CreaseAndAssist

I disagree. I think our talent is as good as WE think it is. We don't think it's that good and the difference between them and Colorado or the other better teams in the West is painfully obvious. I don't see many (if any) people here that think this team is the equal of any of the West's best. I don't see many (if any) buying the crap Anthony LaPanta, Wes Walz and Ryan Carter try to sell each every game that the club is just a great team that was hobbled by bad luck & injuries. Most of us seem to be rather skeptical of this team and its chances both in the short term and long term. There is a small chance the Wild will have a 40-goal scorer (Kaprizov), two 30-goal scorers (Eriksson Ek, Boldy) and maybe two 20 goal scorers (Rossi & Hartman). In past years we would've killed for that...but with such an atrocious penalty kill and average to below average goaltending...it doesn't really matter.

Maybe. Michigan State would make a lot of sense as a destination given the past history / relationship. Boldy had a bit of a struggling freshman season, but this is really Stramel's 3rd season of struggle in a row. His bigger frame probably has made people want to wait and see but as a junior he'll have to start showing some potential or if he is slow out of the gate you really have to wonder what's there. I agree, which is why this team's unwillingness to just bottom out places it in the eternal purgatory of selections in the mid-to-late teens.

Not a great game. It was another one where I felt the Wild were making this game way more difficult than it needed to be. The top lines were trying to be way too fancy with the puck; trying to set up the perfect chance. 4th line ends up bailing out the club with two goals but the inability of the penalty kill to understand why they can't allow the cross-ice pass (especially from down low) is beyond frustrating. Chisholm had some Dumba-esque turnovers. He owes Fleury a dinner or two after bailing him out for some gaffes with the puck.

Not sure how team friendly I'd say they were. We overpaid and gave too much term to Marcus Foligno. But I agree in principle that it makes you wonder if he had some kind of earlier agreement. However, including the 'handshake' deal to Goligoski these deals have only kept around old bones way too long.

Nah, Firstov can stay and play in the AHL. Seems like Liam Ohgren will be joining the Iowa Wild too. If the Wild want to see what they have in Adam Beckman; now would be the time to give him an audition in a Top 6 role or they should just admit they have given up on him. Also would be nice to see Marat Khusnutdinov play with some better linemates too. As far as Marcus Foligno being shut down...oh well. As for Hartman's suspension...not surprised. I just hope it provides some late-season opportunities.

(shrugs) Hard for me to point to Hastings as the problem as Stramel was underwhelming with Tony Granato too. Don Lucia got the same rap over time; especially when he doesn't just give the drafted kids unlimited ice time & opportunity. It will be interesting to see where Stramel goes but anyone really expecting him to just become a college stud after two pretty mundane college seasons under his belt?

Yes, and after we pulled that off a few weeks ago against Nashville most people became aware of that rule. But it also begs the question why the Wild didn't pull the goaltender during regulation rather than OT with an effort to block Vegas from earning even a point in the standings which might be just as important as earning 2 points. Seems a bit silly to do Vegas a favor by conceding (at the very least) a loser point to the Golden Knights when you were risking 2 or no points in OT. Oh well, it dropped our odds of making it down to 2%.

That's kind of what was hinted at in the last Becoming Wild episode: The Final Push. That will be interesting to see how the team evaluates itself. My guess if they feel he has game they can probably make him a fairly small offer and he'll stick around as long as he's going to play.

Great question... Why in the f%ck didn't you wait until closer to the trade deadline, before you decided extend #36, #17 and #38? Do you think Kirill Kaprizov is going to stick around long enough before this team gets out its own way?

I have to admit this decision really seems odd. He had a not-so-great junior year. I know the Wild act like he's grown so much, but everyone else I heard thought he regressed a bit. If your Peart why do it? Wait a year, have a solid senior season...be a free agent and get a better opportunity.

No doubt. And Russo has hinted at this more and more. This team has to show him its a winner otherwise he has ZERO reason to stay and this summer is the point of no return. The team has to really think about whether he's likely to stay or if he's going to move on. Because his no-trade protection kicks in starting next year.

(shrugs) Khusnutdinov isn't going to be on a line with Kaprizov if he doesn't have a lot of offensive ability. Firstov...another long shot to be one of his linemates. The linemates that should matter to Kaprizov is Boldy...maybe Rossi and Yurov or some other player that isn't with the organization yet. Otherwise, I don't see the arrival of the Russian players really changing Kaprizov's mind about leaving or staying. He might like having them around for right now, but I don't think they do enough that would make him less likely to go somewhere else at the end of this contract.

