Article: The Wild Are Waiting On the Perfect Storm

[Tom Schreier]

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[SkolWild73]

I will use my "Forest Green Blinders" and say that it is easy for me to see us beating the teams mentioned in this article, because we were only fully healthy for one game out of all of them.

[Need4speed99]

3 hours ago, SkolWild73 said:

I will use my "Forest Green Blinders" and say that it is easy for me to see us beating the teams mentioned in this article, because we were only fully healthy for one game out of all of them.

I'd bet you even with those guys in the playoffs they still bounce in the 1st. How rusty will kap and ek be? Which gus shows up? How will they generate secondary scoring. This team is just not elite. They have too much wrapped up in bottom 6 guys. 

[SkolWild73]

49 minutes ago, Need4speed99 said:

I'd bet you even with those guys in the playoffs they still bounce in the 1st. How rusty will kap and ek be? Which gus shows up? How will they generate secondary scoring. This team is just not elite. They have too much wrapped up in bottom 6 guys. 

They might.  Not sure why a fan of the wild would bet on them to lose in first round.  

[Need4speed99]

12 minutes ago, SkolWild73 said:

They might.  Not sure why a fan of the wild would bet on them to lose in first round.  

Being a realist... and honestly, easiest way, in sports, to make money is against the "diehards" that don't deal in logic.

But also watching and following trends. 

I always hope I'm wrong but my entire life experience with mn teams begs to differ. 

[SkolWild73]

15 minutes ago, Need4speed99 said:

Being a realist... and honestly, easiest way, in sports, to make money is against the "diehards" that don't deal in logic.

But also watching and following trends. 

I always hope I'm wrong but my entire life experience with mn teams begs to differ. 

I just never bet on minnesota teams to win or lose.
 Nobody thought Florida would beat Boston two years ago either.

[Need4speed99]

4 hours ago, SkolWild73 said:

I just never bet on minnesota teams to win or lose.
 Nobody thought Florida would beat Boston two years ago either.

Those are wild cards, diehard mn fans that haven't been long around to realize are easier. They haven't seen the twins and wild set sports records for 1st round exits. 

You game? I'll only make it 100.

[Fezig]

After the listless effort last night against the Islanders, I'm even more confident the Wild's imitation of the Twins second half collapse will lead to no playoff appearance. 

[mnfaninnc]

The team looked discouraged and exhausted last night in Long Island. Not much time to come home and prepare for a 2 pm game vs. Dallas (who plays this afternoon). I don't know what it will take to recharge this team's batteries, but I see us limping into the 1st round completely drained....again. 

Goose needs a game off, and the whole team is playing up in the lineup. We need those reinforcements even though they're rusty. I thought effort was their last night, but the Wild forgot to take off their sand bags around their ankles, they just looked slow and the puck was bouncing everywhere on them. 

It's like they've entered the arena in the marathon and are slowly taking the lap around the arena not realizing other competitors are about to enter the arena right behind them. If you've ever seen NASCAR teams gamble and lose the fuel estimation and run out of gas on the final lap, you will see the similarity in this year's team. Can they get to the pits in time? 

A perfect storm would come with an energy boost.

[SkolWild73]

10 hours ago, Need4speed99 said:

Those are wild cards, diehard mn fans that haven't been long around to realize are easier. They haven't seen the twins and wild set sports records for 1st round exits. 

You game? I'll only make it 100.

Pretty sure I just said I dont bet on minnesota teams to win or lose.  

[Enforceror]

Metallurg lost in overtime today to finish out their playoff run. Yurov scored a PP goal, had 3 SOG, and 44% FO%.

 

[Up North Guy]

2 hours ago, Enforceror said:

Metallurg lost in overtime today to finish out their playoff run. Yurov scored a PP goal, had 3 SOG, and 44% FO%.

 

Thanks for the update. Now we wait and see what happens.

[Enforceror]

30 minutes ago, Up North Guy said:

Thanks for the update. Now we wait and see what happens.

Can't wait to see what this kid can do for the team. Im not as high on him as some of the others but I do think he'll contribute nicely on the 2nd or 3rd line.

[SkolWild73]

On 4/5/2025 at 1:02 AM, Need4speed99 said:

Those are wild cards, diehard mn fans that haven't been long around to realize are easier. They haven't seen the twins and wild set sports records for 1st round exits. 

You game? I'll only make it 100.

Actually, the President cup winner has lost more in the first round in the last 20 years than they have won the cup.  Never know what can happen come playoff time.

[RedLake]

4 hours ago, SkolWild73 said:

Actually, the President cup winner has lost more in the first round in the last 20 years than they have won the cup.  Never know what can happen come playoff time.

Need Kap, Midds, yurov, buuim, and Ek in the NHL playoffs. Our current roster is spent and full of AHLers and grinders minus Boldy, Brodin and Faber.

[SkolWild73]

10 minutes ago, RedLake said:

Need Kap, Midds, yurov, buuim, and Ek in the NHL playoffs. Our current roster is spent and full of AHLers and grinders minus Boldy, Brodin and Faber.

I agree we need all the injured guys back, Kap and Ek at a minimum, and Buium if Midds isn’t back.  

[RedLake]

28 minutes ago, SkolWild73 said:

I agree we need all the injured guys back, Kap and Ek at a minimum, and Buium if Midds isn’t back.  

Buuim will make a offensive difference. Let's hope he can hold his own against the Jets in the Dzone.

[Up North Guy]

23 hours ago, RedLake said:

Need Kap, Midds, yurov, buuim, and Ek in the NHL playoffs. Our current roster is spent and full of AHLers and grinders minus Boldy, Brodin and Faber.

i agree but I don't think Yurov will be joining the team. I could be completely wrong and hope I am.

