Wild Suffer Unfortunate Weekend, Drop Two on Road Trip

I remember a game or two last year where the Wild just made simple, boring, effective plays up and down the ice.  It doesn't make for exciting hockey, but it slows the game down and keeps them from the dumb stuff.

Washington game?  Sure.  Smaller team gets bodied out of position all game.  Meet facing the Preds every game every year.

But there are times when the Wild tries way too hard to make something out of nothing.  Don't get into track meets.  Don't try to play a game they aren't good for. They have "enough" offense to win 3-2 or even 4-3.  But being cute and funky costs them 3-5 goals a game. Take the risks on the PP or OT though.

Buium, defense aside, should be an OT staple.  You're gonna tell me Buium can't make magic with all that open ice?  Sure is better than a whole lot of nothing and losing anyway.

4 minutes ago, Citizen Strife said:

Buium, defense aside, should be an OT staple.  You're gonna tell me Buium can't make magic with all that open ice?  Sure is better than a whole lot of nothing and losing anyway.

He is too sloppy with the puck right now.  He needs to dial it down and play slightly less frantic and loose.  He also doesn't have the experience and hockey IQ yet to tactically approach the game.  He has bad habits from DU that don't translate to the NHL.  5v5 is tough for him right now and he has to be paired with solid vet to cover for him.  3v3 would be suicide.  

It's going to take a while, but he will get it.  You can tell he is a gamer and wants it.

The best thing g for the wild to do is fire Hynes! Bring in Deboer. He coached the Dallas kids last year and they were awesome.  He just gets his teams to conference finals. Unlike Johnny 1st round loser . Then we would get some idea what we have in these kids because from the eye test these kids don’t look that special or the type to push you over the top. They look soft and lost.  Probably due to there lack of development or coaching but could be they aren’t that good. 

32 minutes ago, Imyourhuckleberry said:

To date, Marat Khusnutdinov has 1 assist in a loss playing 4th line minutes.

Brazeau has 4 goals and an assist, with 2 game winning goals.

So you're comparing their stats this year?

Last season, after trade:

Brazeau had 2 points in 19 games for the Wild.

Khusnutdinov had 5 points in 18 games for the Bruins.

Khusnutdinov desperately needs a minimum of a full year in the AHL to adapt to North American hockey. He wasn't afforded that luxury because of Billy's brilliant cap management and was forced into the NHL. Maybe he will be a bust, nobody knows yet, but he was thrown to the wolves. He's four years younger than Brazeau, so we'll see where he's at when 27. Brazeau also had 7 years in the ECHL and AHL.

In hindsight, trading Khusnutdinov, Lauko, and a 6th round pick for Brazeau was a horrible trade. Brazeau was disinterested and could obviously care less about the success of the Wild. Good thing he likes Pittsburgh.

1 hour ago, Fortis said:

I predict Hynes will be fired in the next 10 games.

That’s aggressive.  I’ll take the over on this one.  I think he gets the full season and if he misses playoff or they lay another 1st round egg Hynzy is bill’s fall guy

Looks like Rossi is out of tonight's game in NY. Projected lineup at NHL.com shows JEE 1C, Hartman 2C, Yurov 3C and Ben Jones 4C. Bogo is still out also.

13 minutes ago, Scalptrash said:

Brazeau was a horrible trade.

Trading anything for this traffic cone would have been another 100% FAIL by bill.  
again, did anyone watch any game tape on this buoy before making the trade?  Just irresponsible

2 minutes ago, OldSchool said:

Looks like Rossi is out of tonight's game in NY. Projected lineup at NHL.com shows JEE 1C, Hartman 2C, Yurov 3C and Ben Jones 4C. Bogo is still out also.

Love the promotion for yurov.  He’s a totally different player than preseason yurov.  He looks like he has a chance to be an nhl’r.  Next test 3C.  I’m rooting for you young gun

1 minute ago, Pewterschmidt said:

Trading anything for this traffic cone would have been another 100% FAIL by bill.  
again, did anyone watch any game tape on this buoy before making the trade?  Just irresponsible

But he is big and his name sounds like "Brazen" which makes me think of a warrior from the stone ages.  

19 minutes ago, Scalptrash said:

Brazeau had 2 points in 19 games for the Wild.

Khusnutdinov had 5 points in 18 games for the Bruins.

Yes, I'm comparing them this year because they are both playing for a team other than the Wild so you can see how opposing coaches are using them. Khusnutdinov was playing 2nd line minutes for a team trying to lose late last year, but to start this season, they are trying to win and he's play 10 minutes per night on 4th line.

Brazeau was on a line that outscored Vegas in the playoffs last year despite receiving 4th line minutes for a playoff team. He's greatly benefitting from playing with Malkin this year, but doesn't it say something about his talent that the Penguins are letting him play on a line with Malkin.

Get back to me when Lauko or that 6th round pick play in an NHL playoff game... Lauko is playing in the Czech league currently.

24 minutes ago, Imyourhuckleberry said:

Yes, I'm comparing them this year because they are both playing for a team other than the Wild so you can see how opposing coaches are using them. Khusnutdinov was playing 2nd line minutes for a team trying to lose late last year, but to start this season, they are trying to win and he's play 10 minutes per night on 4th line.

Brazeau was on a line that outscored Vegas in the playoffs last year despite receiving 4th line minutes for a playoff team. He's greatly benefitting from playing with Malkin this year, but doesn't it say something about his talent that the Penguins are letting him play on a line with Malkin.

Get back to me when Lauko or that 6th round pick play in an NHL playoff game... Lauko is playing in the Czech league currently.

So you're trying to justify a previously bad trade by how they are performing on their next teams? Weird. What he did for the Wild amounted to NOTHING. The Wild gave up assets for NOTHING.

