Article: Macklin Celebrini Embarrasses Wild in 2-1 Loss

[Mateo3xm]

21 hours ago, hydguy75 said:

I was at the game, and this statement is most accurate.  If the horseshoe fell out of his ass anytime during the game, the Wild would have stacked up 3 or 4 goals at least.  

Boldy and the Russians everywhere last night.  I swear Boldy looked like he would have ratcheted 15 SOG. 

The main issue I noticed with the Wild is even on the PP, they get trapped in their own zone by 2 guys on the blue line.  More than a few times.  It was embarrassing to witness.  Their passing game was atrocious, zero flow, and seemed like they were always in reaction mode, rarely setting up a play. 

Wild are playing flat, only a few players looked like they had intensity.  Spurgy might be a locker room guy, but the Wild need a C on the ice, not someone invisible.  

That is exactly what I saw when I was at the Nashville game. The Wild had no cohesion whatsoever. There were errant passes all over the place. Buium makes irritating mistakes on the PP but he is Sooo much better there that Spurg. Spurg is a shell of his old self and should be given less responsibility at that age. I think the coach needs to be fired to spark something but my brother thinks BG won’t because he’s Guarin’s guy. This team has not looked good as a whole the entire season. 

This is definitely not looking good with BG’s 5 year plan and as time goes by it will be harder and harder to dig themselves out of this hole.

[Pewterschmidt]

24 minutes ago, Mateo3xm said:

Why don’t you ever point your finger at anyone else on the team? Are you that oblivious that there are multiple players on this team that are underperforming? Why don’t you point that criticism at the seasoned Joel Erickson Ek or Spurge? This team hasn’t been playing well as a whole but it’s always Rossi’s fault. Rossi is still scoring at a 60-70pt pace. Even Kaprizov doesn’t look completely engaged right now. 
I just think your boner for a 3rd year player is unwarranted and you try to find anything and everything to make it his fault. 
 

97 and 12 are the only players above criticism in this group.  Only two who’d play top six on any team in the league.  
 

I’m trying to figure out if 3x5M is the exact market value for a player like Rossi.   

[Imyourhuckleberry]

43 minutes ago, Mateo3xm said:

I think the coach needs to be fired to spark something but my brother thinks BG won’t because he’s Guarin’s guy. This team has not looked good as a whole the entire season. 

There is a big event happening February 6th - February 22nd. Team manager for the 2026 US hockey team is Bill Guerin and Hynes is a top assistant on that team. I think he won't be fired because it would be somewhat awkward if the top assistant on the team was recently fired by the manager of that team.

Beyond that, the Wild haven't played terribly lately. Only 1 of their losses has been by more than 1 goal in the last 9 games and they've collected 11 of 18 points in the standings, going 4-2-3. It's not exciting to narrowly lose as often as you win, but with the structure of NHL standings points, 4-2-3 gets you to the playoffs if you were to do that 9 times in a season--it's a 100 point pace.

They are 2-0-1 with Zuccarello in the lineup, and they are 4-1-1 since Halloween. If they find a way to get points from both games this weekend, I would say Hynes might even be doing an okay job. It's hard to win with a bunch of young guys playing because they make mistakes.

As long as the Wild are routinely getting more than 50% of the standings points available, I don't see Guerin making a coaching move, at least not prior to the Olympics. If they come back from the Olympics and the team struggles to win at that point, then I could conceivably believe a change might be possible.

Once they put Buium into the OT games, they might also start winning them at a better clip than the 33% they have so far(1 OT win and 1 shoutout win versus 4 OT losses). It's a process as 1 mistake can quickly be a goal against and young players tend to make lots of mistakes. The Wild went 12-0-7 in OT games last year without Buium, so winning 50% of their OT games the rest of the way wouldn't be shocking either. They aren't too far from playing like a playoff team right now.

[MNCountryLife]

2 hours ago, Mateo3xm said:

Why don’t you ever point your finger at anyone else on the team? Are you that oblivious that there are multiple players on this team that are underperforming? Why don’t you point that criticism at the seasoned Joel Erickson Ek or Spurge?

While your response was not directed at me.  I like the question you posed.  Where should the finger pointing go?  

I point the fingers at several players.  Nojo, Senko, Rossi, Hartman, Foligno, Trenin, Brodin, Mids, Jiricek and even Gus.

Nojo: While Nojo has been playing well he isn't top 6 and doesn't belong there.  He is part of the reason why our top guys get caught struggling in their own zone.

Senko:  Lost cause

Rossi:  Is playing too conservative.  I would like to see him a bit more aggressive.  He has a physical game this year but isn't using it enough.  He seems to choose between scrappy and elegant and never blends the two together in a single shift.

Hartman, Foligno and Trenin:  These are 3 vets that are capable of putting up depth points on a regular basis.  Tired of saying they played great but no points.  Stop the excuses and score already.  

Brodin:  Just not the rock I am used to seeing.

Mids:  I could swear he has lost speed.  Where is the spring in his step?

