Article: The Wild Still Haven't Found What They're Looking For

[Sean Flick]

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[TheGoosesAreLooses]

Hard to find what you are looking for when you run back the same core of role players year after year. 

Guerin had locked down the old guard that needed to change. Now we watch the mediocrity for the next 3 years and hope something is on the horizon.

Talk of trading Rossi is absolutely bonkers. You would rather keep 9+ 30+ players well into their twilight years? I love the youth movement that is coming up in Minnesota and will be absolutely crestfallen if they begin throwing that youth away to pick up more pensioners to repeat the same mistakes. 

The only players we should be keeping regardless are Kap, Ek, Rossi, Dino, Boldy, Faber, and Chisholm.  

[Willy the poor boy]

Ya, I'm with you on Fleury. Trade Gus and Have the Flower mentor The Wall... I'm betting Flower doesn't retire after the season. He either plays for the Wild or someone else.

[Burnt Toast]

IMO the Wild’s consistency problems aren’t systemic. These players have been playing elite level hockey their whole lives. The best examples of consistent NHL teams are the ones with strong on ice leadership. Call it the Matthew Tkachuk effect. Weak effort in the corners with a weak up the boards zone exit? You’re going to hear about it, during the game and on the bench. Coaches don’t have power over the players in the modern NHL game. GMs have limited tools and power. I like a lot of the Wild players. I like the team. I really want them to gel and I hope they find the leader that can help. 

[Will D. Ness]

45 minutes ago, TheGoosesAreLooses said:

The only players we should be keeping regardless are Kap, Ek, Rossi, Dino, Boldy, Faber, and Chisholm.  

I would add Brodin to the list.  

[MrCheatachu]

53 minutes ago, Burnt Toast said:

IMO the Wild’s consistency problems aren’t systemic. These players have been playing elite level hockey their whole lives. The best examples of consistent NHL teams are the ones with strong on ice leadership. Call it the Matthew Tkachuk effect. Weak effort in the corners with a weak up the boards zone exit? You’re going to hear about it, during the game and on the bench. Coaches don’t have power over the players in the modern NHL game. GMs have limited tools and power. I like a lot of the Wild players. I like the team. I really want them to gel and I hope they find the leader that can help. 

Some of my frustration is that the wild have signed their 'Matthew Tkachuck' effect guys, and we haven't seen those dividends.

Does Hartman have the speed, hands and shot of being a dangerous offensive player?  Yes.  Can Hartzy be a little shit?  Also yes.  But does he also have the tendency to go invisible for large stretches?  Indeed he does.

Does Foligno have the grit to be an absolute menace in front of the net and bang home rebounds, wear down the defense and force quick passes because 'you know the truck is coming'?  Yes.  Has he been struggling with injuries this season, it appears so...

One salient moment of this season was when the camera caught Faber smashing his stick on the dasher in the bench because he was frustrated.  Showed me he cared and he hated losing.  The problem is if you've anointed Foligno/Hartman to be your 'Tkachuk' those guys should be the ones getting pissed and emotional and inspiring the team...not Faber 

[mnfaninnc]

Transition is always hard. Bringing in the new, inexperienced is going to have inconsistencies. I love a good stick smasher. MAF did it after the OT winner against him. And, yes, it does show they care....though, if a little one tries to copy that with a $200 stick, parents get a little bent out of shape. 

We're going to be bringing in a lot of change in the next few years. Not everyone will play out their contracts with us. We still have a lot of placeholders that I would have thought would be replaced by now. But, instead, the placeholders bought the replacements time, time to develop and time to fill out. I just wish the replacements had taken the 2nd part more seriously, and that's probably why the resignings happened. 

We've got a lot of leadership material in the younger guys. My hope is they don't get squelched like the previous regime did to the kids. Let them be a big part of the success. 

Let's point out a couple of solutions. Yes, if you pressure the Wild defense, they will wing it around the boards. Trouble is that once the forwards get it, they like to give it away just as much, putting these weak passes into the middle. I think what we have here is a coach who doesn't necessarily like the system they're playing, but it was too late to change it. I'd like to see what happens when Heinzy gets to put his own system in and go with that. This would be my solution to that problem.

