Alexandron

Unfortunately, we lost it to them again (with a score of 4:5). We had too many penalties(5), which cost us 2 goals.

Iowa Wild is playing now at San Antonio against Rampage. Kahkonen is in the net. Our team was not able to win so far against that team this season.

After the 1st period score is 2:2.

You could listen to that game  at this link:

https://www.iheart.com/live/ticket-760-2353/?autoplay=true&pname=15400&campid=header&cid=index.html

And follow the game summary through that link:

https://theahl.com/stats/game-summary/1018893

2 hours ago, IllaZilla said:

 

Whoops, my bad. You are correct. It's two years or fewer of NHL/AHL experience.

 

But looking at the Wild prospects, not sure that's going to matter...they're all bums...

You are kind of too pessimistic regarding our prospects. Why all they are bums I do not know? Give them a chance to develop into a better position. The team is having an outstanding result this season, and production comes from all lines. With their coach (Tim Army) no way that they will miss the playoffs season this year. At least the Wild organization should keep a talented goaltender (Kaapo Kahkonen) who is having 4 shutouts already(it is a very rare sign for the Iowa Wild history) as well as to keep Sokolov (always offensively minded forward) for building the first Wild Russian offensive line in 2020 - Sokolov- Khovanov - Kaprizov, who are capable to make the real chemistry in offense and to attract more interest and more fans to the Wild team. No pessimism for sure.

On 12/20/2018 at 8:54 AM, IllaZilla said:

Arguably Kuemper came close, but he never seemed able to get over that hump of grabbing the starting spot. 

Agree, we do not have the best scouting for talented goalies of grabbing the starting spot  in our all drafts history. Hope Kahkonen will be the first one. 

We badly need Sokolov for a trial in a big club. In 20 games in Iowa he has 8 goals; 7 assists; 3 PPG; in 2 games he put 2 goals in each game and it seems by playing just in the 4th line. As well I would like to see in Iowa ASAP Connor Dewar and Alexander Khovanov, because Iowa Wild club needs more productive offense.

Maybe it sounds difficult to make, but recently it came an idea to try a rotational 10 games trial mode on using our prospects in the big club. I do not think if the prospect will miss 10 games in Iowa is going to be a big deal, but at least 8-10 prospects from Iowa Wild team will be tested during the season on a subject of the most productive performance for the big club. In my opinion, this way we could find earlier the most valuable talent for the main team as well as to raise a real professional experience for our prospects when a prospect is playing among experienced NHL professionals. If the prospect had 3-5 goals or 6-8 total points during a 10 games streak/period by playing for the 3rd or 4th lines, then his play can be extended to 2 more games,  for example, by playing in a 2^nd line. Even by playing for the 3^rd and 4^th lines the prospect capable to expose his talent to us (fans and a coaching staff) and be productive, if not then he could stay a longer time for developing in Iowa. That also will create an interest and a competition among prospects in Iowa to get into those 8-10 trial prospects for the big club during the season. What we do have now? Some youngsters (usually 1^st and 2^nd round drafts) playing multiple games in NHL for the Wild team during the season with a minimal production, and some other youngsters come to us from Iowa for a game or two at the end of the regular season which forming only hopes and not much more. As the result for the fans– an interest to those prospects is gradually losing. Pavel Datsyuk was a 6^th round draft (171^st overall), but became an NHL legend. We just need to look more attentively for that treasure among our prospects. And I do not think our current way for many previous years is more creative.

1 hour ago, Lonkkis said:

 

Dear lord, did they get Moses Hightower from Police Academy?

 

(The actor is that tall)

Dear lord, Zdeno Chara is even taller - 6'9", 250 lb and in his 41 y.o. age is still a captain of Boston Bruins.

Anyway, it was a nice first start for Falkovsky, but unfortunately, our Iowa Wild team lost yesterday with a score 2:5. Kohkonen was in the net. Our brick wall is losing its steadiness and definitely needs a support from the defense and even forwards to build his (Kaapo Kohkonen) confidence again. Actually our both young goaltenders need team's support. We need also more wins in regulation (too many OT games with loses for the team). It seems our team's production is suffering , especially from the defense. Hope, the most tallest guys Soucy, Warner, Falkovsky will start to shoot more pucks towards the net.  

8 hours ago, CreaseAndAssist said:

 

I agree 100%.  Keeping him there is only helping him develop.  

