Article: Wild Turning Season Around In Couple of Weeks

[Thomas Williams]

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[Pewterschmidt]

Locked on Wild Fixture or Fill ins (w/Seth Topel) does a good job of breaking down all the career years our journeyman core had in 21/22 season and here we are years later waiting for the unchanged one and done core to do it again. 

[MNCountryLife]

"It was all doom and gloom for the Minnesota Wild early on"

We are tied with 22 points with the two wild teams yet they have 2 games in hand.  Gone are the days of cap hell.  I like the improved discipline on D.  But it is still doom and gloom.  We still have some glaring issues.

1)  No 2nd line 

2)  Limited depth scoring

3)  28th ranked on the PK.

4)  -5 plus/minus ranking.  

We don't fix those we will be a forever bubble team.

[SkolWild73]

So far after 20 games, this has been a tale of two 10 game seasons.

Penalty kill:

    First ten games: 14/23, 60.9%, 31st, 

    Last ten games: 19/23, 82.6%, 13th

+/-:

     First ten games: 28-39, -11

     Last ten games: 28-22, +6, tied for 8th

Points: 

     First ten games: 8 points, 29th

     Last ten games: 14 points, tied for 5th

Guess it depends how you look at it, but I tend to think we are closer to the team of the last ten games than the first ten games. Not sure if we can match the .7% points percentage for the rest of the season that we have the last ten games, (that would have us finish with 109 points), but somewhere between .62%-.65% would give us between 99-103 points at the end of the year.

 

[Enforceror]

Looking like Yurov will be getting those 1st line minutes some folks have been clamoring for. Hope he seizes the opportunity.

[Citizen Strife]

Good for Yurov

So can we stop the "THEY ALWAYS GET HELD BACK" stuff?  If he succeeds or fails is on him now.

[raithis]

3 hours ago, MNCountryLife said:

"It was all doom and gloom for the Minnesota Wild early on"

We are tied with 22 points with the two wild teams yet they have 2 games in hand.  Gone are the days of cap hell.  I like the improved discipline on D.  But it is still doom and gloom.  We still have some glaring issues.

1)  No 2nd line 

2)  Limited depth scoring

3)  28th ranked on the PK.

4)  -5 plus/minus ranking.  

We don't fix those we will be a forever bubble team.

I don't agree that it was or is still doom and gloom, and I still think people were overreacting to a small amount of games.  I thought it would stabilize a bit by 20 games in and it has.

There's still lots of room for improvement though.  I do believe they can continue to do better, but they have to keep working.  While all the things you point out have gotten marginally better lately and the team has been on the rise in these rankings, they absolutely need to keep at it.  They aren't outscoring other teams to the point where they can afford to take shifts off or it can and will probably cost them the game.

 

[Imyourhuckleberry]

43 minutes ago, Enforceror said:

Looking like Yurov will be getting those 1st line minutes some folks have been clamoring for. Hope he seizes the opportunity.

Looks like Yurov will be with Kaprizov and Zuccarello. Hope they shine.

JEE with Boldy and Johansson

Trenin centering Moose and Stroh's

Jones between Ogre and Pits on line 4?

For players who have been in 6+ NHL games this season, Pitlick, Trenin, and Ben Jones are all in the top 16 for hits/60, and Foligno isn't too far behind, also in the top 30.  Looks like Buium and Hunt will stick together for 3rd pairing.

Trenin(2nd overall) and Foligno(10th) are both top 10 for total hits delivered so far this season and I'm sure they'll be active in the next game.

Edited 14 hours ago by Imyourhuckleberry

[Scalptrash]

Back to where they've always been?? A mediocre bubble team?

"Shackles off, no more cap hell, this is the year, etc."

Disappointing. Sorry to say it, but I hope they don't make the playoffs this season. Would like to see several big changes. This team has been mismanaged for way too long.

[MNCountryLife]

16 minutes ago, raithis said:

I don't agree that it was or is still doom and gloom, and I still think people were overreacting to a small amount of games.  I thought it would stabilize a bit by 20 games in and it has.

There's still lots of room for improvement though.  I do believe they can continue to do better, but they have to keep working.  While all the things you point out have gotten marginally better lately and the team has been on the rise in these rankings, they absolutely need to keep at it.  They aren't outscoring other teams to the point where they can afford to take shifts off or it can and will probably cost them the game.

This could be as simple as defining the doom and gloom. 

If we were playing all the rookies and at this mark, I would be happy and confident, not doom and gloom. 

If we are playing vets with the idea of winning the cup this year... then this is doom and gloom.  Because this lineup with these deficiencies will not get passed the 1st round of the playoffs. 

BG is most definitely in the 2nd of these options.

[Citizen Strife]

The issue is even if you do break down the team (or accidentally tank one year, which this team won't do at this rate), what are even the chances Ek, Rossi, Buium, etc stay once ALL the veterans are swept out?

I understand the want to finally get that elusive can't miss player at the top of a draft, but Kaprizov and Boldy exist, as do Gus and Walky.  I don't believe this team will ever be 1st pick bad.

And given the Pouliot situation, I don't know if I trust this team to make that choice anyway.

 

 

[Citizen Strife]

Wally* damn phone

[Pewterschmidt]

1 hour ago, Enforceror said:

Looking like Yurov will be getting those 1st line minutes some folks have been clamoring for. Hope he seizes the opportunity.

This is a great development.  If he simply keeps up with 97 and 36 and doesn't look like Victor Rask it's a win for his development.  I'm optimistic on Yurov becoming Luke Kunin Heavy (better than Kunin but similar style player)

[Imyourhuckleberry]

6 hours ago, Pewterschmidt said:

If he simply keeps up with 97 and 36 and doesn't look like Victor Rask it's a win for his development.  I'm optimistic on Yurov becoming Luke Kunin Heavy (better than Kunin but similar style player)

Who knows what he could be at this point. Perhaps his development will go along the lines of Kirill Marchenko. Marchenko didn't dominate the KHL, or the NHL at first, but jumped to 74 points last season(age 24) as a line 1 forward.

[Enforceror]

We need to remember to give Yurov time. I understand hoping for immediate impact but those players are rare.

He has a huge opportunity ahead of him if they do indeed play him in that role against the Canes. Even if he doesn't score, if he can give Kaprizov and Zucc confidence that they can play offense and have defense covered, it could work.