Article: Is the Zach Bogosian Bubble Bursting?

[Tony Abbott]

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[Citizen Strife]

Oh, I don't know Tony.  It could be just as true he was the only one who fucking scored last night too.  But we know how you've felt about his dead cat bounce before.  

He's a stopgap option until hopefully Buium, Hunt, and (maybe) someone else gets there.  If it were me though, I would post any free agent money after Kap and Rossi for a right-side defenseman to shore up what is probably going to be a weak position going forward.  I get the need for wingers and secondary scoring...but kinda hard to trust a team's defense if all that work on the PK didn't amount to jack shit.

Edited November 6 by Citizen Strife

[FredJohnson]

I blame Dumba!

[mnfaninnc]

I didn't really see the zone entry on the goal talked about here, but he certainly kicked the puck right out to Foegele to tap in. But, those things happen. 

My eye test has not seen him as a liability this season, overall. I think it stretches him to play 2nd pairing, but as a 3rd pairing role guy, he's perfect for the role. Any pairing looks slow with Merrill on it right now!

Our problem had consistently been an undersized right hand side of the defense. Bogosian shores that up, and while he's not really a star, he does a worthwhile job, especially against the larger LWs in the league. He can also play mean, and we don't have guys who can do that.

For flipping a 7th, I think we got a nice piece for that. 

[FredJohnson]

These "Not Weird, Wild vids are awesome!

 

[mnfaninnc]

I would like to see Bogosian play a little more physically intimidating, though.

[Patrick]

Watching Bogo last year I couldn't understand why Tampa let him go. This year I can't figure out what he is doing. He reminds me of the guy in beer league who spent too much time at the bar pre game. Slow to react to everything. I hope he turns it around because I'm a big fan of the beard!

[Will D. Ness]

6 hours ago, mnfaninnc said:

I would like to see Bogosian play a little more physically intimidating, though.

Middleton too.  

[Protec]

I think we'll see NoJo-Bogo continue to log time all season.

They're not perfect players but veteran experience for affordable contract values seems like Guerin's favorite thing.

Guys like Knudi & Rossi aren't built for NA hockey and neither is NoJo mentally at least. The Wild happen to be at a place in time when they're still using what they got the best they can. I'd like to see some small incremental steps this season to get a little bigger or meaner. They've had a nice start but teams like WPG have scoring to spare and guys like Nino are just another player. MN is carrying too many diminutive Euros and scoreless vets. That's a bigger issue than one regressing old defender.

Tony's hitting on some great questions lately and I agree for the most part the hypothesis is right. I do not think there will be changes or benchings for the vets primarily because their replacements aren't gonna be significantly better.

The Wild were ready to go out of camp and played good hockey to win games out of the gate. Now other teams seem to be hitting their stride and MN has to watch out. They've made themselves a target and upped the expectations.