Wilderness Walk: Heading To Sweden

Let’s see how the boys show up for this out of town tournament.  This distraction is exactly what this group needs right now. Cup cake (OTT) and a solid team (TOR).  Head on a swivel with Reaves on the ice boys.  Reavo has been getting savaged on internet lately so he’ll have something to prove.  Hopefully it’s Bogo who gets Reavo’s revenge.  Serve your purpose Bogo.  
Dean watch: I don’t think he gets fired before Jan 1, but if this group looks as uninspired and disorganized thru December, deans done.  They play out rest of season with interim head coach and continue to utilize ltir to have prospect tryouts and tank with dignity

That is IF, the Wild organization is willing to deviate from their playoff aspirations. 

All is not lost at this point and I think the team should be better and can be. BUT, that's gonna require some serious getting it together starting with taking fewer penalties and playing defense. 

Dean is invested and trying I'm sure. He's not a villain or Mike Babcock type coach with reputation as unlikable but results is what matters. GMBG has painted himself into a corner with those kinds of previous statements. 

It should go one way or the other. Make the playoffs or be the worst in the Central...

I'm fully on board the Dean's got to go bus.  The 2 days off + 1 hour practice after getting back from Jersey completely changed my mind. There's too much work to do and Dean's got no answers. 

I believe the interim coach might be the right call, and I might be interested in seeing Shooter come down to ice level and be that coach. Perhaps spending a little time with the guys will help out with his culture perspective? 

The thing is simple, whatever guys Shooter's looking at to replace Deano, they are not really available right now. I think Shooter also needs to see these guys without their pads on and realize how tiny they actually are. Perhaps he'd have some perspective on the slow starts too? 

So, we've got Toronto coming up. Reaves sent Gaudreau to LTIR with a blindside hit. Which Leaf is getting decleated on a reverse hit much like Ehlers got last year? 

A "don't mess with us" message needs to be sent to the entire league! Reaves' hit was very gray. I'd suggest Bogosian would endear himself to the fanbase with a huge, solid hit on a Leaf forward that knocked that player out of the game (but was as clean as Reaves' hit).

One of the biggest issues the team has is undisciplined penalties. I don't have the stats but it seems to me that the bottom six is taking a much too high percentage of these penalties. It isn't a good idea to have the worst PK and your bottom six is in the sin bin. Those damn NTC/NMC contracts are really starting to blow up. Dewey1's play has really tanked. Surprised he isn't on a NMC.

Wild are getting too slow and too old.  Replacing a 23 year old with an upper 30s guy on defense plus giving contract extensions to some of tge older veterans seems odd.  It's too bad that they think we need a bunch of hooligans with very limited hockey skills on this team.  They used to be fun to watch because of their speed.  Now they mostly slog up and down the ice.  Has anyone seen Kapril around any place?  Have they put in a missing person report?  Someone should find him because he can't be found at thr Excel Energy Center.