Jiricek:  Just not ready... But I like his aggressiveness.

Gus:  Mostly solid.. but has let a few goals in from above the circle.  Needs to get his percentage out of the .8s  

[Pewterschmidt]

23 minutes ago, MNCountryLife said:

Where should the finger pointing go?  

One could say pointing the finger at Rossi is a compliment because the rest of this current team is past its journeyman prime   No more ‘potential upside’ for those cooked goat’s.  Rossi has more room to grow his game to reach his ceiling.  Mateo gets extra spicy 🌶️ because it’s an either/or conversation to him/her.  I think it’s a conversation about is Rossi a top 6 player in the league (not just within this middling bunch).  It’s shades of gray, not black or white.  

[Will D. Ness]

Spurg is not cutting it either.  

[Will D. Ness]

2 hours ago, Imyourhuckleberry said:

Once they put Buium into the OT games, they might also start winning them at a better clip than the 33% they have so far(1 OT win and 1 shoutout win versus 4 OT losses). It's a process as 1 mistake can quickly be a goal against and young players tend to make lots of mistakes. The Wild went 12-0-7 in OT games last year without Buium, so winning 50% of their OT games the rest of the way wouldn't be shocking either. They aren't too far from playing like a playoff team right now.

I not sure Zeev should play OT but all things considered, our conservative puck possession tactic isn't winning any games either.  I would like to see Zeev play PP1 and develop his game on the blue line some before giving him OT.

[MNCountryLife]

2 hours ago, Pewterschmidt said:

One could say pointing the finger at Rossi is a compliment because the rest of this current team is past its journeyman prime   No more ‘potential upside’ for those cooked goat’s.  Rossi has more room to grow his game to reach his ceiling.  Mateo gets extra spicy 🌶️ because it’s an either/or conversation to him/her.  I think it’s a conversation about is Rossi a top 6 player in the league (not just within this middling bunch).  It’s shades of gray, not black or white.

I like Rossi.  His off-season work is easy to see and appreciate.  I point the finger at him because I think he is capable of more... .not because he is really doing anything wrong.  I think he has another level yet.  But he should be doing more with Boldy and Kirill.  

Rossi appears to produce numbers close to the same as what he does with those 2.  Kirill and Boldy appear to do a bit better with Ek with them.

[NoJoSux]

Nobody ripping the weak read by Gus on the 2v1.

The guy is almost always gonna try to go the other way if the pass gets through. It went just like that and I feel like Wally would have stretched the leg out to take away the low backhand. Gus pretty much played it like a peewee goalie. You don't poke, stretch the right leg, nuthin...

Remember when Stalock gave the Wild a chance to win back when they had no confidence in Duby. I am wondering if the Gus trend of losing most games is becoming a mental sticking point for the team as part of their woes? He's not stealing games for the Wild, that's for sure. 

At the same time, MN doesn't bury one or make anything count to be in OT with San Jose or need an EN goal to beat Calgary two-rip. The whole group is just looking super average and/or regularly inconsistent... 

 

[Rohn]

Kaprizov's left hand or wrist may be injured.  A Shark slashed him there, causing Kaprizov to pull his hand out of his glove and shake it repeatedly.  A game or two before that, he had also been slashed hard and also pulled his hand out of the glove to massage it, on the way to the bench. He wears those short-cuffed gloves, so he might have a deep bruise or worse.

Edited November 14 by Rohn
add more info

[Mateo3xm]

21 hours ago, MNCountryLife said:

I like Rossi.  His off-season work is easy to see and appreciate.  I point the finger at him because I think he is capable of more... .not because he is really doing anything wrong.  I think he has another level yet.  But he should be doing more with Boldy and Kirill.  

Rossi appears to produce numbers close to the same as what he does with those 2.  Kirill and Boldy appear to do a bit better with Ek with them.

I agree, i think it’s also important to think that Rossi is still only 24 and in his 3rd season. Most players aren’t that successful at that point. I don’t think he’s a true # one center or maybe even a true # two center on a Stanley cup team but that’s what we are working with and that’s how management constructed this team. You can’t fit a square peg in a round hole and be mad at the square for not fitting. He’s a good player though and imo he’s far more valuable on this team vs his trade return.

[Mateo3xm]

On 11/13/2025 at 8:25 AM, Pewterschmidt said:

97 and 12 are the only players above criticism in this group.  Only two who’d play top six on any team in the league.  
 

I’m trying to figure out if 3x5M is the exact market value for a player like Rossi.   

Perhaps this is the reason Rossi isn’t playing up to your standards:

 

”The Minnesota Wild’s Marco Rossi is expected to miss at least a couple of weeks with a lower-body injury, league sources tell The Athletic. The Wild’s first-line center has been trying to play through the injury since initially getting hurt against the Philadelphia Flyers on Oct. 18.

[MNCountryLife]

2 hours ago, Mateo3xm said:

Rossi is expected to miss at least a couple of weeks

Oh that sucks.  Hope they move up Yurov.  We all know it will be Hartman.