Article: Wilderness Walk: Eriksson Ek Took Control

[Thomas Williams]

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[IllicitFive]

Fun game to watch, Ek went beast mode, him getting tossed was some BS for sure, refs trying to get control of the game I suppose. Only concern would be all 5 goals were either PP or SH, no 5 on 5.  That may be due to amount of penalties and never got in a groove but I am wanting to see more chances 5 on 5 buried, they had them, just couldn't finish. And how many posts did they hit? 4? 5? Be fun to see the offense explode.

[MNCountryLife]

Ek is the best all around player on the Wild.  Yep... I said it....

[IllicitFive]

2 minutes ago, MNCountryLife said:

Ek is the best all around player on the Wild.  Yep... I said it....

Hard to argue against him potting goals, doing the dirty work, crushing it on defense. May have better specialty players but he has put it all together into a terrifying center for any team to play against. I wanna hear what he says to all these guys to get the amount of physical abuse he does 😄 😄 

[Imyourhuckleberry]

39 minutes ago, IllicitFive said:

I wanna hear what he says to all these guys to get the amount of physical abuse he does

Based upon the story I read last week, likely from the Athletic, it sounds more like he's just really hard to play against. He's very strong and always gets to the places that opposing defenders are supposed to keep opposing players out of. Once he's there, it's hard to move him.

He's strong on his skates and strong with his stick, working in all of the tough areas. The opposition has to work hard to battle against him and it wears on them throughout the course of a game.

And when the opposition is getting flustered and physical, he's just smirking back at them and not getting taken off his game. They didn't make it sound like he's talking a lot, but there could be some of that as well, I suppose.

[Pewterschmidt]

Fun game to watch last night.  We made MTL look silly.  (i think they're a bad team)

I started to think Rossi was hurt second half of game due to minimal TOI.  Did he get benched?  Thought this was  perfect opportunity for him to get reps against a bad team with game in hand.

Anyone else feel like Dewzy is making great case for 3C.  Promote him already.

At one point i saw Foligno+Dewzy+Maroon and liked what i saw from that line.

Don't sleep on Maroon.  Bro is Reaves X2....no X3.

[MrCheatachu]

15 minutes ago, Imyourhuckleberry said:

he's just smirking back at them and not getting taken off his game. They didn't make it sound like he's talking a lot, but there could be some of that as well, I suppose.

A couple of years ago, his own teammate talked about how he just makes you want to punch him in his doopey face (from 2019). https://theathletic.com/1435767/2019/12/06/joel-eriksson-ek-wild-why-he-annoys-opponents/

Quote

 Matt Dumba adores Joel Eriksson Ek, but man, did the Wild defenseman want to plunk the center across the melon during an afternoon practice at Tampa’s Amalie Arena on Wednesday and then use that, as one person quipped, “goofy, dopey,” almost expressionless face like a punching bag the way Eriksson Ek’s opponents do on a nightly basis.

 

“You just want to slash him across the head,” Dumba said, shaking his head. “He just plays hard. He’s strong. He’s physically imposing, and that just annoys the heck out of you. This guy’s just always over you, I feel. In practice sometimes, it’s like, ‘Come on, just leave me alone already.’”

 

[IllicitFive]

10 minutes ago, Pewterschmidt said:

Fun game to watch last night.  We made MTL look silly.  (i think they're a bad team)

I started to think Rossi was hurt second half of game due to minimal TOI.  Did he get benched?  Thought this was  perfect opportunity for him to get reps against a bad team with game in hand.

Anyone else feel like Dewzy is making great case for 3C.  Promote him already.

At one point i saw Foligno+Dewzy+Maroon and liked what i saw from that line.

Don't sleep on Maroon.  Bro is Reaves X2....no X3.

I think with MTL running around it was more a protection play vs benching, don't need to lose another skill guy. Moving Dewzy up would shake up all the lines quite a bit, who do you drop? Rossi? Or move Rossi up to line 1 and Hartman to line 4? Could be fun but then there is no size on line 1 which could be problematic. Or what kind of lines you thinking of if fully healthy?

[MNCountryLife]

28 minutes ago, Pewterschmidt said:

Don't sleep on Maroon.  Bro is Reaves X2....no X3

Agreed.  Maroon has skill.  There is real value in a player like him.

[Pewterschmidt]

If you played the mojo stick drop drinking game last night you’re hung over today

 added rule: if mojo’s stick gets flipped into the stands you need to shotgun a full beer.  

