Article: Wait, Why Are Experts Calling the Wild A Top-5 Team?

[Tony Abbott]

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[Citizen Strife]

Just keep games like yesterday and aberration...

[Citizen Strife]

an aberration*

[Dis-allowed display name]

Top 5, so far.........

Show of hands if you watch on FanDuel (Bally's) and are going to jump out a window if you have to listen to the Tullamore Dew jingle one more time.

[Imyourhuckleberry]

No more starts for Gus in Philadelphia, especially on October 26th.

2 games there, 6 goals allowed in both, and both played on October 26th.

-----------------------

At least Foligno chipped in some goals to jump ahead of Johansson.

Four forwards still behind Gus in goal scoring this year.

Hopefully the Wild can get a point or two in Pittsburgh.

[mnfaninnc]

21 minutes ago, Imyourhuckleberry said:

No more starts for Gus in Philadelphia, especially on October 26th.

2 games there, 6 goals allowed in both, and both played on October 26th.

On this, my takeaway from yesterday's game was this one gets pinned on Heinzy. For the most part, I am a supporter of Hynes, and his system seems to be much better with the players we've got. 

However, when do you pull a goaltender? For this, a coach needs to have a feel. It doesn't take having played the position, outside of pond hockey I have not. But, after 2 goals on 3 shots, an outsider could see that Goose was not comfortable yesterday afternoon.

He had the 1st period intermission to get Fleury stretched out, but instead rode Goose another period. Again, in the 2nd, Goose did not look comfortable. And this was hard to feel with just 8 shots. However, he wasn't set right, he was bobbling pucks (something he started to do in Florida), and again should have been replaced. 

There was 1 more intermission to get Fleury stretched out. But again, he just let Goose play. 

Bias alert: in baseball, football, hockey, I am a quick pull guy. In this case, I was completely right. But I also have to question why wouldn't you pull him? Is it because Fleury is starting in Pittsburgh and is 40 and you didn't want to risk him being injured? 40 year old goalies need a little extra stretch time and warm up time. I can see that. But, if you've got that type of goalie, you need him to be able to relieve, sometimes at a moment's notice. This was one of those times.

Hynes, however, just stood there chewing gum after all 6 scores. Were they all Goose's fault? No, they were not. But in this particular game for the 2nd and 3rd periods, I believe Fleury gave the team the better opportunity to win. Why? Because Goose didn't look right from the beginning. I don't know if he doesn't like the ice paint, the way the boards or glass look, or if the blue in his crease is a different color. But something was wrong. For starters, Fleury, the Pittsburgh veteran, has played plenty of games in this arena where it is a little more than a regular game. He's seen that ice a lot.

Note to Heinzy: Learn from this mistake. It will likely go both ways, but know for sure that sometimes you pick the wrong goalie to start and it needs to be corrected before games go sideways. Credit the skaters for bailing Goose out, he's done it plenty for them this season. But, this was just not his afternoon. Recognize it and adjust. 

2nd note: I don't even know who the backup was and if The Wall is back up with the club. A good way to keep Fleury fresh is to The Wall or Goose backing up so that their young ligaments can get stretched out quickly. If The Wall was backing up, I would have gone to him early.

[Burnt Toast]

The Wild are playing with intensity, energy and pace. The whole team looks engaged. That’s something in their control, mostly. Because of that difference I see from last year’s team I think they will remain a playoff caliber team. How far can that alone take them? I see potential for younger players developing outweighing older player regression as a key component to their future success. 

[Up North Guy]

12 minutes ago, mnfaninnc said:

On this, my takeaway from yesterday's game was this one gets pinned on Heinzy. For the most part, I am a supporter of Hynes, and his system seems to be much better with the players we've got. 

However, when do you pull a goaltender? For this, a coach needs to have a feel. It doesn't take having played the position, outside of pond hockey I have not. But, after 2 goals on 3 shots, an outsider could see that Goose was not comfortable yesterday afternoon.

He had the 1st period intermission to get Fleury stretched out, but instead rode Goose another period. Again, in the 2nd, Goose did not look comfortable. And this was hard to feel with just 8 shots. However, he wasn't set right, he was bobbling pucks (something he started to do in Florida), and again should have been replaced. 

There was 1 more intermission to get Fleury stretched out. But again, he just let Goose play. 

Bias alert: in baseball, football, hockey, I am a quick pull guy. In this case, I was completely right. But I also have to question why wouldn't you pull him? Is it because Fleury is starting in Pittsburgh and is 40 and you didn't want to risk him being injured? 40 year old goalies need a little extra stretch time and warm up time. I can see that. But, if you've got that type of goalie, you need him to be able to relieve, sometimes at a moment's notice. This was one of those times.

Hynes, however, just stood there chewing gum after all 6 scores. Were they all Goose's fault? No, they were not. But in this particular game for the 2nd and 3rd periods, I believe Fleury gave the team the better opportunity to win. Why? Because Goose didn't look right from the beginning. I don't know if he doesn't like the ice paint, the way the boards or glass look, or if the blue in his crease is a different color. But something was wrong. For starters, Fleury, the Pittsburgh veteran, has played plenty of games in this arena where it is a little more than a regular game. He's seen that ice a lot.

Note to Heinzy: Learn from this mistake. It will likely go both ways, but know for sure that sometimes you pick the wrong goalie to start and it needs to be corrected before games go sideways. Credit the skaters for bailing Goose out, he's done it plenty for them this season. But, this was just not his afternoon. Recognize it and adjust. 

2nd note: I don't even know who the backup was and if The Wall is back up with the club. A good way to keep Fleury fresh is to The Wall or Goose backing up so that their young ligaments can get stretched out quickly. If The Wall was backing up, I would have gone to him early.

Just spitballing here: On not pulling Gus, is it possible that Hynes recognizes that MAF only has so many games in him? MAF is scheduled to start in Pittsburgh and isn't confident he can do two in a row, even with days off in between? It was pretty clear that Gus did not have it yesterday but the team was scoring and maybe it was a calculated gamble to leave Gus in. I have no idea whether this even makes sense but what if? I have always thought bringing Flower back was a bad idea, but if he can give the team quality starts in the 1/3 of the schedule that he will play, fine.