Minnesota Wild General Discussion - 2022-23

[BagHead]

Morning skate news...what is Evason doing now?

-The GREEF line is history!
-Can Foligno help Boldy?
-Hartman is back in

New lines:

Kaprizov - Steel - Zuccarello
Boldy - Gaudreau - Foligno
Greenway - JEEk - Hartman
Duhaime - Dewar - Reaves
Shaw

I guess he didn't see his shadow.

 

[saywut]

If there's one player I feel Hartman has shown less chemistry with on this team than Boldy its Greenway.

 

[DeagleJenkins]

If there's one player I feel Hartman has shown less chemistry with on this team than Boldy its Greenway.

Yes but he isn’t scoring so a checking role fits him better. Not sure Foligno is the answer for Boldy but a physical presence might open up lanes a little

 

[AKL]

Yes but he isn’t scoring so a checking role fits him better. Not sure Foligno is the answer for Boldy but a physical presence might open up lanes a little

On the other hand Boldy's the only one on that line that could consistently finish and Foligno is worse than Hartman at distributing the puck to scoring areas.

I for sure agree something needed to change though. I just hope if this doesn't work he's still willing to make other changes.

 

[DeagleJenkins]

On the other hand Boldy's the only one on that line that could consistently finish and Foligno is worse than Hartman at distributing the puck to scoring areas.

I for sure agree something needed to change though. I just hope if this doesn't work he's still willing to make other changes.

makes more sense to put greenway there but i get not wanting to since they are unhappy with him

 

[Webster]

Kaprizov-Boldy-Zuccarello

That's a lot of money

Just do it, and screw the rest...

 

[NHL1674]

I don't like that Fleury is starting tomorrow. He just played last night. Why not let Gus get a game in before the long break? Doesn't make sense.

 

[AKL]

I don't like that Fleury is starting tomorrow. He just played last night. Why not let Gus get a game in before the long break? Doesn't make sense.

Because when Fleury has 1 good game in a row it's a streak and he gets rewarded and when Gus has 1 bad game out of 10 he needs to sit to think about what he's done.

 

[Webster]

I don't like that Fleury is starting tomorrow. He just played last night. Why not let Gus get a game in before the long break? Doesn't make sense.

Agreed. This is Billy...

 

[Minnewildsota]

I don't like that Fleury is starting tomorrow. He just played last night. Why not let Gus get a game in before the long break? Doesn't make sense.

Because Fleury played pretty darn well? You usually give a goalie an extra game if they played well.

But complaining is more fun, apparently.

 

[NHL1674]

Because Fleury played pretty darn well? You usually give a goalie an extra game if they played well.

But complaining is more fun, apparently.

Hey, i've been pretty damn supportive of Fleury. We are going on a long break. I don't want either guy getting rusty. If Gus gets the start on February 6th, it'll be what....well over 2 weeks since he's seen action.

 

[Minnewildsota]

Hey, i've been pretty damn supportive of Fleury. We are going on a long break. I don't want either guy getting rusty. If Gus gets the start on February 6th, it'll be what....well over 2 weeks since he's seen action.

It's a precarious position regardless.

 

[Dr Jan Itor]

1. It's pretty clear Fleury is going to have every opportunity to be the starter, barring a pretty big meltdown.
2. His last game against Buffalo, he was really hard on himself after the loss, so maybe they want to see what his response this time around is.
3. It flies in the face of "the message" but it won't be the first or last time the vet gets the preferential treatment.

 

[AKL]

1. It's pretty clear Fleury is going to have every opportunity to be the starter, barring a pretty big meltdown.
2. His last game against Buffalo, he was really hard on himself after the loss, so maybe they want to see what his response this time around is.
3. It flies in the face of "the message" but it won't be the first or last time the vet gets the preferential treatment.

I just want us to acknowledge that this is the vet getting preferential treatment, that's all. Some people would rather call that complaining.

Just for fun I wanted to go back and look at their usage the last couple months. There has been one time since December 1 that Gus has gotten back to back starts, regardless of how good or bad his first night is. Compared to three times for Fleury. In that stretch, Fleury is 8-5-2 with a .906 sv% and 44 goals allowed in 16 games. Gus is 8-3-0 with a .929 sv% and 22 goals allowed in 11 games.

Even going back as far as Fleury's injury, Gus played three straight with Fleury out, he let in five goals the first game, and one each of the next two. Fleury got the start as soon as he was back, let in four goals that game, and still got the next game.

