Article: The Wild Are Still Unprepared For the Injury Bug

[Tony Abbott]

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[Citizen Strife]

Ek should use his face shield to ram face first into anyone trying to stop him.  He gets beaten up way too much.

[Dean]

I’m still dumbfounded by the this is year 2 of a 5 yr maybe 6 year plan. What makes this year two? What happened last year to make it year 1? Why isn’t it year 6 of a 9 or 10 year plan?  Make it make sense . My guess is they restarted the clock when Rossi and lambos didn’t develop as fast or at all yet. So they restarted the clock after drafting zeev. However the truth probably is they have no plan. Just making stuff up and selling fleury jerseys this year. 
    As far as spurg. He’s a liability now, not an elite defenseman anymore. He was on ice getting manhandled or out of position on every kraken goal. He’s going to be a liability all year with his health and lack of size.  He simply isn’t elite anymore. So how many more years of him in an out of lineup eating salary cap space?  Is that part of there plan?  It’s ridiculous to have injury prone spurg  and fleury eating up so much cap space because there nice guys. . Neither are elite anymore an neither would be starters for Stanley cup teams.  Billy and Craig aren’t serious about winning. Otherwise they would get guys who could play.. not give the fans 10 years of Fred and Jo Jo 

[Patrick]

To be fair, most teams are not well prepared for the loss of their top d man and their top center at the same time.

[hydguy75]

Going out on a limb here, and I realize dumb luck is part of the game (but every freaking year?), does the Wild's lack of overall team size have any correlation to the numerous injuries?  I realize they are not the smallest team in average height or weight, but it seems in many games the Wild tend to be out-muscled, out-maneuvered, out-skated, out-hit.  

They struggle to confidently enter the offensive zone and maintain puck possession a lot (at least it seems to me), just leads to wasting time, and not getting your offense set up and zeroed in.  

The frustration and desperation to make plays sometimes leads to risky, prone to injury moves, and turnovers.  

We are still playing with 1.5 arms (2-4 good players) behind our back, and now right out of the gate.  Including the C.  Someone please step-up and rip that C right off #46 and put it somewhere else.  

[Amaddeo]

It’s tough to lose two top guys like Ek and Spurge but I share the sentiment that many do. Spurge is a liability. He had a rough game against Seattle, and I chalked that up to the rust of not having NHL reps since January. BG needs to go out and get an insurance policy on RD2. Bogo cannot be elevated. Choose anyone else, but keep him at RD3 where he is most effective. I would have rather seen Chisholm be elevated. I think the urgent needs to salvage this season are definitely to add a capable RD2 and possibly a second line forward, wing or center. We’ll see what happens, hoping this team learns from last year!

[Sam]

22 minutes ago, hydguy75 said:

They struggle to confidently enter the offensive zone and maintain puck possession a lot (at least it seems to me), just leads to wasting time, and not getting your offense set up and zeroed in.

Last game against the Jets this was a big problem for us. The Jets seemed to easily transition the puck while we seemed to struggle. It must be more of a size issue because we sure have the speed. That and they seemed like they weren’t confident or something.

[1Brotherbill]

This was my fear going into the season.  Is Spurgeon healthy?  Seems like he isn't.  His contract is the one to worry about.  Everyone says he is so good at being a defenseman, does all the little thing right.  I don't see it.  Hynes like his defense to take shots from the point.  Spurgeon doesn't do that.  He isn't a physical defenseman.  He is an all right defenseman when healthy, but the question is will he ever be healthy again?

But lets be honest even with this guy healthy we were not going to win a Stanley Cup this year.  I would much rather see what we got in Hunt and Chisholm and possibly Lambos to figure out what we need next season.

Do we need a top defenseman in free agency?  Or do we go for a top center or wing?