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  • Gamethread: Wild at Penguins (6:00 p.m.)


    Image courtesy of © Don Wright-Imagn Images
    Thomas Williams

    It's the Marc-Andre Fleury Bowl. The veteran netminder has made his return to Pittsburgh once more and potentially for the final time as an active player.

    Outside of the festivities, the Wild are coming off of an unfortunate defeat to the Flyers over the weekend and are hoping to bounce back in a massive way by defeating the lowly Penguins -- a team ripe with aging veterans that are just trying to hold on to some form of success and glory. They are getting insanely terrible defensively, so there is opportunity for this to be a blowout.

    Oh, and Jared Spurgeon is making his return.

    When: 6:00 p.m. CT
    Where: PPG Paints Arena
    TV: Bally Sports North, ESPN+
    Radio: KFAN 100.3

    Projected Wild lineup

    Kirill Kaprizov -- Marco Rossi -- Mats Zuccarello
    Marcus Johansson -- Joel Eriksson Ek -- Matt Boldy
    Marcus Foligno -- Frederick Gaudreau -- Yakov Trenin
    Jakub Lauko -- Marat Khusnutdinov -- Liam Ohgren

    Jake Middleton -- Brock Faber
    Jonas Brodin -- Jared Spurgeon
    Jon Merrill -- Zach Bogosian

    Marc-Andre Fleury
    (Filip Gustavsson)

    Projected Penguins lineup

    Evgeni Malkin -- Sidney Crosby -- Rickard Rakell
    Anthony Beauvillier -- Kevin Hayes -- Jesse Puljujarvi
    Lars Eller -- Noel Acciari -- Drew O'Connor
    Michael Bunting -- Cody Glass -- Valtteri Puustinen

    Marcus Pettersson -- Kris Letang
    Matt Grzelcyk -- Erik Karlsson
    Ryan Graves -- Jack St. Ivany

    Joel Blomqvist
    (Alex Nedeljkovic)

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    40 minutes ago, Protec said:

    Rats, I missed the Faber fight. How was that???

    Faber whos been on the ice for a minute or so gets tangled up with Sid  and has to fight a guy fresh off the bench whos probably sat there  whos had maybe had 7 or 8 shifts up until that point  .

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    45 minutes ago, Protec said:

    Rats, I missed the Faber fight. How was that???

    Faber got a pretty good uppercut in at one point.

    Held his own pretty well for what I think is his first NHL fight. Stayed on his skates at the least but he ran out of juice quick. 

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    22 minutes ago, UK_Soldier said:

    Love how they cut it off for commercials while MAF does his lap. Stay classy regional sports networks funded by gambling. 

     

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    lmfao poor Brock. You can see the disappointment in his eyes that Sidney Crosby played him so dirty in this game. XD 

    He had your jersey as a kid, Sid!! Go easy on him! 

    Edited by B1GKappa97
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    2 hours ago, Beast said:

    Well so much for being a top 5 team in the league.  Back to back losses to bad teams on big losing streaks should put that to bed for a while.

    This aged well.

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    Imagine what this team could do with a number 1 center, another top 6 winger and top 4 RHD.  Team has it but need to figure out how to get those pieces.  But do not break up Freddie, Foligno and Trenin.  That line belongs.  Hartman to 4th line or traded. Ohgren still not ready. 

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    3 minutes ago, mnhockeyfan03 said:

    Imagine what this team could do with a number 1 center, another top 6 winger and top 4 RHD.  Team has it but need to figure out how to get those pieces.  But do not break up Freddie, Foligno and Trenin.  That line belongs.  Hartman to 4th line or traded. Ohgren still not ready. 

    If they're going to play like this, I don't know that they need a number 1 C. Those are prohibitively expensive. Let's see what Yurov can do first. 

    They already have a top-4 RHD in Spurgeon, but if they need some depth there could be some possibile options at the TDL that shouldn't be too expensive.

    I do think a 4th line of Lauko-Khusnutdinov-Hartman could be pretty epic... 

    Edited by B1GKappa97
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    24 minutes ago, B1GKappa97 said:

    If they're going to play like this, I don't know that they need a number 1 C. Those are prohibitively expensive. Let's see what Yurov can do first. 

    They already have a top-4 RHD in Spurgeon, but if they need some depth there could be some possibile options at the TDL that shouldn't be too expensive.

    I do think a 4th line of Lauko-Khusnutdinov-Hartman could be pretty epic... 

    Sorry but Rossi is not a 1c and was absent again tonight and spurgeons time has passed and we need to find a way to move on from that contract and find a replacement.  Then I think we could have something. Yurov looks good but we still need a top 6 winger guarantee 

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    1 hour ago, mnhockeyfan03 said:

    Imagine what this team could do with a number 1 center, another top 6 winger and top 4 RHD.  Team has it but need to figure out how to get those pieces.  But do not break up Freddie, Foligno and Trenin.  That line belongs.  Hartman to 4th line or traded. Ohgren still not ready. 

