Minnesota Wild General Discussion 2024-25

Webster

Zucc's buddy
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Now chief Zuccarello, it's time to lead these kids to victory, and teach them how to play NHL hockey. Pick up the whiteboard again and show em.
 

Minnesota

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Interesting. With how Spacek has been playing, I thought he might get the nod. The decision might have come down to handedness.
 

AKL

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Interesting. With how Spacek has been playing, I thought he might get the nod. The decision might have come down to handedness.

Wouldn't handedness lend itself even more to Spacek or Jiricek getting the call up?

Now we have Faber and Bogosian who are RH, and Brodin, Chisholm, Merrill, Lambos and maybe Dermott who are LH

Man, listing it out like that, Chisholm-Bogosian is gonna be our second pair playing 20 minutes per night lol
 

Minnesota

L'Etoile du Nord
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Wouldn't handedness lend itself even more to Spacek or Jiricek getting the call up?

Now we have Faber and Bogosian who are RH, and Brodin, Chisholm, Merrill, Lambos and maybe Dermott who are LH

Man, listing it out like that, Chisholm-Bogosian is gonna be our second pair playing 20 minutes per night lol
Hmm, true. Yeah, then I don’t get the logic behind choosing Lambos over Spacek/Jiricek.
 

AKL

Danila Yurov Fan Club President
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Hmm, true. Yeah, then I don’t get the logic behind choosing Lambos over Spacek/Jiricek.

I wonder if it's because they're considering trading him for offensive help, but want to see what he looks like in the NHL first, or maybe showcase him for other teams, so they can see where he's at?

With Brodin, Middleton, Chisholm and Buium in the system, unless Lambos blows the doors off, he seems pretty expendable on paper.
 

BagHead

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Dec 23, 2010
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Wouldn't handedness lend itself even more to Spacek or Jiricek getting the call up?

Now we have Faber and Bogosian who are RH, and Brodin, Chisholm, Merrill, Lambos and maybe Dermott who are LH

Man, listing it out like that, Chisholm-Bogosian is gonna be our second pair playing 20 minutes per night lol
Dermott shoots left, but Russo was saying he could play on the right. I wonder, then, if we'll see a 3rd pairing of Dermott - Lambos/Merrill.
 

DigitalBoldy

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Now chief Zuccarello, it's time to lead these kids to victory, and teach them how to play NHL hockey. Pick up the whiteboard again and show em.
Sergeant Boldy does not think great value Johnny Depp is good at drawing plays in invisible ink. Instead, he has offered treats to the chief for successful non-turnover passes in the offense zone as a way to prove you can teach an old dog new tricks.
 

Nino Noderreiter

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Wonder if they will see if Chisholm can play on his off hand. If he can:

Middleton-Faber
Brodin-Spurgeon
Buium-Chisholm
Bogosian
I actually think playing on the off-hand is "better" for guys like Buium and Chisholm who are pretty offensive minded. The biggest downside is catching D-D passes on your backhand, but it allows you to be a lot more of threat offensively because you are on your forehand when you are cutting to the middle of the ice.
 

57special

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I actually think playing on the off-hand is "better" for guys like Buium and Chisholm who are pretty offensive minded. The biggest downside is catching D-D passes on your backhand, but it allows you to be a lot more of threat offensively because you are on your forehand when you are cutting to the middle of the ice.
It's also a big handicap when picking up pucks from the boards on the point in the O zone, and trying to clear pucks dug out from the boards in the D zone. Walking the line on the point also is ... different. Most dmen would rather be skating backward to do that.
 

Nino Noderreiter

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On another note, I just still can't believe that Rossi is currently on pace for 69 points (30 goals) as a 23 year old center. I compared him to Granlund and Parise in earlier posts, but in Granlund's case he couldn't handle the defensive responsibilities and skating responsibilities and still contribute offensively. I think Rossi is not only producing points, but he's great structurally in the center role doing all of the things a center has to do when it comes to supporting D in the breakout/regroup... winning puck battles in corners... and even faceoffs.

His hand-eye coordination, willingness, tenacity, and hands to get to the front of the net and score from that area is just about the most reliable form of offense there is if you aren't someone like Kaprizov who can walk through people nor do you have a laser shot where you can beat goalies from the circle consistently. When you combine this with his passing ability, quick decision making, and feel for space on the ice to move pucks consistently to areas that the Wild have advantages in... and his ability to protect the puck and win puck battles in the corners makes him such a positive hockey player.

If Rossi was doing all of these things and was 6'3, people would be talking about him in very high praise. The thing is, despite his size he wins in all of the areas and ways that are the reasons why you want a guy to be 6'3 because having that size helps you win in those areas.

Edit: I looked it up and Rossi has the same FO percentage as Ek (49.9% for Rossi 49.8% from Ek). Given his hand-eye and work ethic, I would bet he continues to get better here too.

It's also a big handicap when picking up pucks from the boards on the point in the O zone, and trying to clear pucks dug out from the boards in the D zone. Walking the line on the point also is ... different. Most dmen would rather be skating backward to do that.
That's true. I think it's better when you are rushing the puck and trying to open yourself up for shots from the point. I think Chisholm's shot and Buium's rushing ability mean it could be interesting for them to play off-hand. But maybe, it's actually Jirecek who would be best at that.
 
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Nino Noderreiter

Registered User
Jul 5, 2011
4,775
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The Twin Cities
On another note, I just still can't believe that Rossi is currently on pace for 69 points (30 goals) as a 23 year old center. I compared him to Granlund and Parise in earlier posts, but in Granlund's case he couldn't handle the defensive responsibilities and skating responsibilities and still contribute offensively. I think Rossi is not only producing points, but he's great structurally in the center role doing all of the things a center has to do when it comes to supporting D in the breakout/regroup... winning puck battles in corners... and even faceoffs.

His hand-eye coordination, willingness, tenacity, and hands to get to the front of the net and score from that area is just about the most reliable form of offense there is if you aren't someone like Kaprizov who can walk through people nor do you have a laser shot where you can beat goalies from the circle consistently. When you combine this with his passing ability, quick decision making, and feel for space on the ice to move pucks consistently to areas that the Wild have advantages in... and his ability to protect the puck and win puck battles in the corners makes him such a positive hockey player.

If Rossi was doing all of these things and was 6'3, people would be talking about him in very high praise. The thing is, despite his size he wins in all of the areas and ways that are the reasons why you want a guy to be 6'3 because having that size helps you win in those areas.

Edit: I looked it up and Rossi has the same FO percentage as Ek (49.9% for Rossi 49.8% from Ek). Given his hand-eye and work ethic, I would bet he continues to get better here too.


That's true. I think it's better when you are rushing the puck and trying to open yourself up for shots from the point. I think Chisholm's shot and Buium's rushing ability mean it could be interesting for them to play off-hand. But maybe, it's actually Jirecek who would be best at that.
One other stat I just found:

Rossi is tied for 28th in the NHL in even-strength points and tied for 12th in ESP's among Centers behind only

McKinnon
Draisatyl
McDavid
Eichel
Tavares
Scheifele
Monahan
Crosby
Kopitar
Strome

He's tied with guys like:

Suzuki
Stutzle
Horvat
Point
Jack Hughes

And ahead of guys like

Aho
Cirelli
Tage Thompson
Robert Thompson
Dubois

If Rossi continues to get PP1 time and the Wild can figure out their PP a bit we're really looking at something pretty special. Most of the guys in front of him have between 6 and 15 more PP points than Rossi. If you even give him 6 more points that would put I'm in the 10-15 range for centers in terms of points.
 

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