Wilderness Walk: Who Is To Blame?

Who's to blame? There's enough to go around but really what were you expecting? I knew this and the next couple were going to be  bad years. BG giving contracts to aging players with ntc's is not going to help matters going forward. Kaprizov looked better last night but I wonder if we haven't seen the best of him already. The league has caught up to him and he just does not have the right talent and or coaching around him. He is going to be ready to move on after these next couple years of tough times when his contract is up. He didn't come over here to play for the Minnesota Wild he had no choice in that matter he came here to win a Stanley Cup.  I see this team in the mushy middle for the foreseeable future. 

Gus has been bad but so has the defense in front of him. I thought they jumped the gun on Gus with his new contract. Did the same thing with Dubnyk. Long term contract given out on a small sample size albeit the sample size was really good. 

Really if you think this team is horrible your expectations were way too high.  

DE said after the losing road trip he gave them 2 days off. Then 1 hour practice weds and the game Thursday . They just had a long summer an are only 10 games into season.  Their idea of fixing the special teams is a one hour practice ? Dean is shocked they came out sluggish and now is going to crack the whip.  What a joke! 

It’s not really a mystery.  Look at the roster.  We have like 4 good hockey players and 21 skaters get ice time.

Our star player is centered by Ryan Hartman and is tied to the hip of diminutive 40 year, for crying out loud.

We’ve had Pat freaking Maroon taking second line ice time.

Marcus Johansson is not a top 6 winger on serious hockey team.

The defenseman are an abomination.  John Merrill and Alex Goligoski shouldn’t even be in the NHL and they’re getting second pairing ice time.

Gustavsson parlayed one good part-time season into this perception that he’s a good #1 goalie.  He’s not.  Fleury might give you a good game occasionally as a back, but was washed up 3 years ago and is still playing.

It’s a crap hockey team.  I don’t know what the hell Bill Geurin is doing, but there’s no real light at the end of the tunnel here.  Locking up every mediocre hockey player he can get his hands on, and playing above their heads.  We have a solid prospect pool, but not sure any are high impact, top line caliber.  Seem to hear a lot of “two-way grinder” assessments (aka, not high volume scorers).  We’re passing on dynamic centers in the draft for carbon copies of Jordan Greenway.  This thing is looking like a mess for the foreseeable future.  But, not messy enough to land a top draft pick.

The Ro-Bo-Kap (pronounced Cop) combo is our new look future.  That line was legitimate!  This will also speed up Rossi's development.

MoJ-Ek-erello looked a little lost but they'll figure it out.  None of them are shooters so the Def may have to score on that line.

Hartman centering the beef was decent too.  

It's a new day in Wild Country

(Free Dewar!!)

Goaltending and defenseman were good last season for MN. Now without Spurgeon or Dumba, the defense isn't the same. Goalies have not won many games apart from game one against FL.

The Wild take penalties and lose most games on special teams play where Dean has had Merrill, Mermis, and Middleton on the PK. 

There's plenty of blame to go around because nothing about their plan is working lately. 

My conclusion was simply NJD is a better team. I think you'll find that a lot when looking at the top 12 teams in the East, and we lost to teams located lower than that.

I did like the line blending. I'd like to see what this gets us for a few games. Beast, above is in full vent mode this morning. I looked outside to make sure the sky wasn't falling.

Here's what I'm seeing: 

1. Middleton was directly responsible for 2 goals against last night, Mermis 1. To me, Middleton looks like he's trying to do too much. Less is more Midsy. Mermis broke off his outside gap and allowed the lane for that first goal. Terrible play by Mermis, I believe he doesn't make that again. 
2. I liked the Maroon-Hartman-Foligno line. Just a hard working, momentum getting line that might chip in the occasional greasy goal. 
3. I really liked Boldy-Rossi-Kaprizov. That line had jump and creativity. But, we'll need a secondary scoring line.
4. With this line, we also got some soft plays. That will happen with creative guys, sometimes they try to get too cute. Shoring this aspect up will help them.
5. I actually thought Merrill had a pretty good game last night. Addison also seemed to put in a good effort. However, what I've never really realized is that 5v5, Addison is extremely limited in what he can do. I do believe bulking up would help him there by adding some explosion. Sometimes he looks like he just can't shift into 4th gear and is grinding the gears. 
6. We got a PP goal when we needed one. That was an improvement.
7. Our PK unit is a mess

Dean's comment above is very concerning. Can someone please confirm that this actually happened? If they got 2 days off and only practiced 1 hour on Wednesday, I'm calling on a full coaching staff turnover immediately. I've seen times when GMs have to head down to the bench to help bail out a sinking ship. We've got enough front office guys to go stand on the bench and come up with something.

