Article: Marcus Johansson Has Become the Face of the Wild's Depth Issues

[Chris Schad]

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[Citizen Strife]

If Ohgren had the confidence and skill to play the minutes Mojo has gotten, he would be there.

I will always bring up that Ohgren was given first dibs at that cursed 2LW spot.  Neither he, nor Foligno, nor Yurov, nor Mojo even, could get Ek and Tarasenko to work.  I'd say that is more on Vlad...

So Ohgren and Yurov were out together.  I think they gave up on that too quickly.  Yurov seemed to be the only player that Ohgren meshed with.  Not in an offensive production way, but they did have good line chemistry that Ohgren just wasn't getting with anyone else.

The Wild are not "one player away.". Tarasenko is a bust.  Trenin looks faster but has issues everywhere else.  The defensive corps (namely Jiricek) are uncharacteristically bad.

Mojo is a symptom, but not the cause.  He's producing in spite of himself.  Ohgren wasn't.  Yurov isn't.  They may.  I hope they do.  

If the team keeps struggling Mojo potting goals on the top line and PP will be forgotten by the fact the team can't stop others from scoring.

Ohgren might just be the Rossi from 3 seasons ago: nondescript, ineffective, and invisible.  Ohgren may turn it around.  He hasn't been traded....yet 

Edited 17 hours ago by Citizen Strife

[Citizen Strife]

Also, just noticed the formatting of the above message on browser.  Two line everything...looks a lot bigger when on my phone.

[Mateo3xm]

I was just asking my brother who put the wild hair in Johansson’s ass this year. I told him Johansson must have opened a comments section somewhere( maybe hockey wilderness) and figured he had to prove all the naysayer wrong. Glad he’s providing useful depth to the team as of late.

[Patrick]

The biggest problem for the Wild is the lackadaisical play of Kirill Kaprizov. His low effort turnovers have directly lead to the last two losses.  He is on pace for 150ish turnovers. 

We need a head coach who has some authority. Someone who will get KKs butt in gear.

If not, this is the Wild for the next 8 years.

[0 Stanley Cups]

Glad to see someone is having some puck luck, even if it is JoJo, he's been in the right place at the right time to get some deflections as goals, ride the wave as long as you can.  Ohgren had every opportunity to seize a spot, it's unfortunate, but he can marinate down in Iowa for the next 10-20 games and come back up later in the season with less pressure on himself once this season has gone totally sideways.  Tarasenko has been a disappointment, between him and Jiricek, it's like the Wild didn't scout either prior to picking them up.  Then we have the redundancy of Foligno and Trenin contributing next to nothing.

Our whole team with the exception of injured Bogo has a negative +/-, but Spurgeon leading with a -12 and Foligno -9, two of our veteran leaders is concerning.  Who would've guessed our depth at wing, not center would be the problem this year.  Tough loss to Jets, but at least they battled back, but the Penguins usually eat our lunch so it's not going to get any easier Thursday.