Article: It's Time To Fully Believe In Filip Gustavsson

[Tony Abbott]

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[MNCountryLife]

Nojo...eeerrgg... Johannson played very good hockey for the first 2 periods.  I thought the 3rd he took his foot off the pedal....but just a bit.  I have criticized him enough on these message boards that I probably owe him an accolade or two when he actually plays well.... as he did against the panthers.  I sure wish that guy would show up every night.  Well done MoJo!!

[MNCountryLife]

No Doubt... The Gus Bus is definitely finding his angles and playing well.  Nice Article.

[Willy the poor boy]

He has the talent. The only question left is does he have the drive. He didn't last year. He came in this year in notably better shape. Can he keep it up.

[Enforceror]

Here's hoping Gus is all in because per Wild.com:

Samuel Hlavaj is 0-1-0 with a 5.13 GAA and a .762 SV%, William Rousseau is 0-1-0 with a 3.09 GAA and a .864 SV% and Wallstedt is 0-2-0 with a 7.20 GAA and a .821 SV%.

That's scary....

[Pablo]

His career sample size is large enough to understand that he is talented and young enough to improve his skillset. Last year was a long bad slump but that doesn’t have to define his next 10-15 seasons.  He can and should stay locked in all season which could lead to him having his best year. Get on the Gus bus and enjoy the ride!!

[Enforceror]

1 hour ago, Pablo said:

His career sample size is large enough to understand that he is talented and young enough to improve his skillset. Last year was a long bad slump but that doesn’t have to define his next 10-15 seasons.  He can and should stay locked in all season which could lead to him having his best year. Get on the Gus bus and enjoy the ride!!

This!!

[1Brotherbill]

3 hours ago, Enforceror said:

Here's hoping Gus is all in because per Wild.com:

Samuel Hlavaj is 0-1-0 with a 5.13 GAA and a .762 SV%, William Rousseau is 0-1-0 with a 3.09 GAA and a .864 SV% and Wallstedt is 0-2-0 with a 7.20 GAA and a .821 SV%.

That's scary....

It appears that the elite prospect pool can't win in Iowa.  Though to be fair most of the elite prospects are not in Iowa either because they are not old enough or are in Europe or college.  What is alarming is the fact that the defenseman that we want to show promise appear to be not all that good.  The forwards only two are really of note (Bankier and Haight), everyone else is just a medical call up.  So, Wallstedt's numbers might be representative of a bad team.

[1Brotherbill]

Gus had a kid last year.  Having a kid effects your game in any sport.  Sometimes for the better sometimes it is not.  It appears to have effected him poorly.  Now that he has adjusted to it that might be why he is playing well. 

[Imyourhuckleberry]

12 hours ago, Pablo said:

Last year was a long bad slump but that doesn’t have to define his next 10-15 seasons.

It wasn't even that bad of a slump given the defense around him once Spurgeon was out. After Addison was traded away on November 8th of last season, Gus had a .906 save percentage for the remainder of the season.

Over the full season, a .906 save percentage would have put him around 30th among goalies with at least 20 games played, in the same range as Juuse Saros, Stuart Skinner, and Jake Oettinger.

[MacGyver]

10 hours ago, 1Brotherbill said:

Gus had a kid last year.  Having a kid effects your game in any sport.  Sometimes for the better sometimes it is not.  It appears to have effected him poorly.  Now that he has adjusted to it that might be why he is playing well. 

Or maybe being on the trading block all off season has given him a chip on his shoulder.  If he does have a chip on his shoulder about being on the trading block how long will it carry him? 

Emotions run wild at the start of every season. Anyone want to bet Nashville, Colorado or Edmonton stay on the pace they are on? Anyone want to bet the Wild maintain this pace. Things even out. It's a long season.  I'm not making any judgments on this team or players after six games. As I've said before lets review after 25 games in. 

[mnfaninnc]

I agree with 1brotherbill, I think the kid had a lot to do with it. It's a lot different having a newborn in the house than a 1 year old. 

Also, if you look at his NA stats, he seems like he might be an every other year 'tender. I don't know why this happens, but goalies are weird. Confidence is also a big consideration, and it looks like he's very confident now.

Any goalies out there? Now, I wonder what happens if he's off. Does a goalie like Goose like being pulled early or working through it? Each goalie is different. Would it be better to put in the backup and call it a night? Would it be better to put in the backup, let him go back to the locker room and settle down, and put him back in? Every goalie is unique, so you need to know how to push the right buttons on each one. 

For instance, The Wall's 2 games in Iowa are listed above. How much of this could be disappointment to being sent down? I don't know if it bothers him, how would anyone feel if the organization told you to get an apartment in St. Paul, and suddenly you are sent down to Des Moines, perhaps with no place there, making 10% of your salary. I'm not sure I would react positively to that reality, even though everyone from the outside knew if there was a numbers problem, The Wall was getting sent down. 

We saw how that worked in CBJ with Jiricek. Perhaps the extension at this time helped calm him down a little. Goaltending takes a huge amount of focus, anything that wiggles that applecart can affect any goalie. But which ones affect The Wall? Goose? Fleury? I think that's why Fleury is there, to help them with this part of their game. 

[Beast]

He’s been great, and I’ll admit I didn’t think he had it in him.

But, it’s a small sample.  The team has been good in front of him.  Can it be sustained all year?  How much of his poor play on the past was momentum swings due to splitting time with Fluery?  Was he not totally healthy?  Clearly, the play in front of him was poor, how much of a factor was that really?

Lots of questions.  I’m not ready to declare anything yet.  I believe he started the year last year with a shutout of a really good team.  There’s a lot of hockey left.

[bisopher]

For Wallstedt, I'm willing to write of his performances last weekend to the fact he went what, two weeks almost between game starts?  The layoff at the end of the pre-season, along with a week-plus of riding the pine with MN before they sent him down, did him no favors.  Better he stays in IA and shares the net with Vaj for a while, then gets brought up (to St. Paul) for a start or two when he's "in form".

[Pablo]

12 hours ago, Imyourhuckleberry said:

It wasn't even that bad of a slump given the defense around him once Spurgeon was out. After Addison was traded away on November 8th of last season, Gus had a .906 save percentage for the remainder of the season.

Over the full season, a .906 save percentage would have put him around 30th among goalies with at least 20 games played, in the same range as Juuse Saros, Stuart Skinner, and Jake Oettinger.

Very true! Bad defense in front of him was the #1 factor for his down year. It was a frustrating season! ‘24/25 is a whole new/different story.  

[Protec]

Well now that Gus had a stinker, what do we think? 🤣

Aging well? Too soon to say?

Need some big games now out of Fred, Knudi, Trenin, Lauko. The Wild had chances to bail Gus out and begin playing with a lead. 

Presumably he's back in the net after Fleury gets the Pittsburgh game. 

[Pewterschmidt]

On 10/24/2024 at 8:46 PM, bisopher said:

For Wallstedt, I'm willing to write of his performances last weekend to the fact he went what, two weeks almost between game starts?  The layoff at the end of the pre-season, along with a week-plus of riding the pine with MN before they sent him down, did him no favors.  Better he stays in IA and shares the net with Vaj for a while, then gets brought up (to St. Paul) for a start or two when he's "in form".

I'm ready to start hearing about Wallzy stealing games instead of the excuses why he's giving up 7's.