Article: Brock Faber Shouldn't Be Possible

[Tony Abbott]

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[Sviginak]

Those of us that thought he might need a year in Iowa before moving to the show are,…uh…. Reassessing the situation. I am sure he will make mistakes, but it looks like we will need a camera on him every second he is on the ice if we want to catch them. Improving Merrill’s game at the same time? Wow!

[manbearpig]

Perhaps lets see how the rest of series plays out

[Bluecheeseman]

Hard not to love that last night was his 3rd or 4th NHL game and he was a stud!

[Jon]

“Not that Dallas deserved to be robbed, it's not like they ever stole anything from the State of Hockey.“

Ah yes, writer speak for F Norm Green. Glad to know even the sportswriters feel the same way. Just kidding. Kind of. 

Just a thought, but can you imagine how crazy it would be if the Wild made a deep playoff run and Faber’s play is serious enough to garner Conn Smythe votes? As a ROOKIE who only played 3 reg. season games?!!

[B1GKappa97]

Well we all felt like we were missing Seeler since the Kraken took him a couple years back. Looks like Billy G made sure to replace him with an even better player in the Fiala trade. Granted he's not a 30-goal scorer (yet??) but Faber definitely is making that trade look more even than it seemed at the time. 

Its really tough to describe just how impressive the guy's poise is, to come from the NCAA straight to the NHL and not look out of place on NHL ice. I mean he was absolutely getting jumped when he had the puck but I don't think I ever saw him panic about it the way we've seen other guys (coughdumbacough) seem to make poor plays with the puck when getting attacked on the boards. 

Meanwhile Rossi and Addison look like they need a whole year's worth, and maybe more, of NHL games to figure out how to look the part of an NHLer. 

Just wait until Faber really figures out the NHL instead of just trying not to make too many mistakes. Its going to be unfair to the rest of the league when we have two Brodin-esque defenders on our blueline and the Spurgy-Middleton combo! 

Assuming they don't trade him off this summer (though its looking less and less likely) maybe a future Faber-Addison combo will be our new Dumba-Brodin for the next decade. 

Edited April 19, 2023 by B1GKappa97

[Protec]

Addison was probaby thinking, he's the top prospect on defense cause he was til Fiala was traded. Now Addison is scratched and Faber is in for the playoffs cause he, PLAYS DEFENSE.

Addison will no longer be squeegie-mustache guy who is pretty okay on the PP, but -20 all season long with little improvement.

Well technically he'll still be that guy but not the top defense prospect, former first rounder. He's gonna have to get it together this off-season if he's not traded. This is the fork in the road for him. 

His apathetic comments about being scratched earlier this year tells me everything I need to know. I think he's gone. Just look at GMBG's track record. Staal, gone. Parise & Suter, gone. Talbot, gone. Addison has tested the patience of the coaches insinuating they are judging him poorly as he approaches Suter-level entitlement. My point, GMBG doesn't play that game with veterans or rookies. (See Menell or the Russian-named kid who didn't like his lot with MN, gone and quickly forgotten.)

[Outskated]

59 minutes ago, B1GKappa97 said:

Well we all felt like we were missing Seeler since the Kraken took him a couple years back. Looks like Billy G made sure to replace him with an even better player in the Fiala trade. Granted he's not a 30-goal scorer (yet??) but Faber definitely is making that trade look more even than it seemed at the time. 

Its really tough to describe just how impressive the guy's poise is, to come from the NCAA straight to the NHL and not look out of place on NHL ice. I mean he was absolutely getting jumped when he had the puck but I don't think I ever saw him panic about it the way we've seen other guys (coughdumbacough) seem to make poor plays with the puck when getting attacked on the boards. 

Meanwhile Rossi and Addison look like they need a whole year's worth, and maybe more, of NHL games to figure out how to look the part of an NHLer. 

Just wait until Faber really figures out the NHL instead of just trying not to make too many mistakes. Its going to be unfair to the rest of the league when we have two Brodin-esque defenders on our blueline and the Spurgy-Middleton combo! 

Assuming they don't trade him off this summer (though its looking less and less likely) maybe a future Faber-Addison combo will be our new Dumba-Brodin for the next decade. 

The Krackheads took Carson Soucy from us, not Seeler.  

[Protec]

Seeler playing in PHI, avoiding the scorn of Torterella by keeping his head down and playing blue-collar hockey. We liked Seeler as a Prosser substitute with double-vowels rather than dub-consonents. 

Soucy was good here too. Scored some goals and was a really nice pairing with Brodin.

[mnfaninnc]

2 hours ago, Protec said:

(See Menell or the Russian-named kid who didn't like his lot with MN, gone and quickly forgotten.)

Was that Vladamir Firstov?

[mnfaninnc]

Quote

Are there things to nitpick with Faber's play? It's open to interpretation. Generally, if you block a lot of shots, you don't have the puck very often, and Dallas out-attempted Minnesota 22-15 with Faber on the ice. As spectacular as Faber's block on Marchment was, if he doesn't drift so far toward Merrill's side, wouldn't he be in a better, less desperate position to make a more routine block?

You have a point here. I didn't get to watch much of Gopher hockey, really only the tournament, however, from what I saw, it looked like Faber routinely took an angle that was slightly over half the width because he could shut down that much.  

In college, perhaps that works, in this league, he may need to move over just a bit.  Even Brodin has to play his side.  

If you look on the clip that Tony provides, this is huge. Faber is caught out of position and in panic mode. He dives to tip the puck. When do we ever see this type of desperation defending from either Addison or Rossi?  While it is my belief that Addison won't get it, I think showing this kind of thing to Rossi and letting him know this is the type of effort expected, he may change. I just think Rossi is a much more humble/coachable player.

What still shocks me is Faber's energy. It still looks like he's trying hard to adjust to this level of competition, but his agility, skating, and puck control have flashes of brilliance, dare we even call it elite? Defensively he seems to have very little holes, and I would say he has gotten noticeably better each game.  And this is without even knowing his partner's tendencies!

[mnfaninnc]

2 hours ago, Outskated said:

The Krackheads took Carson Soucy from us, not Seeler.  

Noticed the same thing, but I do miss Seeler too. I'd love to have him playing next to Faber this series.

[Up North Guy]

I wonder how good Faber could be with an actual competent partner. Merrill was benched for a good part of the 3rd period.

[MNCountryLife]

I'm a big believer that a team wins consistently by having high quality D players.  The Wild have that and Faber sure makes it look like we will have it for years to come.  I am hoping that Daemon Hunt and Ryan O'Rourke from IA (Both 20 years old) will rise up to the Wild's expectations as well.  

[B1GKappa97]

7 hours ago, Outskated said:

The Krackheads took Carson Soucy from us, not Seeler.  

That's the one! Still tired from Monday night 😞

[Daraincher]

11 hours ago, Jon said:

“Not that Dallas deserved to be robbed, it's not like they ever stole anything from the State of Hockey.“

Ah yes, writer speak for F Norm Green. Glad to know even the sportswriters feel the same way. Just kidding. Kind of. 

Just a thought, but can you imagine how crazy it would be if the Wild made a deep playoff run and Faber’s play is serious enough to garner Conn Smythe votes? As a ROOKIE who only played 3 reg. season games?!!

You Forgot to mention the most important part...F*CK NORM GREEN!