Article: Matt Boldy Is Shooting His Shot

[Tony Abbott]

View full article

[Fezig]

First!

Tonight is the night the season trends in the positive direction I predicted in the pre-season!

[Citizen Strife]

Guerin was on a game recently and said in no uncertain terms that the team gets too cute and tries too hard.  On that same call, the opposing team scored.

You would think a GM telling you to just go for the net and stop doing fancy shit would register sometimes.  Maybe Boldy is one of the few trying that a bit more.

[mnfaninnc]

I do believe we need to head more north-south, than east-west. Now someone will probably tell me that the way the rink is set up in St. Paul means the teams go in the east-west directions 😉.

I get what Guerin was saying. What is extremely difficult is to take a perimeter type of team and make them into a net crashing team. For me, this is a direct consequence of the types of players that Guerin has signed. 

The low hanging fruit here is Johansson. He's just never going to be a net crasher and prefers the non-contact perimeter. Most European players also play this way, but this is a generalization. For instance, Ek does not. When I speak of Euro's, I'm really saying the western Europeans. The eastern Europeans and Russians tend to be far grittier. 

When Guerin picked up Nyquist last season, that was the type of player he was getting. Rossi would be another example of that. They will get to the home plate area, but generally skate through instead of planting their flag there. 

One thing I liked watching about Yurov is that when he gets there, he stops and hangs out in the paint. Could it be that our roster construction needs another tweak? OgZ probably has perimeter tendencies where he needs to be a net crasher. 

I worry about this with both Malkin and Panarin, whereas a guy like Pasta, or guys like Marchenko, Voronkov, Tuch, and Tippett will be net crashers. If we're going to add players and have to give up players, if I were constructing the roster, I'd be adding net crashers and subtracting perimeter players. Same thing with the guys in Iowa, figure out what type of players they are. We need a guy like Kumpulainen to be a net crasher, not a perimeter dynamo. 

I'd rather have guys hammering shots from the point while the rest of the forwards swarm to the net than play pass around the boards for the next minute which drives me nuts. 

[Citizen Strife]

I think Guerin sees Hartman, Foligno, Trenin (when they are on) as the team he WANTS them to be.  Or a Washington/Nashville that bullies teams into mistakes and does enough offensively with skill to win.  

The issue is most of this team is Fletcher's, the vets that have stuck since are smaller, not super fast, and will never bully people. 

Hynes's system "can" work.  Smart, disciplined play letting dumb teams make their own mistakes.  They have "some" skill to capitalize, but when the team itself is playing dumb, they just let the opponent chew them up.

So they can't beat fast skilled teams in track meet games, but can't bully teams enough to make stupid slow games.  The only times they win is kinda like the Lemaire thing: both teams decide to slowly, agonizingly play safe.

The Wild can win those, but not enough opponents oblige right now.

 

Edited 11 hours ago by Citizen Strife

[Rohn]

How about building a story around this headline:  "Slow, timid Wild poised to pounce, mid-season, on teams decimated by injuries."

[Sam]

23 minutes ago, Rohn said:

How about building a story around this headline:  "Slow, timid Wild poised to pounce, mid-season, on teams decimated by injuries."

Yea, how bout that Ronnie. What kinda name is that anyway? John with an R… I’m getting sick of everyone saying we suck and we’re destined for last place all season. Yea, we’re off to a slow start, but we’ve still got a lot of hockey to play.

[MNCountryLife]

It's been fun watching Boldy become a tier 1 player.  He has all the tools.  Height, strength,  speed, skill and the most important feature...a drive to win.  Now he needs to start taking over games.. he is capable of that next step.

[MNCountryLife]

Still got Nojo in the lineup.    A 2nd line with Nojo and Senko.   Until coaches figure out that we are an easy team to match up against with this lineup.... it will be a difficult win.

[MNCountryLife]

Good to see Jiricek still in the lineup.   Hope he keeps the spot even when Bogo gets healthy. 

[MNCountryLife]

Would prefer Foligno and Trenin next to Rossi... 

[Rohn]

1 hour ago, Sam said:

Yea, how bout that Ronnie. What kinda name is that anyway? John with an R… I’m getting sick of everyone saying we suck and we’re destined for last place all season. Yea, we’re off to a slow start, but we’ve still got a lot of hockey to play.

Well, everyone says they suck because they suck.  I like the symmetry of it.  Tell us how they don't suck, Sam.  I have a niece named Samantha, whom we call Sam.  I like the flexibility of it. 

[Sam]

2 hours ago, Rohn said:

Well, everyone says they suck because they suck.  I like the symmetry of it.  Tell us how they don't suck, Sam.  I have a niece named Samantha, whom we call Sam.  I like the flexibility of it. 

You’re right John with an R. We just lost to the Coyotes at home. We are terrible. My apologies.

[Citizen Strife]

I'll try to be as diplomatic about this as I can.

I was wrong.  I have defended a lot of what the team has done, but I am ready to just admit I hope they finally get worse.  Worse enough they force a change.  They chose their hard, and it wasn't this year.  I want them to choose a hard fall for once so "maybe" a different approach can happen.

So go ahead.  Throw the told you sos and hypocrites at me.

If they can get ANYTHING for a lot of this team, they should. They have "some" talent, but the Mammoths just stomped them in a couple minutes and dug them a hole. If this team was something, they should have done the stomping.

So, like Spider-Man, "I'm so tired..."

 

 

[Rohn]

1 hour ago, Sam said:

You’re right John with an R. We just lost to the Coyotes at home. We are terrible. My apologies.

I take no pleasure in accepting that the Wild suck, Sam.  I am managing my expectations so as not to burst an artery raging against reality.  I wish you were right.  In my heart there flickers an ember of hope that November's games prove me wrong.  If the Wild do break their chains and storm into contention, I will happily apologize to you.  If that happens, then keep your head up outdoors, because pigs can fly.

[Patrick]

5 hours ago, MNCountryLife said:

Still got Nojo in the lineup.    A 2nd line with Nojo and Senko.   Until coaches figure out that we are an easy team to match up against with this lineup.... it will be a difficult win.

This didn't age well.

[MNCountryLife]

32 minutes ago, Patrick said:

This didn't age well

Yeah... Nojo showed up today.   But I would still bet on a team without him rather than with him.

[Burnt Toast]

1 hour ago, Citizen Strife said:

Worse enough they force a change.

I still think the pendulum can swing back towards a wildcard playoff team. The Wild have enough quality players on value contracts to make that happen. As for the group of $4M players that are currently underperforming I think it’s reasonable to expect a change towards a style of play that results in more winning hockey. The NHL appears to fostering more parity than ever. Add to that the LTIR loopholes have been closed and we got a shot. This year’s current roster could fall anywhere between 85-98 points. I 100% think at least one big addition will be made before the trade deadline which could be enough to get us that elusive playoff win. An example of what I’m talking about is St.Louis last year. It’s definitely not out of the question.