Minnesota Wild

[Bobberineyes]

That was a pretty neat tribute to Mikko Koivu tonight, raising his # to the rafters. I think it's great even after retiring he is still involved in Children's hospital .

[glenn57]

That was a pretty neat tribute to Mikko Koivu tonight, raising his # to the rafters. I think it's great even after retiring he is still involved in Children's hospital .

damn I wanted to watch that!!

[Steve-o]

Too bad the Wild got kill't 6 to 2. 

[glenn57]

i'm more of a vitamin B.....EER guy!!!!!!!

i was  told if you eat right you dont need vitamins......... you mostly pee them out!!!!!

if i remember at my next physical, i'll ask about the vitamin D thing!!!

[Jerkbiat]

i'm more of a vitamin B.....EER guy!!!!!!!

i was  told if you eat right you dont need vitamins......... you mostly pee them out!!!!!

if i remember at my next physical, i'll ask about the vitamin D thing!!!

I think you need vitamins for your eyes since you posted this in the wrong thread. 

[glenn57]

i'm more of a vitamin B.....EER guy!!!!!!!

i was  told if you eat right you dont need vitamins......... you mostly pee them out!!!!!

if i remember at my next physical, i'll ask about the vitamin D thing!!!

I think you need vitamins for your eyes since you posted this in the wrong thread. 

:banghead:vi know....Mikey already gave me sh!t about it........ hey its been a tough day!!!!!!

BUT....maybe the Wild need some vitamins.........did nt they just lose again!!!!!!!

[mike89]

i'm more of a vitamin B.....EER guy!!!!!!!

i was  told if you eat right you dont need vitamins......... you mostly pee them out!!!!!

if i remember at my next physical, i'll ask about the vitamin D thing!!!

I think you need vitamins for your eyes since you posted this in the wrong thread. 

:banghead:vi know....Mikey already gave me sh!t about it........ hey its been a tough day!!!!!!

BUT....maybe the Wild need some vitamins.........did nt they just lose again!!!!!!!

not me!!!   

[Bobberineyes]

Funny stuff!! Ya the Wild and the thread needed a little jump! I felt bad for Mikko last night tho, his whole family in attendance but no wife. So we looked into it and she filed in 2020. 3 Great looking young kids.. just him and the 3 watching the banner go up.

[Steve-o]

Tough losses these last two games.

Game before last...  it was theirs for the taking in St. Louis.  They just couldn't generate offense.

Last night...  They bounced back from a bad no-call against the Blues immediately followed by a cheap penalty and a power play goal scored by the Blues.  Kaprizov was on fire scoring two power play goals of his own.  It is fun to watch him skate with the puck.  He can truly do things not many others can.

But hockey is a fluky game and the Blues scored one late in the 2nd period to tie it up.  The Wild had many similar chances, but nothing went in the net.  The wild played an incredibly physical game, but the blues absorbed everything and just kept coming.

There seemed to be a brief lapse in intensity to start the 3rd and that is all it took for the Blues to score two quick ones.  The Blues clogged up the neutral zone the rest of the way making it hard for the wild to generate scoring chances.

I heard analysts say the Wild was just dump and chasing the puck in the offensive zone too much in game 4, so I was watching for that last night.  Sometimes that's all you got, but I thought they fell into that trap again last night during certain stretches of the game.

Or maybe you have to give credit to the Blues for figuring out how to stop the Wild.

I just hope for a competitive game 6.  Nothing is more exciting than playoff hockey.

[dutchboy]

To be honest I have less and less interest in the Wild since the Yo Yo days. I hear this Russian kid is pretty good but haven't watched many games. I do know that Minnesota is a hockey state and nothing the timberpuppy's do will ever change that.

Maybe I'll try and catch a game on TV if the Twinks or Rasslin isn't on. When do they play next?

[Steve-o]

When do they play next?

Tomorrow night in St. Louis, 8:30 start, I think.  I think you will need Balley Sports North or maybe ESPN will have it too.

Better jump on the band wagon soon - tomorrow could be the last game of the season for them.

[dutchboy]

Thanks, Twinks have a day game tomorrow so maybe I'll check in on the Wild game. Maybe not.   

I'm not much of a bandwagon guy, either jumping on or off. 

[Bobberineyes]

These late games are tough for us working folk. Well said steve-o, I'm surprised tho they've stuck with flower this far in net. The blues changed it up and it worked,  us no change and haven't won a game since. Cam had a great run the last third of the season,  do or die now..

[Steve-o]

I've heard guys on both sides of pulling Marc-André Fleury.  It's not that they are losing because of him.  They really need more offense. 

The thinking on the Blues side was, put a new goalie in there, get the rest of the team focused on supporting the #2 guy.

I think the Wild are thinking they brought Fleury here to do this job - play in the playoffs - and they are sticking with him.

[glenn57]

Well they lose the next game  or a game 7 they can go golfing!!

[Bobberineyes]

If they score 2 goals fairly quickly on Thursday,  hes out in my book. Whatcha got to lose... besides the series.

[Steve-o]

I was really surprised by the trade when they went out and got Fleury.  I hope he wasn't a one year rental cause I think he really helped this team.  But the Wild still have some serious financial anchors they are dealing with still paying Parise and Sutter.

