice time with guys like koivu and parise. Both of whom play great two way games. While d pairings that spend time with guys like zucker and vanek their +/- will suffer when those guys aren’t scoring and they certainly don’t help out much in the d zone.
Back 25 years the stat meant far more than it does now because of how the game is played.

CaptainMusky wrote:

You don’t have to read it either…

Real classy.

You also forgot to mention who spurgeon plays against.

Does it surprise you that granlund is the worst plus minus player on the team?

Hsehsjsbeifnjsjabrufbdnairufbd
That sums up this series better luck next year maybe we can score at least 1 Flippin goal in the playoffs in game 3 or 4 instead of focusing on cleaning the golf clubs in between periods

biggill wrote:

You also forgot to mention who spurgeon plays against.

Does it surprise you that granlund is the worst plus minus player on the team?

whether you agree with me or not I could care less. I am certainly not alone with the opinion on +/- and spurgeons play overall this year. I’m just saying he regressed, not saying he’s done or terrible. Those adjectives are reserved for Prosser.
Regarding granlund, well, since I consider it a suspect stat in the first place nothing surprises me. You have to remember Ovechkin also was the leading scorer and had something like a -35 One year.

Imagine how bad his +/- would have been that year if he couldn’t finish when he was cherry picking.

That goal was complete BS. Dallas was ripe for the picking tonight but the Wild couldn’t must enough offense.

I agree pug. Much better game overall. Pleased with the effort but we just don’t have finishers.
Granlund was all over the place but dang just bury one.
The highlight so far has been dubnyk. He has certainly played well.
All the talk about Dallas weakness in the d zone coming in sure isn’t playing out so far. They make everything difficult coming through neutral zone or get it out of their zone crisply almost every time.
I honestly don’t see how that goal counted. Clearly it was kicked. I get the moorings aspect of the dislodged net so I’m ok with that I guess since that is the rule, but the kick is irrefutable.

If that kick happened in front of the goal, it wouldn’t have counted. I don’t get it.

Exactly that is what irritated me too. Maybe there is “intent” or something in the rule. Clearly it was lucky as heck but a kick is a kick imo.

Play like you did those last two periods for the rest of the playoffs and I’ll be happy. I don’t care if they lose the next two. They actually showed emotion, were physical, played decent defence and made good passes, especially through the neutral zone. I also liked the drive to the net on break outs.

Granlund may be a disappointment offensively at times, but I will say he does play hard and physical in the playoffs.

Besides that first goal, suter had a tough night. But he did have a great shift on our first goal.

Nice patience Koivu showed going to the backhand on his goal.

Hopefully this is the start of one of those streaks again and not me cursi g the Wild with praise.

I almost changed the channel in the second period thinking I was watching the wrong game. Where did that come from?

The physical play was completely unexpected from this team. It made a huge difference.

If I’m missing something, please let me know, but I’ve never really understood the criticism of Granlund offensively. His role, to me, seems to be more of a playmaking role. Being on a line with some bigger guys like Jones and Koivu makes it seem like they just want to let him get pucks to the net allowing the big boys get the ‘greasy’ goals. I understand the problem of him not burying pucks in the back of the net, but he has been he best forward in my mind of the series for the Wild.

I loved watching this game. As you said Pug, play like that every game and I don’t care who wins.