Wild 2015-16

Am I seeing things correctly that the Wild’s record is 7-2-2? First look at this thread in a while I would have guessed something more like 2-7-2.

tegg wrote:

Am I seeing things correctly that the Wild’s record is 7-2-2? First look at this thread in a while I would have guessed something more like 2-7-2.

And tied for 3rd place so no room for error. They have been winning now because they have been scoring lots of goals, but weak defense. Stop scoring and keep with the weak D and they will plummet in the standings in a hurry.
This is a big game tonight. Need both points.

Sorry but “Big game tonight, need both points…”????????? We are 11 games into an 82 game season! NOT a big game and DON”T need the two points! Yes, they all add up but c’mon man! We could lose our next 5 and still finish #1 in the division…Awfully early to say that…

CaptainMusky wrote:

<div class=”d4p-bbt-quote-title”>Tegg wrote:</div>
Am I seeing things correctly that the Wild’s record is 7-2-2? First look at this thread in a while I would have guessed something more like 2-7-2.

And tied for 3rd place so no room for error. They have been winning now because they have been scoring lots of goals, but weak defense. Stop scoring and keep with the weak D and they will plummet in the standings in a hurry.
This is a big game tonight. Need both points.

I’m just jabbing. I don’t take it that seriously. I see professional sports purely as an entertainment industry. I find it a lot more enjoyable to approach the games as an event instead of an expectation.

Wow did Pommer ever look lost out there tonight…he’s 2-3 steps behind the play at all times, yet Yeo put him out there at the end of the game and keeps Zucker on the bench? Wtf?

No enforcer to deal with Neal taking runs at guys all night…

Doobs looked shaky at times, but played good enough to win.

It will be interesting to see who they call up, we have zero forward depth.

And so the annual adversity begins…

I wasn’t quite sure why Doobs was upset by the game winner when it happened. After hearing what he said after and reflecting on it I now agree with him. Rinne got quick whistles all night. The puck became available because Doobs started to move because there was no whistle.

My second team takes on the Wild Sat, should be fun. Keep an eye on Kucherov. He’s not as high profile as Callahan, Johnson or Stamkos, but at 23 (I think), he’s is and will be a hell of a player. Not as skilled as the aforementioned, but great hockey sense.

How’s Drouin looking this year? Sounded like they were expecting him to take a big step up this year.

Was at the game last night. Won’t say it was a great game, the Wild looked a little slow and had trouble getting sustained pressure. Lots of turnovers, lots of just-failed-to-click passes, etc.

The good news is the Wild were good on the power play last night with 2 goals in, I believe 4 PP. They really looked good, good patience, good positioning. As much fun as it would have been to have an enforcer goon smear Neal on the ice, it was Neal’s boarding call that allowed the Wild to tie the game, so not trading penalties works sometimes.

The “winning” goal was a total crock of sh!t. Dubnek had control of that puck for a full 3 seconds before the ref’s allowed it to drop out and get poked in. Renne didn’t have to wait for a whistle for more than a second all night and he had at least 2 quick whistles where he wasn’t even holding the puck, the ref just lost sight of it. That’s not winning by a goal, that’s winning by blatant officiating inconsistency. But that’s typical for the NHL refs, I can assure you that if that would have been Cory Crawford, he’d have gotten a whistle before the opposing player was within 20 feet.

Interesting fact, last night was the 10th anniversary of Koivu’s first start with the Wild. You couldn’t have read anything into that game, he played the 4th line, he took one penalty, nothing else of note happened.

Anybody know the status on Zach?

Grouse

biggill wrote:

How’s Drouin looking this year? Sounded like they were expecting him to take a big step up this year.

I don’t follow them as close as I do the Wild. I know he’s been out hurt the last few games. I was watching the first game he missed and initially the announcers said they didn’t know why and thought he might have been in the dog house, but turns out he’s hurt. Looking at his stats he started out hot while others like Johnson were struggling. He must have been playing hurt the last few games.

