All Things Minnesota Wild 2022-2023 In-Season Thread

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Kirill is clearly not 100%.

Lot of other guys not stepping up to help out as well

And Eck is badly missed. You have to have big bodies(who can also actually play hockey) for the playoffs.
 

Last season Dean talked about how bad the special teams were in the playoffs and vowed to fix them. So far this year they have been worse.

I have watched every game, but I am not tracking who’s out there on special teams all the time. Are we just throwing the same 2 groups of 4 guys out there on the penalty kill and the same 2 groups of 5 guys on the power play? Have they adjusted anything at all on special teams to improve the situation? It’s very obvious the status quo is not working, so have we tried anything different.

Plus the wild centers are not good and that’s been an issue with the slow development of Rossi. They as a group have struggled to win face offs for the last 3 years. With the cap issues the wild can’t address their center issue from free agency so it’s gotta be from within.
 

BleedGopher said:

Gooo Wild!!
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I don't live in the Cities, so I had never heard of Seth Kaplan. I assumed it was just some rube with a bunch of hot takes. It's shocking to me that this is an actual local sports writer.

KAT was fantastic in the last game of the year against NO to improve our play-in chances. He was our best player in the play-in games (by a wide margin). I would say he wasn't very good during most of the Nuggets series, but had moments where he was our best player. He was good against Memphis last year.

KP is clearly not healthy and is making almost impact on the ice. That is grossly different than KAT.
 

Bob_Loblaw said:
I don't live in the Cities, so I had never heard of Seth Kaplan. I assumed it was just some rube with a bunch of hot takes. It's shocking to me that this is an actual local sports writer.
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I do live in the Cities and still had never heard of Seth Kaplan.
 


I don't pretend to be a hockey genius. But it sure seems as if the Wild is not the same team when Erickson Ek is out of the lineup. as someone said earlier, the Center position has been an issue for a while, and it's even bigger when Ek is out. Rossi needs to come through, or Guerin needs to find a top-line center by hook or by crook.

beyond that, I don't need to add to the special-teams discussion. it's pretty damn blatant even if you're not a hockey genius.
 

short ornery norwegian said:
I don't pretend to be a hockey genius. But it sure seems as if the Wild is not the same team when Erickson Ek is out of the lineup. as someone said earlier, the Center position has been an issue for a while, and it's even bigger when Ek is out. Rossi needs to come through, or Guerin needs to find a top-line center by hook or by crook.

beyond that, I don't need to add to the special-teams discussion. it's pretty damn blatant even if you're not a hockey genius.
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If there's that big a problem with Ek out of the lineup, that's not a glowing validation of the coaching staff. Eriksson Ek is a $5.25M mid-level player, not someone that the operation should massively struggle without. However....

Looking at Cap Friendly, the Wild are definitely not strong and deep at the moment at the Center position, where Ek plays. So certainly that makes his loss hurt more than your typical $5M player.

Dallas was just plain a tough draw, specifically with Oettinger in net. Right now, I think you could make an argument for him being the best goalie remaining in the postseason, or at least on the Western Conference side
 

Ogee Ogilthorpe said:
If there's that big a problem with Ek out of the lineup, that's not a glowing validation of the coaching staff. Eriksson Ek is a $5.25M mid-level player, not someone that the operation should massively struggle without. However....

Looking at Cap Friendly, the Wild are definitely not strong and deep at the moment at the Center position, where Ek plays. So certainly that makes his loss hurt more than your typical $5M player.

Dallas was just plain a tough draw, specifically with Oettinger in net. Right now, I think you could make an argument for him being the best goalie remaining in the postseason, or at least on the Western Conference side
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If Ek hit the open market today he gets paid a lot more than $5M. When your top center is Freddy Geaudreau, it’s hard for me to criticize the coaching staff much there.
 

With Ek out and Kx2 clearly not 100%, I think the writing is on the wall although I hope I'm wrong.

When you take into account that our roster is put together minus two (2) Max salary player slots (Suter & Parise), I wouldn't trade our coach or GM for any others.
 



Slim Tubby said:
With Ek out and Kx2 clearly not 100%, I think the writing is on the wall although I hope I'm wrong.

When you take into account that our roster is put together minus two (2) Max salary player slots (Suter & Parise), I wouldn't trade our coach or GM for any others.
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Well, Boldy played this year at $800k and Gustavsson played this year at $800k, and that ain't going to be the case next year.

BUT! They do lose that dumbf'k Dumba next year, and that bloated $6M salary so that will be some serious addition by subtraction that will help the ledger a little bit. They'll still have some difficult decisions to make though.
 

short ornery norwegian said:
I don't pretend to be a hockey genius. But it sure seems as if the Wild is not the same team when Erickson Ek is out of the lineup. as someone said earlier, the Center position has been an issue for a while, and it's even bigger when Ek is out. Rossi needs to come through, or Guerin needs to find a top-line center by hook or by crook.

beyond that, I don't need to add to the special-teams discussion. it's pretty damn blatant even if you're not a hockey genius.
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I said it yesterday in this thread.

