Guerin Is Building the Wild Like the Mid-2010s Penguins

Freddy certainly is not in the same league as Cullen. I like the idea but nope, can't see this comparison.

I remember when Crosby came into the league. I was a die hard flyers fan. Mario Lemieux came back to play with him that year. It was either his first game or first game against flyers. 18 yr old Crosby skated the puck into o zone with Derrian Hatcher back skating defending him . Hatcher reached out , grabbed Crosby by the mouth and ripped his teeth out.. welcome to nhl rookie! The flyers pounded him all game but he didn’t flinch or give up. He didn’t leave the game because his teeth were gone. . He came back a won it in overtime.  Solidifying his unreal compete level and his unwillingness to give up, which is how he’s been from day one .  No one on the wild has the character and drive that’s even close to Crosby. 
   I get this is a fun article about fantasy stuff. IMO you can’t compare pitts players to any of the wilds players. There players had the same drive and determination of Sid . We have excuse makers. They have winners. Hall of fame winners .we have a country club handing out participation trophies for flirting with playoffs. Sid and malkin came into the league on fire and throughout their careers . No sophomore slumps like Boldy. No two years of weight training like Rossi.  Letang was an all around elite player with lots of offense that will make hall of fame .  Faber is really good but not even close to letang yet . Until he can run a power play like letang it’s wishful thinking. The other major difference is they had top notch big centers,  a nasty defenseman to keep you honest an a true power play quarterback in letang. Along with Crosby total hatred of losing. I can’t think of one guy on wild that seems to care about losing. It’s always next game or next year.  Not Crosby. 
Billy knows he doesn’t have Crosby , malkin or letang in any of his players now. They would never not show up for half the season. Billy has a character problem on this team. Over hyping prospects that haven’t touched the A or nhl is what we do only to find out we were wrong. So we just do it again and call it something different.  Until they do something about the lack of size and character nothing will change. Those top draft picks have a work ethic that we aren’t able to draft because of draft position. How do we get a Crosby mentality on this team? 
   Just because we beat sharks and ducks a few times doesn’t mean we are good! 

People should go watch Crosby interviews after a loss. Look at his face and hatred of losing. Then go watch wild players after a loss . I see someone saying what they need to for a paycheck. Not because they care . That’s the difference between winning cups and being average. 

Yes.  He's a winner and has a vision with the support of real hockey people. He's actually trying to build a SC winning franchise. 

Wow, this article is a stretch to say the least. This Wild team has literally not shown up for long stretches of this season and you are going to compare them to Pittsburg when they were winning cups...funny stuff.

11 hours ago, Up North Guy said:

Freddy certainly is not in the same league as Cullen. I like the idea but nope, can't see this comparison.

 

I see similarities to my daughter's old dog Cullen. Small, had Marty Feldman eyes, not too agile, hacked a lot, and took a beating from the other dogs. 

Gimme Gonchar

Guerin still has 2-3 years before we can say one way or another what is going to happen.  The major problem seems to be trying to be his own guy and build a team his way (through a draft, create a stable of decent or higher end prospects that can drip feed each year to keep things fresh, refuse to drop high draft picks), while serving a master that still thinks they should be a playoff team every year.  So, for all the faults of the "low ceiling high floor," he went that route.

There's a bit of a dichotomy at play: trying to fill the roster with small, speedy players (the way Fletcher did), yet keep enough guys with size or "grit" (oh boy, that word).  I think Guerin is doing the best he can to stay smart.  There have been really good additions to the roster.  But for ever Faber and Rossi, there's been an Addison situation where there's only so much you can get out of a player.  Hynes was a dismissed hire, but then he pulled off that ballsy move out of nowhere a couple weeks ago.  

Guerin can't afford to intentionally dunk the team and it has too much at the top end to be truly bad.  He's smart enough to think the team isn't anywhere close, but hasn't seen the defensive prospects be the Faber and Rossi lights out options, and had to take some shortcuts.  I wouldn't envy his situation.  The fans want immediate prospect turnover when it seems obvious by Iowa's performance that they aren't there.  

I think he wants to preach patience in the background but both the ownership and fanbase has no more patience to give in the foreground.

