I think Doobs is back on form after a shakey start. Unfortunately the D is lagging still. It’s a good thing the blueliners are offsetting it with scoring.
As for scoring, I have no problem with anyone’s game. Last year we were bottom feeders and this year we are 7th in goals per game.
I assume the defense will come around… I hope. The team seams to be the opposite of the last 2 seasons so far.
If you want to post the video I’ll watch it but when Watching the game I remember saying to myself, get up.
DT
Not very new to IDO, but it just seems like there are always complaints even when the Wild are doing a lot of good things. I’ll try and post the video of the goal. http://video.nhl.com/videocenter/console?id=2015020270_234
We’ve played a fairly tough schedule so far and have done pretty well, and like I said, it’s still early.
It’s not just Wild fans, its Mn fans in general. But it is also not just a Mn thing. It’s what pro sports are all about.
I still think it was interference. Like I said not the initial contact but when hornquist is over him and his stick is on his gear.
During the game they said something about being able to reset himself. It’s not really being reset if your late coming across scrambling to get to where the shot that went in was coming from.
They must have talked to the officials, because at the start of the season, I saw far less overturn a goal.
Regarding Pominville, How can you not complain about a guy making 5.6 million dollars, taking top 6 forward and powerplay icetime away from guys who can produce and seems to be getting worse not better? He has looked absolutely terrible out there, always 2 steps behind the play, over half of his assists are phantoms…He needs to be moved to the 3rd line as he’s wasting too many chances that are potentially costing us games…
Dubs has been playing great, I merely pointed out he has a habit of slacking back into the net when he gets drawn out, it’s happened several times this year…he doesn’t seem to show any urgency, it might just be related to his huge frame not able to move quickly…who knows…it’s very Backstrom like
Pominville sucks. I wasn’t crazy about the trade to bring him here when it happened and even less excited about it now. He has more grade A chances than anyone on this team and he has ZERO to show for it.
I like the analysis about how Granlund would have more assists if it weren’t for Pominville. That is precisely true!
Our team leader is out and we need folks to step up so this is where Pominville needs to produce yet he is doing nothing.
Grouse defended Vanek all last year, so I guess this year it will be me defending Pominville. He’ll snap out of it soon and be fine once the first one goes in. The guy gets grade A chances because he has great hockey sense. Once the first one goes, he’ll loosen up the old grip.
Maybe I’ll just have my brother rip on him like he used to with Vanek when we text during the game. With Vanek, it always lead to a score by Vanek.
This would be a good game to break the slump. I am thinking its going to be a high scoring affair. I am thinking at least 10 goals total, a 6-4/6-5 final.
The difference with Vanek is that he has much better natural scoring ability. Pominville has to work for every goal he gets. I defended Vanek too, but look at his stats last year he was 3rd on the team right? People rode him because he wasn’t as visible in the D zone. That’s never been his game, never will be. He is a natural scorer with some of the best hands of anyone out there.
I am sure Pominville will get out of his slump, but I do not see goals coming in bunches for him. He hit the numbers he did because he was steady. We are what? 15 games into the season and 0 goals? If he ends up with 20 for the season that will be incredible. Im not holding my breath.
Scandella is out for at least a week. Great, Prosser most likely in. They can’t start out flat again tonight. Skate the entire game and they should be fine.
Prosser has been playing almost every game already. Wild called up Olofsson. Will be interesting to see how much ice time he gets. He looked pretty solid in the pre-season. Has some skills, smooth skater, can move the puck well, but not much of a shot.
Didn’t realize (but should have assumed) there were so many former goalies posting on IDO, explains a LOT!!! 
Pominville is this years Vanek.
I doubt Olofsson plays. Folin in.
Bad news about Scandella.
Good news that Nino Niederreiter will NOT be suspended for checking Olli Maatta into the unlatched gate in Pittsburgh, the league has announced.
Honestly, on the basis of what happened, I was 100% sure this was not suspension offense and I’d have said that no matter which 2 teams were involved. There was no way you could see the play and say that it was intentional that Nino was trying to check him into the gate, which at the time was closed. But given the fact that we’re not one of the sacred cow teams that gets the benefit of every NHL front office call, I wasn’t really sure that there wouldn’t be some, “Hell, it’s just MN, make an example of his @ss!”
People rode him [Vanek] because he wasn’t as visible in the D zone. That’s never been his game, never will be.
People were riding Vanek last year because of their perception that he was dogging it. Turns out he wan’t dogging it, he was just injured for half the season. 
