lynxrattle

Well now I'm worried. The team didn't seem to have much energy, which can't be true so early in the season. I think they pass too slowly and thus give too much time to the opponent to group. Maybe it's the need of a 1C. Right now do we even have a decent 2C. Eek the only positive exception on the centre department, plus Bonino's faceoffs. The game had one only positive moment for me: Kempe obviously was pretty annoyed by Eek. I would love to know what the two Swedes were talking about. Eek really gets under the skin of the opponent.

I think there is a certain pitbull kind of character both mentally and physically in Parise, Kaprizov and Fiala. I hope Parise will be of help in mentoring K and F in developing that doggedness.

Let's see how optimistic a fool I am, but I'm expecting the team to have some jump on them. We need to play faster, and even if our players aren't the fastest of skaters, Kaprizov and Fiala at their best and our D-men at best can throw the opposition of balance. Kaprizov and Fiala are unpredictable, which I think is a very good thing in the offensive zone, but not so good at the neutral or defensive zone. I hope they find a balance between structure when defending and creative chaos when attacking. Whatever the game is going to be like, I expect I will be entertained here. Maybe I'm being too

The feet weren't moving, passes not crisp, goal tending shaky at times. It looked like the team had had a party last night and were playing hungover. I think it's just the way it goes and hope we'll see them motoring full speed next game.

I'm expecting Fiala to have a great game today. Would it not be fine to have the both of them, Kaprizov and Fiala to bring their best sides to the same game? Now that would be entertainment!

Laine is a feisty character. As a kid playing for the Finnish Boys' National Team he was sent home from Ivan Hlinka Memorial Tournament after giving the finger and running his mouth against the head coach of the team. Finland had pulled their goalie at the end of the game and Laine wanted to be on ice. The basic situation with the Jets has not changed from that situation - if Laine is not put on ice when the tough games are decided, he will get frustrated and react negatively. He doesn't act as immaturely anymore but the reaction is still there. That is possibly a good thing for someone who co

That's one way to handle this kind of situation, but on the other hand it's perfectly possible to choose the Yzerman/Drouin Holland/Puljujärvi way.

I 'm having trouble of not getting carried away. The team is starting look like it means business. Even Greenway was starting to throw his weight around. Maybe the mean streak of Foligno is starting to infect him. The Avs is there waiting for us, it's going to be a reality check, but as it is now, I believe we could win even against them. I just hope Talbot is alright.

I have liked Dubois's game, still do, but looking at that "I quit trying" clip makes me think if Dubois is a quitter. Will he quit trying in the future, when facing adversity on a Stanley Cup chasing team? We don't know what has happened between him and Torts, but still. The clip is horrible. How can one coast like that? He betrays his team and his fans. Is Tortorella torturing him between periods?

A fun game to wait for. Dubnyk returning, home opener, Donato returning, Kaprizov show, Fiala watch, second in West, Cole professionalism, etc. Loads of stuff to watch. I'm looking forward to this. It shoud be excellent hockey entertainment Let's have a good game and a win here!

The next time I see Torts, I'll see this:

That's a good question. It seems like there is a reason they don't use Ek in top line roles, but it is not clear why. It's been asked but never answered in a clear way, at least to my knowledge. The last answer we got, was "we don't want to break the chemistry of our best line (that being Ek's). My guess is that they see Ek as a Mikko Koivu style defensive centre and don't want to use him more offensively. We have had enough of defensive forwards trying to be 1C or 2C, but on the other hand what choice do we have here, and is it really certain that Ek would not find some 2C capabil

Kähkönen had a difficult night. Perhaps the long pause in playing and the first game in the season were factors. But he did get a win and looked like he can deal with the pressure of failing at times. I'm hopeful he will get a lot better later on this season. Bonino, Bjugstad, Cole were good, IMO. Johansson had some difficulties, but overall it does not look so bad right now. But we still badly need a 1C.

Yup. We do have a lot potentially good d-men growing up. Menell, Addison, Belpedio, some great numbers by that Falkovsky. It looks promising.

That got tricky but who cares, it's a win

You're right and that is why I like your ideas.

Wishlist for the game: 1. Kaprizov shooting 2. Fiala scoring 3. Talbot continuing from where he was in the previous game 4. Greenway finding the evil side of his personality 5. Cole proving we have the best defensemen x 6 in the league

Torts probably needs to go, unfortunately. But looking at it from another perspective: 1. Columbus is what it is. 2. Star players are going to keep on pining for bigger markets. 3. The only players that will be loyal to Columbus are the ones who keep competing, even when the odds are against them and the circumstances unpleasant - those players won't quit, ever. 4. Torts never quits, even when he should. 5. Can you imagine a team full of players who like Torts? That would be pure, bottled grit. The stink alone would make weaker teams faint. Torts is

Pateryn played well the first two, three games this season. Last season not that well, but apparently he was injured. They get cap room and we've now got a defence core that can't be much better than what it is. Except younger.

Dubnyk continues playing for SJS like he did for us. .848 in his first game for them. Not that goal tending matters if the Wild don't score any goals. To me Talbot is a clear upgrade on Dubnyk.

Talbot with such a good game, and no points. What a shame. Is this what the Wild is really able to do against teams that are a step better than the lowly Kings?

I'm going to miss the old format of reporting, when I haven't seen the game, but when I have seen the game at least partly, I like this one more. It's a nice change giving me the chance of pausing a little bit and thinking where the Wild has been and where it possibly is heading to. Right now I hope that the two KK's + Fiala will make us a very competent and fun team to watch. The one thing that I think maybe a bit differently on is Greenway. I think he's not shown enough yet, despite the 3rd line having two good games under the belt. He's not as edgy as Foligno and Ek

Well, another difficult game, but they found a way. Kaprizov with a bad turnover but he got the primary assist in OT, so no harm done.

Fiala - Kaprizov PP duo looked very promising. Hopefully after this season someone like Barkov or Dubois would feel tempted centering them.

I guess the saviour is here. Now we need to find St.Paul to play 1C.