Some other notables:

December 10th, Gus gets the shutout, Fleury starts December 12th
December 27th, Gus lets in one goal, Fleury gets the next two starts
January 1st, Gus lets in one goal, Fleury gets the net on the 7th, allows six, Gus gets the net back on the 8th, allows two, Fleury gets the net back on the 10th

And I don't remember if Gus was injured or sick from December 4th-9th, but Gus started on December 3rd, let in four, Fleury gets the next three games, allowing 13 total.

And to be clear, there are times where Fleury actually has a good game and Dean will still go to Gus next game. So I'm not sure how Dean is picking his starter every night, but 1) it is NOT simply going with the guy who "played pretty darn well" the last game, and 2) there's a very clear bias towards Fleury, despite Fleury very clearly being the worse of the two. I mean by virtually every metric out there, Fleury is worse.

So yeah, let's talk about it for what it is instead of pretending it's baseless complaining.

 

[57special]

Gus is clearly the best goalie, and has the brighter future, but we go with Fleury because of his playoff experience.... anyone else getting deja vu?

Watch Gus be hard to re-sign because he knows the deck is stacked against him here. How many times will Dean (acting on BG's orders?) make the same mistake?

 

[Dr Jan Itor]

Gus is clearly the best goalie, and has the brighter future, but we go with Fleury because of his playoff experience.... anyone else getting deja vu?

Watch Gus be hard to re-sign because he knows the deck is stacked against him here. How many times will Dean (acting on BG's orders?) make the same mistake?

It's 1 more year with Fleury and Gus is 24 years old. I'm not sure that it's much of an issue. I'm not really going to "complain" about it unless a) we make the playoffs, b) Fleury gets the nod, c) he's not very good and d) he's still the de facto starter next year.

 

[GordieGallant]

If Dumba is the heartbeat of the team then we are in big trouble, both now, and in the future, when he most certainly will not be here.

He is a better option than what we are trotting out there right now, but let’s not pretend that he is anything more than he is, a middle pairing Dman who makes critical mistakes, and is overpaid based on numbers that he posted 5-6 years ago. I think it was @Jesus comma Brodin , or someone, posted in the off season that our defense was going to be pretty sad this year, and he was right. Goligoski is slow, weak, and old, Middletons skating and puck handling is poor, and Merrill is a mediocre #6. To say that Dumba is better than those three is damning him with faint praise.
He was awful in the game prior to his benching, and his poor decision making is extremely frustrating, because he is no longer a young player, but one well into his prime. There is no doubt that his tools are better than anyone not named Brodin or maybe Spurgeon, which makes it all the more frustrating. I found it weird that the management team would give him a letter, when, IMO, they had worthier options.
At this point it’s water under the bridge. Whether he plays a lot, or a little this year, the team is neither a Cup, nor a Bedard, contender. I don’t really care… but I find that I am saying that more than ever this year about the team in general. As far as Dumba is concerned, he ain’t coming back, barring some seismic move by Guerin.

I won’t miss Dumba.

 

[Wabit]

You might be onto something here. Maybe Evason just really likes catchy line names and that's why he didn't want to split up GREEF.

Well the 4th line could be called the DDR line. It just sounds like a bad CCR cover band.

 

[Dr Jan Itor]

Well the 4th line could be called the DDR line. It just sounds like a bad CCR cover band.

DuDeR

 

[Wabit]

DuDeR

D2-R1 or R1-D2

 

[NHL1674]

I dig a loose goalie.

 

[Puhis]

Well the 4th line could be called the DDR line. It just sounds like a bad CCR cover band.

Oh hey, we could have DDR and the Wall in a few years!

 

[Wabit]

Oh hey, we could have DDR and the Wall in a few years!

Just pack them all onto the Gus Bus.

 

[f7ben]

So , instead of really solidifying our descent into getting a quality draft pick this team ekes out two wins against terrible teams and continues its March towards perpetual irrelevance.

 

[TaLoN]

So , instead of really solidifying our decent into getting a quality draft pick this team ekes out two wins against terrible teams and continues its March towards perpetual irrelevance.

Buffalo isn't a terrible team
I like winning. Winning is fun. More fun than losing.

Also, both winning and losing can be contagious. I know which I'd rather my team gets hooked on. I'd hate to see the Wild become the Detroit Lions of the NHL.