Article: Wild Beginning To Shape Opening Roster

[Thomas Williams]

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[Up North Guy]

Pretty lethargic outing last night until the Wild got 2 goals in about 25 seconds in the third. I felt bad for Rossi having to tote NoJo and Freddie around. NoJo was speedy and typically useless. Freddie was slow and weak on the puck. Merrill was well, Merrill but he looked comfortable in the penalty box. The Wall looked pretty good again. The goals he gave up were pretty much unstoppable. Too much traffic in front of him as the D were not moving guys out. This seems to be a recurring situation. It will be interesting to see how NHL defensemen look in the next two games.

[Enforceror]

I try to lay off the NoJo hate but man, if I have to see another speedy zone entry with an immediate turnover I'm going to poop in his front yard.

[Imyourhuckleberry]

3 hours ago, Enforceror said:

if I have to see another speedy zone entry with an immediate turnover

I've seen plenty of those. When you put them together with the weak defense, you get a "quality" veteran that other teams love to play against.

[Protec]

NoJo, 17 TOI, -2 with two shots & hits, plus fails the eye-test an the team loses. Deja-vu all over again. 😁

[Enforceror]

4 hours ago, Imyourhuckleberry said:

I've seen plenty of those. When you put them together with the weak defense, you get a "quality" veteran that other teams love to play against.

On the opposite end of the spectrum, Boldy led the team in takeaways last year with 61. Next highest was Hartman with 39. Thats a hell of a gap.

[mnfaninnc]

I think the real question here is how long can Hynes put up with Johansson? My assumption is that Shooter has got to give Hynes a roster he can win with. If Johansson isn't one of those guys, he shouldn't be here.

[Up North Guy]

59 minutes ago, mnfaninnc said:

I think the real question here is how long can Hynes put up with Johansson? My assumption is that Shooter has got to give Hynes a roster he can win with. If Johansson isn't one of those guys, he shouldn't be here.

I agree but, what do you do with NoJo? How about Freddie? Waivers/demotion is probably the only option. It would probably cost more to trade them. Who would want them? The team has shown with Goligoski and Merrill (yet another one?) that they do not want to be seen as a team that breaks it's word on team building. I don't agree with that. The player's personal responsibility is to play and beat out competition. The team's should be to ice the best players. It is going to be interesting but my gut feeling is that BG won't cut bait.

[raithis]

15 hours ago, Enforceror said:

On the opposite end of the spectrum, Boldy led the team in takeaways last year with 61. Next highest was Hartman with 39. Thats a hell of a gap.

Part of that is Boldy's hand-eye coordination.  He knocks a lot of saucer passes out of the air when teams try to exit their half of the ice.  There aren't a lot of players who do that as often or as well as he does.

[mnfaninnc]

8 hours ago, Up North Guy said:

It is going to be interesting but my gut feeling is that BG won't cut bait.

Doesn't Hynes decide on the cuts? If not, it's looking like a full prossbox. You know what would send a statement? If Heinzy stuck guys in the prossbox and played short. 

[Enforceror]

Hope Ohgren proves he's there to stay. Playing with Ek helps.

[Up North Guy]

1 hour ago, mnfaninnc said:

Doesn't Hynes decide on the cuts? If not, it's looking like a full prossbox. You know what would send a statement? If Heinzy stuck guys in the prossbox and played short. 

BG has to balance the budget. There isn't enough cap space to have guys sit in the ProssBox

[mnfaninnc]

14 hours ago, Up North Guy said:

BG has to balance the budget. There isn't enough cap space to have guys sit in the ProssBox

That's why you'd have to play short, with say 18 players instead of 20. The message is, I'd rather play with less players than with you right now. Of course, that would be prefaced with a bag skate session in the mandatory practice for that morning.