Article: Is the Xcel Energy Center Cursed?

[Luke Sims]

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[Sam]

Only superstitious people believe in superstitions.

[Pewterschmidt]

22 minutes ago, Sam said:

Only superstitious people believe in superstitions.

[Up North Guy]

BG just announced that KK97 is out week to week with LBI surgery.

[RedLake]

Billy is gonna play Vegas LTIR. Here comes JT Miller.

[Pewterschmidt]

13 minutes ago, Up North Guy said:

BG just announced that KK97 is out week to week with LBI surgery.

Brought him back too early instead of waiting until after 4 nations break

#dont be dumb bill

#hind sights 20/20

#arm chair QB

#second guess committee

[Dango]

41 minutes ago, RedLake said:

Billy is gonna play Vegas LTIR. Here comes JT Miller.

Not sure i want locker room cancers either Miller or Patterson  id rather have Nelsen 0 history of drama that i know of  ,  To get Tuch were gonna have to overpay im sure . 

[raithis]

54 minutes ago, RedLake said:

Billy is gonna play Vegas LTIR. Here comes JT Miller.

Not if it's only week-to-week.

[Imyourhuckleberry]

6 minutes ago, raithis said:

Not if it's only week-to-week.

ESPn says he's out a month, which could easily extend to March. Season ends April 15th, and I would think Kaprizov will want to return rather than sit out an extra month, so I agree with the conclusion that it's unlikely they would extend him on LTIR until the playoffs.

[Up North Guy]

7 minutes ago, Imyourhuckleberry said:

ESPn says he's out a month, which could easily extend to March. Season ends April 15th, and I would think Kaprizov will want to return rather than sit out an extra month, so I agree with the conclusion that it's unlikely they would extend him on LTIR until the playoffs.

Biut also, with surgery the timeline can get extended dramatically. I think the month figure may be best case scenario.

[Imyourhuckleberry]

22 minutes ago, Up North Guy said:

Biut also, with surgery the timeline can get extended dramatically. I think the month figure may be best case scenario.

I don't disagree with that, but if it's 6 weeks, there would still be a month of season remaining. Given that they don't disclose the injury, it's hard to say for sure, but I don't know that Kaprizov is at the stage of his career that he wants to be held out healthy for a full month. He would need to be on board with any decision.

[Imyourhuckleberry]

Just noticed that between March 9th and the end of the season, the Wild have 6 road games and 13 homes games. They better break the home ice curse if they are planning to maintain a spot in the playoffs.

Johansson has been out with concussion for a while and you cannot count on him for the playoffs. The Wild need to bring in a low cost replacement, especially now that Kaprizov is out until at least late February.

[Imyourhuckleberry]

The Athletic has a new update. I'll post a couple of quotes.

Quote

While Kaprizov wasn’t showing any discernable limp after Sunday’s win in Chicago, he did look glum in the postgame locker room as he walked to the trainer’s room.

Guerin and coach John Hynes said Kaprizov is immensely disappointed because he did everything the doctors and trainers asked over the past five weeks.

Kaprizov told Hynes he was playing at only “60 percent,” and even though Kaprizov at 60 percent is better than most players in the league, Hynes said it wasn’t up to the standard Kaprizov expects to be at to help the team win “and I think that’s what bothers him the most.”

Quote

The trade deadline is March 7, but since Kaprizov is expected to return well before the playoffs and the Wild would need to be cap-compliant once he does, the team won’t be able to use his $9 million cap hit to make a move or moves before the deadline.

The Wild have such little cap space now, that they’ll have to put Jonas Brodin or Kaprizov on LTIR just to afford an extra forward for the remainder of their five-game trip.

“We will do what we’re able to do with the cap space that we have (at the deadline),” Guerin said.

[FredJohnson]

1 hour ago, Imyourhuckleberry said:

ESPn says he's out a month, which could easily extend to March. Season ends April 15th, and I would think Kaprizov will want to return rather than sit out an extra month, so I agree with the conclusion that it's unlikely they would extend him on LTIR until the playoffs.

He had a setback during rehab that just happens to heal up right before the playoffs. (Sarcasm)

[FredJohnson]

Is the Xcel Energy Center Cursed?

No, all of Minnesota is.

[MacGyver]

Those last two quotes from the Athletic don't sound good for all the trade dreamers. It's just the reality of it.  The Wild are just strapped and I don't think they are going to get creative all of a sudden. Kaprizov out with surgery puts a different complexion on things. They may be willing to stand pat this year and see how he comes back from surgery. To me that would be the wise move at this point. 

[mnfaninnc]

I think Guerin can trade for a guy like Tuch. He'd just need a lot of help. However, a guy over $5m, I think, is just too tough of hurdle cap wise to get. 

I would go after him, play the LTIR out with it, and who knows, maybe another injury dictates the rest.

On Kaprizov. He's been back 3 games and did not look like himself. He says he was about 60%. Really, that's what it looked like. You could tell his edges were not their crisp selves and he didn't have that high gear. Russo said it wasn't noticeable. I call bullcrap on that, it was noticeable to all of us that he still wasn't right. 

So, what is the blueprint going forward? You'd better make sure that you take care of business against any team ranked below 15th for the next 4-6 weeks. This is why you start out hot, this is why you bank points. This is where we limp looking like we're leaking a ton of oil. 

I also have to wonder if it was the knee to thigh in the Edmonton game that caused this? It makes sense with the timeline. Knee to thigh, elbow to jaw, seems like they will need to pay their debts in full next time we play them. And before anyone gets visions of Nashville, that's not it. It's a 100% 60 minute finish your checks hard game. We have not played one of those all season. Heinzy said it: Choose Your Hard. There should be carnage left behind some hits. This will inevitably lead to more fighting, but fighting here is not the goal, stapling bodies to the boards is the goal. Canceling out players physically is the goal. 

And while we're on this, Shore needs to be sent down and Gaunce brought up. We need a big thick body up here. If Brodin is still on LTIR, let's bring Jiricek back up and let him run over some people. The compete level on this team needs a transfusion!

[FredJohnson]

23 hours ago, MacGyver said:

Those last two quotes from the Athletic don't sound good for all the trade dreamers. It's just the reality of it.  The Wild are just strapped and I don't think they are going to get creative all of a sudden. Kaprizov out with surgery puts a different complexion on things. They may be willing to stand pat this year and see how he comes back from surgery. To me that would be the wise move at this point.