And, I'll be more specific on this. Monday and Tuesday should have been mandatory practices where both skill drills and Xs and Os on special teams were practiced. Wednesday would have been heavy special teams practice and like Brooks said to Craig "they just scored 10 on you Jim, it's anybody's net" should be "we can't score on the PP or keep it out of the net on the PK. At this point there are no established special teams units." Who knows, maybe we find a gem in there.

The only way this can be fixed is for the team to be spending a lot of time together on the ice getting better. Days off this early in the season, yikes!!!!

1 hour ago, Pewterschmidt said:

The Ro-Bo-Kap (pronounced Cop) combo is our new look future.  That line was legitimate!  This will also speed up Rossi's development.

MoJ-Ek-erello looked a little lost but they'll figure it out.  None of them are shooters so the Def may have to score on that line.

Hartman centering the beef was decent too.  

It's a new day in Wild Country

(Free Dewar!!)

God I hope Dean doesn't revert back to the old lineup. His coaching skills are questionable at best but he had to see that ROBOKAP line was money, anyone watching that game can't debate it. That is a hell of a 1st line for any team and could be an actual, legitimate scoring threat with 3 skill guys and an actual 1C.

The beef line was money too, those guys skillsets mesh and complement each other so much better than any other combination they've thrown together. Lets face it, Hartman is not a 1C and Maroon isn't top 6 but that line has real potential to be a potent shutdown line that can score.

1 hour ago, Beast said:

We’re passing on dynamic centers in the draft for carbon copies of Jordan Greenway.  This thing is looking like a mess for the foreseeable future.  But, not messy enough to land a top draft pick.

Did you not see the picks of this last draft? I don't disagree with some of the stuff you're saying but look back at the draft picks from this year.

1 hour ago, Pewterschmidt said:

The Ro-Bo-Kap (pronounced Cop) combo is our new look future.  That line was legitimate!  This will also speed up Rossi's development.

MoJ-Ek-erello looked a little lost but they'll figure it out.  None of them are shooters so the Def may have to score on that line.

Hartman centering the beef was decent too.  

It's a new day in Wild Country

(Free Dewar!!)

New lines and change isn't always bad in hockey. Dean is similar to BB in my opinion because of their predictability.

BB switched lines all day long. Dean never does but it's kinda the same premise. Do the same thing full time. 

The issue for me is that the results prompt changes, I.e. losing losers cause introspection. If the results are good, lines would probably stay the same.

I like the idea of MN not losing all the time and sucking on the PP so switch things up cause broken means a fix is needed.

I think it's time for some chemistry. I'm over the culture and koombaya-ishness I keep hearing about. Remember the "Grit" vid preceding last playoffs choke? On ice is top priority for crying out loud and special teams still blow goats, goalies are sieves, defense is below average now. It's like some players worked on their influencer skills for the PR department during the off season or just took naps in Sweden. 

It's beginning to look like Dumba was way more important for MN than anyone gave credit. Guerin, it looks like shoulda signed one less forward and kept Dumba and traded Merrill.

Maybe it turns around when Spurgeon is back but depth on defense isn't good. Wild look lousy taking shellackings and penalties like they're going out of style.

The team has some terrible defensive rhythm. They have "enough" scoring in most cases (3-4 per game). They just aren't playing disciplined hockey.  When they get a PK, it is almost always a shot for a goal against.

I definitely believe the Rossi/Boldy shakeup is gonna pay off.  Give it 5 games together.  If Dean goes back to Hartman and Zuccarello unless Rossi or Boldy somehow fuck up, he should be fired immediately.

20 minutes ago, M_Nels said:

Did you not see the picks of this last draft? I don't disagree with some of the stuff you're saying but look back at the draft picks from this year.

