IllaZilla

So, when Kaprizov is getting pummeled, where are all the gritty, tough guys?

That’s all they are. A good team. Not a great team. Great teams win a Cup. Good teams get bounced in the first round. And no. Get into the Playoffs and anything can happen. False. You either have to have a lot of talent or a good head of steam going into the Playoffs. The Wild have never had either. They’ve never had talent, and they always stumble into the Playoffs. Until this team commits to a rebuild and gets some real talent on the roster, they will continue to spin their wheels.

Boy there are a lot of Homers on the Athletic comment boards. A lot of “If the team had Spurgeon all season” or “If Foligno wasn’t hurt…” My Dad used to say “If “if” and “buts” were candy and nuts we’d all have a Merry Christmas”. I prefer Burgess Meredith’s character in Grumpy Old Men comment: “You can wish in one hand and crap in the other and see which fills up first”.

The goalie has to pitch a shutout every night?

I kind of wonder if Stramel's early success was from the fact that he was so big, and he could physically dominate at lower levels. Now that players in his age bucket have caught up to him physically, he is not such the dominant force. Even looking at his stats from the USNTDP, they aren't all that impressive. Of course, Eriksson-Eks stats were never that impressive either. But once Koivu retired and stopped blocking him, he started putting up decent numbers. But it took him five seasons to hit the 30 point mark and then another two to hit the 60 point mark. It is just frustrating watching this team do the same thing over and over and over and yet they expect a different outcome.

Gadreau has a M-NTC and Johansson has a NTC. So they are not going anywhere.

So are the Wild Fans going to boo him like the Nashville fans boo Suter?

Looks like Stramel did enter the portal. Early money is on him going to Michigan State to reunite with Adam Nightingale. Who knows. Boldy looked terrible in his first season at BC. He got much when he moved to wing from center. I’m not saying Stramel is going to be a Hall of Famer. The Wild are never going to get a Sidney Crosby or Connor McDavid drafting in the late teens-early twenties. But maybe he turns into another Joel Ericksson-Ek.

Whee.

2 minutes for Misconduct??? WTH…

I just think this whole season went as bad as it could go, from upper management to the on ice product. The pre-season extensions by Guerin were just stupid. That move cost the Wild plenty of building blocks for the future. I'm not sure what the urgency was in signing Foligno, Gadreau, Hartman, and Gustavsson to extensions before the season started. So Guerin's big moves this season were trading away third/fourth liners for picks he won't have to pay for two years, if he pays them at all. You can't really predict all the injuries, but to have as many as they did and to key players at the same time really showed how little depth the Wild have. It also showed all this talk about toughness and grit is just that, talk. When Kaprizov or Ericksson-Ek are getting roughed up on the ice, how do the Wild respond? The patented Mikko Koivu Finnish Stare of Death. They pretty much can only go up next season...

Sounds like there is a possibility Charlie Stramel might enter the Portal after this season. And it also sounds like there are quite a few NHL teams that are unhappy with the way Mike Hastings is “developing” their prospects at Wisconsin.

Yeah, but "Fight to the end..." and all that...

Thus endeth the Playoff streak. IMO this is the worst possible outcome for this season. No Playoffs and yet another 15-20 draft pick. And we get treated to the same graybeards next season because they all have NMC’s. This team is Groundhog Day in real life. Except it’s not funny.

That was part of the expansion agreement. That and unlimited use of the LTIR to stockpile talent…

Seriously, though, I’d ask him how he thinks he can build a Cup contender when the team keeps doing the same thing over and over: flame out in the first round, get a 15-20 first round draft pick, and then have to bring in high priced free agents. I mean he was part of the Pittsburgh system. He saw how they built a Champion. They were terrible. But they ended up with Malkin, Crosby, MAF, and Letang. And a boatload of Stanley Cups. I want to know how he thinks getting a bunch of 15-20 picks are going to get him to the Cup.

This is kind of sad. The Wild can’t put the Sharks away, yet we are to believe they are a Playoff team…

Apparently he’s been nursing an injury for quite a while now. Russo was hinting at the Wild shutting him down.

He’s +1 with an assist on the goal and 3 SOG…

You look at all the former Wild players on the Sharks, and then you look at their record…

What the f*** were you thinking signing Freddy Gadreau to a FIVE year deal? With a NTC?

The league will make sure the Hawks get Celebrini. Or an East Coast team.

Eek!

Good 'ol NCAA, always putting the fans first. Unless that gets in the way of making a dollar...

The only thing that is going to convince Kaprisov to stay with the Wild is WINNING. If he wanted to be surrounded by Russians, he could have just stayed in the KHL. I suppose the Wild could offer him more money, but he's pretty much maxed out. They can offer him length, but if the Wild aren't winning, why would he tie himself to a team that can't win? And we've all see the damage high salary-long term contracts can do to a team. After a while Kaprisov is going to get tired of carrying the team and want out, unless the Wild manages to start winning. And not just winning. Pushing for a Cup. Like going deeper than the first round. And by the time the Wild get out from under the Parise/Suter penalties, he may have already made up his mind about what he is going to do.