Article: Wild Keep Losing And It Won't Get Much Better

[Thomas Williams]

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[MrCheatachu]

At the beginning of the season, my expectations were 'I'd like the games to be watchable.'  And while the final score of the game might have been misleading to the rest of the game, it was clear that the Wild wasn't the better team out there.

Juggling up the lines to see what works, and the only thing that seemed to work was MoJo.  When I'm finding myself optimistic to see Hartzy & Hinnostrozy on the ice it makes me disappointed because that means Boldy and Rossi aren't up to snuff.

Also, the past couple games, I've noticed Faber taking a couple of opportunities to drive to the net from the point.  Not sure if the coaches are asking him to do this, or he's seeing the absolute blackhole in offense and taking it on his shoulders.  Unfortunately when he does this, he seems to get rubbed out before getting a good scoring opportunity and the opponents are back up the ice with Faber caught low.

[Imyourhuckleberry]

19 minutes ago, MrCheatachu said:

it was clear that the Wild wasn't the better team out there.

Wild kept it close and nearly tied it up. They did put the one in the net, but got it waved off--definitely played with a high stick, but for a moment, looked like they might have evened the score. The Wild definitely need their top players to truly compete with top 5 teams like Dallas and Vegas. Hopefully better days ahead.

[MNCountryLife]

Was nice to get Brodin back.  He looked good but wasn't quite as crisp on his passes as he usually is.  I expect that to get cleaned up quickly.  Now we need Kirill, Ek and Foligno back.  I like the structure we are playing.  PK and PP were both an issue again last night.

[RedLake]

The Wild are gonna lift the Cup. Buuim will put up 35 points in the playoffs playing with Johnny Merril. 

[Mattrk]

I just watched that goal tender interference.  It wasn't intentional to bump the goalie, but it definitely WAS interference,

[SkolWild73]

The Wild are actually 6 points ahead of the Flames.  Yes, they have two games less than us.  I posted yesterday what each team needs to do to pass us if we can average a point a game.  Will see what Calgary does in their next three games against better teams.  As far as our schedule goes, I know that New Jersey is a playoff team, but they have not been since just after Christmas, they are 13-17-4.  After those two games, we have one game left against teams that are currently in the playoffs.

[Pewterschmidt]

1 hour ago, MrCheatachu said:

Hinnostrozy

I've been struggling to land on a nickname for this little bulldog, who is the brightest spot on this season "new talent" list.  He takes the #1 seed from Laukzy, for the 'something for nothing' find.  The nickname I'm currently using is:

Vinnesota

[Dango]

If you cant score then all the other team has to do is barrage the goal with shots  from  above the dots and eventually 1 or 2 will go in or create garbage rebounds ,   When the Wild go 0 for 2,  0 for 3 on the PP  early on then its basically over that's why we need some vets that can score on the PP .  and don't necessarily need to be 11 million dollar players .  Just my opinion  , 

[greg]

The Wild have and continue to be on top of the let's find an excuse to blame our poor play on.  Yes we are missing good players and if they come back I'm sure it's going to take them a few days to get back to playing well.  Let's be truthful here:  this Wild team is just average and far below average without Kirill and Ek.  Even if they are back and the Wild somehow sneak into the playoffs it sure looks like they won't survive the first round.  There are too many games like last night where the team as a whole doesn't show up to play.  Last night the excuse in part was they had to go to Dallas and then fly right back to play the next day. OMG

[Willy the poor boy]

I wasn't able to watch last nights game. Who got injured this time?

[Citizen Strife]

I was looking at the forwards and centers in free agency, and instead of going center or even Marner for oodles of cash, I wonder if Ehlers would be an option.  Someone behind Kap that is a 60-70 pt guy, and would stick it to Winnipeg.

Might be a hefty tag (7-9m in this new landscape), but you'd have an instant improvement over Mojo, and cure that Kap--> Foligno -> Ohgren dropoff in line talent.

Kap obviously comes first, but if you get Ehlers, maybe that solves scoring woes in a different way.  Rossi would still be a tough sign after that, but feasible.  Go after Marner, you fork over another $13-14m.  Good luck having any centers after that.

