lynxrattle

What we know for sure is that he played miserably last season (and most of the season before that, IIRC) and that he is 33 years old. Then we can speculate on what Pulju said, and make an assumption on that: Koskinen might play miserably if he feels miserable. That is not a recipe for playoffs success.

If Krebs continues his career as he's started it, he'll be a Team Canada captain in the future as well. That's a bum I'd take to the roster any day. A prospect, but so is Eichel's neck atm.

Merrill is a bit of a question mark, but it's early season in a new team. He might turn up as a solid enough 3rd pair d-man, if he's able to learn from experience. Fingers crossed.

I'm all for that too, but only if the Wild plays four lines with even TOI. Otherwise the prospects will get too little TOI.

I think they will. Major time in Iowa, some time in the Wild. Best of both worlds.

What I've seen from Addison, I'm really happy. I'm sure his defense will come along in time.

I'd always like to see justice dealt out as publicly as possible. The openness sends the message of what is right and what is wrong to everyone. The more secrecy involved the more one starts to question was justice really dealt in the proper manner.

I'm sure we'll see Rossi this season if he keeps that point production up.

Man that struggle by Fiala to get inside position. That's will to win transformed into flesh.

Double trouble win the game Let's have more of them playing together.

Totally agree. It should be a game in which the Wild should absolutely look like the much better team. They might have a red hot goalie, or Batherson might score from anywhere, and the Wild could lose the game - such is sports - but there should be no question about which team is the better one. We'll see how it goes. And I really expect Kap and Fiala to start earning their pay in this one.

The shot chart in the article and the shot volume looked good. If he keeps it up, there should be results. It would of course help if there were others with him near the blue paint.

I doubt they read the forum and even if they did they would get the same message from Twitter and social media elsewhere. There's a saying "when the going gets tough, the tough get going". Kap and Fiala only need to watch MacKinnon bulldozing Brodin, or how Hartman with a lot less skills has played the last two games to see what they need to do. I'm quite hopeful they will find their game from their competitive nature, but I also think that in order to get there they will need to be held as accountable as anyone else. It's for their own good (didn't my Mom use to say something like that to me when growing up...)

Not a bad effort by the boys, but a clear loss anyways. To me the turning point of this match was right after Hartman's goal. MacKinnon mauled Brodin on the ice and passed the puck to Eric Johnson for the winning goal. Sheer will power. That's what missing from the Wild right now. We don't see our star players Kap and to a lesser degree Fiala taking reins and turning the game around single-handedly. Kap doesn't look like he did last season, and I think Fiala is starting to get frustrated by the lack of goals from all those nice opportunities he gets.

https://thehockeywriters.com/wilds-depend-on-kahkonen-finding-his-game/ A good article about the need for Kähkönen to succeed now. We have basically no-one to replace him, if he can't backup Talbot.

Colorado should be very motivated with their unexpectedly slow start, and they probably still remember the 8 - 3 mauling they gave us the last time we met. This game is the first game this season, that has the potential of giving us a really good glimpse at what our current roster is worth. I'm a little bit worried beforehand, but still hoping the match will bring forth a team willing to skate and compete.

I'm not finding excuses. On the contrary. If they are not up to it, we'll find it out in the least amount of time by giving them time to show what they can - or can not - do together. If they are not achieving anything playing separated, they can blame it on who they play with. If they play together more, they play with a good center in Eek, and with the supposedly best wingers we have. If nothing start happening then, then it's pretty clear we overpaid Kap by a lot, and we would have some indication on how much Fiala would be worth paying. It's not like we're achieving much this season anyway - so why not use the games for finding out if they can play together or not, and who's a keeper and who's not?

I don't mean to rag on the Kraken. They did play a marvelous game. I'm just saying that the Wild is a better team and should have been able to control the game like they did for the first half of the first period.

Addison skates effortlessly. He should add some speed to the game just by skating at the speed normal to him.

Well, they get their chances now. We really need some fresh energy after the Kraken shitshow. It's a shame about Greenway, though. He really got it bad last game. I hope it's not too bad.

Agree there. If they kept on shooting and keeping it simple they might start to gel. At their best both of the players have that relentless hound dog type energy. They should work fine together if only they kept concentrating on effort and speed. At this moment of their development the emphasis more on will, and less on skill.

The lack of compete, grit and speed from the end of the first period right up till the last minutes of the game was most disturbing. I'm getting flashbacks of that Country Club era Yeo tirade against the coasting that the Wild of then constantly practiced.

I think quite like that too. If Beckman had got the 3rd/4th line spot, he would have probably played some games, only to find out that he's not ready yet, and would then have played in Iowa with the hopefully learned lesson that he needs the AHL experience to really try to make it in the NHL.

To be able to have comeback wins and wins in tight matches the Wild would need to be able to have both Kap and Fiala on ice come PP, OT or 6 against 5 situations. In order to develop some chemistry they need to have time on ice with each other. Tonight they had some 5 against 5 time together, against a bottom feeding Kraken. It was horrendous. We have a potential future Selke winner in Eek, and still it was a disaster seeing the duo in a 5 against 5 situation. If this is what it is, we have to trade one or the other at some point of time. We won't win the Cup if the team's two best forwards aren't able to play with each other. I'd say we would have to see more of them as a duo, to get more info on if they would learn in time. But to let them play now as a duo, will probably mean losing games right now. It ain't easy for Evason.

The next one against COL. Have a good night. I'll visit the big white telephone now.