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Minnesota Wild General Discussion - 2022-23

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NHL1674 said:
Our goalies suck. Our defense sucks. The always reliable Brodin belongs on the side of a milk carton. And we're about to lose the first 3 home games of the season....a place where they always dominated. Everything seems upside down.

Holy crap! This may finally be the year when we get past the first round!
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From The Athletic's bold predictions article:

The Wild will get past the first round: This is the year. For the third time since 2003 and first since 2015, the Wild are going to exorcise their first-round demons and advance to the semifinals. This is still a really good team, led by Kirill Kaprizov, and it has the cap space to add a significant piece (or pieces) if it plays its cards right. And the Wild also now have a good luck charm in Minnesota-based Joe Smith, who is accustomed to long playoff runs coming from Tampa to help cover the team. — Michael Russo and Joe Smith
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I bet they want that one back already.
 
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Taylor26 said:
I'm a pretty glass half empty type of guy...but its game 2 of 82? Very early.
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Skeptic seems correct after 2 games...
 
I still don't understand how they're handling Rossi. It's a very questionable decision to put him on a grinders line. But the guy won't develope & learn if you give him 7 shifts a night.

At least try him in a top 6 role. The wild don't have way better options at center at the moment, so why don't try the young, talented guy there? If he sucks you still can send him down. At the moment it looks like they're not really giving him a chance to succeed.
 
The Rossi handling makes no sense and is a complete departure from previous messaging about playing guys in the AHL because they want to get them ice time in larger roles that fit the eventual vision for NHL time--even more-so when you have a player like Rossi. This entire coaching staff and front office entire checks are being written by the Kaprizov carry job. I'm not sure anyone in the entire NHL can carry a team like Kaprizov can currently.
 
Why are people surprised Rossi is on the 4th line? Outside of Kaprizov every rookie has been either in the AHL or bottom of the lineup to start the season with this GM/coach.

Boldy, Dewar, and Rossi were all injury callups for the same game last year. Injury/sickness hit hard right then and MN had a lineup with all of Addison, Benn, Boldy, Dewar, Mermis, Pitlick, Rask, Rau, and Rossi. Boldy/Rossi/Foligno was the line that 1st game.
 
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Wabit said:
Why are people surprised Rossi is on the 4th line? Outside of Kaprizov every rookie has been either in the AHL or bottom of the lineup to start the season with this GM/coach.

Boldy, Dewar, and Rossi were all injury callups for the same game last year. Injury/sickness hit hard right then and MN had a lineup with all of Addison, Benn, Boldy, Dewar, Mermis, Pitlick, Rask, Rau, and Rossi. Boldy/Rossi/Foligno was the line that 1st game.
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Boldy started on the Fiala line in that first Game vs Boston... never left the Fiala line until he substituted on the top line for Zucc.

Only reason Fiala didn't assist on Boldy's first goal was because Boldy scored it on the PP with Foligno and Sturm as the other forwards.

Also, Pitlick wasn't a call up. He was playing for a few months by that point, he was a waiver claim early that season and played well, but then Boldy's arrival made him irrelevant and was waived. 6 days after that game, the Habs claimed him. Played 20 games for us between when we claimed him in Oct through when we waived him in Jan.
 
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TaLoN said:
Boldy started on the Fiala line in that first Game vs Boston... never left the Fiala line until he substituted on the top line for Zucc.
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5v5 ToI Boldy+Fiala
BOS: 1:22
WSH: 0:40

Boldy/Fiala were on the same PP, not the same 5v5 line.

Kap was out the WSH game. Both Boldy and Fiala were tried with Zucc/Hartman.
 
Russo says Mason Shaw has been recalled and will play tomorrow. So who'll sit, Rossi?

Wait, they have to send somebody down, unless there's an injured player, right?
 
Webster said:
Russo says Mason Shaw has been recalled and will play tomorrow. So who'll sit, Rossi?

Wait, they have to send somebody down, unless there's an injured player, right?
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I don't think they are at the roster limit, so no one has to be sent down, unless Greenway and Merrill are both healthy.
 
Maybe Hartman is injured after this.
What the heck was he thinking about anyway, why didn't he let go of his stick?

 
With all due respect, Rossi is a side issue right now. It's like worrying about your flower bed when your house is burning down.

This team showed signs last year of having uneven defensive play(not just the Dmen), but they got away with it because the scoring was way up. Now the same issue is rearing it's head, but we have replaced Talbot with a guy who was terrible last year, brought in Addison to replace Kulikov(yes, he had a bad playoffs, but had a decent year overall), and Steel and Jost to replace Fiala and Sturm.
Men while our soon to be 38 yo goalie's play has declined precipitously from two years ago when he won the Vezina. Who knew that almost ALL players declined as they reach their late 30's?

Right now this team is in a fight to be even mediocre, and it's ALL about their inability to keep the puck out of their net. Evason needs to understand this, and takes steps to fix things quickly.
 
57special said:
Right now this team is in a fight to be even mediocre, and it's ALL about their inability to keep the puck out of their net. Evason needs to understand this, and takes steps to fix things quickly.
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The problem is Evason hasn't shown to be any good at either of these things.

The other problem is expectations for this team were way too high. We've been getting lucky for almost 2 years straight with empty net goals, guys having career years in back to back seasons, etc. If this is the year the luck dries up, no one should be surprised. This is clearly a team with half (at most) of a good top 6, no true 1D, and questionable (at best) goaltending.

I'm sure they'll somewhat "right the ship" here and end up making the playoffs (or at least getting close), but this is not a contender, and I'm confused as to why anyone thinks it is. These types of games should have been expected. Of course the fact that it's the first two games of the season probably makes the issue seem more pronounced, if only because they haven't played any good games before now to temper emotions.
 
Kaprizov-Hartman-Zuccarello
Gaudreau-Steel-Boldy

Brodin-Dumba
Goligoski-Spurgeon

That's our top 6 and top 4, and in red are the guys playing in a role above their abilities, at this point. We're going to have bad games.
 
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