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  • Playoffs Are A Real Possibility For Wild

    Image courtesy of © Matt Blewett-USA TODAY Sports
    Thomas Williams

    By Thomas Williams -

    When Minnesota Wild general manager Bill Guerin gave his mid-season press conference and despite the team being miles behind everyone else in the standings, he said that the playoffs are still the goal, we mostly assumed he was just saying that for the sake of saying that. But now, with 32 regular season games remaining, and after a chaotic 10-7 victory over the Vancouver Canucks, the Wild are suddenly just two points back of a Wild Card spot.

    There is a real and true possibility of the Wild making the playoffs, yet again.

    The only problem is the amount of other teams vying for that same position. And realistically, it is just one spot. The Los Angeles Kings hold the first Wild Card spot, but with two games in-hand over all the teams below them and a four-point advantage, they would need to mess up really bad to fall from that height.

    So it's just down to the second Wild Card spot, currently being held tightly by the St. Louis Blues with 60 points. Below them, the Nashville Predators and Wild have 58 points, and the Seattle Kraken and Calgary Flames have 57 points. After that, it's a steep drop off to the Arizona Coyotes, so there is a distinct border of teams who could say that they are still in the race.

    That is too many teams to feel comfortable.

    But, with the NHL trade deadline coming up soon on March 8, we could see some of those teams sell off pieces and get significantly worse. Both the Predators and the Flames might trade away their starting goaltenders, and the Kraken probably feels pressure to try and get some future assets in the bank.

    It might just come down to the Wild and a team that has had their number all throughout this new Kaprizov-led era: The St. Louis Blues.

    That's Wild

    • Monday afternoon was wild. Here are the 10 craziest stats from that 10-7 comeback win over the Canucks. [Hockey Wilderness]
    • Mason Shaw is the tiny farmer that could. [Hockey Wilderness]
    • The major reason why the Wild were able to score that many goals was the Canucks' lack of discipline. Getting four 5-on-3 power plays is enough to tell the story of the game. [Sportsnet]

    Off the trail...

    • What every general manager of contending teams have done with their previous trade deadlines, might tell us what could happen this year. [Daily Faceoff]
    • The Pittsburgh Penguins are one of the worst offensive teams in the league this year. That's right. And newcomer defenseman Erik Karlsson says that the blame should go to the entire team. [NHL dot com]
    By Thomas Williams  

    Think you could write a story like this? Hockey Wilderness wants you to develop your voice, find an audience, and we'll pay you to do it. Just fill out this form.

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    Protec

    Let's keep the focus on how NoJo sucks and only briefly impressed us once.

    He's top stick-dropper, lazy back-checker, water-skiing puck-watcher, and random contributor, of elite Swedes. What pisses me off about these Euro types is that many of them show you they have skill & ability. For whatever reasons they just decide when they're gonna deliver. Often it's not often. 

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    B1GKappa97
    56 minutes ago, Protec said:

    I said trade Rossi. He had two cups of coffee and a heart condition without proving anything. Glad he is well and doing good but he's still a type of player that doesn't demonstrate an imposing or unstoppable power. 

    There was plenty of reason to be concerned, especially since MN usually has bad things happen to it. 

    Being wrong is okay for internet commenters cause Rossi has provided offense and Guerin traded Addison instead. So what a nice way to be wrong if you're anti-little Euro draft picks.

    I would've been willing to include Rossi in a package for Jack Eichel 😄

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    Willy the poor boy
    59 minutes ago, Protec said:

    Let's keep the focus on how NoJo sucks and only briefly impressed us once.

    He's top stick-dropper, lazy back-checker, water-skiing puck-watcher, and random contributor, of elite Swedes. What pisses me off about these Euro types is that many of them show you they have skill & ability. For whatever reasons they just decide when they're gonna deliver. Often it's not often. 

    His drop off this season has been astonishing though.

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    Willy the poor boy
    1 hour ago, Protec said:

    I said trade Rossi. He had two cups of coffee and a heart condition without proving anything. Glad he is well and doing good but he's still a type of player that doesn't demonstrate an imposing or unstoppable power. 

    There was plenty of reason to be concerned, especially since MN usually has bad things happen to it. 

    Being wrong is okay for internet commenters cause Rossi has provided offense and Guerin traded Addison instead. So what a nice way to be wrong if you're anti-little Euro draft picks.

    The management is gonna be more in tune to how a player will develop or, at least they should be. I could give example after example of how that's not always the case with MN. sports teams, but I digress. What's his attitude? Is he taking advice? Is he working on his deficiencies? Is he working on his game during the offseason or is he working on his 9 iron?

     The thing with Addison is he apparently had a bad attitude and his defense really never got any better yet they seemed to want to give him every opportunity, while holding Rossi back in the AHL. It seemed as though they may hold on to Addy while giving up on Rossi. Just glad they eventually got it right and stuck with him. 

    I disagree with you though on Rossi, he's gonna be a star.

    I agree with, it's OK to be wrong. Most folks on the world wide web have awful problems with it. I'm wrong often and have no problem admitting to it. 

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