Article: We're About To Find Out How Hard It Is To Replace Mats Zuccarello

[Tony Abbott]

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[Citizen Strife]

Zuccarello seems ageless.  He's able to do so much for the team's offense.  I sure don't like the idea of Johansson on the first line.  Ek better come back soon and reunite the Kap/Ek/Boldy line posthaste.

That or Ohgren better show that fourth line duty was a terrible fit...

[Enforceror]

5 hours ago, Citizen Strife said:

Zuccarello seems ageless.  He's able to do so much for the team's offense.  I sure don't like the idea of Johansson on the first line.  Ek better come back soon and reunite the Kap/Ek/Boldy line posthaste.

That or Ohgren better show that fourth line duty was a terrible fit...

I don't know why but I feel like Ohgren is going to show up tonight.

[Protec]

Pewterschmidt gonna get his guy in there finally. 😃

https://x.com/mnwild/status/1857862832936587555?

Edited November 17 by Protec

[FredJohnson]

[Sam]

4 hours ago, Enforceror said:

 

Edited November 17 by Sam

[Citizen Strife]

Turns out it's very hard to win without three core players.  Who knew?

[RedLake]

Package rossi, yurov, Jojo and a pick for Brady. This not so wild team needs a wild 1c.

[mnfaninnc]

10 hours ago, RedLake said:

Package rossi, yurov, Jojo and a pick for Brady. This not so wild team needs a wild 1c.

I am all for going and getting B. Tkachuk, and the price is likely higher than this. But, Tkachuk has been playing wing even though he came out as a C. Still, Put him in the lineup that still has Boldy, Ek, and Kaprizov and we've really got some firepower. Still missing an RHS finisher, though.

[mnfaninnc]

So, vs. Dallas it was very apparent that the Wild are not up to the task. Sure it was 2-1, but in looking at the flow of the game, especially the 2nd period, Dallas is still far superior to our guys. This was not just due to missing Brodin/Ek/Zuccarello either, this was due to getting hit by a train. We still stayed structured, which was a plus, but, wow, what a 2nd period onslaught put on by Dallas.

If we were to take them in a series, we would need luck, stay structured, be fully healthy, and hope that they had some pieces missing, mainly Oettinger. The main message is, we still have work to do. Now, would replacing our 3 worst players with Buium, The Wall, and Yurov make a difference? You could make the case for 4 players if you're adding Ohgren. That's 20% of the roster and it's a good start. 

I'm guessing we will need that correct free agent to come in, and older guy who can still play at a high level, much like Jack Morris was for the '91 Twins. He was much more than just a high level performer.

[mnfaninnc]

Down on the Farm-

1. Heidt has 28 pts. in 16 games
2. Stramel has 8 pts. in 10 games
3. Haight is off to a great start, 9 points in 14 games (6-3)
4. Bankier and Raska have 5 apples now after a slow start
5. Spacek 1-5-6 in 14 games
6. Lambos 0-3 in 12 games

 

 

[Protec]

The Dallas game was the one I was waiting for all season so far. Beating them or WPG is the benchmark this year. It has to be cause how are you gonna get out of your division for playoffs???

MN is without some guys but even so the results are what matter. Losing a head to head against a team you're likely to be fighting for playoff position is big. Yeah, it was like a playoff game in that the score was low and special teams or some posts were the difference. MN has weapons but so does Dallas and Marchment has been showing up for them lately.

MN might not have gotten pounded, but it was a test and the Wild failed. Home game, great goaltending, but couldn't stop the Stars or score enough. Seventh loss to the Stars in a row, I believe. Not a lot of silver-lining there.

[mnhockeyfan03]

As mentioned in the 2 posts prior this is what I was trying to explain in my posts the past few weeks when everyone try’s to call me crazy.  The Wild need more to compete against the best teams in the west.  We still need a 1C, another top 6 RH forward in addition to Yurov and need to trade spurgeon to get a top 4 RHD.  Gus kept us in that game yesterday or it wouldn’t have been close.  We got outshot 2x1.  Rossi was another no show against a west team.  He will do great on an east team but not in the west.  We need to make changes to compete with the best in the west.  Sorry but that’s the truth. 

[MNCountryLife]

Losing Zuc and replacing him with Nojo was about as bad as it could be.

[raithis]

23 hours ago, Protec said:

The Dallas game was the one I was waiting for all season so far. Beating them or WPG is the benchmark this year. It has to be cause how are you gonna get out of your division for playoffs???

MN is without some guys but even so the results are what matter. Losing a head to head against a team you're likely to be fighting for playoff position is big. Yeah, it was like a playoff game in that the score was low and special teams or some posts were the difference. MN has weapons but so does Dallas and Marchment has been showing up for them lately.

MN might not have gotten pounded, but it was a test and the Wild failed. Home game, great goaltending, but couldn't stop the Stars or score enough. Seventh loss to the Stars in a row, I believe. Not a lot of silver-lining there.

I don't know.  I came away from watching that and was impressed that the team never gave up and only lost by one.  That 3rd period was Dallas just trying to hang on long enough.  With Ek alone I feel it would have been a much more even game overall.

Having two of our top-6 out and 1 of out top-4 defenseman out, we should have looked far worse, especially how much of those players we rely on for offense and defense overall.  No disrespect to Gus as he did well to help keep us in the game, but there was very little chance we were going to win that game down all 3 of those players.  With a full team, I think we would have won.