Article: Toronto Exposed the Wild's Fatal Flaw. Now What?

[mnfaninnc]

13 hours ago, Pewterschmidt said:

Fine I've made my peace with Foligno as long as he stops spiking his helmet after a fight.  Leave that stupid shit for Reeves.

I think that was in response to him hurting his hand during the fight. He put on an icebag in the penalty box. If you watch the fight, he kind of quit throwing that right hand mid way through the fight.

[mnfaninnc]

1 hour ago, MNCountryLife said:

Our D definitely is not there without Spurgeon and Dumba.  Thankfully we will get Spurgeon back at some point.  Middleton needs a solid partner like Spurgeon in order to play to his strengths.  Brodin and Faber look really good.  Merrill is a bit like Middleton.  He needs a partner to play smart because he isn't going to cover your weaknesses.  Addison and Goligoski are not it.  Without Dumba our 3rd pairing became quite weak. Without Spurgeon we now have 2 weak pairings.  Goligoski has really been a disappointment.  The guy has the skill and knowledge.  He just isn't properly conditioned to play anymore.

One thing that looked particularly concerning and bad has been the Middleton-Merrill pairing on the PK. Maybe it will just take some time, and on paper they should mesh, but they just don't look to be on the same page. 

Enter Carson Lambos, even if it's a cup of coffee, he will add speed, athleticism, and skill to the back line. Getting his debut out of the way might also be a good thing. And, who knows, maybe he never gives the position back? I really like the thought of a Lambos-Faber pairing. They're young but that pair could be really good.

[mnfaninnc]

16 hours ago, Beast said:

The fatal flaw isn’t that Gologoski and Merrill stink.  We’ve know that for for years.  The flaw is they’re still on the team and playing meaningful minutes.

I don’t want to hear about cap space and buy outs.  It doesn’t take $20M of cap space to find a better defenseman.  Stick a road cone out there.

This $15m cap restriction is a complete BS excuse argument. What the $15m keeps us from doing is having high end veteran depth on this roster at this time. So, you have to find your depth from different sources. 

Guys on ELCs are underpaid. Guys who haven't gotten a shot and are hungry can be found. Our top brass has decided that they will play the kids and develop them in the A until they're overcooked. And this is where I believe they may be wrong. 

You could have a few roster spots open for guys to see if they can come in and not give the spot back. You could have a revolving door there giving anyone in the A a shot to prove themselves at the N level. This is one easy way to circumvent the penalties. 

Next year, guys like Dino and Yurov and Lambos could directly improve the team but give you so much value for the dollar. This year we've got plenty of guys in the A who could potentially do that (but they should have gotten stronger physically the previous couple of years). 

To me, it doesn't seem like our cap guru is using enough creativity to get us the best lineup each game. Blocking out ELC contracts because of cap restrictions is just the wrong approach. Find a way, other teams are doing it.

[Velgey]

14 hours ago, jgodwin17 said:

It was one game, stuff like this happens to every team in the league. Every single one. The Wild defense played poorl

Exactly. Colorado might be sitting at 2-0-0 but that second win was a shootout victory over San Jose. Failing to put away a rock bottom team in regulation or overtime doesn't exactly scream dominant powerhouse team of the Central, but that's only a single game. 

[MNCountryLife]

33 minutes ago, mnfaninnc said:

on paper they should mesh

Middleton and Merrill are both solid D.  But neither possess the ability to cover the flaws of the pairing beside them.  Which is why a guy like Spurgeon next to Mid is so important.  Mid doesn't have to raise his level of play... he can just be himself.  Our 3rd pairing was exposed last year as well.  We don't have that 6th man with a high hockey IQ that can be placed next to Merrill... similar to Spurge.

I really do not know what Addison is doing on the ice.  Quite honestly I think he would make a much better forward.  The guy has puck skill and a net presence for scoring.  He is awful at D.  

Would be great for us to try out a few guys in IA and see who fits.  We need that.  I 100% agree with you.  Why not try?  A skilled guy next to Mid or Merrill could be a good fit.  We know Goligoski is not going to get suddenly faster and Addison... well... you know my thoughts there.

[Protec]

If the question is whether he can Brock the walk, or if he just Brocks the talk, I would say don't balk adding him to your flock. This is how Guerin improved the stock, cause every wagon requires a chock. Faber's skill and attention to detail is excellent getting way into the corners where he runs an immaculate bead of caulk. Like a Mara River wildebeest trying to out-swim a hungry Brock, we've seen an aggressiveness to his offensive attack that's inappropriate to knock. Future top-pairing status is effectively a lock.

[Protec]

15 hours ago, Pewterschmidt said:

That warm breeze that smells like coffee and halitosis is Wild brass exhaling.  Throw in a mint Judd.  Keep it coming Marco.

This was a beauty. 😎

[TheGoosesAreLooses]

2 hours ago, mnfaninnc said:

Guys on ELCs are underpaid. Guys who haven't gotten a shot and are hungry can be found. Our top brass has decided that they will play the kids and develop them in the A until they're overcooked. And this is where I believe they may be wrong. 

You could have a few roster spots open for guys to see if they can come in and not give the spot back. You could have a revolving door there giving anyone in the A a shot to prove themselves at the N level. This is one easy way to circumvent the penalties. 

%100. This is the way. We can no longer afford to overcook guys in the A and why not use the cap hit as a opportunity instead of an excuse. There are many coaches/GMs that love to run a constant stream of young folks through the lineup.

