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  • Minnesota Wild Call-Up Adam Beckman Has To Step Up

    Image courtesy of Nick Wosika-USA TODAY Sports
    Carlton Bloom

    By Carlton Bloom -

    It's been a long wait for Adam Beckman to get his NHL shot this season. The Minnesota Wild's cap crunch meant that until Jared Spurgeon's injury freed up money, there wasn't even enough room for the Wild wing prospect's modest $894K salary. In the meantime, Beckman embarked on his fourth season with the Iowa Wild. 

    Beckman surely was hoping to build on his success last season, when he scored 24 goals and 36 points in 53 AHL games last year. Not only did he light the lamp consistently, he was once again one of the most prolific shooters in the league, with 3.58 per game. Instead, as the club in Des Moines has sagged from their status as a playoff team last season, Beckman's also taken a step back.

    Beckman has nine goals and 19 points in 37 games this season. That's fifth on the team in points, but he's struggled to create his own shot with a less talented cast around him. Beckman is only shooting 2.38 times per game -- over a full shot fewer than last season -- which is doing his stats no favors. 

    Now Beckman gets his chance, getting the call-up to the NHL on Monday. He has a shot to make an impression on new coach John Hynes, and he needs to seize the opportunity. 

    That might be unfair to say about a kid who won't turn 23 until May, especially since Beckman's record as a prolific shooter in the AHL shows promise. But Beckman will likely be fighting a numbers game shortly. The Wild have bottom-six wingers Ryan Hartman, Marcus Foligno, and Freddy Gaudreau re-signed for the foreseeable future. Marat Khusnutdinov could be fighting for another wing spot in about three weeks. Danila Yurov and Liam Öhgren are expected to be in the organization in the next year or two.

    Beckman's waited for this opportunity. Let's see what he does with it.

    That's Wild

    Off the Trail...

    By Carlton Bloom  

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    TheGoosesAreLooses
    1 hour ago, Pewterschmidt said:

    Looks like zero TOI for Beckman last night

     The Vin Man is back from injury and played like he wants a spot in the lineup.  This is called creating your own opportunity.  It’s not about having the coach put you in a position to succeed.  It’s about showing up and showing Coach you’re ready for more responsibility.  Hope you’re taking notes Beckman.  We need you to go full Rossi starting next season.  Get a start on that during any garbage time you get this season

    How the heck do you show your ready for more when you get press boxed on your call-up? lol He hasn't been given a chance to show anything. Letteri was -9 in 10 games while Beckman is -11 in 37. Is that showing you are ready? By not committing to defense at all? Because Beckman tried that in preseason two years ago and they told him to round out his game. So he does and is passed up for having less offence? What a f****** farce.

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    raithis
    16 minutes ago, TheGoosesAreLooses said:

    How the heck do you show your ready for more when you get press boxed on your call-up? lol He hasn't been given a chance to show anything. Letteri was -9 in 10 games while Beckman is -11 in 37. Is that showing you are ready? By not committing to defense at all? Because Beckman tried that in preseason two years ago and they told him to round out his game. So he does and is passed up for having less offence? What a f****** farce.

    Perhaps he showed it in practice or in meetings or was late or Hynes didn't get a chance to figure out where to slot him in yet with Lettieri returning.  Just because we aren't seeing it in a game does not mean he's not being evaluated.

    I'd suspect that he plays on Friday unless the coaches aren't liking what they are seeing out of him.

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    Up North Guy
    7 hours ago, mnfaninnc said:

    Well, last night I got blacked out again. How did we look? 2-1 doesn't seem like an exciting score. Any good highlights? Scoresheet looked like it was Foligno night!

    The top two lines didn't make it back from vacation. They were complete no shows. Moose's line was ok to mostly good. The fourth line of Luccini, Lettieri and Dewey1 was the best line. Brodin had not recovered from whatever crap is going around the locker room so Goose and Merrill both played with the expected results. GusBus had a pretty good game. Faber was good. Luckily they were playing Chicago. Had a 14-1 shot differential in the first but took the second off.

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    Up North Guy
    5 hours ago, raithis said:

    Perhaps he showed it in practice or in meetings or was late or Hynes didn't get a chance to figure out where to slot him in yet with Lettieri returning.  Just because we aren't seeing it in a game does not mean he's not being evaluated.

    I'd suspect that he plays on Friday unless the coaches aren't liking what they are seeing out of him.

    After seeing how bad NoJo played I would slot Beckman into his slot. The best I saw of NoJo was him gliding past the net several times.

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    mnfaninnc
    16 hours ago, Up North Guy said:

    The top two lines didn't make it back from vacation. They were complete no shows. Moose's line was ok to mostly good. The fourth line of Luccini, Lettieri and Dewey1 was the best line. Brodin had not recovered from whatever crap is going around the locker room so Goose and Merrill both played with the expected results. GusBus had a pretty good game. Faber was good. Luckily they were playing Chicago. Had a 14-1 shot differential in the first but took the second off.

    I watched a few highlights. How do you miss Lucchini's goal as a ref, dead center of the net?

    So, on Nick Foligno's goal, from the original angle I saw, it looked like Bogosian was backing in and tried to find a puck in his feet and whiffed. Foligno was then left all alone. Looking again, it seemed like Bogosian was fending off a tight 2-1 and Goose2 had to honor the shot. Looking again from a different angle, I see a trailing, loafing Goligoski with no chance of catching the battleship that is Nick Foligno in that spot, looking like somehow he got beat and was the cause of the whole mess. So, what really happened here?

