All Things Minnesota Wild 2022-2023 In-Season Thread

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Ope3 said:
Aside from the goalie debate, I do think Evason is coaching for his job this series. 3+ seasons is an eternity by NHL standards. I would guess very few get a 5th chance without making it out of Round 1.
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I strongly disagree with this. This team has overachieved the past two years. No way will they fire him. This season, we had one bonafide superstar, one top level defensemen, one do-it-all-guy, one possible superstar, one goalie on social security, one unproven goalie and the rest interchangeable parts. With this group, they were in the running until the last week to be the top team in the west.

The series is 1-1. Let's all settle down. If the games were reversed, we would all be pretty pleased right now.

By the way, I agree that Gustavsson probably should have started game 2. But it also wouldn't have surprised me if Fleury had shut them down.
 

GopherJake said:
I strongly disagree with this. This team has overachieved the past two years. No way will they fire him. This season, we had one bonafide superstar, one top level defensemen, one do-it-all-guy, one possible superstar, one goalie on social security, one unproven goalie and the rest interchangeable parts. With this group, they were in the running until the last week to be the top team in the west.

The series is 1-1. Let's all settle down. If the games were reversed, we would all be pretty pleased right now.
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If they don't win, Evason wouldn't necessarily be let go right away. All it would take is a cool stretch next regular season, and just like that...out.
 
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short ornery norwegian said:
Last year, they used Fleury in - I believe - the first 4 games of the playoff series then went to Cam Talbot for the 5th game. and the critics said "should have used Talbot earlier in the series instead of letting him sit."

going into game 2, I think Fleury had not played in a week. So Evason probably thought he needed to get Fleury some work just in case he needed him later in the series.

the moves that don't work out are always wrong.
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You are correct, but they weee basically interchangeable last year

Fleury played 56 with a 2.90 goals against and a .908 save percentage.
Talbot played 49 games with a 2.77 goals against and .911 save percentage.

This year though
Fleury played in 46 games with a 2.85 goals against and a .908 goals against.
Gustavsson played in 39 games with a 2.10 and .931 save percentage. That’s a noticeable difference.

Plus Fleury’ record against the stars away not great.
 

no way Dean's job is on the line.

Don't forget, the Wild is still working out from dead cap hell thanks to Suter and Parise. Guerin can't make any big moves, and they had to let Fiala go because they couldn't afford to keep him. that is not on the coach.

considering what he has to work with, I think Dean has done a solid job. it's not about winning now - it's about being positioned to do something when the dead cap is gone and the team has room to make moves, along with all of the prospects they have accumulated. some of the hockey websites have ranked the Wild as having the #1 farm system in the NHL. in a couple of years, when the cap space returns and the next wave of prospects arrive, that is when things could get really interesting.
 

short ornery norwegian said:
no way Dean's job is on the line.

Don't forget, the Wild is still working out from dead cap hell thanks to Suter and Parise. Guerin can't make any big moves, and they had to let Fiala go because they couldn't afford to keep him. that is not on the coach.

considering what he has to work with, I think Dean has done a solid job. it's not about winning now - it's about being positioned to do something when the dead cap is gone and the team has room to make moves, along with all of the prospects they have accumulated. some of the hockey websites have ranked the Wild as having the #1 farm system in the NHL. in a couple of years, when the cap space returns and the next wave of prospects arrive, that is when things could get really interesting.
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"No way"? It's the NHL. HCs generally do not have a long shelf life.

It's certainly possible that he's not in Minnesota next April.
 



short ornery norwegian said:
no way Dean's job is on the line.

Don't forget, the Wild is still working out from dead cap hell thanks to Suter and Parise. Guerin can't make any big moves, and they had to let Fiala go because they couldn't afford to keep him. that is not on the coach.
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I mean, yes, it's good work that he's done in light of the Suter and Parise dead cap but honestly, Boldy playing on his $880k contract ($7M next year and beyond) and Gustavsson playing lights out on a $787k contract (which will most definitely be a big contract next year) all but cancel out the Suter and Parise dead cap hit for this season.

NEXT year will really be the challenge in regards to the cap, when those contracts kick in
 

Ogee Ogilthorpe said:
I mean, yes, it's good work that he's done in light of the Suter and Parise dead cap but honestly, Boldy playing on his $880k contract ($7M next year and beyond) and Gustavsson playing lights out on a $787k contract (which will most definitely be a big contract next year) all but cancel out the Suter and Parise dead cap hit for this season.

NEXT year will really be the challenge in regards to the cap, when those contracts kick in
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They already have Faber to take over for Dumba.
 





After all the back and forth between the coaches about diving it would be amazing if the wild gave out snorkels and goggles for the game Sunday.
 

Complete domination. It could have been 8-1. Defense especially was really good all night.
 

So Gus has let in 3 goals over 151 minutes of game time.

Fleury has let in 7 over 60 minutes.

The game 4 starter should be obvious.
 




Iceland12 said:
Wild beat the Stars 5-1.

Maybe resting Gustavsson Wednesday, after he played what, 102 minutes and faced 52 shots Monday, will end-up being a good move after all.
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I think it was just under 100 minutes, because anything more would have been Triple OT, but I agree in hindsight it has worked out fine, now that they are up 2-1.

Say Gusto played Wed but still lost, then they probably would have rotated to Fluery, who with even more downtime could have been rusty and they lose again.

I don't think any decision would have them up 3-0, but we'll never know.

From here on out ride the hot hand.
 



It's hard to root against American goalies, especially Minnesotan's, but Oettinger is going down tonight.

Kaprizov and Boldy are coming up big tonight!
 






The Wild should be cruising to a win right now. Instead, they're down 1 due to a terrible penalty called against them and lousy finishing.
 


The bounce the wild needed. Dallas knocks the puck down on a cross ice pass and it instantly goes to Klingberg for the goal.
 

That’s a really selfish play by Foligno. You can’t be doing that down a goal with 4:30 to go.
 



Even with several terrible calls, the Wild had a number of chances they didn’t take advantage of.
 

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