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  • Wild Get Reality Check On Disappointing Road Trip


    Image courtesy of © John Jones-Imagn Images
    Thomas Williams

     

     

    That's Wild

    • The Minnesota Wild are not having a good time. After their 4-1 loss to the New Jersey Devils on Wednesday night, they suffered a brutal 1-3-1 record on their road trip that took them through a variety of opponents and not so much a variety of results. [The Athletic]
    • Brock Faber is starting to feel more like himself after a tough start to his season, following a disappointing sophomore season. [The Athletic]
    • The Wild are still riding the clutch. [Hockey Wilderness]
    • There is one winger who could really solve a whole lot of the Wild's scoring problems and he just so happens to play for the Philadelphia Flyers. Owen Tippett might get moved eventually because of the numbers game, but he would be a perfect fit in Minnesota. [Hockey Wilderness]

    Off the trail...

    • What teams have the most to prove in the 2025-26 season? [ESPN]
    • Ivan Demidov pulled off some overtime magic to give Mike Matheson the game-winner for the Montreal Canadiens over the Calgary Flames. [Sportsnet]
    • With more NHL teams deciding to bring back some old-school jerseys to wear during the game, what are some other specific sweaters that teams could suit up in? [Bleacher Report]

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    On 10/24/2025 at 1:10 PM, Scalptrash said:

    Let's add some context on why the Wild may be in trouble. Last year, after eight games, they had 12 points and were 5-1-2=first place. This year they have 7 points and are 3-4-1=tied for last place. After 10 games last year, 16 points. Kirill had 7G and 14A=21 points. He is not on that pace this year.

    You can see why the next two games may be fairly important. The season will be 1/8th over already. Reminder, they made the playoffs by 20 seconds last year, even after their incredibly hot start. Before you cry injuries, every team has injuries, including the Panthers.

    This season, every player is a year older. Spurgeon and Brodin are showing it and the defense is suffering. Even Faber isn't playing as well. The young D are some of it, but not all of it. The defense was all veterans last year and much more sound. Thank goodness Gustavsson is playing well, or things could be worse.

    They are second to last in 5on5 scoring. -7 goal differential. Tarasenko is a severe downgrade from Zuccarello. Johansson must swallow to keep getting top six minutes, it's the only explanation. Everyone in the world knows Ohgren could do no worse, but might actually be better if given an extended opportunity.

    If they aren't playing to make the playoffs and trying to win the cup, then why do they play? Leipold and Guerin have made it clear numerous times that this team will never rebuild. This is obvious by who they chose to play in each role, repeatedly. Hynes is still leaning towards vets over youth and they are playing no better. They look old, slow, and tired. It is reason for concern if you're only goal is to make the playoffs. I don't think this is an overreaction at all. It's twice as hard to crawl out of the cellar, other teams don't stand still and wait for you to catch up. This team doesn't have depth or much skill, for that matter, so it's going to be an uphill battle all the way. Every other team in the Central got better and half were already better. Good luck!

    I disagree with most of this.  There's a lot of season left and the kids are still getting their feet wet.  I'm catching up from being sick as hell for the past week so I'm just going to leave it at that.

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    7 minutes ago, raithis said:

    I disagree with most of this.  There's a lot of season left and the kids are still getting their feet wet.  I'm catching up from being sick as hell for the past week so I'm just going to leave it at that.

    Yeah, three more losses, at home, since I wrote that. Go ahead and disagree, so far they are proving me right. I take it you probably haven't been following local or national media for the last week either. I'll summarize it for you, they all agree. Oh, almost forgot, the urgent captains meeting with the GM and the individual player meetings with the coach. Nah, everything's fine and unicorns do exist.

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    9 minutes ago, Scalptrash said:

    Yeah, three more losses, at home, since I wrote that. Go ahead and disagree, so far they are proving me right. I take it you probably haven't been following local or national media for the last week either. I'll summarize it for you, they all agree. Oh, almost forgot, the urgent captains meeting with the GM and the individual player meetings with the coach. Nah, everything's fine and unicorns do exist.

    I never said everything was fine.  I said it was too early to panic and say that the season is lost and that doing so was an overreaction.  Who cares if they are meeting?  That's what teams do when they try to sort things out.

    I also could are less what the national media says.  They don't much care about the Wild at all.  The Wild could be #1 in the league and scoring 5 goals per game and talk would still mostly center around many of the teams in the Eastern Conference.

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    1 minute ago, raithis said:

    I never said everything was fine.  I said it was too early to panic and say that the season is lost and that doing so was an overreaction.  Who cares if they are meeting?  That's what teams do when they try to sort things out.

    I also could are less what the national media says.  They don't much care about the Wild at all.  The Wild could be #1 in the league and scoring 5 goals per game and talk would still mostly center around many of the teams in the Eastern Conference.

    Craig Leipold thanks you.

     

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    1 minute ago, Scalptrash said:

    Craig Leipold thanks you.

     

    And you say other people troll...

    I haven't been to a game or bought anything Wild-related in a few years.  All I do is watch the games and talk about the team here, which I'm guessing you do as well.

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