Article: Playoffs Are A Real Possibility For Wild

[Thomas Williams]

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[B1GKappa97]

Typical MN Wild. Suck it up until post-All Star break and then turn it on again. They did this same thing in '21-'22, had us all thinking we could maybe get a good pick in the draft to land a top-6 C and then they went on a heater in February to make a post-season push. 

I will say that if they do make it, the BEEK line will be the main reason why. Those 3 are looking unstoppable and I think it starts with Ek. His motor is rubbing off on his linemates and there isn't a better player at scoring from the front of the net on our team than Ekker. Which opens up everything else on the perimeter. Who knew Kaprizov didn't need beautiful Zuccy passes to score?! 

Gonna get real interesting once Khusnutdinov comes over. Looks like we aren't gonna be sellers this TDL either! Eat it Geurin haters! 

[TheGoosesAreLooses]

40 minutes ago, B1GKappa97 said:

Typical MN Wild. Suck it up until post-All Star break and then turn it on again. They did this same thing in '21-'22, had us all thinking we could maybe get a good pick in the draft to land a top-6 C and then they went on a heater in February to make a post-season push. 

I will say that if they do make it, the BEEK line will be the main reason why. Those 3 are looking unstoppable and I think it starts with Ek. His motor is rubbing off on his linemates and there isn't a better player at scoring from the front of the net on our team than Ekker. Which opens up everything else on the perimeter. Who knew Kaprizov didn't need beautiful Zuccy passes to score?! 

Gonna get real interesting once Khusnutdinov comes over. Looks like we aren't gonna be sellers this TDL either! Eat it Geurin haters! 

LOL yep Guerin really proved us wrong by pulling us out of a top ten pick and back to the mushy middle of the pack. The BEEK line is looking great but will effectively have us drafting back in the late teens so we can fizzle out in the first round again. 

This is not a new playbook from the Wild, it has been our steady recipe for mediocre hockey since the creation of this team. We've done great to get back in the race just so we have to hold our cards and not sell at the deadline, leaving us empty handed when the offseason comes around instead of seeing some futures from the likes of Fleury, Maroon and Bogosian. 

They have been playing more exciting hockey lately and it have been enjoyable to watch some competitive hockey. The development of Faber and Rossi has been great! Unfortunately, turning it on and the end to sneak into playoffs doesn't put ammunition in the clip for a run legit soon. 

[mnfaninnc]

Several 8 seeds have gone on spectacular runs in the post season. Could it be us? Well, nobody is having a career year right now, though this is Ek's best year. 

Maybe, just maybe we have a handful of players get hot at playoff time? Really, that's the main thing about this team, if they are hot they can advance. If they are less than hot, 1st round exit is most probable, and we draft 17th. 

I do think that this is the stretch of games that will determine if we make it or not. We will still have work to do, but if we can eek out 6 points in 5 games, I think we'll be in good shape with a soft March coming. 

I have liked Heinzy better than Evason as a coach, and I've to admit that I'll take some personal satisfaction from Heinzy getting us to the playoffs. To me, Heinzy is a better technical coach and while he has the reputation of "where offenses go to die," under his regime we have twice scored 4 PP goals in a game. We put up 10 yesterday. And, who didn't think it was satisfying watching Yeo squirm a bit on the Vancouver bench?

I understand the sentiment for a good 1st round pick this season, and I really wanted to pick between 6-8. However, the reality is that our reloading parts are already within the organization, and now is the time for development. We need to continue to hit on 1st and 2nds. It will take 5 years to develop a draftpick in the 17-22 range. And, that's simply what we will need to do.

[Will D. Ness]

I don't think we can ride the top line all the way to the playoffs.  

They will eventually need a little help.

[mnfaninnc]

10 minutes ago, Will D. Ness said:

I don't think we can ride the top line all the way to the playoffs.  

They will eventually need a little help.

