Alexandron

Agree. Interesting if Dubnyk is going to be in the net for tomorrow game against Jets. So far I like more performance of Hammond and Stalock for pre-season games and Kahkonen's performance at Traverse City Tournament. Strange, they did not involved Kahkonen as well as Khovanov for the pre-season games but, I think, they should just for their taste(initiation) of NHL experience. Out of 4 or 5 pre-season games for the line of Kloos- Rau- Anas (yes, it was good, but not enough for the production and wins) they should try at least once to use a line of Sokolov-Shaw-Khovanov just to develop more interest for the fans. We did not see a Kunin's performance yet. Who is a Liambas? Is he present a value for the main team's roster? Still not sure. We have so many new names (free agent signings) this season which are giving lots of questions instead of building a solid future core based on young promising prospects.

Yesterday he lost 5 goals against Dallas. Seven(8th goal was an empty netter) goals in 2 pre-season games it seems kind of a lot. Both games we lost. Overall in 5 pre-season games we lost 4. We will see if we able to win tomorrow game against Jets with a full team's roster. So far other teams from our Division doing a better job. It makes me worry.

You and Jimtownguy were right. Finally we won. Actually it was a nice win 7:0 by our practically full Wild NHL roster, which played the whole 60 min.pretty motivated game for the win with a high score. Stalock was solid too.

Another disappointing pre-season loss in game 2 (score 2:3) against St.Louis happened in Des Moines, IA in front of more than 14000 fans. It seems that Wild team had less efforts to finish it well even with a comparison to game 1 loss. I think Stallock's last 2 goals from the same Dallas player in 27 seconds apart were not acceptable for him. Our main line Zucker-Staal-Granlund had +/- - 2. Sokolov's name I heard more often than someone else during that night, who played just one game so far. Khovanov did not played at all yet. Dubnyk was in the net in game 3 against Dallas team, which had lots of prospects and used for a tryout 2 goalies in that game. We lost game 3 at our home ice too with a score 1:3. Fitzgerald played just few minutes. Agree with Rotty - it was a boring game. Actually do not remember such a poor pre-season start for the Wild as well as scoring only 4 goals in 3 games.And we played against of teams who used also lots of prospects(AHLers,OHLers and etc). Is that a winning mentality in preparation for the regular season? Here is a better example how we should involve our prospects and give them plenty of time to play and get their NHL experience during a pre-season period. Las Vegas team - 3 games- 3 wins with a score 7:2;5:1;7:2. Total impressive 19 goals in 3 games; as well as a nice winning mentality preparation with a solid chance to win a Stanley Cup this season.

And one of those two goals was a 'bad' goal for our team (puck even did not cross a net line). Referees did a stupid mistake. Replay TV showed that 'bad' goal from different angles. Conclusion: AHL caliber Wild team was even better than NHL caliber Jets team, especially in goaltending, in defense and in making more shots towards opposing net (impressive 40 vs 30). Maybe that AHL caliber Wild team will play instead of NHL caliber Wild team during a regular season and in playoffs too? Anyway ,I usually pay some attention to those pre-season games, because they are giving more interest and more view on the team's future potential when a good portion of our prospects playing together with NHL Wild team roster and gaining during that time some NHL experience.

No doubt it was a pre-season game against Jets, but still it was a low scoring disappointing game too (1 goal out of 40 shots towards the Jet's net) which is not enough in our continuous limited production. How we will play against them during the regular season and a possible playoffs games if we are not capable to score well? Reffs should have a replay chance too even in pre-season games, to avoid such a blind stupid mistakes on a bad 'goal' and 'no-goal' calls, because it is still NHL TV show, but not a local school hockey competition with a low reffs skills. Hammond was good and solid. I liked Seeler too. The rest of the team(Ek-Greenway-Coyle, Kloos-Rau-Anas; Foligno-Hendricks-Brown; Lodnia-Fehr-Nino), should be more smart in front of the goalie to put enough (I would say tons) of pucks into the opposing net on delivered 40 shots. What are more missing - skills or talent? It was no surprise Lodnia was sent to OHL (now to Niagara team), Baribeau and Dewar to their teams. The last two even didn't play. Hope, Sokolov, Khovanov, Shaw, Fitzgerald will provide us with some valuable production to prove their talent and skills or both.