    On the breakaway by Kachook (sp), who might be related to the other Tkachuks but changed the spelling of his name to be more phonetic here, it looks like he just blew by a defender with Mermis trying to chase him down. However, under closer evaluation, it appears as if Merrill can't turn and uses his Yugo speed to finish 5th in a 4 man race. 

    Under these circumstances, how can we not play Hunt and Chisholm? Guerin has got to open up some spots of opportunity for these guys. This is the only way they will get better, and it appears both of these players need to play in conditions with more speed/strength coming at them. 

     

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    Imyourhuckleberry
    15 minutes ago, mnfaninnc said:

    On the breakaway by Kachook (sp), who might be related to the other Tkachuks but changed the spelling of his name to be more phonetic here, it looks like he just blew by a defender with Mermis trying to chase him down. However, under closer evaluation, it appears as if Merrill can't turn and uses his Yugo speed to finish 5th in a 4 man race. 

    Boris Katchouk?

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    Willy the poor boy
    16 hours ago, Up North Guy said:

    The top two lines didn't make it back from vacation. They were complete no shows. Moose's line was ok to mostly good. The fourth line of Luccini, Lettieri and Dewey1 was the best line. Brodin had not recovered from whatever crap is going around the locker room so Goose and Merrill both played with the expected results. GusBus had a pretty good game. Faber was good. Luckily they were playing Chicago. Had a 14-1 shot differential in the first but took the second off.

    I take it Chisolm didn't play? If he did, how did he look?

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    mnfaninnc
    18 minutes ago, Willy the poor boy said:

    I take it Chisolm didn't play? If he did, how did he look?

    He was having trouble getting a US work visa. How he didn't have that in the A is beyond me. Was he only going to play in Canada this year? I'm not sure how that happened, or maybe he could travel with the team under the Canadian rules?

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    Up North Guy
    39 minutes ago, mnfaninnc said:

    how can we not play Hunt and Chisholm?

    Chisholm was still dealing with the US government trying to get his work visa straightened out. He probably would have been better off going to the DMV and asking for help there.

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    mnfaninnc
    6 minutes ago, Up North Guy said:

    He probably would have been better off going to the DMV and asking for help there.

    Not if he was from around here, DMV is brutal!

    Actually, I was not picking on the Chicago game, but more commenting on future games, maybe soon. For Hunt to come up, someone has to go down or get traded out. 

    Looking at the rumor mill, Duhaime, Fleury, Merrill all made the list, Goligoski did not. If it were my team, and Goligoski did not waive his NMC, he would be my #7 or 8 defender and have an assigned seat in the ProssBox. If I'm Guerin, I'm highly encouraging Goligoski to waive if I get any offer. Essentially, refusal to waive at this point, to me, directly affects my ability to hire a player as front office material in the future.

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    Up North Guy
    8 minutes ago, mnfaninnc said:

    Not if he was from around here, DMV is brutal!

    Actually, I was not picking on the Chicago game, but more commenting on future games, maybe soon. For Hunt to come up, someone has to go down or get traded out. 

    Looking at the rumor mill, Duhaime, Fleury, Merrill all made the list, Goligoski did not. If it were my team, and Goligoski did not waive his NMC, he would be my #7 or 8 defender and have an assigned seat in the ProssBox. If I'm Guerin, I'm highly encouraging Goligoski to waive if I get any offer. Essentially, refusal to waive at this point, to me, directly affects my ability to hire a player as front office material in the future.

    I suspect that Goose has made enough money in his playing career that he is immune to whether he is hired by the Wild or not. He is happy being a wannabe chef (from an old Russo article).

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    WIWild
    1 hour ago, mnfaninnc said:

    If I'm Guerin, I'm highly encouraging Goligoski to waive if I get any offer.

    Everybody trying to make a Wild transaction is gonna get Billy's voicemail, because the Wild are so awesome that they're on autopilot, and he's gotta focus on managing Team USA.

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    raithis
    19 hours ago, Up North Guy said:

    After seeing how bad NoJo played I would slot Beckman into his slot. The best I saw of NoJo was him gliding past the net several times.

    I don't disagree with you.  Johansson is a player I think better serves us as a healthy scratch who is there when we need him.  I'd rather see Yurov or whoever ends up being ready taking his spot next season.

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    Protec
    3 hours ago, raithis said:

    I don't disagree with you.  Johansson is a player I think better serves us as a healthy scratch who is there when we need him.  I'd rather see Yurov or whoever ends up being ready taking his spot next season.

    Guerin should have known better on NoJo. He did the same thing here the first time. Instances of offense. Little else. Coasts a lot. Puck watches a lot...

    He had a good series and decent end of the season with Boldy but it was a flash in the pan. Waste of a space for the "experience" or "pedigree". Eff that man!

    Nojo is a bum. The Wild can lose equally with a variety of players I suppose. I mean you can't even trade NoJo and he has literally had like one or two good months in MN with like five times that much time hurt or in the non-factor zone. Guerin should explain why he let Bjugstad go and signed NoJo for more money.

    Bjugstad 49GP 27PTS +1 +/-

    Johannson 50GP 24PTS -10 +/-

     

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    Protec

    Hi, I'm Bill Guerin GM of the USA but I love signing Elite Swede Marcus Johansson to NTC deal for his skating and speed exactly like Minnesota-American Bjugstad or instead of keeping Dumba.

    Good call bud and by that I mean total blowbag decision.

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