Wild Leave Winnipeg Hurt In 6-3 Loss

Jake Appletini has won me over.  His arrival makes Dewar expendable.  He brings more sandpaper than dewar and he makes the same/more hockey plays each game

we need a winger to skate with Jake Martini & Rossi.  Is there a player named Asti Spumanti?

Khusnutdinov can't come soon enough.  Ek and Rossi putting up ridiculous numbers lessens the absolute dire need, but God: having even more scoring would be nice if the defense and goaltending can't figure out it's shit on a regular basis.  5-6 goals against is the new 3-4...

Athletic's Wheeler ranked the Wild prospect pool 11th this year now that Faber and Rossi have "graduated" to the NHL. Previously, it wasn't clear to me if Yurov was playing any center after the Wild mentioned it as a possibility, but it certainly sounds like he is.

Quote

This year, a move to center helped him really lean into that identity and he has looked like a natural down the middle outside of needing some expected work in the faceoff (he’s only winning about 44-45 percent in the KHL). He’s a kid who has really impressed me almost every time I’ve watched him over the years, whether against his peers or in the KHL.

He used to be listed at 6'0" and 171 pounds, but Wheeler indicates 6'1" and 180 pounds in his description, and I imagine he's getting stronger. He has 47 points through 59 games and is on pace to break the points record for a 20-year old in the KHL. In the rankings, only Wallstedt is ahead of him among Wild prospects.

35 minutes ago, Pewterschmidt said:

Jake Appletini has won me over.  His arrival makes Dewar expendable.  He brings more sandpaper than dewar and he makes the same/more hockey plays each game

we need a winger to skate with Jake Martini & Rossi.  Is there a player named Asti Spumanti?

Out of retirement from the early 90's, introducing Terry Yake. For reals though, Rasmu Kantpooaintlying is gonna fit.

10 minutes ago, Protec said:

Out of retirement from the early 90's, introducing Terry Yake. For reals though, Rasmu Kantpooaintlying is gonna fit.

Opening night lineup 25’-26’ season:

Jake Martini & Rossi Rasmu-stilzkin’

#LFG

The Wild have 7 more games until the March 8th 2pm trade deadline. There are two sets of back-to-back games (never an easy feat):

• 2/23: Oilers
• 2/24: Kraken
• 2/27: Hurricanes
• 2/29: Predators
• 3/2: Blues
• 3/3: Sharks
• 3/7: Coyotes

Of the 7 games, you have 2x top-tier teams (Oilers and Canes), 3x middling teams with similar-ish standings to the Wild (Kraken, Preds, and Blues), and 2x bottom-tier teams (Sharks and Yotes). I can easily see this being a 50/50 split, netting 7 points of the possible 14 with a 3-3-1 record. 

I'll be intrigued on Guerin's take come March 8th if we're still on the outside of the playoff picture. Will he be willing to move any of the UFA's (Duhaime, Bogo, or Maroon) especially with Khusnutdinov potentially joining the team soon, or will he stand pat? At the bare minimum, I'm assuming/hoping he'll at least be a third-party broker and retain salary for a few teams/trades and gather a couple mid-draft picks.

1 hour ago, Imyourhuckleberry said:

He used to be listed at 6'0" and 171 pounds, but Wheeler indicates 6'1" and 180 pounds in his description, and I imagine he's getting stronger. He has 47 points through 59 games and is on pace to break the points record for a 20-year old in the KHL. In the rankings, only Wallstedt is ahead of him among Wild prospects.

More update on Yurov, his K team has 3 games left for him to get a point. His last game he was shut out of points, but managed 5 shots on goal. His team is 1st in the division, 4th overall. I expect a long playoff run for the young 20 year old. In that, I think we'll see just how much strength he's added, I suspect the K playoffs are pretty brutal.

22 minutes ago, WheelSnipeCelly said:

Of the 7 games, you have 2x top-tier teams (Oilers and Canes), 3x middling teams with similar-ish standings to the Wild (Kraken, Preds, and Blues), and 2x bottom-tier teams (Sharks and Yotes). I can easily see this being a 50/50 split, netting 7 points of the possible 14 with a 3-3-1 record. 

This is a good breakdown. For me, I think the next 3 are really important as we need to figure out a way to get 4 points out of them. I think Guerin will have made up his mind on what he will do at that point. 

Then comes the next 2 games vs. Preds and Blues. If the Wild can win both of those games, I think we'll be standing pat. If they lose both, I think he may sell off a couple of pieces, and broker a deal. 

What is the difference between running with Merrill or running with Hunt? Merrill definitely has the experience, but Hunt is a better skater, more agile and better offensively. What is the difference between running with Duhaime vs. Beckman? I'd say Beckman offers more offensive upside, Duhaime more sandpaper and dropping of mitts. Duhaime is probably faster, Beckman more of a threat. Duhaime kills penalties. 

Would we want to keep Maroon around? He'll be hurt, but TBL may want him back. If Goligoski won't waive his NMC, I say build him a private room in the Prossbox. Have the nachos delivered at gametime, maybe with 2nds a little later. 

