Article: The Minnesota Wild Must Forge A New Identity

[Tony Abbott]

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[Patrick]

Someone send this article to BG and Hynes! I would add that the early "rugged" Wild teams played that way naturally and as they leaned into that identity they became more of a goon squad and forgot about being skilled. Having said that I think BG is looking for players that play bigger than they are so I'm guessing this article will age very well. 

[TheGoosesAreLooses]

Lol good luck trying to convince Billy that hockey can be played any other way.

[Protec]

Good argument for avoiding reactionary response to one poor year. 

[mnfaninnc]

I like this article, mainly because it articulates what I've been saying for a few years now. The Wild are in transition. The identity that Brackett has drafted for is a great skating, puck moving team not necessarily concerned about size. 

In case this has escaped Shooter, that will mean that the identity of the team will change, has to change. Will the fanbase like the change? 

Skill is coming, and lots of skill. To me, I'd love to see a team that is able to roster 3 scoring lines and 1 shutdown line. I'd love to have a team that has plenty of skill and can tie up larger teams in knots with their edges. But, I'd want that team to not lose the hardworking attitude we've always had and to have an ability to have heavy shifts when needed. Instead of a team identity, I'd be looking more at a line identity. 

Now, with the defense it is obvious. Strong skaters, puck movers, but not too small. Brackett likes to top out at about 6'2" and always looks for skating first. He didn't draft Spurgeons, but some of these guys are a little on the undersized category. 

I'd like a defense that can quickly gain transition, move the puck up the ice and fire bombs from the point with an ability to join the rush. Yes, 3 sets of very good all round pairs. Yet, I still want them to be able to throw the big hit when needed. 

From a development standpoint, the main need is bulking up. It isn't always for dishing out punishment, many times with the skilled guys it's for being able to take the punishment. The 2nd need is edges. Quick east-west directional changes are needed. Most of these guys can skate real well north-south already. These 2 things are fundamental. 

3rd is conditioning. This should be a really well conditioned team, and they'll need it to outwork opponents for 82 games + playoffs. And, with the D, you just keep rolling out the pairings, they have similar skill sets and should be able to play in all situations. 

What does this give us? A very deep roster. Throw in 2 excellent Swedish 'tenders and we've got ourselves a very nice team. 

There is 1 more thing and this may be the most important thing: That all 5 players play as a unit. Nashville comes to mind with this, that was my takeaway when we played them. They all moved as one unit. We did not. 

I think some of this can be solved when Heinzy has his first training camp. My hope is that he works them hard, and tries to stretch their boundaries. I'd like to hear about the size and speed, how he tested the edges, and how he challenged all of the players, not giving the vets a break. 

I anticipate that next season will look similar to this one in identity. This is mainly due to having the old guard mixed with the new guard. Some will feel lost. Hopefully they can adapt and move into the new identity. 

One big question we have to ask: Will we be coached by what our skill set is? Some of Heinzy's ideas may need to shift. But, hard work and finishing checks never goes out of style!

[mnfaninnc]

Metallurg won today, Yurov with no points. They're up 3-2 in their series.

Interesting find, the Metallurg goalie is Ilya Nabakov. Anyone wonder what ever happened to him?

[Dean]

Hitting is part of nhl hockey. Especially the playoffs. No team wins the cup without physicality. So this Billy idea of speed and skill winning a cup is  ridiculous.  All you have to do to beat a Billy team is clog up neutral zone and make us dump puck. Our darlings can’t handle going and getting it in the forest of big d. . For offense you just play down low and lean on our weak d core . They’ll give you the middle in no time . Having  a 1 b power play isn’t going to make up for this. 
    Hitting is playoff hockey. It’s why it’s good. You tenderize the other team in first few games of series so by the end they are making mistakes and run down. We don’t put pressure on anyone. We dance around the outside . 
    Billy never built a heavy team. He had a few heavy bottom six forwards but that’s it. Heavy hockey on good teams is throughout the lineup. Heavy hockey isn’t goons that cross check ankles , yell at refs , or throw sticks at refs. Heavy hockey is trouba patrolling the blue line keeping the other teams forwards  honest by making them keep there heads up.  Colorados top line plays heavy hockey and ours cant . That’s why they win cups and we play golf. . 
   I’m dumb founded others like this idea of a skilled speed team . We dont have the skill or the skill coming to be what others fantasize about. We don’t have Sid Crosby s coming to make a 1 b power play unit to make up for our weak small team.  We gave up that chance by not selling assets so we’re stuck with middle of road prospects that are undersized.  Add that to the cap issues and this team is going nowhere fast. 
    I think this was the worst season of wild hockey I saw in years . No fight . No accountability. I watched lazy players not show up to start this season. Then once the found there game it was a game of wimps getting bullied on a nightly basis . I see this season as little kids being bullied all year. We embarrassed ourselves against every good team . How can that be good hockey. Continually being embarrassed in games against good teams for 20 + years is old. This year watching the babies and listening to there excuses tells me we don’t have anything close to playoff material on this team. You have to move out half the team to get playoff mentality players  and Billy can’t and won’t. So it’ll be  at least another 4 years of watching wimps be losers and we’ll keep telling ourselves it’s the state of hockey. The state that produces the most nhl players but can’t produce a gm to get the job done. 

