Article: Wild Ruin Wallstedt's Debut In 7-2 Loss To Stars

[Thomas Williams]

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[FredJohnson]

[B1GKappa97]

yikes. well guess we know why he's been down in the AHL :x

[Jamesgang]

The Wild have carefully nurtured his development for years. Somehow the coaches decide to call him up on the road vs Dallas. The team who has had our number for years, who beat us multiple times this year including 4-0 this past Monday. We are down multiple stars to injury, most importantly our top 2 defenseman. The outcome was predictable and now is confidence is rattled. Stupid decision from a head coach who led the US National team and is experienced in developing young players. Strike one Mr. Hines. 

[MNCountryLife]

A lot of heads hanging down looking at feet.  As if the players themselves just realized that this season will never be characterized as successful.

Edited January 11 by MNCountryLife

[Pewterschmidt]

48 minutes ago, B1GKappa97 said:

yikes. well guess we know why he's been down in the AHL :x

Yes. I’m going to do my best to not make comparisons to prior Wild goalies because it’s his first ever nhl game but that didn’t go as anyone had hoped.  7 goals, most of which were shot from 10+ feet that were not screened.  NHL goalies have to stop those

 send him to Iowa for remainder and give him amnesia medication

[Pewterschmidt]

35 minutes ago, Jamesgang said:

The Wild have carefully nurtured his development for years. Somehow the coaches decide to call him up on the road vs Dallas. The team who has had our number for years, who beat us multiple times this year including 4-0 this past Monday. We are down multiple stars to injury, most importantly our top 2 defenseman. The outcome was predictable and now is confidence is rattled. Stupid decision from a head coach who led the US National team and is experienced in developing young players. Strike one Mr. Hines. 

Yah why not hang Zane out to dry against this sturdy Dallas team

[Protec]

Minnesota stoicism comes back around to bite ass.

This team shoulda threw in the towel a month ago and quit trying to be a contender when the rest of the world saw the obvious truth. 

I said let's see where they're at after 15-20 games. Situation now a couple months later is not much different. Maybe Guerin can get them a new coach bump again or deliver an "it's about eff'n winning speech."

[Protec]

Problem was the new coach bump created false hope. 

I really am pulling for more wear and tear injuries and dejected mental breakdowns that cause rhe Wild to descend into NHL gutter-bottom-barrel. 

Get a nice pick for once that can play NHL right away for crying out loud. Danielson scoring goals for Detroit just proves again that NHL teams don't have to wait 3-5 years for their picks all the time. WTF Bill & Brackett, your teams sucks. They're not gonna pull out of this. You're screwing up and everyone sees it.

[mnfaninnc]

43 minutes ago, Jamesgang said:

The Wild have carefully nurtured his development for years. Somehow the coaches decide to call him up on the road vs Dallas. The team who has had our number for years, who beat us multiple times this year including 4-0 this past Monday. We are down multiple stars to injury, most importantly our top 2 defenseman. The outcome was predictable and now is confidence is rattled. Stupid decision from a head coach who led the US National team and is experienced in developing young players. Strike one Mr. Hines. 

I completely disagree with this take. Who says The Wall's confidence is rattled? If this game rattled him, then he isn't who we think he is. Getting shelled from right in front of the net doesn't rattle your confidence, you do what you can. 

This is The Wall's first shot at NHL players. He's 21, well shy of the age where goalies 1st make their mark. What Wallstedt got was a lesson in how much better the N is than the A. This is not a goalie change scenario, he's not going to stay up here that long.

If he is who we thought he is, he will take this back down to the A and get better. He now knows what it takes to move up a level. Did you expect a shutout? Were you expecting him to stand on his head? He held the team in the game through the half way point, and then everything caved in based upon statistics. 

I was blacked out, so I didn't get a chance to see the game, but I'm suspecting that our skaters weren't real competitive. Perhaps they just started pinching and cheating to try and score, and kind of left The Wall by himself. 

But, it would be dumb not to play him. Fleury needed a break and The Wall was brought up here to play, not backup. McIntyre was here to backup.

 

[mnfaninnc]

16 minutes ago, Pewterschmidt said:

Yah why not hang Zane out to dry against this sturdy Dallas team

That's easy, Zane would have given up 10+

[mnfaninnc]

14 minutes ago, Protec said:

Minnesota stoicism comes back around to bite ass.