[mnfaninnc]

1 hour ago, Pewterschmidt said:

I started to think Rossi was hurt second half of game due to minimal TOI.  Did he get benched?  Thought this was  perfect opportunity for him to get reps against a bad team with game in hand.

Pewter, I think it was simply the way the game went on. So many PPs and PKs. I saw Rossi on the 2nd PP unit the whole time, and he even had some PK minutes late in the 3rd. 

I don't think he was benched or even close to it. Playing down a forward, there were several line adaptions. It was a fun game to watch with no benchings. And, Rossi was solid.

[mnfaninnc]

I asked last night on the gamethread if the Goligoski injury seemed a little fishy? I'm sure anyone can get hit in the ankle at practice and it would hurt a lot, but, what if, as an organization, you needed his cap number and you needed to call up a player?

1. Goligoski appeared to not play after the Mathews wrap around goal
2. To me, it looked like he was benched as the Wild played rotating D with 5
3. Goligoski took a penalty for being a potty mouth
4. Goligoski, behind closed doors takes a puck off the foot/ankle
5. Wild play down 1 man (mainly due to not being able to get a guy up to Canada)
6. Goligoski may be out awhile, like an LTIR while. 

This just seems way to convenient to me. While watching Goligoski, in the preseason game I saw, he looked too slow/old, like he should have retired in the offseason and headed to the front office. 

Game 1 against FL he was adequate. Game 2 against Toronto he was terribly exposed showing he was no longer capable of playing in the top 4. Some of the kids are blocked from coming up due to cap constraints. This seems like just too convenient of a coincidence. I do think it's time for him to retire, he just looks too old and slow. The player is almost always the last to know it's time!

[Will D. Ness]

Maroon is slow but has a little somethin'.  Reaves was slow but had nothin'.

Reaves is the best enforcer in the league... although I would say Moose had the slight edge in their brawl the other day.

 

[mnfaninnc]

Last night's game seemed way more like a man vs. boys type of game. The Wild were motivated, and, perhaps, it likely being Fleury's last game in Montreal was part of it. 

Like Pewter said above, Montreal doesn't look like a very good team right now, at least, not a very mature team physically. They also look like they have some goaltending problems. 

Montreal decided to go on the rebuild through the draft method. We went with the rebuild on the fly method. What will be interesting to see is which method actually works better? While our guys are maturing in different lower leagues, they decided to get their guys experience in the N instead. Growing pains are what they see as many of them cannot match the physicality in this league. 

In my book, it looked like Faber got the better of Caufield and Rossi was better than Suzuki, even though Rossi plays a lower role. The end of this experiment will be how well and if the prospects make it? If we happened to draft stars in Yurov and Wallstedt, and solid players in Dino, Ohgren, and Lambos, we should be ahead of the game. Hunt, Beckman and Walker are nice pieces but they would be bonus pieces at this time. Meanwhile, they get bigger before having to take on the men in the best league in the world.

 

[Imyourhuckleberry]

1 hour ago, Pewterschmidt said:

If you played the mojo stick drop drinking game last night you’re hung over today

Just saw he went 0 for 3 on faceoffs. Not surprised that he struggled on faceoffs, but that seems like more than he should be forced to attempt in a game. Were the refs throwing people out of faceoffs far more than usual???

[Up North Guy]

1 hour ago, mnfaninnc said:

I asked last night on the gamethread if the Goligoski injury seemed a little fishy? I'm sure anyone can get hit in the ankle at practice and it would hurt a lot, but, what if, as an organization, you needed his cap number and you needed to call up a player?

1. Goligoski appeared to not play after the Mathews wrap around goal
2. To me, it looked like he was benched as the Wild played rotating D with 5
3. Goligoski took a penalty for being a potty mouth
4. Goligoski, behind closed doors takes a puck off the foot/ankle
5. Wild play down 1 man (mainly due to not being able to get a guy up to Canada)
6. Goligoski may be out awhile, like an LTIR while. 

This just seems way to convenient to me. While watching Goligoski, in the preseason game I saw, he looked too slow/old, like he should have retired in the offseason and headed to the front office. 

Game 1 against FL he was adequate. Game 2 against Toronto he was terribly exposed showing he was no longer capable of playing in the top 4. Some of the kids are blocked from coming up due to cap constraints. This seems like just too convenient of a coincidence. I do think it's time for him to retire, he just looks too old and slow. The player is almost always the last to know it's time!