Hes a huge loss. Come playoff hockey you need big bodies to compete. For the wear and tear. To battle other teams.

And those big bodies cant just be guys like Reaves or even Foligno.

On the top lines you have to have big bodies who can skate and change the game with skill. Ek is someone who can do that for our PP and our top 2 lines.
 

Ogee Ogilthorpe said:
Well, Boldy played this year at $800k and Gustavsson played this year at $800k, and that ain't going to be the case next year.

BUT! They do lose that dumbf'k Dumba next year, and that bloated $6M salary so that will be some serious addition by subtraction that will help the ledger a little bit. They'll still have some difficult decisions to make though.
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Agreed. I'm not sure if Boldy and Gus will be up for significant raises next season but they will be soon enough.
 

Slim Tubby said:
Agreed. I'm not sure if Boldy and Gus will be up for significant raises next season but they will be soon enough.
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Boldy's is already negotiated, his $7M salary kicks in next year. Oooffff!!! But it sure looks like he's worth it.
 




Slim Tubby said:
I didn't know that...thank goodness we dump Dumba's contract to help cover it.
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This site is just plain awesome for most anything you need to know regarding your team's salary cap issues and contract situations. I find myself looking at this way, way more than any average fan should be scrutinizing it.

Cap Friendly; Minnesota Wild

You're welcome!!
 

Ogee Ogilthorpe said:
If there's that big a problem with Ek out of the lineup, that's not a glowing validation of the coaching staff. Eriksson Ek is a $5.25M mid-level player, not someone that the operation should massively struggle without. However....
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This is uncharacteristically careless and lazy analysis. Eriksson-Ek is arguably the most important player on the Wild.
 

GopherJake said:
This is uncharacteristically careless and lazy analysis. Eriksson-Ek is arguably the most important player on the Wild.
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In terms of goal accumulation and prevention combined...yes, I agree.

Somehow they rose above the deflation of him hobbling off the ice after 19 seconds in Game 3 and reshuffled the lines for an entire contest, but not having him has been huge.
 

Ope3 said:
In terms of goal accumulation and prevention combined...yes, I agree.

Somehow they rose above the deflation of him hobbling off the ice after 19 seconds in Game 3 and reshuffled the lines for an entire contest, but not having him has been huge.
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Right. He's our #1 face off guy, top penalty killer and stands in front of the net on the power play. Let's see, what has cost us massively in this series........?
 

GopherJake said:
Right. He's our #1 face off guy, top penalty killer and stands in front of the net on the power play. Let's see, what has cost us massively in this series........?
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Not really worth arguing about but the numbers just don't really match up with what you're saying. I counted eight (8) different Wild players that have a better (+/-) than Ek, five (5) with a better FO percentage, and he's their 4th leading scorer.

It's a big loss, no doubt about it, but it's late April in the NHL; nobody is playing at 100% health right now.

The reality is, the combination of their absolutely abysmal (possibly historically so?) penalty kill and running up against a goalie like Oettinger has been the difference. They could easily turn it around, I hope they do and at least push the Stars to the brink
 

Ogee Ogilthorpe said:
Not really worth arguing about but the numbers just don't really match up with what you're saying. I counted eight (8) different Wild players that have a better (+/-) than Ek, five (5) with a better FO percentage, and he's their 4th leading scorer.
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You obviously don’t understand that +/- is only even strength. Matching up against the other team’s top line can lead to a few goals against. The opposing teams have good players too. Downplaying the 4th leading scorer for a team that has limited scoring depth seems shortsighted. Defense doesn’t show up on the stat sheet. And FO wins ahead of him on the team are sparsely used. There are only two forwards that average more TOI.
Ogee Ogilthorpe said:
It's a big loss, no doubt about it, but it's late April in the NHL; nobody is playing at 100% health right now.
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🙄
Ogee Ogilthorpe said:
The reality is, the combination of their absolutely abysmal (possibly historically so?) penalty kill
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EE is our top penalty killer, in a landslide.
Ogee Ogilthorpe said:
and running up against a goalie like Oettinger has been the difference. They could easily turn it around, I hope they do and at least push the Stars to the brink
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I’m not counting them out. Boldy and Kaprizov need to produce. And if Fleury gets the nod, he needs to play his very best.
 



I've never seen a team miss so many point blank shots. They're just choking.
 

Dallass looking like the und sue. A good reason to hate them.
 

If they could just score one dang goal, a few more might come. It's been a lot of minutes now.
 

Very strong start to the 2nd by the wild in a must win game. Shots are 8-0 Dallas in the period and the wild can’t get the puck out of their zone. I’m sure it’s all the refs fault though.
 


Wild just added one of the most disgraceful moments in Minnesota sports history.
 



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