Kirill Kaprizov Scares Every Single Wild Fan

I for one had a "no f'ing way" moment watching that. Then the punk turns down fighting Middleton (Good for him stepping in right away) then fights Boldy. I was hoping to see Moose and Bogo step up on some hits on their guys but didn't notice, Hartman did which was nice to see, playing on the edge where he thrives. It seemed after that the players as a whole played a bit more physical, nothing over the top but let them know they were there. On top of it all came out with a strong win held up by secondary scoring. Nice to see Gaudreau rewarded for effort he has been playing with. Credit where it is due, NoJo's goal was a great effort play by him. If we would see more of that I think the hate would quiet down. I don't expect him to be making those plays often, but how nice would it be if he did use speed on forecheck, create turnovers and be rewarded with great scoring opportunities. 

1 hour ago, IllicitFive said:

I for one had a "no f'ing way" moment watching that. Then the punk turns down fighting Middleton (Good for him stepping in right away) then fights Boldy. I was hoping to see Moose and Bogo step up on some hits on their guys but didn't notice, Hartman did which was nice to see, playing on the edge where he thrives. It seemed after that the players as a whole played a bit more physical, nothing over the top but let them know they were there. On top of it all came out with a strong win held up by secondary scoring. Nice to see Gaudreau rewarded for effort he has been playing with. Credit where it is due, NoJo's goal was a great effort play by him. If we would see more of that I think the hate would quiet down. I don't expect him to be making those plays often, but how nice would it be if he did use speed on forecheck, create turnovers and be rewarded with great scoring opportunities. 

I think the biggest change i see this year vs last year is the team is playing level headed. The last couple years under Deano the whole team was flying off the cliff. Dean was always screaming at the refs and i think that had a follow-on reaction from the team. i am not seeing the stupid penalties we saw the last couple years. I hope this continues and the team keeps playing with controlled violence. At times maybe a little more retribution hits would be welcomed however.

4 hours ago, IllicitFive said:

NoJo's goal was a great effort play by him. If we would see more of that I think the hate would quiet down.

This is exactly why Nojo is frustrating to watch.  The guy has the ability to be a productive player.  Yet most of the time he simply does not engage himself or plays lackadaisical.  

Here was a perfect example of not going after the perpetrator. Who cares about Cagula? He's not a threat. His knee to thigh hit had Kaprizov walking down the tunnel but we really didn't know how bad it was. When Boldy came in with gloves flying in a bout which did nothing, Cagula had effectively dismantled our top line for at least 5 minutes. 

While I think Cagula's hit was more accidental than anything, and I don't even know if I spelled his name right, the threat is from McDavid and Draisaitl and to some extent Bouchard. 

When McDavid tried to split Ek and our defender at the end of the period, and got sandwiched, that brought quite a crowd too. It should have been a physically difficult night the rest of the way for those 3 (if you can catch McDavid). 

I like coming away with a 5-3 victory. Sitting in my recliner I thought to myself, we're going to need 5. After Fleury whiffed on that first one, where he made a really pour decision (since the puck was rolling, he also was at risk of knocking it over the glass) letting in the laugher, I thought we were in for a tough night. But, that is Fleury. He let's in some really weird softies sometimes. 

Hopefully we can have the road trip sweep today vs. Calgary. Just keep banking points and making it really hard for those chasing us to catch us.