Hope, Antti has a different opinion regarding Staal, Zucker and Sokolov, which I see so far as our main offensive producers for the team.

Three players (Greenway,Dewar,Lodnia) out of the Wild prospect roster which participated at the Traverse City Tournament were included so far into the 1-st pre-season game against Winnipeg. Hope, the line Sokolov, Khovanov and Shaw will be included into the 2-nd or 3-rd pre-season games. I do not think any messages being sent to Sokolov as well as to other promising players - Khovanov, Shaw, Fitzgerald. Just hope a coach strategy. LIG is right - too many players for the pre-season tryout are giving too many puzzles for the coach.

Still not sure if we had a chance to play and win in finals against Columbus. That team was superbly motivated for the win at this 2018 Tournament. It was nice to read today - the Wild General Manager Paul Fenton announced that 19 players out of the Wild team which finished 3rd at the 2018 Traverse City Tournament were invited to the training camp this coming Friday. Those players really merit that invitation. No doubt our team this year was a lot better in comparison to the last year as well as years before, when they did not show much character then.

4Check, Here is nice link regarding a multiple for years Columbus Blue Jacket's success at the Traverse City Tournament. Hope, some day we will repeat our 2010 year success there. I am still thinking that the Wild's 3rd place was valuable this year and may be that is just a beginning of our future success for the big Wild club: [Hidden Content]

[Hidden Content] [Hidden Content]

The 2018 winner of the Traverse City Tournament is a Columbus Blue Jackets team who won all 4 games after beating a Detroit Red Wings in a final game with a score 7:3. Interesting that Columbus is the lone team who won that title 5 times: 2005;2006;2014;2015 and 2018. Last year they also clinched the final game but were not able to pass Chicago Blackhawks. Chicago was very upset on the loss this year for the 3rd place against us. They had few articles regarding that disappointment.

Congrats to all our fans!!! We won a THIRD PLACE!!! An interesting fact said commentators during the game tonight that last time we won a Traverse City Tournament in 2010 when Marco Scandella and Jared Spurgeon were playing for our team. Since 2010 we never got above 4th place. And now we were able to beat this year a defending last year champion Blackhawks for the 3rd place with a score 3:2; shots were 21:25. That was a first Baribeau(our goaltender) victory at these tournaments. I think he played pretty solid game against Chicago. And Khovanov did a lot of hard work again tonight too. He reminding me a Parise’s play around the net, smart thinking, very tough guy, got pretty bad hits but able to withstand that and played after. I would like to thank all our team’s players involved into that tournament and especially, Greenway, Sokolov, Kahkonen, Khovanov, Fitzgerald, Shaw, Belpedio, Menell, Lodnia, Baribeau, and a productive 4th line(twin brothers Pilon-Pilon-McLain). Without the entire solid effort from all our players we were not able to win 3 games out of 4 at this difficult tournament and get a 3rd place for the first time in 8 years. I am getting excited that we have a promising future for the team’s toughness. A special thank you to the team's coach - Tim Army.

3:0 Minnesota after 2 periods, shots 14:15. We had only 2 shots during a 2nd period but we did lots of PK. So far Baribeau stopped all shots, rarely had any rebounds which is good. Like his play tonight. The 4th line(based on 2 twin brothers Drake Pilon – Darian Pilon- Mitch McLain) is very noticeable and was able to score again (Minnesota native Mitch McLain from the assist of Drake Pilon). Interesting that Drake Pilon is a right handed player and his brother Darian is a left handed.

So far so good during the first period – score for us is 2:0; shots 12:5. We had one goal on a 2nd minute from our invitee Drake Pilon and one from Fitzgerald (his 3rd at this tournament) 7 minutes later. Baribeau is in the net . Unfortunately, Lodnia is not playing today. Do not know why?