 

 

[FredJohnson]

Wild Keep Losing And It Won't Get Much Better

[Imyourhuckleberry]

1 hour ago, SkolWild73 said:

As far as our schedule goes, I know that New Jersey is a playoff team, but they have not been since just after Christmas, they are 13-17-4.  After those two games, we have one game left against teams that are currently in the playoffs.

Agreed. Since mid January, the Devils have only beaten a 1 team that is top 6 in either conference, a 3-2 win over Edmonton March 13th. The 2nd best opponent they've defeated in the last 3 months was Montreal.

They are also missing over $20M in cap space from players who would normally be in their lineup, including a top 6 C(Jack Hughes) and top 4 D(Dougie Hamilton).

I'm not saying the Wild have an easy 4 points for those 2 games against the Devils, because they are still among the leaders in goals allowed per game(due to a strong 2024 portion of the season), but since Christmas, the Wild have a better record and that's been almost entirely without Kaprizov.

The Devils will be flying in from a Friday night game against Winnipeg when the Wild host them this Saturday, so the Wild should be favored in that one.

[SkolWild73]

1 hour ago, Citizen Strife said:

I wonder if Ehlers would be an option.  Someone behind Kap that is a 60-70 pt guy, and would stick it to Winnipeg.

I mentioned him a few weeks back as an option and still think he would be a decent sign.  Problem is, Winnipeg has so much cap space next year with over $37M.  They do have some RFA's to sign this offseason but should have the money to do so.  We can hope he wants a change of scenery or Winnipeg decides they don't want him.  I think your price for him is probably right on.  

[Imyourhuckleberry]

Looking at Ryder Ritchie and it's shocking how good the top player on his Medicine Hat team is, particularly for someone who just turned 17 in December. Not sure how much Ritchie plays with him, but Gavin McKenna has 129 points in 56 games.

Also struck me as a little surprising just how young these guys are when drafted in the WHL. Gavin McKenna was the #1 overall selection in the 2022 WHL draft, which happened when he was just 14 years old. And he put up over 1 point per game even at age 15 in the WHL before jumping up to 97 points in 61 games at age 16.

Bedard(McKenna's cousin) was a little ahead as a WHL player, but it wouldn't be shocking to see McKenna(projected #1 in 2026 NHL draft) overtake him as an NHL player. Hopefully Ryder Ritchie can learn a few things from his younger teammate.

[RedLake]

Let's be honest here. The only legit top 6 forward in the lineup is Boldy. Rossi, Zuccerallo are third liners on a playoff contending team. NoJo is a 3rd/4th liner, our whole bottom 6 are AHLers except maybe Trenin. Our D-men are average at best with no offensive upside. Yet Jiricek rotted on the mini Mild while Merril gobbled up Jiriceks ice-time. I'd love to see this team sold to a businessman that wants to win and a complete fire sale. It's embarrassing being from Minnesota for numerous reasons beyond being a professional sports fan.

[Protec]

Tank now!!! 😄

[Kato AK]

1 hour ago, Protec said:

Tank now!!! 😄

Why? We don't even have our 1st round pick. MIN sports don't have enough luck to win the lottery and keep our pick.

[IllicitFive]

Went to that game last night and it just seemed they looked slow, not interested in being physical even when opportunity presented itself. The 1st period was brutal. They seemed to be doing well defensively but could not get anything going on offense. After that they played them fairly tight, until the goal was waved off. Just seemed that took any wind out of their sails and then the wheels fell off. Was a much better game than the score would show as it was 2-1 half way through the 3rd and Vegas 2nd goal was a lucky bounce off the glass back out front.  In a weird way its gives me some hope for competitive playoff hockey IF Brodin gets back in shape, and Moose, Ek, and Kap get back asap. Vegas is a dang good team, and for the most part they stayed with them, the overall defense wasn't bad, sticks looked active. The PP is a PROBLEM, the groan of 18000 was something to hear, a few boo birds as they weren't taking any shots.