It also gives us a chance to see them in the NHL, how they fit and how they step up. We have lots of guys knocking on the door, make it revolve and see who sticks instead of handing term to worn out vets. 

I don't put this loss on Addison or Gus Bus. Addison looked adequate defensively and Gus Bus was looking like the goal line might as well have been clothesline with the way he was hung out to dry. Merrill and Goli looked utterly useless out there. Merrill looked like he gave up late in the second and the result was us getting rained on in the third.

[TheGoosesAreLooses]

2 hours ago, MNCountryLife said:

Middleton and Merrill are both solid D.  But neither possess the ability to cover the flaws of the pairing beside them.  Which is why a guy like Spurgeon next to Mid is so important.  Mid doesn't have to raise his level of play... he can just be himself.  Our 3rd pairing was exposed last year as well.  We don't have that 6th man with a high hockey IQ that can be placed next to Merrill... similar to Spurge.

I really do not know what Addison is doing on the ice.  Quite honestly I think he would make a much better forward.  The guy has puck skill and a net presence for scoring.  He is awful at D.  

Would be great for us to try out a few guys in IA and see who fits.  We need that.  I 100% agree with you.  Why not try?  A skilled guy next to Mid or Merrill could be a good fit.  We know Goligoski is not going to get suddenly faster and Addison... well... you know my thoughts there.

Merrill is not a solid D man. He was a total pylon in the Toronto game, I thought Addison looked like twice the player he was.

Might as well bring in the kids!

[Tony Abbott]

I like how we use overcooked as a metaphor. There's nothing I love to eat more than something that's been overcooked. Yum!

[MNCountryLife]

1 hour ago, TheGoosesAreLooses said:

Merrill is not a solid D man. He was a total pylon in the Toronto game, I thought Addison looked like twice the player he was.

IMO: When you place a guy next to either Mid or Merrill (that they do not trust) they try to do too much and end up looking worse than they are.  Mid can not only trust Spurgeon but Spurgeon actually makes Mid look better than he is.  Place Spurgeon next to Merrill and a similar thing will happen.   Why? Because both those guys know the basics really well and are disciplined enough to avoid their weaknesses as much as possible.

The same cannot be said of Addison.  You can place Spurgeon beside Addison and yes... Addison will look better just because of how good Spurgeon is.  But Addison will still have holes in his game and try to do more than he is capable and be a problem.  He lacks the discipline.  I think this is where we disagree.

Addison is the better skater and puck handler.  That is obvious.  If he could fine tune the little things he has the potential... but I must admit that I have seen very little improvement in the D-zone from him over the last year which is discouraging. 

I'm a bit surprised Addison doesn't move to a winger position.  With his offensive skills he may thrive.

[Pewterschmidt]

15 minutes ago, MNCountryLife said:

bit surprised Addison doesn't move to a winger position.  With his offensive skills he may thrive.

I am a big fan of Addison's offensive skill set (ie- edge work, vision, soft hands) but I'm beginning to wonder if he's ever going to learn to be a NHL defender.  Don't know what's holding him back: attitude, aptitude (gotta believe he's smart enough given his offensive abilities), discipline?

Brent Burns was able to toggle between forward and Defense (and was pretty bad at both early in his career), but he's such a physical speciman and an absolute alpha that his brain eventually caught up to his size and he became all-world Def.

Addison doesn't have the luxury of size and I think he's not an alpha (Spurg = small + alpha) so i'm beginning to wonder about addy.  as a prospect i thought he was going to become our Duncan Keith, but I think he lacks Keith's grit and compete level. 

[Dango]

Last year the Wild were dead last the 1st 5-7 games in goals against by seasons end they were top5 or close to it ,  theyll figure it out but they need to cash in on some of those near misses as well.

[TheGoosesAreLooses]

On 10/17/2023 at 2:01 PM, Pewterschmidt said:

I am a big fan of Addison's offensive skill set (ie- edge work, vision, soft hands) but I'm beginning to wonder if he's ever going to learn to be a NHL defender.  Don't know what's holding him back: attitude, aptitude (gotta believe he's smart enough given his offensive abilities), discipline?

Brent Burns was able to toggle between forward and Defense (and was pretty bad at both early in his career), but he's such a physical speciman and an absolute alpha that his brain eventually caught up to his size and he became all-world Def.

Addison doesn't have the luxury of size and I think he's not an alpha (Spurg = small + alpha) so i'm beginning to wonder about addy.  as a prospect i thought he was going to become our Duncan Keith, but I think he lacks Keith's grit and compete level. 

We'd do well to remember that Addison has only played 84 games. Merrill's second year stat line was awful too 

66GP

2G

12A

14P

-14

24PIM

 

Even Rasmus Dahlin, Buffalo's up and comer looked not great his first year

82GP

9G

35A

44P

-13

34PIM

 

Looking forward, we have to keep in mind what Addison is, an offensive defenseman. He has warts but is improving. Looking at his stat line over his first 84 games suddenly his stats don't look SO awful. Guys take time to develop and at least Addison is taking steps in a good direction.

84GP

5G

30A

35P

-23

[Dango]

I was thinking up some line combination so the defences cant focus on shutting down our top players if theyre all on the same 2 lines.  so i got  the Labatt ,Busch, Baltika 3  line  .maroon, Gaudreu, Kaprizov   on line #2