CreaseAndAssist

Vinni has looked better than Sammy Walker did in the call up but neither does a whole lot. One player who isn't playing well is Kirill Kaprizov. He handling the puck like he has a live hand grenade at the end of his stick. No big surprise, but Jon Merrill still sucks. Faber is all over the place but he probably needs to ease up on the pinches up the ice.

Ryan Hartman shouldn't be near 3-on-3 overtime. Overall the Wild were outworked and outplayed by Columbus. Minnesota was settling for perimeter shots for much of the game. In 3-on-3 the Wild were way too nonchalant with the puck and some pretty half-hearted defensive play gave Jack Roslovic a lane to attack and he buried it. They didn't deserve to win last night and they didn't. We looked like a tired team after having two days off (at home). Addison reminds me more and more of Matt Dumba. Maroon has better 1-on-1 moves than he generally gets credit for. I'd rather see him on the power play than seeing Marcus Foligno anywhere near it. Eriksson Ek is really the only forward who I think is playing at the level we expect. The rest are mostly underperforming.

Brock Faber did something that Matt Dumba never really figured out; you don't have to only use slap shots when you are at the point.

There is something oddly fitting that some non-Wild fan spams the Wild message board for a Marco Rossi goal that didn't count. Sort of like a metaphor of his NHL career to this point. Oh well, he got a goal that counted the next night...but he has a lot more to do to live up to the hype.

At least Faber wasn't the worst. Although good thing the Wild didn't lock down a bunch of 30-year old players with NMC's for years...oh wait.

Khusnutdinov got his first goal with HC Sochi, he needed ice time because SKA St. Petersburg wasn't going to play him probably unless he re-signed with them. Ironically his goal came against SKA St. Petersburg.

Faber could win rookie of the year this year. I agree that Bedard will probably get it because the league has been working so hard making every game he plays a big deal so far. Merrill looks like same slow and surprisingly soft 6'3" defenseman he was last season. Goligoski...another year with an NMC.

Episode #23: Wild Fans Speak: 2023-24 Wild Season Preview I tried to attempt my Wild Fans Speak in podcast form. The background noise from my Dad being at a bar is a bit annoying but lots of great discussion as we talk about the upcoming season. We also discuss the recent contract extensions of Zuccarello, M. Foligno and Hartman too. Check it out!

Yea there were certainly a puckbunny crowd that spent more time talking about a player's hair. I remember you arguing with people; but in general arguments were rather common around the old boards. The prediction thread was a pretty popular hang out; so was the Jobs or What I am having for lunch thread in the general part of it all. Back then when people; especially the Season Ticket holder crowd regularly hung out with one another there were some good friendships and occasional drama; but also some tough times when we lost members due to cancer or other things. Over time, it seemed like people dropped their season tickets as they just didn't feel it was worth it or life changed forcing them to have other priorities. It's funny, this place seems to want to control the amount of threads and basically keep using the same few topics instead of simply creating new ones since that's really what a message board is. That certainly would've caught a person a lot of flak for insisting on garbage like that.

Hartman and Foligno both got NMC's for THIS SEASON in their new deals. Then modified (15 team no trade list) for the rest. Zuccarello got an NMC for both years. So whether we like them or not...they're not going anywhere. I don't understand what the rush is to make these deals. Its like playing your cards right away in poker. IMO, it seemed impulsive and emotion-driven (they like being here and we really really seem to like it when they say that). They all basically got what they wanted and complete job security. It may not be the toxic culture of the previous 'core' but it certainly is a damn comfortable group right now. NMC's and NTC's all over the place.

I think the team can make the playoffs; but doing anything once we get there...not so much. I agree Dean isn't exactly a strength. However, I do like what I've seen out of the power play so far. But this team has a regular season level and can't seem to find a post-season one. So its tough to get too excited about it and they only doubled down on the 'core' who hasn't really done anything notable.

Maybe not, they have almost no cap space. Iowa has crushed Rockford in a few AHL pre-season games. Looks like they will have plenty of firepower there with Sammy Walker, Vinni Lettieri and Nic Petan to supplement the bunch of young prospects there. Jujhar Khaira will another interesting player to watch as he played pretty well in pre-season play. Caeden Bankier, Mikey Milne, Sam Hentges and Daemon Hunt are hurt to start the season. Wallstedt has been sharp. Hunter Haight and Riley Heidt off to fast starts in the OHL and WHL respectively. Vladislav Firstov and Danila Yurov also off to a good start in the KHL.

No one really seems to be doubting on Gustavsson so far, but it will be interesting to see if he is used more like a true NHL #1 goaltender than the rotation they mostly used last season until the playoffs. I would think Addison would be on a fairly short leash.

Wild won 4-3. Sammy Walker with 2 goals and a helper. Wallstedt had 40 saves. Daemon Hunt was close lined by a Tanner Kero hit. Alex Goligoski looked slow and old...and tired. Almost every time he and Simon Johansson were out there the Avs went on the attack and peppered Wallstedt with shots. Haight, Heidt and Walker was a pretty good line and continued the same chemistry they had at the prospect tournament last week. Khaira's big but he's pretty slow. Addison took a foolish retaliatory penalty in the 3rd, but luckily it didn't cost the team on the scoreboard.

Wild pre-season starts tonight with a group of youngsters go to Colorado to face the Avalanche. Wallstedt in net. Dewar, Khaira, Goligoski and Duhaime are there too.

