Confrontational

Ugh - obviously some concerns on how great players seem to go to the Wild and start their retirement - but curious what they're going to give up to get this "asset"... "Jim Rutherford has said publicly he's willing to shake up his roster" - hmmm, so did it move to some minor tweaks to shaking things up...? Wonder how much his gopher status plays a role in all of this... [Hidden Content]

Obviously it's more of a PR move - like an "advisory role" type of position - but I'd be curious just how much executive advising he ends up doing - probably very little... Wonder what $ he gets for doing this... [Hidden Content]

I wouldn't be surprised at all if the Wild look like a playoff team these few last games - since the heat is off them mentally to do everything right...

Curious how many softies Doobie let in - and then if they lost that game ultimately pulling him and losing by 2 or 1... Bet that would be an interesting number... Not to blame just the goalie - but watched a couple of games this year - you know the kinds of goals I'm talking about... If this year was anything like most of the others over the past decade - I'd say they have a "hunger" issue - and I think it stems from many of the things already mentioned - but just don't seem hungry to do what it takes and fight for it - even in the playoffs - as we've seen year after year... Well, at least now Ryan can go count his millions on his farm now... Maybe he'll get a couple calls from Carrier to do some new commercials - or maybe the Wild ownership will run their new promo campaign by him during the offseason to entice fans to buy tickets...

I'm not like this little losing streak with Fluery out... Good luck MN - wonder how many guys I won't recognize... How long is Mikko out for...? Or is he back now...?

Wonder what Fenton thinks about the "just needs some tweaking" comment now...? Wonder if he agreed with that statement. Obviously they were caught with their pants down - and no doubt there is a PR company already employed to start looking at positioning this to the "fans"...

I see Vegas plays Nino tonight - will have to keep an eye out for him and see how he does... I really liked Nino initially - then like Coyle and so many others, he just started to become more and more invisible...

Watched the game - yea, this team is definitely hard to figure out. As many others have said - I think it's a whole lot of things - and I'm not exactly sure what a solution would be. The strangest part is that a majority of these guys have played together for a long long time - they all know how the other plays - and there is no way that with Dumba out that it is causing what we see - unless they all lack confidence on the back end to stop anything... I dunno - but I do know someone is eating their words ("we just need some minor tweaking")

This is year #2 for them - I was referring to this year...

Very surprised to see Zucker not make the list of top 5 scorers on the team. He's at 6th - with 10 Gs and 10 As. Mikko ahead of Zucker - yikes...

From a hockey perspective - watching the Knights is such a breath of fresh air. Watched another Wild game (against Chicago) the other day - and I found myself thinking "wtf was that?!?" too many times. Zach looked to be one of the few who wanted to play. I know it isn't easy to leave a team you've watched your whole life (in my case I did it for 10 years even after I left MN) - but, last year was enough - and throughout the year I started watching more and more of Vegas because of Haula and Tuch - fast transitions - Reeves there to make sure people stay calm - etc. I just read parts of this thread and hadn't realized that I haven't bitched at all with the Knights. Wonder if at year 15 of the Knights if a core veteran crew will screw that team up...? Anyways, Ref, chuckled when I saw "whattya mean Mikko controls things!?!" - and all the explaining has to start all over... Must get tiring...

I've been out of the loop a bit - but Mikko with 4 goals and 17 assists - whoa... And Nino with 7 goals but a -14... What the hell... Shame about Dumba... With Zach on fire - wonder how much more pounding he can endure before something goes wrong prior to playoffs like the past couple... I watched them a few games back against Montreal - and they looked very very good...

^^ I remember thinking last year - when we'd get a power play - I'd be like "no, no, no - we don't need it - we play better 5 on 5..." I assume there is some kind of stat somewhere that tracks the number of shots on net for each teams total power plays... Wonder how the Wild would look compared to others - I'd be willing to bet that would be a great area to improve on and get an extra goal every 3 or 4 power plays... Instead, it is't uncommon for the opponent to get just as many shots on our net as we do theirs during the 2 mins...

I thought they looked pretty decent last night... What bothers me nowadays when I see them - is how annoying it is getting into the opponents zone if we're on a powerplay... Man o man - it's getting old watching Suter move the puck up slow - look back - and then drop it 50 feet for Granny or someone to try and get it past the blue line - while everyone else looks paralyzed until the puck crosses - which typically is just picked up and iced back down... Surely there has to be a better way to enter the opponents zone versus dumping it - others seem to do it fairly easily again the Wild... Anyways, a decent game against a really good opponent... And how childish that after all these years they still boo Suter whenever he touches the puck...

Kinda assumed that with their record... Was interesting reading in some other threads that Suter has been doing a pretty good job... Personally, I didn't think he'd be rehab'd in time... Is doobie still letting in easy goals once or twice a game...?