Article: Is Kirill Kaprizov Trying To Do Too Much For The Wild?

[Thomas Williams]

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[mnfaninnc]

Quote

It's no secret that the Minnesota Wild are essentially Kirill Kaprizov. Where he goes, they go. With some early-season struggles in all three zones (and especially at 5-on-5) that lead to losing possession of the puck just so easily, is Kaprizov trying to do too much? Does he feel the pressure to do absolutely everything to will his team back in the win column, and it's leading to defensive lapses?

As I was watching the Winnipeg game, and Kaprizov was showing fumble after fumble, I had a theory: Is this part of the Johansson affect? Johansson has been productive the last 3 games, yet his goals aren't necessarily coming from Kaprizov, they're coming off PP2. Playing with Kaprizov usually helps any other player bank points. But what does that do to Kaprizov? Is he trying to do too much on that line because he knows what Johansson can and cannot provide? 

IIRC, when he got his goal, Boldy was on his wing, maybe not for the whole shift but he was in the scrum too. Could it be that Kaprizov will be more productive (as will Boldy) if they are playing on the same line? From the eye test, Hynes spreading the production around has led to 2 lines being mediocre. 

One more piece of evidence is that Kaprizov loves to get into the zone and do some east-west passing, very quick passing. Playing with Johansson, Johansson typically skates himself out of the east-west passing lane and that pass is just a turnover. I'm not sure what happens in the defensive zone, but we're seeing Kaprizov very vulnerable to turnovers there too. 

The theory will be named the Johansson affect.

Pewter can come up with the drinking game for actually seeing this affect in game. You can play it with any of Johansson's linemates.

[Will D. Ness]

KK97 is definitely off his game.  It makes me wonder if the contract is a little too heavy?  He now has something to prove individually whereas before he did not.

Maybe it is playing with Nojo?  It seems like the first line has embraced the Nojo apathy and it is disgusting to watch.  I'm going to be pulling out pitchforks and torches and calling for Heinz' head if he doesn't fix these lines soon.

[OldDutchChip]

I’d play these lines today 

L1 Kap Boldy Harty(c)

L2 Ek (c) Rossi (w) Zeev (w)

L3 Trenin Yurov (c) Hinny

No line 4 - tell them to take the day off (vlady and johy can be waived) 

D mix up to whatever you want

Brodin, Faber, Spurge, Midds, Hunt, Best of our D prospect from IA, Bogo (injured or not)

send Jiri down (w Johy and Vlady)

G - Wally 

If we loose - fire Hynes and trade away everyone but Kap and Boldy

my prediction - wild 7 - 0

Kap scores 5

[Enforceror]

31 minutes ago, OldDutchChip said:

I’d play these lines today 

L1 Kap Boldy Harty(c)

L2 Ek (c) Rossi (w) Zeev (w)

L3 Trenin Yurov (c) Hinny

No line 4 - tell them to take the day off (vlady and johy can be waived) 

D mix up to whatever you want

Brodin, Faber, Spurge, Midds, Hunt, Best of our D prospect from IA, Bogo (injured or not)

send Jiri down (w Johy and Vlady)

G - Wally 

If we loose - fire Hynes and trade away everyone but Kap and Boldy

my prediction - wild 7 - 0

Kap scores 5

Why would you put Zeev on the wing?

[OldDutchChip]

5 minutes ago, Enforceror said:

Why would you put Zeev on the wing?

He can play there till he learns how to defend 

[mnfaninnc]

1 hour ago, OldDutchChip said:

He can play there till he learns how to defend

Buium won't learn how to defend by playing wing. He has to see real NHL moves, save them in his brain archives, and not fall for it again. Same thing for all the kids, especially The Wall. 

Ever since Spurgeon has taken over PP1, it looks stagnant with 5 pylons. Buium needs to be put back on that unit, they were all over the ice and had a lot of success. PP2 is now the scoring unit.

Yurov is going to take a little time to get used to. He's got sneaky skill and passing and sneaky acceleration. Some of his passes look to be perfectly placed but his linemates are not ready for them. To me, that would indicate he should be with more skilled linemates.

[Scalptrash]

Oh yeah, 97 is feeling the heat from his teammates. I think he is trying too hard to be unselfish and set up his linemates. No killer instinct at the moment. He's passed up numerous chances to shoot, instead, trying to force passes that end up as turnovers.

[mnfaninnc]

Off topic, but watching the Wild in these jerseys made me think of the ghosts of goalies past....until Guus got beat late in the 3rd. 