With a soft March schedule, I think we can. However, when we get there, 1 scoring line won't win us a series, so we will need other players "hot" to advance. 

[WIWild]

If we can just convince the league to handicap us a -2. Playing extended 5 on 3 minutes does wonders for morale.

[Will D. Ness]

31 minutes ago, mnfaninnc said:

With a soft March schedule, I think we can. However, when we get there, 1 scoring line won't win us a series, so we will need other players "hot" to advance. 

Good point.  Might be the right time to place a bet on the Wild?

[Will D. Ness]

2 minutes ago, WIWild said:

If we can just convince the league to handicap us a -2. Playing extended 5 on 3 minutes does wonders for morale.

We outplayed Vancouver most of that game... but yeah the 5 on 3 were the difference.

[Up North Guy]

1 hour ago, mnfaninnc said:

Maybe, just maybe we have a handful of players get hot at playoff time?

Goalies goalies goalies: That is the most obvious answer to players getting hot in the playoffs. We all can remember the Blues when their goalie got insanely hot.

[Up North Guy]

46 minutes ago, mnfaninnc said:

With a soft March schedule, I think we can. However, when we get there, 1 scoring line won't win us a series, so we will need other players "hot" to advance. 

I believe that will require the benching box a couple players, namely Freddy and NoJo. They are still passengers. Career AHL players are outplaying them by a large margin.

[Willy the poor boy]

37 minutes ago, Up North Guy said:

Goalies goalies goalies: That is the most obvious answer to players getting hot in the playoffs. We all can remember the Blues when their goalie got insanely hot.

I went from Oh God we have to face Binnington for the 10 -12 years to; Alright they're playing Binnington tonight in a relatively short period of time.

[TheGoosesAreLooses]

2 hours ago, mnfaninnc said:

Maybe, just maybe we have a handful of players get hot at playoff time? Really, that's the main thing about this team, if they are hot they can advance. If they are less than hot, 1st round exit is most probable, and we draft 17th

This team is not deep enough to go on a deep run. Plain and simple. IF we play hard enough to get to playoffs we will be beat up and injured from the stretch and get beat out. I love this team, but it isn't Stanley bound regardless of optimism.

[Pewterschmidt]

3 hours ago, TheGoosesAreLooses said:

We've done great to get back in the race just so we have to hold our cards and not sell at the deadline, leaving us empty handed when the offseason comes around instead of seeing some futures from the likes of Fleury, Maroon and Bogosian. 

Yes, this Wild fan is expecting a mid teens first round pick who may or may not make it to the show someday.  Boo.

One positive from the Heinzy tenure so far is mixing the lines up.  Dean would have had 36+38+97 still grinding.  97 with Ek and Boldy seems to be sparking both to elevate their games to new levels.  Fun to watch.  

Jake Cannelloni is also a positive from this season.  So is My Cousin Vinny.  Both of these guys are outplaying and outmuscling Dewey's.  More legit 4th line NHL'rs than little engine that could energy (ie T. Jost, Ennis, Sam Steele, etc)

I guess if we're not going to get our top ten pick and watch our prospects get some TOI (Beckman?, Hunt?, Lambos?) then we'll at least get to see Zov-EK-Bo become a thing.

#GoIceHockey

[Mateo3xm]

Do ppl really think getting into the playoffs is good for this team?

How many years do you have to watch to realize a team like this is getting annihilated in the playoffs.

 

Beating the nucks 2nd string goalie isn’t much of an accomplishment. Every team has a bad game.

The nucks don’t have to prove themselves this year, they already have through 50+ games of hockey and are probably sitting at the top of the league right now.

 

We were on our way to potentially getting a top 6 pick in a nicely deep draft in order to fill the multitude of holes this team has and they managed to fight and claw to get towards the middle as if it’s some type of positive thing.

 

Some ppl on here act like kuz is going to help this team over the hump next year. Are you serious? …Lay off the bong hits!

 

This team is going to be one year older playing their old, broke, donkey, NTC players.

