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  • Wild Continue Losing, Fall 3-1 to Penguins

    Image courtesy of © Nick Wosika-Imagn Images
    Thomas Williams

    By Thomas Williams -

    That's Wild

    Is it good when your favorite hockey team is in a playoff spot and they just lost against a team that sold off pieces at the trade deadline and are in a freefall for the draft lottery? Oh, and your team have now lost five of their last seven games.

    The Minnesota Wild fell to the rebuilding Pittsburgh Penguins by a score of 3-1 on Sunday afternoon and continue to not earn nearly enough points to stay above water without key players like Joel Eriksson Ek, Kirill Kaprizov, and Jonas Brodin in the lineup.

    A weekend full of ugly losses has caused them to slip down to a Wild Card spot, and while they still have seven points over the Vancouver Canucks and St. Louis Blues, that gap could certainly close in no time. Especially given with the Canucks not selling players like Brock Boeser at the trade deadline and the Blues keeping a whole bunch of their veterans; both teams are pushing as the Wild are just trying to stay afloat.

    • More on the Wild's 3-1 loss to the Penguins on Sunday. [StarTribune]
    • There's at least one thing to be proud of in the State of Hockey: A Minnesota high school game was attended more than every NHL game over the weekend. [The Hockey News]
    • Justin Brazeau should improve the Wild's offense through this last stretch. [Hockey Wilderness]

    Off the trail...

    • A big list of grades for every NHL team for what they did around the trade deadline. [ESPN]
    • Alex Ovechkin's pursuit of the all-time goal record is heading out on a western road trip. Just nine more to go. [NHL.com]
    • More drama in Toronto. The Maple Leafs reportedly asked pending unrestricted free agent Mitch Marner to waive his no-trade clause so that they could acquire Mikko Rantanen at the deadline. He said no and now if he leaves in free agency, there might be a hellstorm. [Sportsnet]
    By Thomas Williams  

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    Imyourhuckleberry

    Wild have exceeded 2 goals scored just once in their last 7 games. They better start putting more pucks in the net if they don't want to fall out of the playoff picture. They certainly had the effort against Vancouver, but still a loss. I was shocked they didn't get more than 1 goal in that game.

    Didn't get to watch much of the Sunday matinee, but looks like more of the same. 18 games remaining. Hopefully they find some consistent scoring.

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    MrCheatachu

    These past two games have been really tough to watch.  Nobody seems to be able to get to the center of the ice, and we're content on working it into the corner.  Even on the power-play, we seem content to stand stationary and hope a point shot gets through.

    Even on Hartzy's goal yesterday, I was 90% sure he was going to pass into the corner instead of shoot on the 4 on 1.

    Double-shifting Boldy doesn't have the same impact as double-shifting Kaprizov.

    I'll pull what's left of my hair if I have to watch Mojo sprint down the ice so he can stop 3 feet inside the blue line and get his pass picked off.

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    Thatoneguy
    20 minutes ago, MrCheatachu said:

    Even on the power-play, we seem content to stand stationary and hope a point shot gets through.

    This has been an issue for as long as I can remember. 

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    MrCheatachu
    3 minutes ago, Thatoneguy said:

    This has been an issue for as long as I can remember. 

    To be fair, when Kaprizov and Zucc are there, they play catch behind the endline for a 1/3 of the PP until they can send it over to Boldy to wiff on a one-timer.

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    Imyourhuckleberry

    Boldy really needs to up his goal scoring. He's had very productive stretches in the past, but he only has goals in 2 of the last 18 games--he has 13 total points in that stretch, but 3 goals in 18 games is below his talent level.

    He needs to score a goal in half of the remaining games, on average, just to be as productive in goals as he had been the prior 2 seasons. Hopefully a hot stretch is coming, like the 11 goals in 20 games Boldy had to start the year.

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    MNCountryLife

    First, Congrats to East Grand Forks and Moorhead for the MN High School Hockey Championships!!! What a fantastic tournament.  Amazing to watch these kids give everything they have.  Loved the hair dews as well.  They go all in.  

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    mnfaninnc

    I was blacked out of the game yesterday, but just looking at the stats, 2 games and no 5v5 goals? Nice to see the PP was contributing. 

    To me, the team is pretty much unwatchable. I think what has happened, and this isn't new, is that due to lack of depth we have relied on some guys in roles that they don't fit. They've tried, but have run out of gas. With the guys out that are out, and we ran into this last season, you just can't have your big guns out for extended periods of time before cracks develop and walls start caving in. 

    I don't mind limping into the playoffs as long as our guys get healthy. The nice thing is others are chasing us, not us chasing them. Rossi & Boldy were thrown into the deep end, and right now they look like they're sinking. I'm hoping this team doesn't pull a 2024 Twins and simply fade away. 

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    Thatoneguy
    24 minutes ago, mnfaninnc said:

    I was blacked out of the game yesterday, but just looking at the stats, 2 games and no 5v5 goals? Nice to see the PP was contributing. 

    To me, the team is pretty much unwatchable. I think what has happened, and this isn't new, is that due to lack of depth we have relied on some guys in roles that they don't fit. They've tried, but have run out of gas. With the guys out that are out, and we ran into this last season, you just can't have your big guns out for extended periods of time before cracks develop and walls start caving in. 

    I don't mind limping into the playoffs as long as our guys get healthy. The nice thing is others are chasing us, not us chasing them. Rossi & Boldy were thrown into the deep end, and right now they look like they're sinking. I'm hoping this team doesn't pull a 2024 Twins and simply fade away. 

    This is Billy's core team out there though! I can't say I see anything in him as a GM that sets him above any others the wild have hired and fired. I've said it before and I'll say it again, if by the 2026/27 season he hasnt put a team together that can get passed the 1st round he needs to be shit canned before the start of the 2027 season, if he doesn't keep Kap, he should be shit canned. His last 2 trades reek of him making a move just so he could say he tried. 

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