The shorter story is I haven’t really seen him play this year. I’ve caught most of the last couple of games.

Wild coach Mike Yeo sounded hopeful, however, that the injury isn’t a long-term one and Parise could be back sooner than later.

“We can rule him out of the next couple of games but we don’t have much of an idea after that,” Yeo said. “I can say it’s something that’s not month-to-month. I shouldn’t guarantee that, but that’s the word that I’ve gotten so far.

“I don’t think it’s going to be multiple weeks, I don’t think it’s going to be months. And I’m not a doctor. We’ll say that he’s out the next couple of games. We have a big game tomorrow against Tampa Bay and that’s our focus.”

I’m pretty excited to see Gabriel play tonight.

Strib Article

Fun game to watch for the home team. I’ve got to say though that Winnie is not playing well at all in the second. Pommer is still without a goal. If he can’t score tonight, I’m not sure he ever will.

Awesome game against the Jets last night. Totally sent them packing, it was terrific. To me that was a great example of what the Wild can do when they play their game and not try to match the opponents “style”.

Did you guys see that highlight film Vanek put together? He did it big. He did it pretty. He was on fire. And Haula! Doing it full throttle on the shorthanded side. Dare I say it? Could his Mojo be back???

That could have easily been a 7 goal game, Zucker was robbed by two metallurgy saves and even snakebit Poms managed to find the post, so he’s getting closer anyway.

I can’t really say if the Wild D is a little loose or if it’s just a case of puck luck? I thought they had the Jets stuffed at one goal and then they ended up actually letting them back in enough to make it interesting. Bad luck or slacking off? It’s hard to say really because the reality is Dubnyk is tied for the most wins of any goalie in the NHL, so to me it’s kind of hard to go off on the defense because, well, they keep winning don’t they? And the seem to be able to shut it down when they need to, see also the previous 1-0 win…

Still can’t help be feel that as a team they’d be better if the GAA was a bit lower.

Grouse

Doobs appears to be comfortable with the new pads now and back in form.

At the start of 3 on 3 I said why Granlund and Nino. Start with Koivu and Zucker. It’s a no brainer. Best face off guy with the speedy guy who can snipe. I hope Yeo learned something tonight.

Oh and the defense still has some work to do. Granted, we need Scandela back.

Based on point. 6 of the top 13 teams in the NHL are in the central division. Maybe even more impressive considering we only have 7 teams in the division.

I hate how prosser tries to hold the line no matter what, even when he has 2 or 3 guys coming towards him. He got lucky at least 3 times with good bounces. Suter is not playing well and the other D have followed. We stole 2 points today and I will take it, but the D will have to tighten up in Dallas or it could get ugly quickly.

I can remember watching elite teams in the past and even on off nights when they got behind, I felt like they were never out of it. This is how I feel about the Wild now. After so many years of waiting on these prospects I feel like we are there now.

Man, I’d love to say I’m loving how the Wild are playing. The problem is I’m afraid that eventually, it’s going to get hard for them to continue skating well with a freaking lucky horseshoe up their backsides!

I would be completely un-shocked if the ice at the X was dyed pink at the next game in honor of the Wild’s new primary sponsor, Tums antacids.

Dubnyk bailed them out from multiple, mostly-Prosser-induced, defensive disasters. Carolina suddenly was shooting so poorly they couldn’t have hit a bull in the ass with a handful of rice. Turnover after agonizing turnover! Then the Wild take a penalty in OT, kill it off, and then come back and win it.

Is this any way to live? Well, ok, we’re winning and maybe it’s just me, but doesn’t it feel like winning lucky as opposed to winning good?

I guess I can point to some pieces of good news. First, we’ve got some players who are just playing terrific. Vanek, Zucker, and in case anybody had any doubts on if last season’s Dubnyk would return, well, he’s back. And so is the Dubnyk Dilemma — He seems to play his best with very little rest. Give him 5 days off, it’s still not good.

