sweetshot

I read somewhere a scout said one of Rasks issues is that he has trouble with the increased speed of the game now, he doesn't have great feet. Another said the pace of his game is way off from what it was a couple of years ago.

I know it remains to be seen as we haven't seen Rask up close yet, but this trade, even given how badly Nino has been this year, makes us a weaker team IMO. All we need is another guy with skating issues.

Does anyone have an opinion/insight on how much BB had to do with this move--if anything??

They figured the Flyers would...

It's more than a tad late, IMO. Hyman saw that McAvoy relaxed after getting rid of the puck and obviously didn't see him coming, so Hyman nailed him. That's a cheapshot plain and simple--worthy of a suspension.

T-1st in the West. Looks like they may be going down the same path this season...

I really don't think we'll need to be too worried about a rested goalie for the playoffs.

You just have to keep at it until you hit the jackpot! Five years of tanking is actually a lot easier than a total rebuild. Faster, too!

Weren't these the rules when the Knights came in? I heard they were going to be different when Seattle enters the league.

IMO being able to knock a guy off the puck will always be part of a dmans responsibiliy. You don't need to be 6'4" 250, and I wouldn't necessarily sacrifice speed for size. I probably should have said as a whole the Wilds defense isn't physical enough and Spurgeon exemplifies this.

Of course you haven't bitched about the Knights--a first year team making a huge SC run, what's there to bitch about??

I've tried but I just can't buy into the whole Mikko thing. It just doesn't make sense--why would CL do this? I don't see a logical reason behind it and I'm not a conspiracy theorist. But at any rate, RR, if what you say is true, we are going to suck at least as long as Mikko is around and probably as long as CL owns the team. And he now considers the Wild as being a viable business to be kept as a family investment. Great. I'm going to move on to another team--the Wild could never replace my beloved North Stars anyway. I kind of like what the Sabres have started...

Are you saying the Wild didn't address certain deficiencies they had(have) because they didn't want to bring in a player that was better than Koivu because that player might diminish Koivu's status on the team?

Grrrrr...

Rant and rave all you want about some of the BS that goes on around this team , but really the bottom line is the Wild never has had and still doesn't have the horses to get it done. They lack a #1 center, a scorer--preferrably a big, good skating winger who can score(the most coveted NHL player IMO), and enough players that are willing to mix it up--get onto the areas on the ice where goals are to be had. You could say the Wild lacks grit. Or enough gritty players. Some guys are ok in this regard. And as a group, their defensemen are too small. Spurgeon's a pretty good player, but he lacks the size(strength?) to knock anybody off the puck, IMO a necessary skill for a defenseman. The Wild have been this way for several seasons and IMO the makeup of this team is the reason they haven't had postseason success. Not because of Mikko Koivu.