Article: Wild Get Reality Check On Disappointing Road Trip

[Thomas Williams]

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[greg]

There really isn't much to say after Wednesdays loss to a good Devils team.  Too often the team doesn't even show up to.play.  sometimes they play well but for only a small part of the game.  There is not much effort at all.  There seems to be no urgency to playing better.  It is the same issue we have had here for a while.  I hope they get back on track soon.  They are playing boring uninspired hockey.  It's difficult to watch.

[Citizen Strife]

2025-2026 Numbers Game (8 Games Played)

Record: 3-4-1 (7 pts, T-5th in Central, T-8th in Western Conference, T-15th (21st) in NHL, 3-4-1 in L10, well, 8)

 

Goals For: 2.50 Per Game (28th in NHL)

Goals Against: 3.38 Per Game (23rd in NHL)

PP: 31.3% (2nd in NHL)

PK: 70.0% (T-26th in NHL)

 

Gustavsson: 2-4-0, 3.04 GAA (T-39th in Goalies), .902 SV% (33rd in Goalies)*

Wallstedt: 1-0-1, 2.35 GAA (T-26th in Goalies), .909 SV% (T-26th in Goalies)*

*Goalie Rankings could be skewed due to differences in games played, when weighed against goalies with 2 or more starts.

 

Boldy: 5G, 6A, 11P (T-5th in NHL), -1

Kaprizov: 5G, 5A, 10P (T-9th in NHL), -4

Eriksson Ek: 1G, 5A, 6P (T-53rd in NHL), -3

Buium: 1G, 5A, 6P (T-53rd in NHL, T-4th in Defenseman, T-2nd in Rookies)

Tarasenko: 1G, 4A, 5P (T-88th in NHL), -4

Rossi: 1G, 4A, 5P (T-88th in NHL), -3

 

+/-

Highest: Bogosian (+3), Jiricek (+2), Johansson (+1)

Lowest: Foligno/Hinostroza (-6), Spurgeon/Buium (-8; T-last in NHL)

Edited 5 hours ago by Citizen Strife

[Pewterschmidt]

When 90 & 91 make up two of your top 6, you’re a pretender not a contender. NoJo is NoJo.  91 is not even NoJo.  
The Sanko gamble didn’t pay,  cut your losses and hide him in bottom six.  Another Guerin FAIL. 

[0 Stanley Cups]

53 minutes ago, Pewterschmidt said:

When 90 & 91 make up two of your top 6, you’re a pretender not a contender. NoJo is NoJo.  91 is not even NoJo.  
The Sanko gamble didn’t pay,  cut your losses and hide him in bottom six.  Another Guerin FAIL. 

Absolutely!! Get Ohgren and Hunt some ice time!  JoJo, Tarasenko, Foligno, Trenin, and most of our defense, have been lousy, good grief!  That was the worst game I've seen Kaprizov play.  Devils are a really good team that have been decimated by injury the past two seasons, but they played the night prior also.  The Wild will be golfing early this spring.

[Citizen Strife]

As much as I would like to "burn the ships" as someone said last week, Ohgren hardly did much to turn from an AAAA player to an NHL player, regardless of line or role.  Yurov carried him to "serviceable" rather than invisible, if anything.

Guerin needs a Top 6 trade in the works now.

Edited 3 hours ago by Citizen Strife

[Pewterschmidt]

I’m not even sure there were any moral victories in the roadie.  You can bet bill is busy on the phones and the office staff are keeping their heads down.  

[Pewterschmidt]

Just now, Pewterschmidt said:

I’m not even sure there were any moral victories in the roadie.  You can bet bill is busy on the phones and the office staff are keeping their heads down.  

Only question is how badly bill gets fleeced in upcoming trade.  
memo to bill: please don’t trade any of our kids not named Ogz.  We’ve been waiting a long time for these kids.  Don’t punish us by trading them now…you stupid fuck. 

[0 Stanley Cups]

5 minutes ago, Pewterschmidt said:

I’m not even sure there were any moral victories in the roadie.  You can bet bill is busy on the phones and the office staff are keeping their heads down.  

At least Yurov scored his first, and Wally played well in his second game of the year, that's about it...

[FredJohnson]

27 minutes ago, 0 Stanley Cups said:

they played the night prior

And the Wild were the team that looked slower. Maybe we’re too heavy?

[0 Stanley Cups]

15 minutes ago, Citizen Strife said:

Guerin needs a Top 6 trade in the works now.

The reality is no other teams covet what we have 😢

[Citizen Strife]

I want to give the team another 5-10 games.  If by mid-November, they reel off a win streak or good run, the early start gets forgotten.  A bad or putrid run or even lose 2,3, win 1 is enough to sell me on tearing things down (since the people who matter are signed long term).  Then you could cut bait and punt the season.

