Good, Bad & Ugly from Last Night

[M_Nels]

Good:

• Rossi looked the part of a solid NHLer last night, looked faster, played hard and that stick lift then between the legs pass to Maroon *chef's kiss* ALMOST sprung a 2-on-1 late in OT as well with a hard battle
• Flower played great! Stopped many high danger chances, moved well and the icing on the cake was dumping Bedard & Reichel in the shootout. Had a good laugh at those especially the stick tap on Bedard's shin pads and chipping the puck at Reichel.
• Wild were almost 50/50 on faceoffs last night.
• Dewar with a beaut of an open ice hit and then stepping up to answer the bell even though he didn't need to.
• Outside of the bad pass leading to the breakaway, Faber picked up right where he left off. 
• Bedard shutdown pretty much all game.

Bad:

• 1st line was pretty invisible. Thought KK was way too passive last night, deferred on about 3 really good looks. 
• Maroon looked SLOW, knew he wasn't a speedster but was hoping for an upgrade on speed over Reaves.
• Wild got outshot 17-6 in the 2nd period, hell the whole 2nd period was ugly.
• Merrill didn't have a great game, had some puck handling errors and just didn't look great.
• Addison's 5v5 defense looked slightly better but his weakness along the wall and in front showed again.

Ugly:

• Powerplay was 0-6!! The first 2 looked pretty solid then it just all defaulted back to last year's mess. That 5v3 was HORRENDOUS! Maybe just need more practice with the new system but if the Wild want to go far this year the PP has to step up.
• Spurge's injury, looked to be a shoulder/collarbone area. Dean said it "wasn't positive" so that no good. Hopefully it doesn't sideline him too long. Seasons 82+ games so we need him 100%

[vonlonster67]

10 minutes ago, M_Nels said:

Good:

• Rossi looked the part of a solid NHLer last night, looked faster, played hard and that stick lift then between the legs pass to Maroon *chef's kiss* ALMOST sprung a 2-on-1 late in OT as well with a hard battle
• Flower played great! Stopped many high danger chances, moved well and the icing on the cake was dumping Bedard & Reichel in the shootout. Had a good laugh at those especially the stick tap on Bedard's shin pads and chipping the puck at Reichel.
• Wild were almost 50/50 on faceoffs last night.
• Dewar with a beaut of an open ice hit and then stepping up to answer the bell even though he didn't need to.
• Outside of the bad pass leading to the breakaway, Faber picked up right where he left off. 
• Bedard shutdown pretty much all game.

Bad:

• 1st line was pretty invisible. Thought KK was way too passive last night, deferred on about 3 really good looks. 
• Maroon looked SLOW, knew he wasn't a speedster but was hoping for an upgrade on speed over Reaves.
• Wild got outshot 17-6 in the 2nd period, hell the whole 2nd period was ugly.
• Merrill didn't have a great game, had some puck handling errors and just didn't look great.
• Addison's 5v5 defense looked slightly better but his weakness along the wall and in front showed again.

Ugly:

• Powerplay was 0-6!! The first 2 looked pretty solid then it just all defaulted back to last year's mess. That 5v3 was HORRENDOUS! Maybe just need more practice with the new system but if the Wild want to go far this year the PP has to step up.
• Spurge's injury, looked to be a shoulder/collarbone area. Dean said it "wasn't positive" so that no good. Hopefully it doesn't sideline him too long. Seasons 82+ games so we need him 100%

MN, all good points, and it's good to see the team back on the ice. It's preseason so I'm not terribly worried other than the Spurgeon injury.

Trying to evaluate our lineup against a team that will be at the bottom of the Central this year or expecting the Wild to get up for a preseason game just isn't gonna add up to see where we are.

I'm happy to see some rhythm and passing like we had in the 1st period. Rossi n Faber are our big additions to this team and looked promising. 

We won a preseason game in OT against a bottom feeding team in their house.

[Will D. Ness]

A few observations to add:

Brodin looked very good.  Midseason form.  Unreal.

Merrill looked very bad.  There can't be too much risk and good opportunity replacing him with Lambos or O'rourke.

Addy... same ole.  Give him 10 games.

Faber had a solid game except for that WTF moment.  No worries really though.

Edited October 6, 2023 by Will D. Ness

[M_Nels]

19 minutes ago, Will D. Ness said:

A few observations to add:

Brodin looked very good.  Midseason form.  Unreal.

Merrill looked very bad.  There can't be too much risk and good opportunity replacing him with Lambos or O'rourke.

Addy... same ole.  Give him 10 games.

Faber had a solid game except for that WTF moment.  No worries really though.

100% on Brodin, looked damn good.

Hoping one of the young guys gets a shot on the blueline. Merrill and Addy both are liabilities at this point and I'm sure Goose isn't going to blow anybodys socks off with his play either. Depending on Spurge's injury we may get to see Lambo's sooner rather than later.

[Protec]

Defense prospects are solid so Spurge will have to heal. Merrill and Addison currently have little market value. Don’t rush to 86 those guys.

Faber will not make the same mistakes after the pass led to a goal. Good to see him get burned now in preseason. Smart player, he’ll not do that too often. 

Rossi, Dewar, Maroon, Duhaime making an impact. Nice.

Power play, ouch...