CreaseAndAssist

(shrugs) Maybe. But no one is going to get a lot of time to 'figure it out' clearly he was better last night in relief of Talbot. Good for him.

Wild Earn Series Split Against Ducks, Talbot Improves Here are my reflections on the Wild series against the Ducks, as well as some thoughts on the Ian Cole / Greg Pateryn trade and prospect news too! Great effort at the start and luckily the team was able to get a goal early in the 3rd. Kahkonen is still a work in progress...enjoy and discuss. Oh and the 4th line was awesome...AGAIN!

Kirill Kaprizov captures Wild fans' hopes and hearts in opening weekend So here is a summary of my thoughts on the weekend. I know its different than what we normally do, but with the fact we have to stream the games online I can't really do the report like I normally would. So we are going to do series recaps instead of the in-depth period by period accounts like we did before. We'll keep doing game-to-game previews though. I hope you like this new format, but feel free to tell me what you think of it. Enjoy and discuss!

I kind of wanted to talk about this when I was on a podcast (The Sota Pod) last Sunday. I don't see how changing culture is only done by who has the "C" if you're going to keep the 'country club' with the A. Also, the captaincy is the Top 3 salaries on the team so have you truly changed culture or just thrown the leadership to those making the lion's share of the $$$? All of these guys have NMC's too and does that help instill that 'country club' mentality.

How about we make a scrimmage thread instead of throwing this into the Rossi thread? It would be one thing if this was all about Rossi observations from the scrimmage but right now he's still not playing with the team yet. On that, (see this nice segue I have here?!?) Russo seems to think there is something wrong with Rossi (he hinted it wasn't quarantine related so perhaps he had an injury of some kind) or something else which is why he hasn't been involved yet since making his way to Minnesota since the World Junior Championships. He's been in Minnesota since January 1st....s

Khovanov might as well be a tin of caviar for all I care. IMO, the attitude thing really bothers me. I just don't have time for that as a HS player let alone a player that is older than that. People like that are always so full of excuses, and its never their fault and the whole world is against them. I have zero time for drama queens like that.

Well I'm certainly far more bullish on Marat Khusnutdinov than I am Alexander Khovanov. By the way, anyone noticing that Brennan Menell is having a MONSTER year in the KHL so far?

(shrugs) Sokolov wasn't cheated. He had a chance, but he had to take steps to round out his game / fitness and he didn't. I could go deeper on this; but I'll just say that he had every opportunity and was told precisely what he must do. At the end of the day he didn't do it and the thus team let him go. It happens. Its a shame, but the blame shouldn't be on the organization. They shouldn't have to continually remind him the benefit of taking a professional approach. He didn't choose to and thus he made his bed. He can go lie in it now. Sokolov made himself a 'what if' not the Wild.

Minnesota Wild Name Jared Spurgeon their Team Captain I share my thoughts on the decision and discuss other issues surrounding team culture. Check it out!

Khusnutdinov looks good, not nearly as flashy as Boldy but a good support player who plays within his game. I like his hustle, speed and willingness to go into the corners to retrieve pucks. Lots and lots to like about him. As far as Boldy goes, great stickhandler, better puck retriever than I expected and I like his willingness to screen the goaltender. I am still concerned about his lack of speed and tendency to glide.

The only real NHL-level skill he had was his shot. Everything else was below that standard. IMO, its a lot like Teemu Pulkkinen; great shot...not much else. I also think you have to remember Sokolov was a player selected by Chuck Fletcher / Brent Flahr. There has been a lot of changes to the administration and scouting since then. So guys that may have been willing to go to bat and argue for him are no longer there so then you are simply at the discretion of the new regime. They look at you, they don't really like what they see and they say can we get a player who better fits how we want

Suffice it to say, Sokolov's days with the Wild are probably done. The team just wasn't going to wait any longer for him to get it.

2020-21 Minnesota Wild Season Preview I wrote up my own extended preview of the upcoming season. I talk about the roster, line combinations and I provide predictions as well. Enjoy and discuss!

2020-21 Wild Fans Speak Pre-Season Edition, Part 3 of 3 Here is the last part. It was another fun group of people to work with. Enjoy and discuss!

2020-21 Wild Fans Speak Pre-Season Edition, Part 2 of 3 The conversation continues here. I am not sure if any of those guys will get much of a shot this season with the Wild Icechipper, if they do that probably means things have really gone off the rails. Rossi I think will stay and play in Europe. I'd like to see Luke Johnson or Matt Bartkowski get more of a shot but barring an injury to Soucy or Rask I don't see it happening.