Vanek was #3 in goals last year and without Vanek’s goal production there would have been no playoffs. But beyond that–even though nobody’s ever going to admit this–there’s the perception out there that assists are a fluffly BS stat that doesn’t really matter. So while Vanek was producing some fine assists the whole season, nobody cared because A) He was dogging it on D and B) Assists are a BS stat, only real goals count.
BTW, I’m not saying that scoring doesn’t matter and patience should be endless. Pominville was our #2 total points guy and tied for #5 in G production last year. We have a couple of guys (Cough! Coyle.) who I don’t think have been carrying their weight in either the G or A columns and I’m not just talking about just this season.
Just like last year with Vanek, there’s no way Pominville suddenly has Goal Amnesia and can’t remember how to score. He’ll get it on track, the issue by now is going to be almost 100% in his grip. By that I mean how he’s gripping the stick way too tight. My prediction is he gets one “Didn’t have time to think about it,” goal and then he’s snapped out of it.
Grouse
This will be a tough game for me. I have 4 Bruins on my fantasy team. 
DT
Hey Pomminville just scored……..for the Bruins……
Per pat micheletti
I guessing it hit a nerve. Perineal nerve to be exact. Same thing happened to me in college. #16
Fml
Though that was a cheap shot, I had to think, what is his problem (Zucker)? Clearly that didn’t look egregious enough to warrant flopping like a crappie on the ice, but Pugs post may make complete sense.
It would suck to lose Zucker to ANY amount of time right now. He is our most consistent scorer of late.
Coyle hasn’t been producing, that is certainly true, but his line has been devastated by changes. He is playing with someone new each night.
Hopefully Parise can come back soon. Brodin will be healthy, but I did think that Olofsson actually looked pretty good last night. He had two great scoring chances, though I wish Vanek had just shot on the one instead of the pass because it appeared he had an open net too.
Olofsson did look pretty good last night, his skating is oh so silky smooth… that might loosen the strings a bit to pull the trigger on a trade, Spurgeon will never have a higher trade value than right now, there’s no way we can afford his next contract due next year, so get the best you can for him while he’s healthy and scoring…Reading rumors about trading for Hamonic…why? We need forward depth more than anything…
That was their best defensive effort in a while. I don’t recall any break aways and Doobs basically just had to stop the first shot all night.
Funniest thing I read today was Neal chirped at Doobs in the final 3 minutes…
Dubnyk said Neal told him at the end, “I hope you don’t get the shutout.” 😁
U know you played well when this weak jab is the best you can do.
Update: Doobs response was…
Dubnyk said, laughing. “I imagine you don’t. You’re on the ice.”
Good effort all around by the Wild. Nearly constant pressure and the Preads cracked early and often. Renne was most of what kept them in the game.
Nice to see the Wild responding to the rough stuff with a little pushback. Neal kept taking himself off the ice with trips to the box, that’s only going to be good for us. Like everyone there, I would have liked to see Neal get more special attention, but he knew he’d put himself in the crosshairs and in the first period it was obvious his head was swiveling around like the last turkey in the pen the week before Thanksgiving.
Grouse
Best defensive effort turns into worst offensive effort.
This team needs to play every other night with no long breaks.
Where would the wild be without Vanek so far this year?
One thing that I think is commonly overlooked is durability. That’s something the the greatest players have. They’re always on the ice and almost never injured.
This team is horrible! I think it is time to consider making a big trade to shake this squad up! There is no Stanley Cup in Minnesota’s future.
This team is horrible! I think it is time to consider making a big trade to shake this squad up! There is no Stanley Cup in Minnesota’s future.
What do you suggest they do?
Take 2 beers and post in the morning.
quote=1580279]
<div class=”d4p-bbt-quote-title”>31lifer wrote:</div>
This team is horrible! I think it is time to consider making a big trade to shake this squad up! There is no Stanley Cup in Minnesota’s future.
What do you suggest they do?
[/quote]
I have been holding off all season with the things I am seeing already this season. Heres a few. Keep suter off the ice..slow, dont hit anyone, doenst move guys out from in front of our net. too slow for the power play, does a bad job holding the offensive zone at the blue line, it would help if he was two more steps in the zone and not right on the blue line. shoots too late and always into the shin pads, but I will say he has done a much better job this year getting shots threw to the net and it shows, he has some goals… Less ice time for him. Keep him off the ice in OT. OT is now a fast pace race horse hockey. Not for slow guys. OK you get the Picture im not a suter fan. Oh yeah he needed to force Jamie benn on the second goal. You dont just let their best player come in and take a free shot. Force his sooner, then he has to try to get a pass over or take a shot from farther out .