 

What’s even more astonishing is people are commending BG as if this is some type of good thing.

 

 

[Pewterschmidt]

3 minutes ago, Mateo3xm said:

Do ppl really think getting into the playoffs is good for this team?

How many years do you have to watch to realize a team like this is getting annihilated in the playoffs.

 

Beating the nucks 2nd string goalie isn’t much of an accomplishment. Every team has a bad game.

The nucks don’t have to prove themselves this year, they already have through 50+ games of hockey and are probably sitting at the top of the league right now.

 

We were on our way to potentially getting a top 6 pick in a nicely deep draft in order to fill the multitude of holes this team has and they managed to fight and claw to get towards the middle as if it’s some type of positive thing.

 

Some ppl on here act like kuz is going to help this team over the hump next year. Are you serious? …Lay off the bong hits!

 

This team is going to be one year older playing their old, broke, donkey, NTC players.

 

What’s even more astonishing is people are commending BG as if this is some type of good thing.

 

 

What did your space bar ever do to you?

[Imyourhuckleberry]

3 hours ago, TheGoosesAreLooses said:

We've done great to get back in the race just so we have to hold our cards and not sell at the deadline, leaving us empty handed when the offseason

Could be worse. They could give up a 1st for someone like Hanzal again...

The Wild do have a statistically easier schedule than the rest of the league, but the Blues don't have a difficult schedule. Could come down to how the 3 games against each other goes as to who ends up in the 8th spot, assuming that the Predators, Kraken, or Flames don't get hot and climb up to #8, or the Kings don't get ice cold again and fall down the standings.

Of the main wildcard challengers, here is their remaining strength of schedule difficulty based upon points percentages(average is roughly .552):

.548 Calgary

.541 St. Louis

.541 Seattle

.526 Nashville

.524 LA Kings

.523 Minnesota

[Protec]

3 minutes ago, Mateo3xm said:

Are you serious? …Lay off the bong hits!

Haha! Which team are the Wild? Evason's team? The losers that sucked for the first couple months while players were injured? Or are the Wild the team that can beat Vegas, Boston, or Vancouver? 

Should be interesting. 

 

 

 

[Mateo3xm]

3 hours ago, TheGoosesAreLooses said:

LOL yep Guerin really proved us wrong by pulling us out of a top ten pick and back to the mushy middle of the pack. The BEEK line is looking great but will effectively have us drafting back in the late teens so we can fizzle out in the first round again. 

This is not a new playbook from the Wild, it has been our steady recipe for mediocre hockey since the creation of this team. We've done great to get back in the race just so we have to hold our cards and not sell at the deadline, leaving us empty handed when the offseason comes around instead of seeing some futures from the likes of Fleury, Maroon and Bogosian. 

They have been playing more exciting hockey lately and it have been enjoyable to watch some competitive hockey. The development of Faber and Rossi has been great! Unfortunately, turning it on and the end to sneak into playoffs doesn't put ammunition in the clip for a run legit soon. 

Could not have agreed more with what you said.

Crazy how the guy you replied to got so many likes as if that was a good idea.

it just shows ppls standards are extremely low 

[mnfaninnc]

14 minutes ago, TheGoosesAreLooses said:

This team is not deep enough to go on a deep run. Plain and simple. IF we play hard enough to get to playoffs we will be beat up and injured from the stretch and get beat out. I love this team, but it isn't Stanley bound regardless of optimism.

I will agree with you that these are not the Kings from the 20teens. However, this team is as talented as the Blues that won it all, and the Canadiens that went to the final. They got hot at the right time. I'm not kidding myself into thinking they are as talented as FL was last season, they just underachieved in the regular season.....a slogan we have emulated so far this season.

Sometimes, teams play above their talent level. We can and have had runs where we can do that. Timing is everything, but if we have a couple of skaters get hot along with our goalie, it is possible. 