I realize these were commemorative jerseys, but it also looked like the Jets are celebrating too. They had a 15 year patch on their jerseys and for some reason they looked different too. Were both teams wearing throwbacks? Could we see the Wild wearing the throwbacks in Winnipeg?

More jersey talk- I thought the NHL had a strict 1 3rd jersey policy. Yet, to date, the Wild have worn their regular greens, their regular whites, their reverse retro greens and their throwback whites. By my count that's 4. I am still advocating for them to wear the throwback whites on the road at least once during division games. 

I still believe our main jerseys need a bigtime refresh and color change. Perhaps this year was the wrong year to do it due to the 25th anniversary? Biggest reason is change, and this is a visual reminder of change. Companies change their packaging all the time, especially with new and improved added onto the package. With the kids coming in, that adds onto new, improved has yet to be proven. 

Another thing that says different is a different leader behind the bench. I like John Hynes and think he's a good hockey man, but we need a new voice. For me, I'd try changing letter guys 1st, and then if that doesn't work change the coach. I mention Ek for captain because he has a lot of term left on his deal, took less to stay with the club, and is arguably the hardest worker on the team. Right now, the voice in the locker room has got to be preaching effort from the drop of the puck. 

If I were Hynes, I would start Trenin-Ek-Foligno with Jiricek/Middleton on defense. 1st shift, run Pittsburgh out of the building, land at least 5 solid hits collectively on the 1st shift, wouldn't even mind a fight. This does a couple of things, it gets the bench immediately in the game, and it gets the crowd going. Follow that line up with Boldy-Rossi-Kaprizov and go for the early lead, or at least build momentum. Add on Spurgeon/Buium on defense and press.

[mnfaninnc]

We can take Necas off the board: 8 X $11.5m

I do think that Kaprizov's contract influenced this one a bit, I would have thought Necas was a little more in the $9m category before Kapflation.

Thomas Harley gets 8 X $10.6m from Dallas. Kapflation is taking affect. If Buium progresses like predicted, he's going to be expensive.

Edited 54 minutes ago by mnfaninnc

[OldDutchChip]

1 hour ago, mnfaninnc said:

Buium won't learn how to defend by playing wing. He has to see real NHL moves, save them in his brain archives, and not fall for it again. Same thing for all the kids, especially The Wall. 

Ever since Spurgeon has taken over PP1, it looks stagnant with 5 pylons. Buium needs to be put back on that unit, they were all over the ice and had a lot of success. PP2 is now the scoring unit.

Yurov is going to take a little time to get used to. He's got sneaky skill and passing and sneaky acceleration. Some of his passes look to be perfectly placed but his linemates are not ready for them. To me, that would indicate he should be with more skilled linemates.

i was joking with zeev on the wing 🙂  but who knows - maybe that's a genius concept - have a combo type player with super skill playing both offense and defense - and just rotate him to O and D....give the other team an element of surprise (and try to avoid surprising yourself....)

if Pens whoop us - is Hynes gone? 

[mnfaninnc]

Just now, OldDutchChip said:

i was joking with zeev on the wing 🙂  but who knows - maybe that's a genius concept - have a combo type player with super skill playing both offense and defense - and just rotate him to O and D....give the other team an element of surprise (and try to avoid surprising yourself....)

The concept isn't unheard of, since it happened with Burns. When on PP1, Buium kind of did play both positions.

If we had an emergency, I'd have no problem sticking Hunt in the lineup and playing Buium up like they did with Addison, but give him regular shifts.

[Pewterschmidt]

13 minutes ago, mnfaninnc said:

We can take Necas off the board: 8 X $11.5m

This makes 97’s contract a little less egregious.  Eichel clearly took a discount

[Pewterschmidt]

12 minutes ago, OldDutchChip said:

i was joking with zeev on the wing 🙂  but who knows - maybe that's a genius concept - have a combo type player with super skill playing both offense and defense - and just rotate him to O and D....give the other team an element of surprise (and try to avoid surprising yourself....)

if Pens whoop us - is Hynes gone? 

Mnfan don’t take the bait on the Zeev response

 I think we’re stuck with Hynzy for full season.  For the record he’s not the problem.  It’s the old journeyman on the bottom nine of this group that’s the problem

[Pewterschmidt]

11 minutes ago, mnfaninnc said:

The concept isn't unheard of, since it happened with Burns. When on PP1, Buium kind of did play both positions.

If we had an emergency, I'd have no problem sticking Hunt in the lineup and playing Buium up like they did with Addison, but give him regular shifts.

Shit I didn’t realize you’d already taken the bait