I thought Stramel was a huge reach and he's showing it in the minors. Koopa Troopa (Kumpulainen) has really been showing his skill in his debut in NA (9pts in 11 games). Heidt looks like he could be very good (23pts in 13ga). The rest are middle of the road at best.

Meanwhile Musty is lighting up (12pts in 8 games), Edstrom is looking good against men in the SHL (8pts in 17 games), Stenberg in SHL (4pts in 13 games).

I thought we took a really odd strategy of drafting the prototype player we really wanted instead of the best available.  

7 minutes ago, TheGoosesAreLooses said:

I thought we took a really odd strategy of drafting the prototype player we really wanted instead of the best available.  

Yeah I can see that. Just thought it was a blatant false statement about drafting carbon copy Greenways. 

If the Wild continue to suck, it will be weird cause it's pretty much the same team minus Dumba. The lack of discipline and multitude of penalties is for sure true. 

The goaltending has been poor too but has been less protected with lesser defense. The PK also makes the goalies look bad. 

The Wild have to dig themselves out of the hole. 

2 hours ago, mnfaninnc said:

Dean's comment above is very concerning. Can someone please confirm that this actually happened? If they got 2 days off and only practiced 1 hour on Wednesday, I'm calling on a full coaching staff turnover immediately. I've seen times when GMs have to head down to the bench to help bail out a sinking ship. We've got enough front office guys to go stand on the bench and come up with something.

Yep, it happened. Even worse DE was on the Paul Allen show this week and was asked about it. His response was to defend it and even stated that he was happy to work for an organization that supports having the coaches take days off too as they get worn down. My question is where is the going that he loves to talk about?

2 hours ago, TheGoosesAreLooses said:

I thought Stramel was a huge reach and he's showing it in the minors.

Isn't Stramel taking a break from U of Wisc to play for the US world junior team?

54 minutes ago, Pewterschmidt said:

Isn't Stramel taking a break from U of Wisc to play for the US world junior team?

Not that I have heard. I know he had an injury holding him out from playing but it looks like he has played 4 games with zero points for U of Wisc. Hasn't played since Oct 13th

1 hour ago, TheGoosesAreLooses said:

Not that I have heard. I know he had an injury holding him out from playing but it looks like he has played 4 games with zero points for U of Wisc. Hasn't played since Oct 13th

I take it back.  The note i read was a year old.  He must still be injured and that's why he didn't play against Gophers last weekend.  That Badger team is full of transfers from Mankato (following coach) so let's hope Charlie has a spot when he's healthy again.  Badgers buzzed all over our #1 Gophers so Charlie will have his work cut out for him

2, 2022, at the Kohl Center. The University of Wisconsin men's hockey team will be missing two more forwards for its next games and only one of them is returning in January. Charlie Stramel made the 25-player U.S. roster for the World Junior Championship that starts Dec. 26.Dec 2, 2022

6 hours ago, mnfaninnc said:

My conclusion was simply NJD is a better team

I agree.  The Wild are an average team.  Teams like NJD that bring their "A" games are going to beat us.  We should beat the low end teams and be about .500 against average teams.  That's what bubble teams do.

I also expect some of our aging players to play better as the season progresses.  Kind of typical for the older guys to take a month to get into the grind.  Will also help to get back Spurgeon.  

My expectation have not changed.  We are a bubble team that I hope makes it in and takes whoever they play to 7 games.  

5 hours ago, Up North Guy said:

Yep, it happened. Even worse DE was on the Paul Allen show this week and was asked about it. His response was to defend it and even stated that he was happy to work for an organization that supports having the coaches take days off too as they get worn down. My question is where is the going that he loves to talk about?

It's time to move on from Deano. I am now on the coaching change side. It should be immediate. I get that coaches do need some time to refresh.  But,  coaches don't need that time when their special teams look like garbage and they are giving up 5 a night. I could even see 1 day because of 3/4. Nope, time to get to work!

Shooter, you need that replacement now. The voice in the room has grown stale.

4 hours ago, Pewterschmidt said:

Isn't Stramel taking a break from U of Wisc to play for the US world junior team?

I thought he was injured???

6 minutes ago, mnfaninnc said:

I thought he was injured???

Not sure. I did not see him play against the Gophers last week. If he did he was invisible which is not a good thing.