Gamethread: Wild at Stars (7:00 p.m.)

Let's see what happens

Hinzy is not afraid to blend the lines and I’m not mad about that

I hope that ends up being the roster tonight! Joe Smith (via the Athletic) posted on Twitter that Foligno and Johansson are game time decisions due to illness. He posted the lineups as:

Boldy — Ek — Zuccarello
Hunt — Rossi — Hartman
Petan — Gaudreau — Maroon
Raska — Dewar — Duhaime

Middleton — Faber
Goligoski — Bogosian
Merrill — Mermis

Wallstedt (excited to watch his NHL debut)

This lineup is much rougher. Fingers crossed Foligno and Johansson are able to play (so instead of 5 AHL players, there would be 3 — progress)!

Edited January 10 by WheelSnipeCelly

I may have to go to the local tavern to watch this one. Just found out it's on TNT. Figures. I hate watching them at the saloons, but I want to watch the Wall layin bricks down in his debut.

Edited January 10 by Willy the poor boy

Never a good sign when a defenseman slots in at forward with no warning.  Well, at least Rossi and Hartman can lead him and he might get some good looks.

I’d rather they play Hunt as a forward than rush anyone back at this point. But I have to wonder why Hunt rather than Goligoski or Merrill? Not that I prefer anyone on D to play the forward position unless too valuable to the D position like Fabar for example. One could argue to keep Hunt learning his D assignments and getting him comfortable doing so in the NHL. Hunt’s still developing. Unlike playing Goligoski which isn’t gonna hurt his D play or development, same with Merrill. There’s nothing to lose playing the likes of the other two. Other than the game itself that is. 

Groundhog Day. LFGW, FNG over and over again, and FRS.

Jo Pa still has it. Wished a while back the Wild would have grabbed him.

Hope that is offside...cause that 5 hole was weak Wall.

 

...and it is. Thank you. 

Edited January 11 by UK_Soldier

Offside challenge goes Minnesota's way!

Can't do that, Zucc...

And Dallas scores again shortly after.

Flower on standby High Alert!!

3 minutes ago, Willy the poor boy said:

Flower on standby High Alert!!

We don't need Flower, the Wall did fine for his 1st period of real NHL hockey.

We just need our skaters to keep control of the pick and put a couple past Wedgewood (and stay off special teams as much as possible, please).

19 minutes ago, UK_Soldier said:

Jo Pa still has it. Wished a while back the Wild would have grabbed him.

...and I still wish they would have got him. Would have been pennies on the dollar draft pick-wise and he is only making 3.5 mil on his current deal with the Stars.

1 minute ago, bisopher said:

We don't need Flower, the Wall did fine for his 1st period of real NHL hockey.

We just need our skaters to keep control of the pick and put a couple past Wedgewood (and stay off special teams as much as possible, please).

Agreed. The called off 5 hole goal was concerning, but it is his FIRST NHL GAME. He has been robotic, anticipatory as advertised and I like it. Flower has flair and I enjoy watching it, but give me a tender that stops everything he should stop. 

Man I love this TNT intermission crew so god damn much...minus "Ace".

Dallas up by 2 

Is it just me or does Boldly have a game(s) where he seems to just ceases to exist. I am not asking you to score every night, but my god, catch my attention in a good way for fucks sake.

Dallas up by 3 after leaving Hintz open

My god. I hate Dallas so much.

Just now, UK_Soldier said:

My god. I hate Dallas so much.

Norm Green Still Sucks!

We aren't playing well, but also, the Stars' forecheck is next level - seems like all of their lines too, not just a particular line.

Listening to the Dallas feed, the Wild have gone 6+ periods across three games without a goal so far....

Who ya got in the draft lottery?

3 shots vs 13 this period...not good