    Johansson gifted 3 points by Boldy and JEE is on pace for roughly another 30 points. I'd say keep playing Ohgren line 4 and put Hartman with Boldy and JEE.

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    6 hours ago, Imyourhuckleberry said:

    Johansson gifted 3 points by Boldy and JEE is on pace for roughly another 30 points. I'd say keep playing Ohgren line 4 and put Hartman with Boldy and JEE.

    C'mon. He wasn't gifted those points. The guy is playing hard, like we were begging him to do last year. Obviously its just because its a contract year for him again, but the effort is there. 

    He earned those points too. If he gets injured though, yeah, Hartman up there makes a lot of sense. 

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    10 hours ago, B1GKappa97 said:

    I do think a 4th line of Lauko-Khusnutdinov-Hartman could be pretty epic... 

    I agree 100%, the Trenin-Freddy-Foglino line is really starting to develop great chemistry and have looked like a great checking line. 

    Ohgren although he plays hard is not ready for NHL time even on the 4th line. 

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    3 hours ago, B1GKappa97 said:

    C'mon. He wasn't gifted those points. The guy is playing hard, like we were begging him to do last year. Obviously its just because its a contract year for him again, but the effort is there. 

    He earned those points too. If he gets injured though, yeah, Hartman up there makes a lot of sense. 

    MoJo's assists were fairly simple drop passes anyone else on the team could execute. JEE and Boldy each played more impactful roles on both those goals, though the drop pass to JEE was solid. The other one was just cycling around a power play and the goal was completely created by Boldy and JEE.

    I'll give him more credit for the goal, but Gaudreau and Foligno both have just as many points and more goals now playing 3rd and 4th line all season--any extra minutes they have over Johansson has been spent on the PK.

    Ohgren is playing hard too. If he played with Boldy and Eriksson Ek for 15 minutes each night for 8 games, I imagine Ohgren would be around 3+ points as well.

    Ohgren has more blocked shots and delivered more hits along with more takeaways in just over half the time MoJo has played. Johansson doesn't truly deserve 15 minutes per night with 2 of the top 5 forwards on the team, but cannot play 3rd or 4th line, which is why I'd consider moving Hartman up to line 1(once fully healthy), going to the BEER line, and giving Johansson a nice view from the press box.

    If Ohgren is with the NHL team, he needs shifts to develp his game. Johansson will not be on the team next year, so I'd favor developing Ohgren for the future over having giving Johansson those shifts.

    I don't expect Hynes to do this, but consideration is warranted. Ohgren doesn't have a point yet this season, but he's only 1 point behind Johansson in the last 10 games each has played and he doesn't get time with Boldy and JEE.

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    4 hours ago, B1GKappa97 said:

    C'mon. He wasn't gifted those points. The guy is playing hard, like we were begging him to do last year. Obviously its just because its a contract year for him again, but the effort is there. 

    He earned those points too. If he gets injured though, yeah, Hartman up there makes a lot of sense. 

    I am very disappointed to see anyone coming around on NoJo. Indeed sad times we live in. 😎

    I think the story of the game is Fred's timely goals. Dagger to his old team. Kaprizov and the Norwegian Hobbit are awesome. MAF is not toast. Sure he can make mistakes and have bad games but he's not bad. It would be another deal altogether if he was bad. He can get wins in the NHL and look pretty good. Of the three scored on Fleury, two were deflections. Just one shot beat him clean and it was a difficult read. I still think he's pretty good and the team has confidence in him. 

    Edited by Protec
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    2 hours ago, Imyourhuckleberry said:

    MoJo's assists were fairly simple drop passes anyone else on the team could execute. JEE and Boldy each played more impactful roles on both those goals, though the drop pass to JEE was solid. The other one was just cycling around a power play and the goal was completely created by Boldy and JEE.

    I'll give him more credit for the goal, but Gaudreau and Foligno both have just as many points and more goals now playing 3rd and 4th line all season--any extra minutes they have over Johansson has been spent on the PK.

    Ohgren is playing hard too. If he played with Boldy and Eriksson Ek for 15 minutes each night for 8 games, I imagine Ohgren would be around 3+ points as well.

    Ohgren has more blocked shots and delivered more hits along with more takeaways in just over half the time MoJo has played. Johansson doesn't truly deserve 15 minutes per night with 2 of the top 5 forwards on the team, but cannot play 3rd or 4th line, which is why I'd consider moving Hartman up to line 1(once fully healthy), going to the BEER line, and giving Johansson a nice view from the press box.

    If Ohgren is with the NHL team, he needs shifts to develp his game. Johansson will not be on the team next year, so I'd favor developing Ohgren for the future over having giving Johansson those shifts.

    I don't expect Hynes to do this, but consideration is warranted. Ohgren doesn't have a point yet this season, but he's only 1 point behind Johansson in the last 10 games each has played and he doesn't get time with Boldy and JEE.

    I like your thoughts on this. However, it is mandatory that the Wild build some cap equity. If they waive NoJo and send him down (or gone) they gain some. Otherwise they have to send Ohgren down.

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