This was a long time ago. But I only met Jeff one time; a friend of mine was part of his hockey show he was doing for a podcast network run by Tom Bernard's son called the Alive & Social Network. Dubay, being an experienced KFAN guy was the host and they had a Wild-focused one called Wild Wednesdays. So one time when I was in town over the holidays, @MNSOTA and I went to Burger Moe's right near the X where they were recording and he was going to have me come on. I had never been on a podcast before. He seemed to have kind of a nervous / anxious when the show wasn't live (like during an ad) but then get laser focused as soon as you were live. He gave me a brief introduction and I was super nervous, and then he's asking me what the team needed to do. I gave my two cents, he didn't scoff or make me feel like a complete dope. I shared my thoughts and then we kept talking about the Wild and then Gopher hockey for about 30 minutes. This had to have been shortly after he was let go by KSTP 1500 around 2015 would be my guess. As he'd get into trouble again, he didn't want to kill the momentum of Wild Wednesdays so he passed it on to some others. Other shows on this network included the first edition of Russo's Male Pattern Podcast. Gorg had a short-lived show on here too as well as others about fishing, police, movies and restaurant reviews and other things. I was part of a few episodes of Wild Wednesdays with this new crew, where they broadcast the shows from Bennett's Chophouse farther down 7th Ave. It was a nice location, but they put us right in the middle of the restaurant and you kind of felt like you were everyone's way. Anyways, back to Jeff...he was very kind but you could tell he was being chased by demons of some kind. He had a girlfriend arrive at Burger Moe's, she was cute and her arrival didn't exactly calm his nerves. I said this on Twitter, but I really hope he finds and receives the help he needs to get and stay clean. I didn't know he had moved to Grand Forks, the last I had heard he was working as a bartender / podcaster at a place in Oakdale, Minnesota.

Tom Reid's Hockey City Pub...not very far from Xcel Energy Center in St. Paul. https://tomreids.com/ 258 7th Street West, Saint Paul, Minnesota 55102, United States

@MNSOTA and I will be there. I will throw it out to the podcast listeners too. It should be a fun time regardless what the #mnwild do.

Oh and one last thing. Minnesota signed Riley Heidt to a 3-year entry level contract yesterday. And last night he had a hat-trick in his last regular season WHL game; finishing the 2023-24 reg season with 37 goals and 117 points in 66 games.

Firstov hasn't done THAT much in Iowa. Two not real great penalties so far. He's trying to get involved, but no points yet. As far as this game went, Matt Boldy not forcing Binnington to freeze the puck in OT opened the door for the rush the other way and the game winner by the Blues. For a team that is allegedly fighting for its playoff lives, that is a game YOU HAVE TO WIN! But they didn't...sure another loser point and now they have to wait in Thursday while they fall farther and farther behind. it will be nice when this lame hope will come to an end. And we all know how it will end for this Wild club. Good on Rossi for scoring 20 goals this season after not having any goals through his first 19 NHL games. Beyond that...another disappointing Wild game IMO. A classic teaser...

Brodin gets hit, and you kind of look over at Marcus Foligno and he looks back at you and goes...What? Do you want me to do something? And we're like...

Iowa sweeps Chicago this weekend in a two-game series at home keeping their barely alive playoff hopes going. Luke Toporowsky has 3 goals, 6 points in 7 games since we traded for him. It may have been seen as a bit of homer pick by trading for the Iowa-native, but he's been productive so far. Firstov still hasn't had any points, but he had another bad penalty and luckily for him and Iowa it didn't cost them. Turner Elson isn't the scoring threat Nic Petan was, but he does the little things right and kind of reminds me of Don Bebee from Mystery, Alaska...a veteran leader who does the ugly, little things to make plays that help you win games. It will be interesting if they decide to keep him around on an AHL deal for next season. Simon Johansson is on a bit of a heater, scoring his 8th goal of the season this weekend.

I'm game for it. We should be in town a few days for a family X-mas in June event. So we might as well stay a few days and enjoy &/or console ourselves when the #mnwild have another milquetoast 1st round selection. At least we'll be able to enjoy some decent food and some beers as we do so.

Episode #38: The Ides of March @MNSOTA and I discuss the Wild's playoff chances, the return of Vladislav Firstov and we play game. We also answer listener questions and Theresa unloads on the league over some comments it made in the wake of yet another former enforcer dying way too young. Give it a listen!

That's the worst part; we're going to scratch and claw our way to another mediocre 1st round selection. There are some good defenseman in this draft, but we'll probably take one of the smaller, puck moving types because that's all they seem to want to draft at that position. 6'1" - 5"11", 190-180lbs puck mover types with limited offense.

I didn't catch this one. I took a nap and that extended into the game. Woke up at about 10:50PM CST and turned it on, saw we were down 5-0 and went back to bed. By what I read on Twitter and from here it doesn't sound like the team showed up for this game. You basically see the microcosm of this Wild season in these back to back games. They can beat an inept Anaheim Ducks team but when they play against a playoff-bound quality opponent they get demolished. If we have Brodin and Eriksson Ek back...maybe we can compete but without we look like a pretender.

I think Jared Spurgeon was slowing down last season. His body is more fragile and being pint-sized probably hasn't helped. That contract we gave him was an albatross as soon as they made it. Brodin is currently their best defender, but Brock Faber isn't far behind. Brodin also has a penchant for getting hurt; not fragile...but his injuries usually bring about a free fall in the standings. The Killorn hit was 100% needless. It wasn't a blindside hit, but he had no real reason to expect to be hit though. The puck had gone away a while ago. However I'd say teams (especially Nashville) have tried to just resort to beating up Kaprizov. Dallas too at times. It's been a way to get Minnesota out of its game and worrying more about hits and being hit than playing the game for a while now.

Oh, and necro-bumping was certainly something that was a part of the old Wild.com message boards. We never wanted to let a good thread stay dead. Even if it was just to look back and laugh at the insanity it contained...it was fun to have it around once again.