I believe this is where losing Moose hurts, he will play physical and I think others will follow, but when he is out nobody steps into the role of starting the hitting off. Braz is huge looking out there, but I was told he is a physical forward..... when? He looked uncomfortable and too worried about being out of place. Reminds me of a non upset Greenway, just kind of there. 

[mnfaninnc]

2 hours ago, RedLake said:

Let's be honest here. The only legit top 6 forward in the lineup is Boldy. Rossi, Zuccerallo are third liners on a playoff contending team. NoJo is a 3rd/4th liner, our whole bottom 6 are AHLers except maybe Trenin. Our D-men are average at best with no offensive upside. Yet Jiricek rotted on the mini Mild while Merril gobbled up Jiriceks ice-time. I'd love to see this team sold to a businessman that wants to win and a complete fire sale. It's embarrassing being from Minnesota for numerous reasons beyond being a professional sports fan.

Red, we're almost to the end of the line of the rebuild/retool/reconfiguration. Can we try that first before we get impatient and blow it all up again? I know I can't wait another 5 years for top 5 picks to come in and maybe they lead the way! Let's just see what happens when our prospects get acclimated to the team. 

[mnfaninnc]

1 hour ago, IllicitFive said:

Was a much better game than the score would show as it was 2-1 half way through the 3rd and Vegas 2nd goal was a lucky bounce off the glass back out front.  In a weird way its gives me some hope for competitive playoff hockey IF Brodin gets back in shape, and Moose, Ek, and Kap get back asap. Vegas is a dang good team, and for the most part they stayed with them, the overall defense wasn't bad, sticks looked active. The PP is a PROBLEM, the groan of 18000 was something to hear, a few boo birds as they weren't taking any shots.

Style-I am so sick and tired of pass, pass, pass, pass up a good shot, pass pass. We need somebody to take the pucks down the middle and fire away. Deferring has always been this team's dna, let someone else do it. We need dirty goals any goals that count as 1. 

I also hate the around the boards play all the time. Can you get any worse angles than off the boards? You don't shoot from off the boards, and you're not a threat from there. This is a flawed plan to constantly dump and chase, rim it around, then back to the point, then back down the walls again. Teams will let you do that until you gas yourselves and have to change.

Do we not have anyone willing to go down the middle of the ice? And, please, our PP is now down to a couple of passes and throw it on net, outnumber the defenders and chip in a rebound. There are no pretty plays out there right now, just go get into the middle and get it done.

Edited Wednesday at 08:07 PM by mnfaninnc

[RedLake]

4 hours ago, mnfaninnc said:

Style-I am so sick and tired of pass, pass, pass, pass up a good shot, pass pass. We need somebody to take the pucks down the middle and fire away. Deferring has always been this team's dna, let someone else do it. We need dirty goals any goals that count as 1. 

I also hate the around the boards play all the time. Can you get any worse angles than off the boards? You don't shoot from off the boards, and you're not a threat from there. This is a flawed plan to constantly dump and chase, rim it around, then back to the point, then back down the walls again. Teams will let you do that until you gas yourselves and have to change.

Do we not have anyone willing to go down the middle of the ice? And, please, our PP is now down to a couple of passes and throw it on net, outnumber the defenders and chip in a rebound. There are no pretty plays out there right now, just go get into the middle and get it done.

We don't have enough speed, muscle, or talent to play this type of game at the moment. Kaprizov and Ek open it up a tad more, but our top 9 is not so much!

[Sam]

10 hours ago, Pewterschmidt said:

I've been struggling to land on a nickname for this little bulldog, who is the brightest spot on this season "new talent" list.  He takes the #1 seed from Laukzy, for the 'something for nothing' find.  The nickname I'm currently using is:

Vinnesota

And when they announce his name in the arena, they should say “scoring is Vinnesota” instead of “scoring for Minnesota”.

 

[RedLake]

54 minutes ago, Sam said:

And when they announce his name in the arena, they should say “scoring is Vinnesota” instead of “scoring for Minnesota”.

 

North Vinnesota needs a hattie to match Ovi's mission tomorrow night.