Wilderness Walk: What Now?

Look for ways to improve down the middle. Scoring winger. Sign Gustavsson next in line with a Dumba offer. That’s GMBG priorities.

Hire Adam Oates or Gordon Bombay to get the power play going. Swear an allegiance to zero penalties and referee-retribution through nullification. Heal up if you’re Ek or Kaprizov. Dean, read the Art of War. Take some notes on DeBoer. These should be objectives for players and coaches.

Marketing team, please fire yourselves.
 

Medical staff, get Shaw a bionic knee going.

I'd be fine with a complete coaching change. Minus the goalie coach

1 minute ago, kapislife said:

I'd be fine with a complete coaching change. Minus the goalie coach

Darby watch is on.  Does he make it thru the upcoming blood letting

When you go into the playoffs thinking you're going to go deep (Evason trying to be smart and switching goalies from game 1 to game 2 to conserve stamina) you get into the wrong mindset. The playoffs are completely different than the regular season.  Bill Guerin has built a perennially good regular season team. Now he needs to make some tweaks to make it a playoff team.  Dallas skated circles around them in the last few games, and once they got in the lead, they just played great defense and didn't let the Wild set up.  The game plan needs to be more build around marching up and down the ice and taking chances.  Too many times in the last three games they just dumped the puck into the zone and tried to set up a play.  No sense of urgency until the last half of the 3rd period of game six.

1 hour ago, Pewterschmidt said:

Darby watch is on.  Does he make it thru the upcoming blood letting

He should be gone. Country club needs to close. Special teams blew again, that was his job

We are currently slated to draft at 22. This can move to 20 if Seattle and Florida win their next series. We've just become Kraken and Panthers fans.

1 hour ago, Pewterschmidt said:

Darby watch is on.  Does he make it thru the upcoming blood letting

Can't remember who suggested it, but bringing Bruno home might be a coup!

32 minutes ago, mnfaninnc said:

We are currently slated to draft at 22. This can move to 20 if Seattle and Florida win their next series. We've just become Kraken and Panthers fans.

I was a Kraken and Panthers fan as soon as they lined up against the Aves and Bruins....

I have given too much thought on what is wrong with the Wild. First, how do you keep a coach (and staff) who is 0-forever in playoffs. There have been zero schematic changes in the playoffs when stuff isn't working. Also, does anyone not think that referees are humans too? If you are constantly being yelled at or sworn at by a coach and his players, are you going to give the benefit of the doubt to that team? I think not,

The team has too much dead weight playing. When half the defensemen on the team suck, you may have an issue. When none of your centers can win a face-off, you may have an issue. When no player in the room can stand up and say "get on my back boys, we are going to win" (as Kirby Puckett did in the WS), you may have a problem. When your PP can't score for half a season yet you change nothing, you may have a problem. When your PK is great then is terrible after losing two players, you may have a problem.

The cap is going to be a killer for the next two years. I know the owner wants to win and get to the playoffs so he can break even financially, but maybe he needs to tap into his wife's trust fund for a couple years and let the team do a rebuild. Bring up Iowa  guys as needed and get rid of non-performing players from this year.

Possible silver lining in Goligoski's contract, since it has no bonuses or is front loaded, if he retires after this season (like he really should), his cap disappears. Who's ready to throw a retirement party?

I believe Fleury is the same way but he has already stated 1 more year.  Actually, I think that will be good for Goose2 and The Wall. 

1 hour ago, NC Beach Bum said:

I was a Kraken and Panthers fan as soon as they lined up against the Aves and Bruins....

Don't forget about the beloved Canes!

CHL Update-Spacek scores!!!! Sherbrooke takes both games on the road for 2-0 lead.

Winnipeg is up 2-0 with a Lambos apple, +2.

Kamloops drops both games 0-2, Bankier scores, Masters -2. Bankier has played LW the last couple of games I've noticed. That made me cringe!

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I was thinking about the upcoming draft. It is supposed to be competitive with the '03 draft of 20 years ago. In that draft, we were 20th and took Burns. I'd also compare it with '15 where we got Ek at 20. Boy, wouldn't it be nice to be 20 again? Maybe that's our lucky number draft spot!

In '03, it was tough to find a bust in the 1st round, thought the Rangers found one at 12, and Edmonton did at 22. 

Several #1 Cs were taken after the 1st round in '03, including Bergeron, Backes, Pavelski. After 20, Kesler, Boyle and Perry were taken. Getzlaf went right ahead of Burns. 

If it were me drafting, I'd look at the organization and notice we have a lot of defensemen and wings, we need true centers, especially with some size.  This is where I'd target my top 2 picks this draft. If you've got to trade up, do it! And, right now I'd have to consider most of our players being included in a deal. 

There are a few center prospects in our range, and a few others in the teens that maybe we could reach up for.  I'm really hoping we can get this solved.  I'd also be interested in trading prospects for some other true center prospects that aren't established.  We can't miss on this year's top picks.  Brackett's got a lot of pressure on him this particular year.

Pavel Novak comes back next year.  Does anyone have any expectations of him?  He is pretty small. 

Just watched 97’s end of season presser (Twitter is great source for up to minute Wild coverage.  Horrible source for everything else) and he confirmed he was healthy.  That confirms for me that invisibility cloak was due to coaching because 97 didn’t forget how to play.  And I don’t buy that he couldn’t find rhythm after long injury lay-off.  
Another indictment of Deano’s acumen.  

#This isn’t Dean hate or trolling

What next?  

Sign Gus.

Buy duct tape.

21 hours ago, mnfaninnc said:

Don't forget about the beloved Canes!

Canes now my favorite

1 hour ago, Will D. Ness said:

Buy duct tape.

and superglue didn't work on Ek's broken leg. Very sad.

I think first and foremost getting rid of the special teams coach (or coaches) and replacing them is what needs to be done. Beyond that see if we can make some moves to draft a solid center or get a good center prospect.