1 hour ago, Dean said:

Trade Ek ? WTF . Trade him for what ? Another little people to dance on perimeter. Trade our big center that does everything, that nobody else on team can do. He does it consistently. Unlike every other player on the team. He’s a playoff center. Rossi isn’t. If Rossi kappy Boldy are so good than why couldn’t they generate shit against a big team like Washington. Couldn’t generate shit against a bad team like Philly . They can’t get to the middle or defend middle of ice. They score on power play then get scored on 5 on 5. . Kinda pointless if you can’t defend. Ek and Boldy should be the only untouchables that they build around.  Trade kappy to get out of that contract. He’s already showing he doesn’t skate or compete like he did when young. Reminds me of vlad.. Rossi is going to turn out like. Granlund.  A journeyman center that isn’t a 1st or 2 nd line center for a contender. Good player but not a playoff player . To small and weak. Just like the entire wild team except for ek. The guy people want to trade.  Trade Rossi while his value is high. Move on from this little people team of washed up vets. We don’t need moose to fake fight and do nothing else or Hartman I play good a few games then take season off . 
   Ek is a north south guy. He doesn’t have wingers to play with . He’s got a team of east west wimps that won’t go to middle or defend middle. Get ek some wingers not named Jo Jo or vlad , kappy of Boldy. . If Billy was smart he would have been building down the middle these past years . Not adding east west little people. This team is a joke except for ek

Wait, Dean, aren't you the guy that wanted to trade the whole team doing the off season for one of those guys who magically would want to be a Minnesota player?

5 hours ago, MNCountryLife said:

How do you trade away a guy that is your acting 1C?   BG better have a plan if he does.

Exactly Rossi does not have any business in being 1C and still he wants to trade a center by Mid January .Would be extremly silly 

53 minutes ago, Scalptrash said:

So you're trying to justify a previously bad trade by how they are performing on their next teams? Weird. What he did for the Wild amounted to NOTHING. The Wild gave up assets for NOTHING.

The Wild didn't give up much and while they didn't get the result they hoped for, they did score more goals than Vegas. Seemed like nothing to casual fans, I get that.

I'm just not confident that the Wild gave up much that would lead to winning in the future and people talked about it like it was a crucial mistake for the franchise.

Another thing people said is that Khusnutdinov was a C and therefore clearly carried value above what he was traded for, but Boston isn't even playing him at C.

So, Guerin traded what amounts to an undersized 4th line winger for a playoff ready 4th line forward, who is now playing 3rd line for the Penguins and got dunked on by fans like he'd ruined the future. I'm not saying that Brazeau was a missing piece, but the deal wasn't anywhere near as poor as people suggested.

If Boston's 6th round pick in the upcoming draft becomes the next Spurgeon, I will stand corrected, but the 6th round delivers a very small percentage of NHL talent, much smaller than the number of undrafted NHL players each year.

The Wild had too many young players for Khusnutdinov to get significant minutes as well. Yurov and Ohgren are both better prospects. With Rossi and Zuccarello already undersized Guerin wanted to get larger framed guys who could make games more difficult for their opponents. Brazeau accomplished that.

2 hours ago, Pewterschmidt said:

That’s aggressive.  I’ll take the over on this one.  I think he gets the full season and if he misses playoff or they lay another 1st round egg Hynzy is bill’s fall guy

Curious as I don't know hockey like most of you....  several months back I heard about a 4-way alignment of owner - GM - Coach - QB in NFL.  Meaning, there is a mutual understanding and strong action towards a common goal.  They are all working together.  If I parallel this to the MN Wild (if it's even relevant at all) as I see it...   OCL fill the seats, make me money.  GMBG save my job.  HCJH save my job.  C- JS  I'm healthy, I get to play right!?  Dispatching another HC seems like we either don't have the right HC, or the right GM.  And the attitude of OCL doesn't appear copacetic with actually winning a playoff series (bonus for him if it does happen).  Curious to learn perspectives if this is a big issue or not, as I see many here nit-picking the lines and only a few coach roasts.  

4 hours ago, Imyourhuckleberry said:

Brazeau accomplished that.

Another first round exit? Waste of assets for.....you guessed it...nothing.

23 hours ago, 0 Stanley Cups said:

Then Yurov needs to play 3C, and Hartman needs to move into the top 6 and replace JoJo.  With Zuccy still out, they desperately need help creating offense beside Boldy and Kaprizov, and we have a roster filled with non-shooters and non-play drivers, just middling vets on our wings.

Honestly I have only been catching chunks of games, what is saw game 1 was hartzy driving play, being on the edge and getting under the skin of the blues, has this gone away? He seemed less noticeable but that might just be me missing it. I'd like to see yurov Hartman and trenin together if the latter 2 game find that playoff/game 1 style of play. 

On 10/20/2025 at 1:09 PM, Dean said:

Trade Ek ? WTF

Dean, I agree with this sentiment before you started going off the rails a bit.

Ek is on a bargain of a deal for what he brings to this team, he stays if I'm GM.

Rossi stays until the end of his contract at minimum, I'm sure as hell not giving him up for an Alex Tuch.

Kap is going nowhere, delusional to even consider otherwise.

As far as building down the center I suppose you can call 2021's draft a miss by drafting Wallstedt instead of Johnston but with their draft position and lack of cap money they weren't going to be able to bring in a premier center either on trade or through the draft. Yurov and to an extent Haight are trending up but don't see their ceilings as premier centers IMO.

I highly doubt we see Zucc, Mojo, Tarasenko, Bogo and the fill-ins like Vinnie and Pitlick back next year so there's room.

Center depth as it stands isn't bad at all. The vets in the top 6 on the wings is where we're hurting right now.