Agree too. Let’s him to develop. It seems Kahkonen has a solid talent to merit our attention. For the 7^th time in the last 8 games the Wild headed with him into overtime. We also lead the AHL league in overtime games (total 12 already) because of our goaltending performance helping to head the game most of the time to overtime part. But from the other side that means our production is not the best. We do not have recently lots of high scores against opposite teams, just initially when season started. Sokolov, probably, is playing on the 4^th line , because I do not see that they are giving to this rookie a lot of playing time. Yes, he does some tactical/positional mistakes during the game, but I think, they should give him more time to develop better as an offensively minded scorer. And also they should look for the best chemistry among him and other forwards. Despite of playing less time and less games he already has 5 goals and 6 assists, +/- +5 in 15 games. I still have some questions to our defense performance and its developing. Why we should not try to develop among 3 defensive lines at least one the biggest defensive line, based on their height and weight? We have already 3 pretty tall and heavy defensemen – Soucy, Warner, and Falkovsky. Warner(6’4”; 221lb) involved more (played 21 games out of 23), Falkovsky, practically not involved at all and Soucy(6’5”; 208 lb) is playing occasionally(17 games). Regarding Falkovsky, he is not looking as a monster at his 6’7” height; 239 lb. as media presented. I looked on Zdeno Chara anthropological stats – he is even bigger - 6’9”; 250 lb and he is still a Bruin’s captain at his 41 y.o. believe it or not.

Unfortunately, it was a not good finish for that game. After 3:0 for the Wild it turned to 3:3 in regulation (Wolves put 3 PP goals out of 6 PP). We went in OT and lost it at the last minute with a final score 4:3 . Chicago out-shot us 30:19.  But at least we have got 1 point.

For anyone who would like to listen now Iowa Wild game against Chicago Wolves here is a link:

click on 1460 KXNO live radio.

https://www.iheart.com/live/1460-kxno-921/?autoplay=true&pname=15400&campid=header&cid=index.html

We are ahead 3:1 during a second period.

And here is a link for the stats of this game :

https://theahl.com/stats/game-summary/1018681

Kaapo Kahkonen named goaltender of the month in AHL for the first time in Iowa Wild history. We are also on a 2nd place in the entire league there!!!!!

Here is a link to read about it:

https://www.iowawild.com/news/detail/kaapo-kahkonen-named-ccmahl-goaltender-of-the-month

We passed a 7,000 posts mark, which is the 3rd place in a League after the Flyers and Penguins fans.  

Here are more interesting news from Iowa Wild link instead of thinking about our horrible loss against Coyotes . They traded our player Pavel Jenys to Kings for a monster(6’7”) with a nickname “The Falcon”. He is native from Republic of Belarus. More about this defenseman you can find under the comparing picture of his hockey sticks and Kunin’s sticks. Strange that his name Stepan Falkovsky, which means nothing from Russian translation transformed into the nickname “The Falcon”. That nickname should be better to stay for Sokolov, because of his promising sniper skills and because of the Russian translation of Sokol means the Falcon. Anyway both falcons speak Russian and hope will find a better communications on the ice as well as out of it.

Here is a link to read:

https://www.iowawild.com/news/detail/the-wild-wire-8

2 hours ago, CreaseAndAssist said:

Kahkonen got another win on Saturday making 32 saves in the victory.  He's certainly playing with a lot of confidence.  Sokolov had a goal and Mason Shaw continues to find his way onto the score sheet.  Iowa currently sits in 2nd place; and they have a tough game tomorrow against Grand Rapids.  

Yes LIG, It was a nice win for Kahkonen as well for the team on a road game. Now he has a chance to prove his excellence as a #1 goalkeeper. His records now - 5-1-1-3; GAA 1.12; SV% 0.962.

https://theahl.com/stats/player/7179/61/kaapo-kahkonen

 Hammond was probably injured, because he did not played the last 2 games. Our young sniper Sokolov definitely getting more confidence - in 12 played games he has 10 points( 4 goals, 6 assists, +/- +6; 27 shots on goal). Still I am surprise that coaching staff are not involving him in every game, instead of developing more confident player. Is he injured/ had some trauma? Mason Shaw as we predicted before on our forum is a very promising play maker and  reminds me Granlund #2 (in 19 games having 3 goals; 13 assists; +/- + 7). Minnesotan Mitch McLain having in 12 games 4 goals;5 assists;+/- +3 . Actually the young line Sokolov - Shaw- McLain I think, in general, is looking pretty good.

3 hours ago, Hockey-78 said:

The last (and only) Iowa Wild's nominee's were Teemu Pulkkinen, Jordan Schoeder and Jeremy Smith, AHL career men all of them. So as a token of Wild's player development this means very little although none of those guys were drafted by the Wild. Could Kahkonen be Wild's trailblazer?

Hockey-78.I think he will be a trailblazer and I believe, he will make a new history for the Wild's both clubs. It seems a very talented goaltender. None of the Iowa Wild goaltenders before did 3 shutouts in a row in the team's history.

I would like to mention our prospect Dmitry Sokolov, who had  2 goals last game against Bakersfield Condors team. Unfortunately , Iowa Wild team lost that game with a score 3:4. So far he has 7 points (2 goals, 5 assists, 20 shots , +/- +3) in 8 games.