Pug is absolutely right, it’s the curse of the Central division, now everybody’s good. There’s going to be some sad situations where some really soft teams get into the playoffs just by luck of division if this keeps up.

Grouse

You don’t have to apologize for winning.

Doobs playing above average and stealing a couple wins is all the Wild need to contend for a cup. We didn’t have that last year. I’d say before Doobs, they didn’t steal even one win.

Beyond that, we just need everyone to play as expected. Cough, pomminville.

So far so good, we’re going to be talking about a losing streak sometime soon but I do feel that we shouldn’t see anything like the last two years.

Bulmer and Keranan are in tonight with Haula ailing. I have always liked Bulmer and I hope he has a good game.

Sounds like another Wild dad is going to pass away. Got to feel for Scandella.

2 take aways from that mess.

I realized how blessed we have been seeing well officiated games where the refs don’t insert themselves and the games have a good pace to them.

Sweet play by Malkin.

+1 on the Malkin play. He has some sick hands for a big guy.
The team looked terrible last night and the officiating certainly sucked donkey.

Hopefully Nino doesn’t get disciplined by the league for that hit, but I have a feeling he will.
The one thing that irritated me the most was Kuemper unlocking the door. I have seen that happen multiple times this year already (not by the Wild) and that is so dangerous.
I was checked into an open door in Bantams and that was not a pleasurable experience.

The Penguins big guns came out to play last night, when they are on their game (like Malkin was) not much you can do… How many goals are we going to miss out on while Pommer fights through his “slump”? I noticed several grade A chances he was setup with but failed on, my god get him off the powerplay at the very least!

Has anybody else noticed how lazy Dubnyk can be at times around the net (very much like Backstrom always was) He shows no urgency to get back in the net when the play pulls him out…Malkin’s 1st goal was because of this (yes he had a Pengiuns player jab into his pads, but that shouldn’t have stopped him from getting back in his crease) The refs and the NHL war room agreed…

lastly on our 5-3 power plays it looked like the plan was to setup Suter with 1 timers from the point? Really? Suter with 1 timers? We have like 10 other guys with bigger shots than Suter… There was never a screen in front so it looked like the plan was for Suter’s shot to beat the goalie clean from just inside the blueline…that’s rarely gonna happen in the NHL… even less rare with Suter’s 85 mph slapper…it just boggles the mind…

rant over….if they can beat the Bruins the road trip was successful

TheFamousGrouse wrote:

Man, I’d love to say I’m loving how the Wild are playing. The problem is I’m afraid that eventually, it’s going to get hard for them to continue skating well with a freaking lucky horseshoe up their backsides!

I would be completely un-shocked if the ice at the X was dyed pink at the next game in honor of the Wild’s new primary sponsor, Tums antacids.

I quote myself only as a way of saying SWSDWD (Same Wild Sh!t Different Wild Day).

The “luck” in last night’s game was that the Wild got as close as they did. That easily could have been a 6 to 3 loss or worse.

I’m not going to complain about the 5-3 PP, only because they, um, finally scored on a 5-3. For the first time this year.

The thing that is driving me crazy about the Wild’s 5 on 3 is how they keep freaking backing up all the way to the blue line. Why, for the love of God, are you backing up?????? Get down there in tight and create some freaking chaos and blocked vison in front of the net you dumb@sses! Why would you want to make long, slow, telegraphed passes when you could be down below the tops of the circles making bing-bing-bing touch passes? Gawd it just drives me crazy, every time the Wild make a pass in the O zone, the player receiving the puck is skating backwards and pretty soon 4 of their 5 are all above the dots standing in wide open ice. Arrrraaahhhhhh!!!!!

OK, so if you REALLY want to scratch and claw for good news, there’s also the fact that Granny finally got goal #2. With the Pominville woes, Grandlund has been flying under the scoring slump radar.