This team shoulda threw in the towel a month ago and quit trying to be a contender when the rest of the world saw the obvious truth. 

I said let's see where they're at after 15-20 games. Situation now a couple months later is not much different. Maybe Guerin can get them a new coach bump again or deliver an "it's about eff'n winning speech."

So, was there a lack of effort from the Wild, or were they just completely outclassed? 

They know they have trouble scoring, going down 3-0 likely had them conclude they weren't coming back before the 2nd intermission. Stat line in the 3rd period suggests they abandoned all defense. 

Now we have to adapt to reality. This is not a good team, and this is not their year. H&H against Winnipeg and Dallas within a couple of weeks: Swept by both. Roster is hurt, both with current stars and prospects. 

Do you dare call up some jr. guys and take a small look at them, not allowing them to play the 9 games? I'm looking at Haight and Heidt, maybe Kampulainen and Petrovsky. Do we take a look at Bankier, Lambos even though they're not ready? This could be accomplished by putting another guy on LTIR, but we don't have a cap guy right now. 

[mnfaninnc]

A quick look at the standings suggests that the Wild are starting to separate from the middling pack and drop. Over in the Eastern Conference, it appears that everyone beneath Montreal is doing the same. 

I believe the Sabres are a better team than their record, and they'll pull up in the standings. We're currently tied with them. The Flames are likely going to sell hard at the deadline, but they are just barely hanging on to the middling pack. St. Louis is in the same position. 

We've got 9 games left until the All Star break. Should we shut down Kaprizov until after the break? Spurgeon? Brodin? Gustavsson? We're talking about 9 games in 16 days. I think the team will be fairly exhausted by then. I'd also expect that we will have dropped out of the playoff race.

 

[mnfaninnc]

On a different topic, wonderkid Bedard is out 6-8 weeks with a broken jaw. That's about 2 months. I would have to imagine that this will hurt his Calder trophy chances. Can Rossi catch up in points? Can Faber continue to impress? Do any of our guys have a chance?

[MNCountryLife]

28 minutes ago, mnfaninnc said:

I was blacked out, so I didn't get a chance to see the game, but I'm suspecting that our skaters weren't real competitive. Perhaps they just started pinching and cheating to try and score, and kind of left The Wall by himself. 

Our D was really bad by all players.  We let Dallas skate right down the pike at our net.  One of the goals Merrill let his back door assignment go and slid in front of the net for no reason... making it an easy back door goal.  Did the Wall play well... no... but I wouldn't say he played really bad either.  He was what you expect out of a goalie in his first game in the NHL with a team that did not support him at all.  Dallas was comfortable with no pressure and seeing net.

[SpaceCowboy]

I agree with Mnfaninnc regarding playing Wallstedt. I think it is what many people have been wanting is giving the young players a chance in the NHL. Let them get out and have a fun. One game does not define a career. I think it will be more interesting to see if they give Wallstedt one of the back-to-back games this weekend at home. That would be a nice opportunity to see how he responds after such a difficult outing and really test his lauded mental fortitude. All being said, I do agree that last night's game was definitely an unideal first NHL start for him and basically set the deck against him. We all know Dallas has our number and I don't think this was a very surprising outcome. 

[MNCountryLife]

12 minutes ago, mnfaninnc said:

We've got 9 games left until the All Star break. Should we shut down Kaprizov until after the break? Spurgeon? Brodin? Gustavsson? We're talking about 9 games in 16 days. I think the team will be fairly exhausted by then. I'd also expect that we will have dropped out of the playoff race.

Great question.  I would keep them out as much as possible.  Let the young guys play as much as possible.  It's the best way to see what you have and more importantly... what you don't have.

[Protec]

Last year the Wild lost Ek and it was meaningful.

This year they've lost everybody else.

Significant.

[MrCheatachu]

I think it was the 2nd intermission when the talking heads (Biz maybe?) said something along the lines of:

'I know the Wild have a bunch of injured guys, and some guys might be battling the flu, but I was expecting a better effort out of them because this is the NHL, but they look really bad and we're sitting here trying to polish this turd.  I was expecting more effort out of them, especially because this is a nationally televised game'

Watching Faber break his stick on the bench in frustration was literally the only sign of life out there that anybody gave a shit they were being embarrassed for the 4th time in the last 5 games.