I also believe that the system has to adjust to the players. We can't play a big boy dump and chase heavy game with a bunch of lightweight players. It simply won't be successful. But, we can put together a heavy line to go do that. I think each line kind of creates its own identity if you can leave them together long enough. Each line should have different attributes. Any of them can hem in an opponent. 

One other solution is going to camp Ek, where everyone comes back looking like a beast. This is very important in our division and it has to be addressed and solved. We can't compete with a bunch of guys playing at 180-190. We need to up that to at least 200. This would solve a lot of the problems we see. 

Getting to the middle of the ice has seemed like a problem since I've been watching. We've been a perennial perimeter team, and, sadly, now we get owned on the perimeter. We've got to start owning the middle portion of the ice, and we've got to get away from the perimeter comfort zone. The above paragraph will help with that.

One thing I noticed when we played Nashville was how good that team played like a team. They seemed to come in waves, and, really, it looked like they had 6 skaters on the ice all night. We don't have that. We don't have that complete game of playing like a full unit shift in and shift out. A full training camp could take care of this, but it seems like something more is needed. Heinzy's got all summer to figure that one out. 

It wasn't mentioned, but I've mentioned it before. We need to figure out a right handed shooting forward. We have nobody who anyone respects on the PP from that Ovechkin office, and really nobody who really fires the puck from that side. Faber has to bring a slap shot in his bag. Getting some balance in this area would really help, and this would be a Guerin project. If a PK doesn't have to respect or guard that particular position, via angles they can really shut down the other half of the rink. You'd be surprised how much room that will open up if the PK has to honor the left wing circle. Nobody is coming in the near future either, we've got to go get that guy.

[Imyourhuckleberry]

Quote

With 11 games left to go and 6 games over .500, frustration over Minnesota’s seemingly inconsistent play can drive one crazy. I was a bit shocked to see that they were over .500.

34-28-9 means the Wild have 3 more losses than wins, so while they may have a points percentage well above .500, they are not an above .500 team in the traditional sense.

The Wild have a .542 points percentage, but due to the goofy NHL point system where some games are worth 2 points while other games are worth 3 points, .550 is essentially the NHL equivalent to .500 in other leagues.

[Imyourhuckleberry]

I should add that NHL.com tracks regulation wins, so I can report that the Wild are 27-28 in regulation and 7-9 in games that go to OT(3-3 in shootouts, so 4-6 in 3v3 OT action).

They've lost just slightly more than they've won so far on the year.

[Protec]

It's a lot of things that could be marginally better. Injuries is one, but veterans, and prospects are another.

Saw the Arizona Coyotes last night had Bjugstad score again. Almost 20 goals now for him playing center or wing. Big and fast. Not expensive. MN apparently needed something else. Also watching Josh Doan score two greasy ones in his debut brings about more questions about prospects and why MN's guys always take so long or are little? It just seems like these kind of NA character-guys like Doan could be picked but Brackett skips them somehow. Tkachuk, Perreault, Doan, Evangelista, Johnston, Moser, Knies, and other players with size who translate to NHL automatically. It just hurts to see for other Central teams while we praise our group that is always two years away. 

It'd be cool to see Yurov and Heidt show up in a big way. Or Rasmus, or if Ohgren is healthy. Maybe the return of the Wall. Hope it's MN's turn.(Not counting Faber/Rossi.)

[mnfaninnc]

1 hour ago, Protec said:

It just seems like these kind of NA character-guys like Doan could be picked but Brackett skips them somehow.

Generally speaking, one of the aspects that Brackett adores is guys who skate really well. He discounts skaters who don't look great. When a kid gets size at 15-16 years old, their skating doesn't look refined, and it's a bit choppy almost clumsy. 

Will those guys even it out? I'd say mostly yes. You can teach skating, you can't teach size. But, this is the reason I think that Brackett goes after the shorter players.