Haha, great stuff here so far. 

Dean - Crosby coming up, gonna need a new contract eh? Could GMBG get raked over the coals for that type of veteran signing? 

True fact: Grit is ingrained more than taught. PR videos don't make it so. You know it when you see it.(Or don't see it.)

Fezig - Top analogy of the day.(Hat-tip.)

I wore the Gonchar-protection in junior. Playing with jacked-up face was made possible since he set the precedent and inspired cutting down Itech-masks so team docs/trainers would think you're less likely to get reinjured. 

14 hours ago, Up North Guy said:

Freddy certainly is not in the same league as Cullen. I like the idea but nope, can't see this comparison.

Was Cullen the Pens 4th line C? That seems very strong down the middle. I get the role being similar but so far, the Pens had more talented guys in those spots. I could see Dino playing the role of Bonino, though. 

12 hours ago, Dean said:

People should go watch Crosby interviews after a loss. Look at his face and hatred of losing. Then go watch wild players after a loss . I see someone saying what they need to for a paycheck. Not because they care . That’s the difference between winning cups and being average. 

One thing that is different is that Kaprizov does not really do interviews. I have a suspicion that he also hates losing. I get what your saying about Crosby and his leadership. Others on the team have taken over his personality on this matter. 

But, if we have the Russian 4, I would imagine that really only Firstov will be media friendly. Since we don't have access to the Wild locker room, we do not know how much these guys care. I've also got to believe that Faber is this way too. Looking at his play late in games when we are down, it looks like he really cares about winning.

2 hours ago, Citizen Strife said:

But for ever Faber and Rossi, there's been an Addison situation where there's only so much you can get out of a player. 

Isn't this about right, though? Faber, a 2nd rounder, really shined! Addison, a 2nd rounder busted. Rossi's a top 10 pick so you'd expect a floor of competency. The real question will be if we hit on our 1sts, especially when we had 2 in a year. If you can be consistent with that and hit on a couple down the line in a draft year, that's a success. Not all these guys will make it, but we had a Dewar and Duhaime give us some nice depth minutes. 

Some of these guys we completely forget about, like Lorenz. Maybe he makes a solid bottom 6 player and claims a roster spot. He certainly improved his game this year. Peart might be another one. 

1 hour ago, Protec said:

I wore the Gonchar-protection in junior. Playing with jacked-up face was made possible since he set the precedent and inspired cutting down Itech-masks so team docs/trainers would think you're less likely to get reinjured. 

I'm sure that had nothing to do with that stupid shield always fogging up!

I like Kalisha dreaming about the future incorporating all of our top and not so top prospects. The facts are, though, that many of these guys won't get there, like half. 

One way you can help your cause, though, is to make sure you don't miss an Andy Ness session, and you add the strength/weight you need to to fully compete against NHL bodies. These 180 or 190 guys just aren't going to get it done, and they need that extra weight even if it is just to absorb NHL punishment. 

If I'm Guerin, and my guys come back into camp without that offseason push, I'm reading them the riot act over this. Our guys simply need more size, especially the undersized guys. I'm willing to take a chance on a shorter player, but they've got to play a spirited game like Shawzy. If Rossi has one more offseason like the last, I believe he can be special. Most importantly, and maybe that's why defenders take an extra couple of years, our defense prospects have absolutely got to do this! As a defender, you must be able to neutralize a forward even when they have leverage. To date, none of our prospects can do that, and Chisholm can't either. Faber has shown a good job in doing it, but that's because his stick is so good. 

All these prospects have to adapt physically and to the physicality of the N. To date, they have not been serious in trying to accomplish that, and to date this is the exact reason why vets got resigned. In the A, the way the schedule is built, you've got plenty of down time each month to work on this aspect. Yet nobody is taking advantage of it.

Fun article to read. Hopefully some of our younger guys can live up to that potential.

Issues:

Nojo and Freddy are invisible on the ice.  These are two guys that were supposed to help us win games... not some 4th liners that you hope to hold serve.  Them not meeting expectations has been detrimental to the team.

Defensively we are too thin... Just two injuries shows that clearly.

The buyouts forced GMBG to rely a bit on hope and prayer....prayers were not answered this year.