But unfortunately there are currently more negatives than positives because the Wild are playing just good enough to barely win or just bad enough to barely lose. We’re suffering terribly from players who should be producing, but simply aren’t. Coyle and Pominville need to find the back of the net. Coyle is at serious risk of being passed by 2 defensemen in the goals and ponints category and that just can’t be happening with a player the wild have that much money in.

Grouse

Coyle finds himself on a different line every night with all the injuries, at the start of the year when he had a consistent group to play with he was a beast…Yeo is wasting his talents only because there are no better options to call up to fill in for injuries….

Granlund’s woes are directly tied to Pomminville sucking so much… Granny will never be the goal scorer, his job is to get the puck to the goal scorers, he has setup Pomminville for god knows how many grade A chances and stone hands just whiffs them away…Granlund should easily have 5-7 more assists than he currently has, if he had those he’d be tied for the team lead in points right now and we wouldn’t be talking about him…

Last night’s loss didn’t bother me that much, the Penguins ARE a good team and when playing at home, they should win most of their games…

Pomminville needs to be moved to the 3rd line…bottom line…

…did I just wake up in January 2015? @mwodziak help!

Yeo must go, we need to rebuild…

mplspug wrote:

…did I just wake up in January 2015?

Well, I think that’s exactly the point. Wild fans can be forgiven if we’re a little sensitive to the ‘ol slide into the playoffs backwards and land on the floor in an exhausted heap after playing the last 3 months of do or die hockey.

Are we a little gun shy? Sure. But with pretty dang good reason, we’re all hoping NOT to be where we’ve been the last 3 years.

Obviously, based on where we are in the season, it’s not time to reach for the panic button. Except for the fact that based on the way the last 3 seasons have gone, there’s no “Oh well, it’s early in the season…”kind of write off tolerance. Plus, it’s totally obvious that in a very good division, one team is going to be left home crying at the start of the playoffs–a team that would have finished near top of any other division.

It’d be nice if we had the superstars that would enable the Wild to give a free pass to underachievers like Coyle and Pominville by blaming their linemates, lights were in their eyes, ice wasn’t hard enough, etc. Problem is, we need goal production out of all our O players, not just 2 or 3 of them. Especially with 1 of those 2/3 bigger producers currently injured.

Grouse

It is amazing to me how critical some people in this form are. It seems like some only notice the bad things? Did you guys that have so much to say actually play hockey? It happens a lot faster out there on the ice than it may look on instant replay, for example, Dubnyk not getting into position after being pushed through the crease, which should have been goalie interference even if there hadn’t been a goal because he was pushing Dubnyk with his stick when the puck wasn’t even there. I see a lot of positives when watching the games, and it is still early in the season. Do some of you really think you know how to play and coach better than people that get paid millions of dollars to do it?

I have been a goalie for 27 years and still play in multiple men’s leagues. Dubnyk didn’t even try to get back into position. He just laid on his back and counted on the goalie interference option.
DT

I was also a goalie my whole life, and I just watched the highlight about ten times. To me, it looks like he rolls over as soon as the guys stick gets out of the way, tries to locate the puck, and just doesn’t get there fast enough. Have you watched it again in real time? How do you think he should have played it?

ajaikens31 wrote:

Do some of you really think you know how to play and coach better than people that get paid millions of dollars to do it?

Keep in mind they are millionaires because of us. We have bought the right to be critical. If we weren’t allowed to be critical, we simply wouldn’t care or even watch.

Back to doobs. As a goalie myself, I agree with the others but I’m not as concerned. He needs to have a few bad games to stay focused. I think it’s a matter of focus. We all know that some days you feel like nothing can get past and sometimes you feel like you can’t stop anything. Pros feel the same only they’re able to find a way to win.

You must be fairly new to IDO otherwise none of these posts would bother you. All these guys have their way of expressing their love of this team.