lynxrattle

Kap just broke Gaborik's Wild history record in getting the most points in 20 games.

Shots from the blue line was what doctor Evason ordered and they delivered. Kept it simple and kept scoring

Like a song way back in the day said: "kick'em when they fall down, kick'em when they fall down". The Jets clearly have a Parise/Suter problem in Wheeler/Scheifele. One is too old to achieve much anymore, the other does not leave the stage for younger talent. We got humiliated often enough by them when Byfuglien was still playing. Now it is our turn to humiliate them. Too bad they have a string a losses behind them. If they have any sense of pride left in when, I would expect them to fight back in this one. Still I would say that we win, let's say by a score of 4- 2.

For the first time in the years I've been watching the Wild (from about 2012) the team very seldom breaks while bending.

NJ is a changed team now I see, their youngsters are good and fast. We got tired in the end, then at times almost dominated, but this time puck luck was more on our side. As a fan I feel obligated to bitch and moan, and get easily rattled by this and that, but I don't feel like it at the moment. The Wild is just a marvellous hockey team. The guys win games they should not win. We only need to get a little bit better to be able to make a playoff run.

The newest https://talknorth.com/russosouhan/ mentions JT Miller talks. So it's very likely true. But still we only know about the trade talks that phones are always ringing and most of the calls don't turn into anything. I doubt they would let Boeser go, though. The price would have to be too much for most any team.

They should make a movie with a scene like that

You are right, the goal scoring is a little thin. It would still solve the lack of 1C while waiting and hoping for Rossi to mature.

Yeah. That is exactly the one main problem. He keeps on ending up on all those scoring opportunities, but somehow doesn't finish them. I'd say either a sports psychologist or a near-total concentration on off-season shooting practice program would be due.

JT Miller for Fiala would be ok, IMO. We would possibly have to add something, though. Not Rossi, Boldy or Addison. After that I would be ok with giving away a prospect of a pick, but not first round. JT Miller could have a heck of an impact here.

Hard to disagree there.

Pre-season was not good. Hopefully an anomaly in his career.

How about a coach Slouch: "Keep on eating those pretzels, boys! I don't want you to be able to skate yourselves out of trouble. If you're fat, tired and slow you won't have any other option than to follow my game plan as closely as possible." And: "Stop being so brisk! If you are not lazy as hell you'll just skate away from screening the goalie to try something fancy and clever instead of just keeping it simple. Goddamnit. Think of Kessel. We want lazy, fat bums that know how to have a good time with the beer and the pretzels!"

Fiala being benched from the PP, playing very little in the third periods of recent games, saying Evason hasn't said a reason for the benching, and not getting a long term contract. It's all speculation of course, but the one year deal is indicative of either "prove you are worth keeping" or "We might not have the money to keep you after this season". I like Fiala probably for the same reason coaches roast him. He's unpredictable. Being surprised is fun. Too much of that and he turns into a turnover machine, though.

I don't know what our PP is trying to do. Sometimes I think they don't even have a plan, but they have plans even for faceoffs so that's clearly not true. The one thing though is the lack of goal scorers in the style of Ovechkin, Stamkos, Selanne. The guys with only scoring in mind and the skill to do it regularly. Boldy could be a first and foremost a goal scorer. We have too many passers.

"Giving up a bunch of high draft picks to make a mediocre team mediocre" - that describes spot on what Fletcher's MO in the Wild was.

Judd Zulgad and Declan Goff running Judd's Hockey Show YouTube Channel were discussing trading Fiala. It is obvious that things are not working smoothly with Fiala and Evason, and trading him might be a win-win situation for everyone. I'm still worried that what if Rossi could be the center they need? Would a Rossi-Kap-Fiala combination when trailing, lessen the need for these 6 against 5 comebacks? To trade Fiala we would really have to see how Fiala and Kap play together. PP and OT really isn't showing clearly enough what Fiala is able to achieve (- or not achieve). I would hate to see Fiala in the first line of some other team, with capable linemates suddenly start scoring 30 - 35 goals a season. On the other hand a trade could be good enough for us too to compensate for any potential success for Fiala elsewhere.

How about that. Never quit, never stop. FLA was a tougher opponent. With a little bit of luck we could have wins against TBL right now. 4th line and Merrill negative again, but only just. Kahkonen with a point. Dismal save percentage of .833 though. With a rested Talbot, Addison in place of Merrill, and the 4th line with an added veteran presence we could show NJ that they are not that tough a team yet.

Quite a challenge ahead. No Spurgeon, Addison probably not there in time, or if he is, tired, and there is the problem of how to solve the Kulikov - Merrill pair and the 4th line who had problems against FLA. I think it's too much to solve this quickly. 4 - 2 win for Tampa Bay Ltirning.

Good effort against a clearly stronger team. With luck we might even have won this game IF not for these problems: 1. The 4th line, they had horrible plus/minuses despite little TOI 2. 3rd d-men pair had a horrible game as well 3. Talbot is not close Bobrovsky 4. A humongous amount of odd-man rushes again How difficult is it to fix these problems? We can have 4th line guys and 3rd pair d-men from the prospect pool or buy them. Odd-man rushes and neutral zone coverage is a a lot about coaching. Coaches are cheap and there are a lot of them. Jesper Wallstedt is a steady wall of a goal tender - you can tell it just by his name, just like you can tell that Dumba will make a lot of dumb mistakes, and Hartman is a hard-playing heart and soul guy. Lots of positives. They played a man's game, but so did we. Kaprizov was very good again, despite the fact that the Panthers were excellent in "controlled aggression" as their commentator said. Fiala was motoring, despite the slump in scoring still continuing. In a year or two we could have a chance of winning these kind of games without luck.

Very good points

Trophies are nice, but like Russo said, he' just happy the Wild is now finding players/prospects who can fill the 3rd and 4th line roles. They don't have to pay rentals to do that.

Like ClusterChuck said streaks end. 3 - 1 Wild win. At least they don't have Barkov now. It's a near-perfect team even without him. We took Rossi over Lundell in the draft. I hope this game shows we were right and Lundell is a total no-show in this one. Edit: Duhaime's first game in front of his friends and family. Let's hope for a marvellous game for him!

Here's an article on Brackett: https://www.hockeywilderness.com/2021/7/20/22579724/2021-nhl-draft-minnesota-wild-judd-brackett-mock-draft-rankings I'm not really that clear on how the responsibilities in the organisation go. I don't know if it's Guerin's show, Brackett's show, scouting team's show, Evason's/Army's show, or do they all co-operate as a team, but I'm pretty hopeful the optimism conveyed in the article has a solid enough base.

Over the years I've become so accustomed to us picking meh players, be they draft picks, rentals or claimed from the waivers, that to me Pitlick came totally from under the radar. The guy can skate, shoot and deke, and play the body. How seemingly effortless was it how he left Seguin behind him when scoring that last goal of his!! Is this a new Wild, Judd Brackett having his hand behind this? It's looking pretty damn good for us