Russo in the Athletic suggested that the Wild are/may be talking to the league about LTIR for Goose or now that they qualify doing an emergency call up. It gets pretty confusing on cap hits as to which is more beneficial. He also said that even if they go emergency call up he can be placed on LTIR retroactively. Your spidey-sense may be tingling for a reason.

[MrCheatachu]

1 hour ago, mnfaninnc said:

I asked last night on the gamethread if the Goligoski injury seemed a little fishy? I'm sure anyone can get hit in the ankle at practice and it would hurt a lot, but, what if, as an organization, you needed his cap number and you needed to call up a player?

1. Goligoski appeared to not play after the Mathews wrap around goal
2. To me, it looked like he was benched as the Wild played rotating D with 5
3. Goligoski took a penalty for being a potty mouth
4. Goligoski, behind closed doors takes a puck off the foot/ankle
5. Wild play down 1 man (mainly due to not being able to get a guy up to Canada)
6. Goligoski may be out awhile, like an LTIR while. 

Russo mentioned that Goose was in a walking boot in the facility, so (i'm not a doctor) but it would suggest to me that it's not an injury from taking a puck but rather sprain/strain/ligaments/etc.  Russo seemed to think that Goose was going to end up on LTIR.

However, it also seemed to suggest that before a player gets placed on LTIR that the findings of the teams doctors need to be reviewed by the league's physicians to confirm.

There are also additional rules (might be why Mermis needed to be called up) around how to maximize the amount the team is able to go over the cap.  Basically, you get to go over the cap by subtracting the amount of that players salary by the cap space you have when they go on LTIR.

LTIR before Mermis was on the roster, they would be able to exceed the cap by $2M - $825k = $1.175M

LTIR after Mermis is on the roster, they would be able to exceed the cap by $2M - $50k = $1.95M

If they have the $1.95M you (with Mermis already on the roster) you can fit Mermis, Walker AND Beckman. If you do it before Mermis is up, you only get to pick one of the three players.

I'm not sure how exactly the emergency exception ($100k+$775k player called up that doesn't impact the cap) would stack with the LTIR calculation, but it is super advantageous to max out your cap prior to placing a player on LTIR.

[Pewterschmidt]

5 minutes ago, MrCheatachu said:

Russo mentioned that Goose was in a walking boot in the facility, so (i'm not a doctor) but it would suggest to me that it's not an injury from taking a puck but rather sprain/strain/ligaments/etc.  Russo seemed to think that Goose was going to end up on LTIR.

However, it also seemed to suggest that before a player gets placed on LTIR that the findings of the teams doctors need to be reviewed by the league's physicians to confirm.

There are also additional rules (might be why Mermis needed to be called up) around how to maximize the amount the team is able to go over the cap.  Basically, you get to go over the cap by subtracting the amount of that players salary by the cap space you have when they go on LTIR.

LTIR before Mermis was on the roster, they would be able to exceed the cap by $2M - $825k = $1.175M

LTIR after Mermis is on the roster, they would be able to exceed the cap by $2M - $50k = $1.95M

If they have the $1.95M you (with Mermis already on the roster) you can fit Mermis, Walker AND Beckman. If you do it before Mermis is up, you only get to pick one of the three players.

I'm not sure how exactly the emergency exception ($100k+$775k player called up that doesn't impact the cap) would stack with the LTIR calculation, but it is super advantageous to max out your cap prior to placing a player on LTIR.

Speaking of Mermis, how do we make sure he never see’s the ice again?

[Pewterschmidt]

4 hours ago, IllicitFive said:

Moving Dewzy up would shake up all the lines quite a bit, who do you drop? Rossi? Or move Rossi up to line 1 and Hartman to line 4?

I'll guess the opportunity will arise for Dewzy when injuries start to pop up.  Injuries to: Hartzy, Ekzy, or Rozzy create chance for Dewzy to slide up line up and prove his worth with upgraded wings.  

Now if injuries happen and Dean moves Fred to the Center backfill and keeps Dewzy on 4C, well then Dean can go ahead and fuck himself.

[mnfaninnc]

3 hours ago, Imyourhuckleberry said:

Just saw he went 0 for 3 on faceoffs. Not surprised that he struggled on faceoffs, but that seems like more than he should be forced to attempt in a game. Were the refs throwing people out of faceoffs far more than usual???

I didn't realize he took 3, but when he filled in for Boldy on PP1 and Ek got kicked out or stuck in the penalty box, guess who had to take the faceoff? And, yes, on 3 faceoffs, he looked more like 0-5.