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Hockey Wilderness
  • Wilderness Walk: Hard Work Undone By One Penalty


    Image courtesy of © Charles LeClaire-USA TODAY Sports
    Thomas Williams

    The Minnesota Wild once appeared dead in the water during their Monday night clash against the Pittsburgh Penguins. Down 3-0 with not that much time remaining, the Wild kept on chipping away. Ryan Hartman and Jake Middleton each scored a goal to bring the deficit to just one single tally before the second intermission.

    And then less than six minutes after the break, Vinni Lettieri tipped a shot in from Jon Merrill to even it up. Jubilation occurred, every Wild fan believed they could at least force overtime. Well, unfortunately just seconds after resuming play, Kris Letang got whacked with a high stick from Kirill Kaprizov and Sidney Crosby (who else?) scored just a couple more seconds into the ensuing power play.

    It was a demoralizing defeat, to say the least.

    The Wild are still right in the thick of the playoff race, though. Well, technically I guess they are. By points percentage, the Wild are below the St. Louis Blues and Calgary Flames in the list of teams just out of a Wild Card spot. Unfortunately, both the Edmonton Oilers and Seattle Kraken are hot in pursuit just below our beloved Wild. It is a jampacked stampede to get to the top in the 50-odd games that are left.

    That's Wild

    Off the trail...

    • Behind the scenes with goalie mask artist Dave Gunnarsson. [ESPN]
    • What player will reach 100 points first in the 2023-24 season? [DailyFaceoff]

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    2 minutes ago, MNCountryLife said:

    14 minutes in the box is no way to win a game.  

    Can't just look at the PIMs on these, there was a coincidental minor too. The biggest impact was that when we had our shots at PP time, we could not answer back. And I think this is where we need to look.

    Most people when they talk about how we are playing continue to tout the 5v5 numbers. And those are decent numbers to talk about since it is the majority of the game. But, net special teams is also a very important stat, and special teams is defined as not 5v5 skaters. 

    We are not very good at net special teams. If you look at our GF and GA on special teams, my bet is we are highly in the negative. But 4v4, 4v3, 3v4, 3v3 isn't very good either.  I would also think that as Hynes moves in his system, that some of these more specialty scenarios will eventually get covered. 

    But, the reason we lost, I think, is different. 

    From the eye test, to me it looked like the Wild didn't start on time. However, as LaPanta pointed out, Pittsburgh was smoked in it's last game 7-0. That tends to mean the next game is going to be an angry game, and Pittsburgh came out skating hard. Both teams are more veteran teams, but Pittsburgh's veterans are a lot more talented than ours. 

    Pittsburgh only stood about a point difference away from us. But, being and Eastern Conference team, it was evident which conference plays faster. I don't think it was a case of not showing up on time, I think it was a case of playing a faster team and our legs just weren't able to keep up. And, herein lies the problem: Our team needs to play and get faster. 

    I have liked Maroon's game this season, yet, he looked old and slow. Managing his games might be a factor moving forward to make sure he's fresh. Would having Zuccarello have made a difference? I don't know that it would have...perhaps on the PP.

    Goligoski is simply too slow for the game he plays. He has not adopted a more stay in your lane approach, but his eyes react to plays where his body simply can't get there and he has no speed or agility to cover for his mistakes. He cost us 2 goals last night because of this. Yet, we're stuck with him. He's toast, and that 2 X $2m for an over 35 player is not doing well. Guerin NEEDS to learn this, just go 1 year at a time over 35. 

    Merrill is far more positionally solid but he too is far too slow when it comes to scramble mode. Our issue, though, is that we don't have guys ready yet in the A. They need that seasoning down there. Hunt seems to be about ready, but still has some growing pains as he does get caught and can't recover like Faber can. To me, it looks like he will get sent down again, but I think it will be one last time, he's almost ready. 

    Folks, we need speed, and we need to play faster. Hynes has helped the team to play faster, but he just doesn't have the speed necessary to compete against some of these teams like he wants to. It was evident that Pittsburgh had more speed and our forecheck just couldn't catch them. 

    This is part of the pain of the rebuild on the fly. At some point, I thought it would be a couple of years ago, we were going to go through painful transitions as the new guys came in. Shooter has chosen to keep them marinating in the A and not rushing them. It looks like we may be in for some more games like these where we get outplayed simply because the other team is better. And, as fans, we need to realize this team is not that good. 

    I do think that Hunt needs one of those Rossi offseasons, where he fully concentrates on adding strength and skating training. He'll be able to step right into Goligoski's spot next season. I haven't seen Lambos, but it is likely that he needs the same thing and can fill Merrill's spot next season. At least that takes to boat anchors off the ice. 

    It would also be nice to field a roster of 23 players where ELCs can take up very little cap. Maroon might be done after this season and perhaps Yurov can take that spot. We need more speed. 

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    The waiting game for Goligoski to be gone is down to 50+ games.  It's amazing just how steep a drop he had from a decent 30-40 games in season 1, just to completely flatline the last couple seasons while making more money.

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    2 hours ago, mnfaninnc said:

    Can't just look at the PIMs on these, there was a coincidental minor too. The biggest impact was that when we had our shots at PP time, we could not answer back. And I think this is where we need to look.

    I get what you are saying.  The Wild are not fast enough so they end up taking penalties because they are out of position and unable to recover.  You aren't wrong.  We have this team with mostly these players through next season.  I'm glad our PK is better... but we still need a solution that helps us stay out of the box.  Giving 4 to 6 extra PP minutes to opposing teams every night is not a recipe for winning.  Some penalties can be avoided.  Bogosian holding the stick would have been easy to avoid.  Hartman playing his head games that got a ref looking his way and a bad call... that can be avoided.  

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    20 minutes ago, Citizen Strife said:

    The waiting game for Goligoski to be gone is down to 50+ games.  It's amazing just how steep a drop he had from a decent 30-40 games in season 1, just to completely flatline the last couple seasons while making more money.

    He's not making more money.  The first season he was here, he made $5M.  This season and last, he's making $2M.  Granted, that $2M could have been spent on a much better defenseman than him, but he isn't making more than he was.

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    2 hours ago, raithis said:

    He's not making more money.  The first season he was here, he made $5M.  This season and last, he's making $2M.  Granted, that $2M could have been spent on a much better defenseman than him, but he isn't making more than he was.

    I think what CS was driving at was he got a salary extension for 2 more years. Thus, in that sense, he is making an extra $4m-taxes. My beef is the 2 years. There was no need for that. Under the construction of the contract, had Goligoski realized he just doesn't have it anymore, and needed to retire, we could have saved $2m. However, the player is usually the last to know, and GMBG needed to have that conversation with Goligoski telling him it was over. But, as his former teammate, why don't you come through this door and help the organization develop these great D prospects? 

    Now, Goligoski looks like he's in a bad mood, isn't playing well, is making terrible mistakes because his skills have declined and he's hurting his team. It could have all been avoided with 1 year contracts for 35+ players! You shake hands with the player and say we'll just go year by year and if everything works out ok and it's beneficial for both parties, we resign another one. It's not that hard of a concept, especially when they have a trust in each other! Same thing with Fleury! Same thing with any other older player!

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    6 hours ago, Will D. Ness said:

    Problem is that we probably still would have won if we played Mermis instead of Goligoski.

    Mermis breaks up both of those plays & I'm expecting him to draw in tonight for Goligoski. Goligoski has no business going B2Bs. 

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