I probably hacked the quote from them, but man...I agree with that sentiment.  This team looked like trash, no bright spots to take away from this one.  I get that they're a depleted team, but at least look interested in playing hockey.

 

 

[Will D. Ness]

Another dumb and effortless game.  The new coach bump has turned into an old tired coach slack.  WTF.  

Wallstedt had no business playing last night.  The only positive is that it might be a wake up call for him.  

 

[Willy the poor boy]

2 hours ago, Jamesgang said:

The Wild have carefully nurtured his development for years. Somehow the coaches decide to call him up on the road vs Dallas. The team who has had our number for years, who beat us multiple times this year including 4-0 this past Monday. We are down multiple stars to injury, most importantly our top 2 defenseman. The outcome was predictable and now is confidence is rattled. Stupid decision from a head coach who led the US National team and is experienced in developing young players. Strike one Mr. Hines. 

 

2 hours ago, Jamesgang said:

 

A loss was predictable. I don't know that 7-2 was predictable. And gee, I thought Evason was the problem against Dallas he couldn't keep up with Deboer, go figure...

[Pewterschmidt]

1 hour ago, SpaceCowboy said:

I think it will be more interesting to see if they give Wallstedt one of the back-to-back games this weekend at home.

Great point.  Sending Wally World back to IA to sit in the dirty diaper would be bad.  Give him couple more games on hope he has some success, then send him back for kreusening (beer term) in IA remainder of season.  No more games with this current season shit show. 

[TheGoosesAreLooses]

2 hours ago, mnfaninnc said:

So, was there a lack of effort from the Wild, or were they just completely outclassed? 

They know they have trouble scoring, going down 3-0 likely had them conclude they weren't coming back before the 2nd intermission. Stat line in the 3rd period suggests they abandoned all defense. 

Now we have to adapt to reality. This is not a good team, and this is not their year. H&H against Winnipeg and Dallas within a couple of weeks: Swept by both. Roster is hurt, both with current stars and prospects. 

Do you dare call up some jr. guys and take a small look at them, not allowing them to play the 9 games? I'm looking at Haight and Heidt, maybe Kampulainen and Petrovsky. Do we take a look at Bankier, Lambos even though they're not ready? This could be accomplished by putting another guy on LTIR, but we don't have a cap guy right now. 

We were completely outclassed and outshot. Not to mention that most of the Star's shots were coming from in close with time and space. Wallstedt had no help and anyone who puts that game on him and starts whispering bust because of it is overreacting. Terrible decision to put him in net while we are limping around 6 players short of an NHL team against a Stars team that is in the top 8 in this league. It was a foregone conclusion he was going to get caved in before the puck dropped. 

Furthermore, the decision to bring him in only two games after coming back from injury when he wasn't looking like himself in Iowa was terrible. If that was our GM, he deserves to be fired. If it was Hynes, it is strike one. After all the slow baking talk on Jesper what a dipshit desperation move. Horrendous FO decision. Horrendous game from us, but I honestly didn't expect us to come out ahead with one arm behind our back, one leg taken off at the knee and expecting a rookie to save us on his first outing.  

[Protec]

Sign Corey Perry. Trade at deadline if needed. He's always been a greasy player. Wild have nothing left to lose. Give him a chance, everyone did something foolish when they drank too much before. 

The Wild couldn't do any worse, why not? Not like MN is too classy or good for it. Pick him up!

 

[Willy the poor boy]

26 minutes ago, TheGoosesAreLooses said:

We were completely outclassed and outshot. Not to mention that most of the Star's shots were coming from in close with time and space. Wallstedt had no help and anyone who puts that game on him and starts whispering bust because of it is overreacting. Terrible decision to put him in net while we are limping around 6 players short of an NHL team against a Stars team that is in the top 8 in this league. It was a foregone conclusion he was going to get caved in before the puck dropped. 

Furthermore, the decision to bring him in only two games after coming back from injury when he wasn't looking like himself in Iowa was terrible. If that was our GM, he deserves to be fired. If it was Hynes, it is strike one. After all the slow baking talk on Jesper what a dipshit desperation move. Horrendous FO decision. Horrendous game from us, but I honestly didn't expect us to come out ahead with one arm behind our back, one leg taken off at the knee and expecting a rookie to save us on his first outing.  

Big D was without their #1 tender and #1defender. Yet they blew us out of the water 2 in a row. There were no excuses for Evason there sure as hell aint gonna be for Hynesy...