[dutchboy]

I view Parise & Suter the same way I viewed the Mauer contract. They all are good contracts when you figured the situation at the time they signed. I'll wish them the best but it's baseball season. Hockey into June has never sat well with me.

[Steve-o]

I think we've hashed this out a bit before, and I wasn't going to do it again, but this article (below) just came across my feed.

Yes, DB, the Parise/Suter deal looked great at the time - even if we all knew the deal was for too long, and those guys would be on their last legs at the end of the contract.

But the Wild had a great stable of young talent coming up and the Parise/Suter add was viewed as just what the team needed for solid veteran leadership as the young talent developed.

The problem is, that young talent never seemed to develop.  One by one, those young guys - who were supposed to develop into star players - were traded away.  EVERYONE was expendable/interchangeable (including coaches and GMs) because the Parise/Suter contracts were untouchable and the organization was desperate to achieve the success that so much talent on the roster ought to warrant. 

But as time went on, rumors came out that the environment in the locker room wasn't so good for the young guys - and this could have been the reason these guys weren't playing to their full potential.  And as the rumors persisted, the finger was increasingly pointed at Suter as the primary cause.  And finally the organization figured it was time to move on from both he and Parise - and what do you know...?    The team started having more success and the role players started performing at a higher lever. 

So here is the article I just saw about Suter...

Ryan Suter Was a Bad Teammate Before Wild

But as it turns out, Ryan Suter’s childish and vindictive off-ice personality isn’t something that suddenly sprouted up during his time with the Minnesota Wild...

[Steve-o]

Looks like the Wild ran out of gas or the Blues were just a little bit better or both.

I pretty much tuned out after the Wild Power Play where the Blues controlled the puck in their offensive zone short-handed more than the Wild had the puck.  The Wild really looked beat at that point.

All teams are hampered by injuries at this point in the season, but maybe we'll hear how many key Wild players were gutting it out at the end.

The Wild had a successful season, but they don't have the depth they need to make a deep playoff run.

[Gunner55]

They were near the bottom of the league against the power play all season too. That usually doesn't work very well in the playoffs.

[Steve-o]

Wild Wild game last night.  8-5 win!   

Lots of power plays on both sides with plenty of scoring.  The Wild scored 5 goals the 2nd period - 3 in the span of just over 2 minutes - some crazy small number like that.

Hartman and Blues goalie, Binnington, made contact after one Hartman goal.  Binnington was out of the crease and had his leg sticking out, which Hartman made contact with on the way by.  Binnington took exception to this, and while the Wild were celebrating, skated over to the group and took a swing at Hartman with his blocker bad.  As Binnington was pulled off the pile, Wild goalie, Mark-Andre Fleury, came out, dropped his gloves and helmet and was ready to fight Binnington, but the Refs wouldn't allow it and kept them apart.     Binnington received a 5 minute misconduct match penalty for hitting with his blocker and was tossed from the game AND we almost had a goalie fight. 

A while later another Blues player got a 10 minute game misconduct penalty for trying to mix it up with Hartman after the whistle, but Harman wasn't being goaded into a fight.

[dutchboy]

The Blues reaction was predictable after they gagged a 3-1 lead after the first period at home. I watched while the Wild scored the 3 quick goals to start the second. I didn't recognize the names of any of the Wild players so I just flipped the channel.

[Steve-o]

The have got a 14 game "no-loss" streak going.     Hottest team in the NHL.

[dutchboy]

"No loss" I find funny. It's like a participation ribbon. It's no loss because you didn't win either. All the milk toast shoot out points give you what you have in todays game. Midway through the third they start playing not to lose instead of playing to win. Get rid of overtime and shootouts. Give 2 points for a regulation win, 0 points for a loss or tie and you will see complete games played again.

[Gunner55]

 I kind of keep tabs on how they're doing & was surprised when I looked 1 day last week to see they were within a point or 2 of leading their division.

[Steve-o]

"No loss" I find funny. It's like a participation ribbon. It's no loss because you didn't win either. All the milk toast shoot out points give you what you have in todays game. Midway through the third they start playing not to lose instead of playing to win. Get rid of overtime and shootouts. Give 2 points for a regulation win, 0 points for a loss or tie and you will see complete games played again.

I don't think a point for a regulation tie is a participation ribbon.  The counter argument is, unless they give one point for the regulation tie, you will find many more teams out of the playoff race much sooner - which means more meaningless games and disinterested teams - which means more tanking.

Still, in this Wild streak, there are only two or three ties...  that is a lot of wins lately.     And figuring out for 4 games now w/o Kaprisov.

[dutchboy]

It's only my opinion anyway. Everybody else seems to like the system so it will continue.

[Steve-o]

Maybe the old system worked better when there were fewer teams.

The good thing about hockey - compared to basketball - is that regular season games matter.  Everyone plays hard all the time.

In basketball the teams loaded with so-called "stars" turn it on and off like a light switch and routinely take nights off to rest.  Why people continue to pay to watch that, I'll never know - but it does explain something about our culture.

[glenn57]

  i see where the Wild won in double OT last night........ i gotta figure out there schedule and if i can find them on the toobe!!!!1