Article: The Wild Are Leaving Las Vegas With A Familiar Feeling

[Tom Schreier]

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[SkolWild73]

I didn’t have a headache this morning, but last night was a tough sleep.  I think it was the comedown of emotion after what I thought was the game winning goal by Hartman.  I almost through my shoulder out jumping of and pumping my fists, then have the goal upheld felt great until I heard review for offside and saw the replay.  My heart sunk and the ot goal was the final kick in the nuts. 
 

As a Minnesota sports fan I have dealt with lots of heartache and because of everything mentioned above, this might rank number one for now. Gary Anderson’s field goal and Favres interception have always been 1a and 1B and will probably return to that spot, especially if we come back and take the series, but the thought we won, still thought we won, happy for overtime then loss emotional roller coaster ranks up there for me.

[Citizen Strife]

Favre's interception is way worse than this.  The fact my mom will bring that up every so often still haunts me.

[mnfaninnc]

I've got to get this off my chest. Rossi supposedly gained a bunch of muscle 2 offseasons ago, yet his measurements were not changed. They said he was in the 190s. Official measurements are as much fiction as reading Tom Clancy novels. However, Rossi is listed as 5'9" 182 and Gaudreau is listed as 6' 184. Which player here would be considered "undersized?" Both would be the correct answer, but Rossi would have the lower center of gravity and actually be harder to move. We hear all the time about Rossi being undersized, but nobody brings up Gaudreau being undersized. Why is that? Neither are any grittier than the other.

Ok, on to the next topic. Thoughts from last night's game which I watched this morning:

1. Zuccarello has to bury that breakaway. He can't fumble it and get nothing off, that should hit twine.
2. Trenin, for as physical as he has been has got to bury one of these chances he's creating. He has earned his contract here in the playoffs, I think, but we thought we were getting a guy with Moose hands, not worse.
3. I thought the referees called a pretty good game...until the offsides was challenged. But ESPN coverage was pretty brutal. We never got a replay of the Hartman delay of game call and the offsides call they kept showing their angle and not so much the NHL offsides camera angle. The ESPN angle confirms the call.
4. As for the offsides, the way it has been explained is a body part over the line makes it onsides. It used to be the feet on the ice had to have one foot outside, but now it's a floating line in the air. If you look carefully at the NHL camera for offsides, the body part of Nyquists back elbow appears to not be in the zone yet. It's a body part and at best it was close enough not to overturn the call on the ice. We will see the ESPN camera angle all day long confirming the offsides, but the NHL camera, IMO, does show a body part not offsides. Perhaps I am interpreting this rule incorrectly, and I'm not sure the coaches get the NHL camera view at the bench. There was no argument that I saw from Heinzy.
5. Goose has to stop the Stone shot. I get he was ill and fighting it, but the VGK player had taken away the top of the crease. Goose gingerly goes as far as he can instead of initiating contact to draw the call. He's got to be better there. Goose has been really good this series, the trouble with this statement is he needs to be great. I will stand by my former comment that he has made nothing complicated. 
6. In game 4, Vegas had switched gears. We had to answer. We couldn't. Our engine is overheated and we don't have much left in the tank. We've got to reach down and muster something that many never thought they had. Around here, a stomach bug is going around. For some reason, this is what I believe Goose had, and I'm pretty sure that Fleury knew it and stayed extra loose. If Thursday is not our last game, we've got to have more from those who can give more. I think our top line can. They gave us 2 last night, we needed 3. 
7. I had said earlier not to wake up the sleeping bears in Stone and Eichel. Eichel is awake, we might as well get very physical with him. I do remember years ago when Vegas "accidentally" took out Ek and Brodin in game 7. We might need to create our own accidents in game 6. I can tell you this, the referees won't be protecting the Wild. Pre-emptive strikes are now allowed in international warfare (as long as we do it).
8. The "here we go again" voice is louder in my head. Obvious point here is that we have no 2nd line. Hopefully this gets fixed in the offseason. Our 2nd and 3rd lines are merely trying to stay even. We need secondary scoring. We also need to be playing with the lead.