I saw the 2nd one against the Chicago Blackhawks prospects minus Connor Bedard. Sammy Walker had a hat trick; but that top line of Walker, Riley Heidt and Hunter Haight was the best the Wild had in that scrimmage. They caused a lot of chaos and Haight and Heidt set up Walker for some nice finishes. Heidt is really good at stripping opponents of the puck. Rasmus Kumpulainen isn't the most fleet of foot, but he works hard and has better vision and instincts than I expected. He's going to play for Oshawa (OHL) this year which is why he was at the scrimmage. Carson Lambos looked really good; mobile and really involved all over the ice. I am not sure if he has a lot of offensive potential from a scoring perspective but he makes good passes and he can either carry it out of the zone or make a good first pass out of the zone. Kyle Masters also looked pretty good and he had two helpers too. Simon Johansson and Daemon Hunt were solid too. Ryan O'Rourke got into a fight but beyond that wasn't that noticeable as the other four guys I mentioned. The Wild were using invitee players between the pipes in the game against Chicago. Wallstedt played in the Wild's 5-1 loss to the Blues prospects.

Episode #22: Something To Prove In this episode, @MNSOTA and Kalisha and I discuss which players have the most to prove this season, we also talk about Calen Addison's new deal and what will be expected of him moving forward as well as answering listener questions too! Check it out! If you would like to participate you can ask a question here or Tweet / Post at us on X and we'll answer.

Remember the Wild Employee of the Month club that was the rotating captaincy? Oh those were the days! Alex Henry a captain to start the year? Yea, we can see they don't care who they give it too!

(shrugs) I'll believe it when I see it. Iowa doesn't have a lot of firepower and most of what it had last year is probably going to be with the big club this year (Rossi, Beckman). They will have more prospects playing the major roles so they will have a chance to show if they can sink or swim right away.

HFBoards was mostly made up of folks who couldn't trade barbs with the people on the old wild.com boards. So if you migrated over there; they gave those of us they didn't like a real hard time and more or less banned you for any reason at all. I got a one-month suspension for saying James Sheppard was going to be a bust. Seriously, a hockey opinion...nothing personal towards anyone unless you were James Sheppard. And James Sheppard was a total bust...so... Either way, I think I remember Sudden Death and little or nothing happening there after Metroboards dissolved. Metroboards was where I was 'discovered' and asked to start blogging. I remember the fantasy league and decent discussions to be had over there. Moderation done right can be great to keep it lively but its a fine line before it becomes the group-think gestapo. I remember on some of the old NHL team boards, like the Hurricanes board about the only thing they allowed was opinions that spoke favorably of the team and the organization. Anything remotely like criticism you'd get a DM discussing how you will be suspended if you try to stir up trouble. All it could take is saying Cam Ward didn't have a good game and you were on their 'watch list.' If I remember correctly, members couldn't start a thread until you had 100+ posts and you even had a 'warning meter', my Cam Ward opinion earned me two out of my ten warning points for the month. It was crazy. While I think you might find a few sharp hockey minds over at HFboards, I think you see even more people who simply THINK they are great hockey minds but have just as much credentials as your average fan.

Episode #21: Will They, or Won't They? In this episode, @MNSOTA and Kalisha and I discuss the sad saga that is the Arizona Coyotes, a (lame) Wild rumor and prognosticate what Calen Addison's future with the team looks like at this point (still unsigned, etc). We also answer a bunch of listener questions too. Check it out!

(shrugs) AHL often has 3 games (Friday, Saturday, Sunday) for a lot of its teams to save travel costs. Rossi, being a major junior player was probably more used to that than say a Brock Faber would be. However, I wouldn't just chalk it up to travel as being the main culprit for Marco Rossi hitting a wall. Fatigue; physical, mental and emotional is probably a more likely source...but either way, he wasn't delivering for Iowa when it needed him the most the last two seasons.

Wait a sec, I thought if you just got the horse to train a bit they'd be ready to win the Triple Crown after racing at Canterbury for a few weeks?!?! Are you saying that's not true? (gasp) In all of my years of watching the Iowa Wild, they rarely ever appeared to be the more talented, faster team. Tim Army helped make them a hard-working, blue collar kind of team...but they normally looked out skilled by our opponent's best players / lines. Goaltenders often had to be stellar just for them to have a chance as offense was usually a struggle and that was even with Marco Rossi in the lineup. While Brett McLean will be a fresh voice, he will have a lot of young players on the back end and some new faces up front in their 1st pro seasons. That normally means lots of growing pains rather than on-ice domination.

I am not sure I buy that logic, because if that were true then a lot more guys from Quinnipiac should've received NHL opportunities. They didn't. Every league has its ringer who can dominate at that level but you promote them to a higher level their game, style, etc just doesn't deliver. Faber's, at least from our small sample size of the playoffs looks promising and he has always demonstrated a lot of poise. However, he will feel the grind of travel and playing 60+ games in a season for the first time in his career. Sammy Walker certainly hit that wall after a fast start with Iowa last year. It's a big adjustment from being two-game weekend warrior to 3-4 games every 5-6 days.

I know Tony, we've talked several times but even he knows its put up or shut up time with Marco Rossi. He loves analytics so much he primarily sticks with the metrics. If he is a good as the analytics crowd wants you to believe then why wasn't he leading Iowa beyond their play in series last year or beyond the 1st round the season before that? I don't see how Rossi was held back from doing just that in Iowa. He had all of the prime ice time and opportunity to lead the way. Why would I or anyone expect him to just flip a switch and dominate at the NHL level when he didn't do it at the AHL level?