Going 50-50 would be the worst result.  I still hold this team is not nearly as bad as their play suggests, but "it's still early" only goes too far.  Zuccarello, Sturm, and Bogo are "nice depth," but they aren't the difference from getting or stopping the goals needed to win those close games.

I can buy Kap, Brodin, and Ek as injury excuses.  Not 4th line players and old wingers.

 

Edited 3 hours ago by Citizen Strife

[Scalptrash]

The Mammoth and the Sharks are must win games already. Lose those, you might as well mail it in.

I suspect that either the coach has lost the room or there may be some animosity by the players towards Kirill and his record contract. Especially when better players took much less money to help make the team competitive. Kirill has also shut down, so either he's feeling it or he's not happy with the effort by his teammates and tired of carrying the team on his back. I suspect Billy promised him help right away and there is nothing coming anytime soon. Who knew Zuccy was the glue that held this team together and made them compete?! Just kidding of course, but maybe there is something to that.

The future of this team is the youth, obviously, but they will never get a real chance under Hynes. Hynes is the number one problem now. Nobody will make a trade this early, unless you give away the farm, so they need a real leader to right the ship before it's too far gone.

[0 Stanley Cups]

[0 Stanley Cups]

Very winnable homestand these next 6 games: Utah, SJ, Winnipeg, Pitt, Van, and Nashville

[Will D. Ness]

Well isn't this the "learning curve" we were all expecting?  As good as Zeev and Jiri look at times, they have just as many mistakes at critical times.  Yurov looks good, but he isn't going to put up a lot of points for a while.  I'm loving Yurov as C though... I hope we can afford to continue to groom him there.

Bottom line is we are going to lose games if we play these guys.  The gamble is that in a couple months they will reach a level to where we can compete.  All the young guys are improving almost every game.  Let's not all cry in our beers like a bunch of fair weathers.  This is what we signed up for and have been screaming for.  Play the young guys!

The real beef here is our 2nd line.  Complete fail with no silver linings.  Tarasenko and Nojo have maybe a little value on the PP with their singular talents but really have no business playing 5v5 in the NHL.

[Pewterschmidt]

32 minutes ago, Scalptrash said:

Especially when better players took much less money to help make the team competitive.

Let’s throw out the McD contract.  The Eichel contract is a fair comparison though.  Only the most delusional wild fans would say 97 is more valuable than a 1C on a Cup winner.  Nearly every national ranking has Eichel above 97.  Do the math on that overpay by bill and ask yourself if this is the right guy constructing the roster and managing the assets. Woof 🐶 

[Pewterschmidt]

16 minutes ago, 0 Stanley Cups said:

This is the perfect meme for this team right now.  And no surprise, strife gives the confused emoji 

[Sam]

19 minutes ago, Pewterschmidt said:

This is the perfect meme for this team right now.  And no surprise, strife gives the confused emoji 

Maybe Strife isn’t as pessimistic and had hopes for his team. Strange, I know. 

[MNCountryLife]

37 minutes ago, Will D. Ness said:

Well isn't this the "learning curve" we were all expecting?  As good as Zeev and Jiri look at times, they have just as many mistakes at critical times.  Yurov looks good, but he isn't going to put up a lot of points for a while.  I'm loving Yurov as C though... I hope we can afford to continue to groom him there.

Bottom line is we are going to lose games if we play these guys.  The gamble is that in a couple months they will reach a level to where we can compete.  All the young guys are improving almost every game.  Let's not all cry in our beers like a bunch of fair weathers.  This is what we signed up for and have been screaming for.  Play the young guys!

The real beef here is our 2nd line.  Complete fail with no silver linings.  Tarasenko and Nojo have maybe a little value on the PP with their singular talents but really have no business playing 5v5 in the NHL.

Agreed.  We are playing some of the young guys.  We have to expect the mistakes.  Be patient and let them learn.  I don't think we are losing because of the youngs though.   I think we are losing because the 2nd line isn't capable of performing their duties.

The beef is definitely the 2nd line with Nojo and Senko.  They need to go.  I do think Ek is the silver lining.  He is playing a pretty reserved style with those 2 guys because he has to... He is limiting the damage rather than being the 2nd scoring line.  

[Burnt Toast]

56 minutes ago, Pewterschmidt said:

ask yourself if this is the right guy

Kick this question up a notch and focus on who’s really in charge….OCL, aka BB, Bill’s Boss. Let’s just say the owner isn’t getting a role in a new Netflix series “The Negotiator”. How much would you guess OCL was involved in the Rossi Reup? I betcha nicht viel.