[Need4speed99]

On 4/5/2025 at 11:36 AM, SkolWild73 said:

Pretty sure I just said I dont bet on minnesota teams to win or lose.  

If you were so sure, put your money where your mouth is. I'll make it easy 1st round.

 

My point, go back and watch and listen to things and tell me when they ACTUALLY changed.

[SkolWild73]

3 minutes ago, Need4speed99 said:

If you were so sure, put your money where your mouth is. I'll make it easy 1st round.

 

My point, go back and watch and listen to things and tell me when they ACTUALLY changed.

Only thing I said is I can see them winning a round.  If you look at any of my other posts when I said that, I said it is less than 50 percent.  Not sure what you mean by go back and watch and listen to things.  I watched this team at the beginning of the year with full health be one of the best teams in the league.  Hoping we have enough time to get back to that.  
 

But never once have I said we will for surely get past the first round.  I can see it happening though.  

[Need4speed99]

10 minutes ago, SkolWild73 said:

Only thing I said is I can see them winning a round.  If you look at any of my other posts when I said that, I said it is less than 50 percent.  Not sure what you mean by go back and watch and listen to things.  I watched this team at the beginning of the year with full health be one of the best teams in the league.  Hoping we have enough time to get back to that.  
 

But never once have I said we will for surely get past the first round.  I can see it happening though.  

I meant over the years... the results are the same and the team says the same things. Anything can happen when you have elite talent, in more than several places.

Watching the wild, they don't have that and their pattern of 1st round exits shows it. They employ one solid line but billy spent a solid chunk of the payroll on 4th liners. NO team has won that way. You need absolutely crazy goaltending to even get past the 1st round. Gus nor flower have that. Not flower, currently. They can't expect help and there is no secondary scoring. Explain how they can ACTUALLY win out?

[M_Nels]

11 hours ago, Need4speed99 said:

You need absolutely crazy goaltending to even get past the 1st round. Gus nor flower have that.

Gus in 5th with a .914 SV% only below Helle & Kuemper in the West, he's 11th in GAA barely behind Blackwood & Otter and is T3 in SO's again only behind Helle in the West.

I'd say Gus has "that". He played a ton of minutes and stole games when you had 3-4 AHL'ers playing at a time because of injuries. Having 3 of your top 4 D missing chunks of games with a lot of overlapping makes it even more impressive. 

Gus is in the top tier and is playing at a level that he can be successful in the playoffs. The only category that Hill leads over Gus is GAA and it's negatable really. 

Edited April 16 by M_Nels

[SkolWild73]

17 hours ago, Need4speed99 said:

I meant over the years... the results are the same and the team says the same things. Anything can happen when you have elite talent, in more than several places.

Watching the wild, they don't have that and their pattern of 1st round exits shows it. They employ one solid line but billy spent a solid chunk of the payroll on 4th liners. NO team has won that way. You need absolutely crazy goaltending to even get past the 1st round. Gus nor flower have that. Not flower, currently. They can't expect help and there is no secondary scoring. Explain how they can ACTUALLY win out?

For one, its playoff hockey and anything can happen.  I admit a lot of things will have to go right.  I would assume betting odds with Vegas will have us around a 2-1 underdog.

I look back to 2023 when we took Dallas to 6 games.  We didn't have Ek in that series, no Rossi and Kap just coming back from injury scored one goal and had no assists in that series.  Also, Faber had only played 2 games in the N up to that point.

Recent history has shown that we are a different team with Ek and without him.  

We are going to need Gus to play like he has during his top stretches this year, no different from any other team I guess when it comes to goaltending, Kap to play like he did in 2022 against St. Louis, Boldy to perform, and a little puck luck (hopefully we got our posts out of our system after last night, I think we had 5 of them).  Maybe we even get a jolt from a 19 rookie defenseman.

[Need4speed99]

On 4/16/2025 at 12:56 PM, SkolWild73 said:

For one, its playoff hockey and anything can happen.  I admit a lot of things will have to go right.  I would assume betting odds with Vegas will have us around a 2-1 underdog.

I look back to 2023 when we took Dallas to 6 games.  We didn't have Ek in that series, no Rossi and Kap just coming back from injury scored one goal and had no assists in that series.  Also, Faber had only played 2 games in the N up to that point.

Recent history has shown that we are a different team with Ek and without him.  

We are going to need Gus to play like he has during his top stretches this year, no different from any other team I guess when it comes to goaltending, Kap to play like he did in 2022 against St. Louis, Boldy to perform, and a little puck luck (hopefully we got our posts out of our system after last night, I think we had 5 of them).  Maybe we even get a jolt from a 19 rookie defenseman.

You forget their playing vegas... they need to beat the refs too, game 4 showed that will NOT happen.

[Need4speed99]

On 4/16/2025 at 7:33 AM, M_Nels said:

Gus in 5th with a .914 SV% only below Helle & Kuemper in the West, he's 11th in GAA barely behind Blackwood & Otter and is T3 in SO's again only behind Helle in the West.

I'd say Gus has "that". He played a ton of minutes and stole games when you had 3-4 AHL'ers playing at a time because of injuries. Having 3 of your top 4 D missing chunks of games with a lot of overlapping makes it even more impressive. 

Gus is in the top tier and is playing at a level that he can be successful in the playoffs. The only category that Hill leads over Gus is GAA and it's negatable really. 

Gus has been inconsistent at best. Overall the numbers look good but overall the last months are the numbers to look at. We are missing top scorers, but where is the d then?