Here is a link about his stats:

https://theahl.com/stats/player/6726

At this moment we have one the most improving prospect among all our Wild prospects this season - Alexander Khovanov (10 goals,12 assists, +/- +4 in 18 games), who is playing for Moncton Wildcats.
Here is a link from Oct.30 to read some about him:

http://moncton-wildcats.com/article/alex-khovanov-added-to-russian-roster-for-the-2018-cibc-canada-russia-series

Here is a nice link from our main Wild webpage about our prospects across the ocean – last weekend Fenton traveled to Russia for a meeting with Kirill Kaprizov, his family and ,probably, with Andrei Svetlakov. Hope, meeting there will be useful and promising. I am guessing that we will know results about that travel the week after, because Fenton is planning to spend the whole week there.

https://www.nhl.com/wild/news/fenton-russia-kaprizov-110218/c-301555846

2 hours ago, Hockey-78 said:

Hi Alex, what's going down pal?

Quite a few doesn't remember those 100 points since they didn't accumulate anything in the playoffs - back-to-back 1st round exits! One could even argue that those exits hurt a lot more because the regular season hinted there would be more to come.

 

I was in no hurry to sign in here since it was summer and like already mentioned, nothing really changed with this team. What was there to talk about? The "tweaks"? *no pun intended*

 

Since this place is moderated I have a feeling we won't be seeing the "high voltage" discussions we used to. And for the record, I'm glad it's that way in here. Calling names grows old fast especially without a moderator. But hey, let's have a good one in here bud!

Hi Hockey-78, Agree about your feelings of "less voltage" in discussions  we used to. But , in my opinion,  they are still good under the  moderator control . Believe it or not despite of all "tweaks'" in our historic transfer of the Wild Fan Message Board  this year we were able to put here more than 4500 posts since mid of May. Even Flyers fans were not able to do that in their history in such a short period of time. 

2 hours ago, Fargocase said:

Thanks for the link!   Your fondness for the fat Russian kid is infectious!  

 

One thing I do believe, goal scoring is in large part a gift and apparently this kid has the knack!

Thanks Fargo, I do really believe that this kid will have a solid professional future in NHL. In my opinion he is a pretty hard working machine.  Agree too - goal scoring is in a large part a gift. Hope he will contribute well for our Wild organization for years and not be traded somewhere else.  Interesting he is a first Russian player in Iowa Wild team's history. After reading that article, still I am thinking for a better communication chemistry Dmitry will need a couple more Russian speaking players in a Wild sweater. He built a pretty nice communication chemistry with Andrei Svechnikov in OHL, then after with our prospect Alexander Khovanov at the Traverse City Tournament and at our training camp this summer. Still native language communication is a huge part for some players to feel comfy  and do not feel alone in the team. 

On 10/18/2018 at 9:55 AM, Hockey-78 said:

Ah, the first shot at me. Fair enough.

 

Although seeing in the offseason we're going with the same old roster another season really didn't get me excited. I'll probably post the same old rants I did last season!

Our kind of an old-ish roster have got more than 100 points during the regular season last 2 years in a row. This season they started slow , but became recently more active and more productive. Hope they will improve more, including a playoffs results too. And we(fans) are getting older and slower - sign or not to sign for the new Wild Message Board? .

Welcome to a Board Oregonwildfan, Hockey-78 and a ClusterChuck! Time to time we need some higher voltage in our discussions from different fans otherwise it will get bored. As more active fans we will have as more interest we will create.

I have a question to a hf101 and to Rotty. Can we transfer (duplicate) a games prediction results just for the Wild team here to our Board? I always was interested to follow that topic at our old Wild Board. It would be easy to focus on our Wild Fan Board results. Like I said before - I do not participate in that competition, because always like a win for our team but like to see who was more accurate fan winner every year for the Wild.

Iowa Wild official website published a nice article about Dmitry Sokolov. So far in 4 played games he has 3 assists for the Iowa Wild team. I am hoping he will improve his statistics with a time. In shots he already started to shoot more every game. Here is a link to read about him:

https://www.iowawild.com/news/detail/dmitry-sokolov-blends-passion-and-skill-into-drive-to-play-professional-hockey

I would like also to mention about our other prospect Ivan Lodnia stats for Niagara IceDogs - in 12 games he has 4 goals and 9 assists this season.

Texas Stars is a tough team to play against(4-1-1-1). They lost only one game in regulation. Iowa Wild team was lucky to win in SO one game out of 3 games against them.

Good news. The Iowa Wild team established a new record in their history this season. For the first time they won with a high score 8:1. In 2 games of the opening season (2-0-0) the team is on the 1st place in AHL with a record of 12 goals( they put  into the net) vs 2 goals( they missed). Hammond (goaltender)  played superb too. The first Wild team's record was a win (4:1) of the game opener for the first time since the team moved to Iowa in 2013.

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.