[Dean]

20+ years of watching hockey religiously I’ve never seen a player yell at the refs in playoffs and then go to the media and sh-t talk some more about the refs. . I’ve never seen in my 20 years a guy cross check the ankle of another out of frustration.  Embarrassingly immature. I’ve never seen a player throw a stick at a ref . Talk about stupid. Hockey would be even more dangerous with doorknobs throwing or swinging there sticks like weapons. It’s always been a no no just like kicking with your skates. Just disrespectful to the game and dangerous. 
    I’ve never heard of an organization that didn’t have a cap guy. I’ve never heard of a gm berating someone that others call salt of the earth out of town . I can’t remember GMs or teams being investigated until recently. Chicago, hockey Canada , Pittsburgh and the wild. I definitely can’t think of a gm that’s been investigated twice by two different teams.  Now I can say I have seen this thanks to Billy’s lack of leadership. 
    This is the crap Billy needs to fix. The culture of no accountability and terrible management. Prospects aren’t going to fix this.  The team is going nowhere for multiple reasons but it starts at the top with a guy who’s never held to account. Billy

[greg]

Great comments by all.  I don't have that much profound things to say or expert advice to add.  It's just to me the Wild  seem unorganized and display very little desire to play.  IMO the big guys they had brought in produced very little.  I think they did more harm than good.  They extensions of aging veterans with no movement contracts seals their fate for a few years.  I agree this team lacks much identity going forward.  But to me the NHL lacks a good identity in general.  That's a topic for another day.  

[mnfaninnc]

14 hours ago, Dean said:

Hitting is part of nhl hockey. Especially the playoffs. No team wins the cup without physicality. So this Billy idea of speed and skill winning a cup is  ridiculous.  All you have to do to beat a Billy team is clog up neutral zone and make us dump puck. Our darlings can’t handle going and getting it in the forest of big d. . For offense you just play down low and lean on our weak d core . They’ll give you the middle in no time . Having  a 1 b power play isn’t going to make up for this. 
    Hitting is playoff hockey. It’s why it’s good. You tenderize the other team in first few games of series so by the end they are making mistakes and run down. We don’t put pressure on anyone. We dance around the outside . 

I completely agree with Dean's take here in these 2 paragraphs. But, this is what Brackett drafted for. And, just to let you know he picked these types of guys on purpose, he also did the same thing in later rounds without picking up size and without picking up goaltending. Now, with the goaltending, it could be that Guerin is not interested in wasting a pick on goaltending after having gotten his #1 in The Wall, and he'd rather pick up goalies a little more developed.

Chicago had quite a run last decade being a small, skilled team. They had Saad, Kane, Panarin, Hossa as forwards and Keith on defense. Toews was a great leader, and clutch. They had 2 things that I noticed about them: 1) Incredible sticks that could tip pucks and block passes. 2) In the last 10 minutes of a game, they had an extra gear that they went to, many times tying and winning in regulation. 

I don't think this is the type of team that Guerin is trying to build, or for that matter, Brackett. But if you look at the guys that Brackett likes, they are the smooth skating puck handlers. Those guys aren't over 6'2" because guys over that height are not usually smooth skaters at 17. So, you get shorter guys.

But that is no excuse for not bulking up to be able to play heavy in the N. And in our development, it doesn't seem like anyone is putting a priority on this. A 5'11" 205 lb. guy can play heavy. He has leverage and is thick. You know who matches that description? Kaprizov. You know what else Kaprizov can do? Move east to west better than taller guys. 

So why is Beckman 6'2" and still 190ish? Why is O'Rourke 6'2" and 190ish? He plays a hard physical game and will kill himself in the N. These are just examples, but every defender that Brackett has drafted needs some meat on the bones. Every forward Brackett has drafted needs the same except for last draft. Our goalies should not be our biggest players!

Even the skilled guys, whose calling cards are sick passes and goals need the extra size to ward off the cross checks, hooks, and trips as well as the physical contact especially in the home plate area. How does this message not hit home?

[FredJohnson]

Are these guys the new identity.