And, I've watched the other teams with essentially the same personnel. Kaprizov tried to carry us through the Blues' series, but he was the only one hot and neither goalie was (though Talbot could have been as he earned that 1st start). 

The difference between this team and those other teams is that Heinzy can coach whereas Evason was really only good at punching assistant coaches after OT wins. Xs & Os Evason stayed out of. Matchups and countermoves he also was MIA.

[mnfaninnc]

14 minutes ago, Mateo3xm said:

Beating the nucks 2nd string goalie isn’t much of an accomplishment. Every team has a bad game.

There was a reason we got DeSmith. Previously, he owned us! 

[mnfaninnc]

12 minutes ago, Protec said:

Haha! Which team are the Wild? Evason's team? The losers that sucked for the first couple months while players were injured? Or are the Wild the team that can beat Vegas, Boston, or Vancouver? 

Sadly.....they're both!!!!!!!

[Willy the poor boy]

26 minutes ago, Protec said:

Haha! Which team are the Wild? Evason's team? The losers that sucked for the first couple months while players were injured? Or are the Wild the team that can beat Vegas, Boston, or Vancouver? 

Should be interesting. 

 

 

 

Somewhere in the middle.

[B1GKappa97]

11 minutes ago, Mateo3xm said:

Could not have agreed more with what you said.

Crazy how the guy you replied to got so many likes as if that was a good idea.

it just shows ppls standards are extremely low 

There's just no point to hoping for a top-10 pick at this point. Too many teams around us selling and sinking while we are beginning to play like we care. So I will hope that we make the playoffs at this point. I don't think its necessarily a bad thing, even if we get knocked out of round 1 again. 

I think, long-term, it'll be better for guys like Rossi and Faber and Boldy to continue to get exposure to the post-season and realize how much more they need to step up their game to have success. Personally, I want to see if Boldy improves his play to a grittier post-season style and I'd rather not have to wait until 2025 or 2026 to see it! 

Sure getting a top-10 talent would've been nice but looking at the roster, I think its pretty obvious that our core going forward is pretty much set. I presume the BEEK line will stay together long-term, and we really only have Yurov as a top-6 talent coming in a couple years. 

Khusnutdinov, Oghren, and possibly Heidt are middle-6ers at best who will most likely play 3rd line roles once they do make the big-club. Maybe we see them compete for the final top-6 spot against Hartman in a couple years but all 3 won't make it, obviously.

Adding Chisholm really helps to make up for the disappointing lack of development from our AHL blue-liners. Now Lambos and Hunt can compete to be D7 while Bogo and Chisholm take over the 3rd pair for the time being. It would've been great to get a top-4 defenseman via the draft but honestly Chisholm is currently projected as a top-4 defenseman via Dobberprospects anyway so its not a huge loss in the short-term. 

[Willy the poor boy]

34 minutes ago, Mateo3xm said:

Do ppl really think getting into the playoffs is good for this team?

How many years do you have to watch to realize a team like this is getting annihilated in the playoffs.

 

Beating the nucks 2nd string goalie isn’t much of an accomplishment. Every team has a bad game.

The nucks don’t have to prove themselves this year, they already have through 50+ games of hockey and are probably sitting at the top of the league right now.

 

We were on our way to potentially getting a top 6 pick in a nicely deep draft in order to fill the multitude of holes this team has and they managed to fight and claw to get towards the middle as if it’s some type of positive thing.

 

Some ppl on here act like kuz is going to help this team over the hump next year. Are you serious? …Lay off the bong hits!

 

This team is going to be one year older playing their old, broke, donkey, NTC players.

 

What’s even more astonishing is people are commending BG as if this is some type of good thing.

 

 

Yesterdays game was a fun one to watch and it has some folks giddy about the teams chances, but lost in it all is the #7 they put on us. Not good. I wouldn't want to count on this team having to outscore to many teams due to a lack of goaltending. Gus had another bad day and needs to be more consistent.