I am a little curious, though. When Chisholm was due to make his debut, I thought he was supposed to partner with Goligoski? At least, that's what the gamethread indicated. Yet, he started with Merrill. Mermis played last night. Did Goligoski even make the trip? Has he been banished for the time being? The last time I saw him play, I saw him get caught up the ice, leave Bogosian high and dry and loaf back and lose a guy he should have been shadowing. It cost us a goal. I haven't seen him since. I have to imagine that Heinzy saw the same thing and it did not sit well with him.

Last night's game was a real bummer. It played similar to the Vancouver game except we never really did cash in on our opportunities. Of course, we played another goalie who owned us in Brossoit who I believe is now 5-0 vs. the Wild.

For a brief shift, Heinzy broke up the Boldy-Ek-Kaprizov line and subbed in Johannson instead. I think he then used Zuccarello-Hartman-Kaprizov for a shift. What I liked about this was Heinzy noticed the matchup that Bowness wanted for the top line, and he wanted to see how Bowness reacted to the switch. I don't remember what happened, but soon Winnipeg had a big enough lead to just roll all 4. 

I also was wondering about Rossi playing with Lucchini and Lettieri? According to LaPanta, though, it appears that the Italians were promoted to the 3rd line??? I didn't look up the TOI breakdown, but it seemed like this line got plenty of opportunity. 

Last season, the final scoring play I remembered was pulling our goalie in game 6 and Matt Boldy coughed up a soft weak pass to the wrong place sending the Dallas forward toward our empty net unchallenged. Last night, he sent a weak pass to a flat footed Chisholm who got picked and it caused breakaway, and then Boldy passed it from his own zone causing another free opportunity. His night ended with fanning and coughing up a weak pass causing a breakaway on an empty net to Nino.

I'm all for creativity and trying to create plays, but good grief, that's a lot of turnovers and fans. This was just one game where he appears weak on his stick. More importantly, this has happened all season long and it is very frustrating to watch Boldy, Kaprizov, and Zuccarello all have this same problem. With Boldy, though, it isn't fixed and he's got to be harder on his stick and harder charging forward. The 5 games prior he was pretty good, but last night he drifted back to his old self. 

I'll admit that Boldy is still a young player learning, but he's got to understand that these turnovers simply cannot continue to happen at this rate! He'll likely have a brutal film session with his coaches today, and it's got to be stressed that he has to bull his way forward, and emphasize his north-south game. Right now defenders expect him to button hook, back off and are ready to jump onto his weak fans. That means, north-south is more open than usual. I would say that he needs to emphasize north-south for the remaining games this season to back off defenders. That threat has to be there for his button hooks and east-west game to thrive. 

3 hours ago, WheelSnipeCelly said:

I'll be intrigued on Guerin's take come March 8th if we're still on the outside of the playoff picture. Will he be willing to move any of the UFA's (Duhaime, Bogo, or Maroon) especially with Khusnutdinov potentially joining the team soon, or will he stand pat? At the bare minimum, I'm assuming/hoping he'll at least be a third-party broker and retain salary for a few teams/trades and gather a couple mid-draft picks.

If he decides to stand pat, I think we can definitely expect him to be a trade broker like he was last season. 

That said, I can't imagine he will want to bail on the season. I mean we were 7 points out of a playoff spot when he said they were still gonna fight for positioning, so barring another long stretch of losses I can't imagine he'll be willing to be a true seller at the TDL. 

Plus our movable assets are getting hurt left and right. 

5 hours ago, Citizen Strife said:

Khusnutdinov can't come soon enough.  Ek and Rossi putting up ridiculous numbers lessens the absolute dire need, but God: having even more scoring would be nice if the defense and goaltending can't figure out it's shit on a regular basis.  5-6 goals against is the new 3-4...

I'd like to see a line of Zuccy-Rossi-Nutty

He can't be any worse at not scoring goals than MoJo right? Right?!?

1 hour ago, B1GKappa97 said:

Zuccy-Rossi-Nutty

Ro-Zuc-Nut

RoZucNut brought to you by Phiszer. 

Side effects include playoff butt hurtness, little Euro aggravation, NAgrit-deficiency, and TMF syndrome.(too much finesse)

Approved by the FDA so it will probably work according to mainstream media & science experts.

38 minutes ago, Protec said:

RoZucNut brought to you by Phiszer. 

Side effects include playoff butt hurtness, little Euro aggravation, NAgrit-deficiency, and TMF syndrome.(too much finesse)

Approved by the FDA so it will probably work according to mainstream media & science experts.

voice over read while 97 and 36 sit in claw foot bath tubs, clinking champagne flute's and watching the sunset

I think at this point, putting Rossi with anyone says more about their faith in them rather than punishing Rossi.  He's nearing 20 goals in his rookie season (tied with Faber for second in points behind that guy in Chicago with the broken jaw).

He puts up points regardless of who he plays with, so good on Letteri and Lucchini for making the most of it.

18 hours ago, Pewterschmidt said:

voice over read while 97 and 36 sit in claw foot bath tubs, clinking champagne flute's and watching the sunset

Also with a tv on watching Metallurg vs. Torpedo (Yurov vs. Firstov), chanting "We Want Yurov" as his hands are raised after scoring a big goal.