This team needs to keep the pressure up in the offensive zone. Get in and hammer on the D. Force turnovers. Our D needs to do a better job of standing up at our blue line. We give up our zone way to easy and by the time we step up we are at the hash marks, too late. They get tunnel vision to the puck in our zone. They get nervous and start running for the guy with the puck and leave back door guys wide open or the point man walks right in free, while our 5 guys are all trying to block the puck for our goalie. Stand up clear guys out from the front of our net so the goalie can see the puck. Knock someone on their a$$. Dont give them a chance at the rebounds. We need to play all four lines. The checking line has looked good. Porter does a great job getting in and hitting the D forcing turnovers. Power play needs to be more creative. The one timer to the side board guy has been figured out by the other teams. Watch how other teams pp is aginst us. They all get creative and have guys moving around more. Vanek is our only creative guys out there. Most the time guys aren’t even ready for his passes. Speed up the ice, get speed coming up the ice on the pp and force the other team back into their zone, way too often we come up so slow that its so easy for them to hold their blue line forcing us to dump the puck, but we dont even have enough speed for that because suter is bring the puck up and everyone else is standing at the blue line waiting. Tough guy, we dont have one. Need that guy that can go out and make a big hit and get your team fired up or answer to the call of a big hit on one of your own guys whether its clean hit or not. We look foolish with the gloves off. Some say that’s not needed but it is. Maybe not in the playoffs but it can help you get threw the season and win some games to make the playoffs.
Just take and watch a few of the small things in the next few game, Like how we dont finish checks, stop forcing in the offensive zone when we turn the puck over to create turnovers (we are good at this when we force the puck and it creates odd man rushes).How suter never hits anyone and all the other things I listed befor. Power play does the same thing everytime. Don’t force soone enough at our blue line. Get tunnel vision to the puck in our zone. How we will leave kane open too many time on Tuesday night, and no one knocks him on his aresss. Always throwing our break out passes up the side boards. Don’t tie guys up in front of the net or simply clear them out. When we get back to doing some of these thing we will be winning games like nobody’s business.
Couple Positives from tonight. POMER scored, I thought gustov looked good. Dont know why he only had two shifts in the 3rd, and why dumba only had 3. Kemps played a good game. Vanek continues to shine. Pk was good. We only had two penalties. I know its early but we cant afford to go into a slump this season like last year, our conference is way too good.
Wallster ><((((>
I hope Yeo and the team takes the 2 days off and looks at some video.
I think our biggest problem is team defense in our zone. They have to get better at getting out of the zone and positioning. They don’t seem to be blocking as many shots, a symptom of being out of position. And I’ve seen too many tips going in because they are not tying up guys and their sticks.
Every line has done a good job on the forecheck besides Parise, Granlund and pominville. Which is sad considering how good Parise is at forechecking, he just gets no support. They are good as a team on the offensive zone, but horrible in their own zone and the neutral zone, which skews time of possession. They just really have to buck up and start playing well in the back 2/3 of the ice.
I’m starting to think it might be nice if we could move Granlund. His game is very inconsistent. You can pretty much pin last night’s loss on him, if you want to single out one player. He’s still relatively young and I think still on his RFA contract, but I don’t see him getting much better.
Too much to read this early in the morn wallster.
I have to agree with pug. The goals that are getting scored against are severe breakdowns in defense or simply stupid giveaways. I’m not saying our defensemen are the problem, the forwards are not giving them any support whatsoever. How do you connect a breakout pass when there are no forwards in our d zone?
Looks like an old timers league where nobody back checks and everyone is floating on the offensive blue line.
Checked out Russo’s article today.
Tension in the Wild lockeroom? Suter says team needs leaders. Perhaps he should take a look at his contract again and stand in front of the mirror.
Checked out Russo’s article today.
Tension in the Wild lockeroom? Suter says team needs leaders. Perhaps he should take a look at his contract again and stand in front of the mirror.
Hmm, HE is supposed to be one of the leaders.
He also was irritated with getting paired up with Brodin again. Saying he “needed a right handed” partner. Well, when Suter and Brodin were paired together in years past, it was a solid pair. Suter has been putting up points, but he certainly has been making some boneheaded plays at the same time. Maybe this will be the spark to get his head back on straight.
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