Article: Marat Khusnutdinov Will Hard Launch This Season

[Mikki Tuohy]

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[Citizen Strife]

If Khusnutdinov can be a solid Dewar or Shaw replacement or upgrade, that's be great.  The PK needs all the help it can get.  Winning faceoffs would go a long way.

Edited September 4 by Citizen Strife

[OldDutchChip]

hoping he has some slava kozlov toughness in him (reminds me of him in some ways) and will be hoping he can push some vets down a line and cement his place on line 3. give him trenin and foligno and let him run wild. 

[Burnt Toast]

Khus is positioned to take a big step this year. This is exactly the young, fast, hungry player the Wild need. 

[mnfaninnc]

Last season, as Dino got acclimated, I thought he geared down way too much. He was, obviously, very concerned about defensive stops, but it looked like a few times he had the time to put on the jets, but he purposely slowed it down, why?

My theory is that he had nobody going with him. I think for Dino to be most effective, he needs a speedy guy next to him. Johansson currently fits that criteria, if he's even still on the team. Both are passers, so putting a sniper on that line would be good.

I did notice that Dino was unafraid to take the body of bigger players. I liked that. As the new system this year is implemented, where he has a little more confidence to hit that high gear, I think we've got a pretty good young player. 

 

[Pewterschmidt]

2 hours ago, mnfaninnc said:

Last season, as Dino got acclimated, I thought he geared down way too much. He was, obviously, very concerned about defensive stops, but it looked like a few times he had the time to put on the jets, but he purposely slowed it down, why?

I noticed this too.  I suspect MaRat came back down to earth a bit for two reasons. 

1) the steam came out of his engine as the intro to the NHL high wore off (3-4 games in)

2) coaches were in his ear about being defensively sound so in an effort to win over the coaching staff he began to think first and react second.  

Once playing within the Hynzy system becomes second nature Khuz will be able to get back to trusting his hockey instincts and reacting first, not second.

I'm excited to see him evolve into a true Rat in this lineup and become a 3C, who has the tools to play 2C when call upon.

[Citizen Strife]

"I'm excited to see him evolve into a true Rat in this lineup and become a 3C, who has the tools to play 2C when call upon."

This is important to remember.  The Wild's center options are Ek, Rossi, Hartman, Khusnutdinov, Trenin, and Gaudreau.  Realistically, it should be.

Ek

Rossi

Trenin

Khusnutdinov

 

Khusnutdinov at worst is a better option unless Gaudreau somehow rebounds from injury and proves versatile.  I'm really curious what kind of line combinations Hynes goes with and finds success with.  Hynes considering going with Hartman with Kaprizov and Zuccarello really kinda scews with the situation a bit, unless the plan is to use Rossi on 3C (which he can do) with Foligno and Trenin protecting him.  Rossi would be the offensive guy while still being defensively responsible.  I'd rather Rossi keep focusing on offensive skill on 2 with say Ohgren and Hartman on wings...but bleh.

Ohgren probably has an easier hill to climb up the roster than Khusnutdinov does.  However, I think Khusnutdinov plays a much more important stopgap role right now.  Even if he's slotted at 4C, he's gotta show he can tilt the ice with whatever time he gets.

It's such a weird situation.  No one other than Kaprizov, Ek, and Boldy are those top tier players and a complete killer line.  The blessing and curse of versatility is it helps if people get hurt, but sucks if they don't.

 

[mnfaninnc]

1 hour ago, Citizen Strife said:

Khusnutdinov at worst is a better option unless Gaudreau somehow rebounds from injury and proves versatile. 

Here's what I'm afraid of, Gaudreau and Dino are on the same 4th line together. They split the faceoffs based upon who's on the strong side, but Dino is the center. Dino kicks up another gear and is looking for a slightly trailing Gaudreau charging the net. But due to the lack of Gaudreau's footspeed, Dino has to drop the pass almost to the blueline. 

Johansson is really the only skater who can go with him, but both have shots that get stopped by jello. Dino can be effective, but he can't do it alone. Of course, he and Ogey had a little chemistry when paired together, like they understood each other's game. I can't even begin to get into Johansson's head to see who he understands. 

Speaking of Johansson, when he scored last year after a long drought, he acted like he really cared, and it was an important goal. When he was here for the short stint to end in '23, it seemed like he was a really good confident player. I wonder if he struggles with confidence issues? He's obviously not a line driver, but is fairly good at skating it into the zone. Perhaps in this case, a streaking Dino down the middle can help him by matching his speed in the zone? You could actually change the direction of the play with speed in this case, but you've got to have a guy with a shot on that line. Having him and Dino together on the 4th line just might work. They would certainly be exposing much slower players.

[Pewterschmidt]

17 minutes ago, mnfaninnc said:

Speaking of Johansson, when he scored last year after a long drought, he acted like he really cared, and it was an important goal. When he was here for the short stint to end in '23, it seemed like he was a really good confident player.

Easiest prediction in history of predictions: Nojo plays with a pulse in this contract year.  He'll be less likely to "fall" while heading into corners for a puck battle, to avoid contact.

A contract year rebound will cement his place in MN Wilds Mt Rushmore of least likeable players.  Next to Matt Cooke.  

[Protec]

Marat and Ogie just getting goin while Goligoski is hanging em up. Sports Illustrated writers and editors knocked this one out of the park with rapid release of the story using a pic of Hartman. 😄

[mnfaninnc]

9 hours ago, Protec said:

Marat and Ogie just getting goin while Goligoski is hanging em up. Sports Illustrated writers and editors knocked this one out of the park with rapid release of the story using a pic of Hartman. 😄

Whatever happened to the mandatory proof read? Seriously, from a magazine that had a stellar reputation at one time looking like a bunch of newbies now. The more I see, the more I don't even recognize the world we live in. It's like we've gone down a rabbit whole and Biff has taken over.

[Dango]

I wonder if sports illustrated made the mistake or if a blogger took the story and re posted it on the web using the wrong picture  but gave sports illustrated credits .