[mnfaninnc]

6 minutes ago, Citizen Strife said:

Favre's interception is way worse than this.  The fact my mom will bring that up every so often still haunts me.

I don't so much fault Anderson's miss. All year long, this team went for it, and then in the closing moments with the ball, they kneeled. That was tough. As for Favre, he can't throw that one, but, it's Favre, he throws those at the worst times. He was pretty beat up when he tried, though.

Mine is the missing penalties on the Drew Pearson touchdown in '75. Not only should we have seen offensive pass interference as it was pretty glaring, but offensive holding was also pretty glaring on the play. I will remain unconvinced that this game wasn't fixed. The beer bottle sent from the stands which clunked a referee in the head was deserved.

[Scalptrash]

Guerin is hoping and praying that Nyquil redeems himself before this is all said and done. There is absolutely zero reason for him to play in game 6, but yet he is. Rewarded for costing the Wild a desperately needed game and probably series. Guerin's job may depend on Nyquil doing something....anything. He will probably not be fired when they get bounced. Only after he is foolish, as always, with cap space money and after the Wild get off to a slow start next season. The Nyquil trade will be one of the cards in hand for Leipold to justify yet another GM firing. The real problem isn't really Guerin or Hynes, Leipold made the ultimate decision to hire them, he just has a completely horrible track record of hiring unqualified, below average people to run his team. This may be by design to keep the Wild in bubble perpetuity, at the direction of Bettman, but who knows?!

[fikifuka]

What ever happens tonight - I'm already in the post-season, the time that matters because this summer will decide if MIN finally will become a SC contender. 

Its already obvious what BGs plan is: The defence is set for the contending period, lets say next 3 years:

G: Gus, Wall, Hlavaj, Mercer.

😧 Brodin, Middleton, Buium (L), Faber, Spurgeon, Jiricek, Bogo (R). 

F: The Rossi-offer (5 for 5 years) is the main message: 'I want you to bring me a 7+ offer sheet we can refuse which means min 3 picks (#1, #2, #3) for us I can use for 2 big trades': 1 established big C worth 80 points/season plus 1 power forward worth 40 goals/season. Should be enough to convince KK zu stay. Giving up on Nyquist, Johanson, Merill, Chisholm, Fleury, Hino, Rossi and maybe Brazeau saves about 10 M salary. Plus 14 from the 2 dudes plus 4 cap-plus makes about additional 25 to 28 M for the 2 mentioned big ones plus ELCs for Yurov, Ohgren, Buium, Jiricek. Assuming KK will need 15 M in 2026 ff (= plus 6) minus 4 for Zucci in 2026 this plan could work. 

So the main plan for F could be, i.e.:

KK EE Boldy

X Y Zucci

Ohgren Hartman Yurov

Fol Gaud Trenin

Plus Brazeau

 

 

[fikifuka]

What ever happens tonight - I'm already in the post-season, the time that matters because this summer will decide if MIN finally will become a SC contender. 

Its already obvious what BGs plan is: The defence is set for the contending period, lets say next 3 years:

G: Gus, Wall, Hlavaj, Mercer.

😧 Brodin, Middleton, Buium (L), Faber, Spurgeon, Jiricek, Bogo (R). 

F: The Rossi-offer (5 for 5 years) is the main message: 'I want you to bring me a 7+ offer sheet we can refuse which means min 3 picks (#1, #2, #3) for us I can use for 2 big trades': 1 established big C worth 80 points/season plus 1 power forward worth 40 goals/season. Should be enough to convince KK zu stay. Giving up on Nyquist, Johanson, Merill, Chisholm, Fleury, Hino, Rossi and maybe Brazeau saves about 10 M salary. Plus 14 from the 2 dudes plus 4 cap-plus makes about additional 25 to 28 M for the 2 mentioned big ones plus ELCs for Yurov, Ohgren, Buium, Jiricek. Assuming KK will need 15 M in 2026 ff (= plus 6) minus 4 for Zucci in 2026 this plan could work. 

So the main plan for F could be, i.e.:

KK EE Boldy

X Y Zucci

Ohgren Hartman Yurov

Fol Gaud Trenin

Plus Brazeau