[MrCheatachu]

19 hours ago, Protec said:

Saw the Arizona Coyotes last night had Bjugstad score again. Almost 20 goals now for him playing center or wing. Big and fast. Not expensive. MN apparently needed something else.

I've thought Bjugstad play with the Coyotes, and I'll admit he looks pretty good.  However, he's also getting top line minutes (atoi = 17+ per night) between Keller (who has 63 pts through 68 games) and Schmaltz (53 pts through 69 games).  Coyotes havent been great this season, but they've not been dogshit either.  HOWEVER, no way Bjugstad would be skating top line in MN, he'd be getting 10 minutes a night  skating with MoJo and Foligno and we'd be asking why the hell BillyG extended him.

Remember, Hartman was also a 30 goal player when he was centering Kaprizov/Zucc...

[Protec]

22 minutes ago, MrCheatachu said:

I've thought Bjugstad play with the Coyotes, and I'll admit he looks pretty good.  However, he's also getting top line minutes (atoi = 17+ per night) between Keller (who has 63 pts through 68 games) and Schmaltz (53 pts through 69 games).  Coyotes havent been great this season, but they've not been dogshit either.  HOWEVER, no way Bjugstad would be skating top line in MN, he'd be getting 10 minutes a night  skating with MoJo and Foligno and we'd be asking why the hell BillyG extended him.

Remember, Hartman was also a 30 goal player when he was centering Kaprizov/Zucc...

Agreed, but look at MN's middle-six shortfalls? Look at MN's size issue. Look at MN's inconsistencies. Look at MN's cap situation. I think MN under Guerin has missed some draft possibilities and signed some interchangeable parts guys that coulda been a little better. NoJo mainly. I just like Bjugstad way better as a player. Wish Guerin had kept him. He plays center and wing. Has long reach and can skate and shoot. He's getting 2.1M and is younger than NoJo. To me, it's weird how Guerin moves on from an obvious fit for MN and gets an worse elite Swede.

[MrCheatachu]

1 hour ago, Protec said:

Agreed, but look at MN's middle-six shortfalls? Look at MN's size issue. Look at MN's inconsistencies. Look at MN's cap situation. I think MN under Guerin has missed some draft possibilities and signed some interchangeable parts guys that coulda been a little better. NoJo mainly. I just like Bjugstad way better as a player. Wish Guerin had kept him. He plays center and wing. Has long reach and can skate and shoot. He's getting 2.1M and is younger than NoJo. To me, it's weird how Guerin moves on from an obvious fit for MN and gets an worse elite Swede.

Bjugstad, while 6'6 is also listed at 209 lbs...sure long reach and can skate, but also has concussion history which he missed a month of each season he played with the wild for. It also appears that this is the first season since 2017 that he's on pace to play a full season.   I don't think Bjugstad is the 'right kind of size' that BillyG likes.

It's frustrating that Guerin went on KFAN shit on Fiala for 'having a couple good months' while he got blinded by Mojo doing the same thing skating with Boldy.  I agree it's wierd move from BillyG, Guerin seems to get fall in love with guys who can fill 'em in (Reaves/Foligno) shit on the skill guys, so why the hell did he sign Mojo who had an ok 1 month stretch of being a skill guy?  I'm not sure Mojo would hit a fly...

Edited March 28 by MrCheatachu

[Protec]

Yes. I could easily find other inexpensive guys I like better than NoJo. Bjugstad doesn't get 4M/4year deals but he also isn't the only NHL guy who misses some games. 

I just think the Wild had a rough year and they both fought injuries and lost their identity. The team game became the individual battles with coaching change and only stretches where the team put it all together. 

MN needs to take a closer look at how to improve the overall combinations. NoJo got signed looking like a fit with Boldy but it was a flash in the pan. Now it looks like a dud while Bjugstad has a great year with a better role & linemates. I'm pointing it out as a place MN should improve and a lesson perhaps. Personally, I'd rather have the guy from the Twin Cities on L2 for the Wild than elite Swedish neck-beard.