Playoff Preview, Game 7: Minnesota Wild @ Vegas Golden Knights, Friday 5-28-21, 8:00pm, T-Mobile Arena

[lynxrattle]

That Reaves on Suter hit - what happens if some day some team responds to that kind of action with violence a little bit worse? We're talking about injuries that don't heal. The league really needs to stop using two rule books this different. The rule book used during the playoffs should not be this far off. The way this goes, we could declare the two champions each season. The one that won the Presidents Trophy, ie. the team with the most skills, and the one that won the Stanley Cup, ie. the team with the best reserves to cover for the injuries. It's just silly.

[Alexandron]

2 hours ago, Jimtown guy said:

Highly doubt that happens but it should 

They should, especially for Reaves. In 7 games,  I have seen referees had much more favor towards Vegas team. After watching what Whitecloud and McNabb did with Kaprizov I really wanted that our team will punish badly Vegas team by very aggressive way. Because they do not understand the other way to play against. Same way as Capitals did with them in 5 games of finals in 2018. Same way as we did in game#6 when Foligno broke the glass by throwing the Whitecloud's body into it. And it seems referees have more preference towards more physical more aggressive team as well.

[Alexandron]

9 minutes ago, lynxrattle said:

That Reaves on Suter hit - what happens if some day some team responds to that kind of action with violence a little bit worse? We're talking about injuries that don't heal. The league really needs to stop using two rule books this different. The rule book used during the playoffs should not be this far off. The way this goes, we could declare the two champions each season. The one that won the Presidents Trophy, ie. the team with the most skills, and the one that won the Stanley Cup, ie. the team with the best reserves to cover for the injuries. It's just silly.

It is silly, but that is 100% true. We need to prepare for the playoffs real warriors capable to withstand aggressive play like a gladiators. Soft team is not able to reach finals. This is why I was asking to insert Gordeev for that role who is 6'7"; 240 lbs defenseman in Iowa. We had a similar size prospect Falkovskiy, who played this season for Dinamo Minsk team and now is playing at the World Championship for the Republic of Belarus. I will be not surprised if Kaprizov will have a chance to play at this tournament too, when our team's playoffs season is over.

I am thinking already that Guerin will make some conclusions out of our 2020-2021 season.

[McMahon 6]

The last 2 and 1/2 games were sure a helluva lot of fun. This Wild team is starting to take on a different flavor IMO: in previous playoffs, the team was so obviously one-and-done that most of us were probably thinking "Let's get this over with as quickly and painlessly as possible."

 

After witnessing this year's performance, though, I'm thinking more like: if VGK is a legit Cup contender, the Wild sure gave 'em all they could handle. Heck, if we can get a good center, some supporting cast for Kaps, and a tough guy to put the fear of God into opponents who declare open season on our guys, this team could make some serious post-season noise in short order.

 

I wonder where BG would possibly find enough cap space to make any or all of this happen... hmmm... (sarcastically scratching head here:) 

 

And lastly, I would like to give a huge shout-out and thank you to LiG and Sota for their continuing tireless work on this board. I haven't had a chance to hop on much these days due to funky work hours and such, but do try to read your analysis and reviews whenever possible. It never disappoints: always enjoyable, and greatly appreciated!

 

                                

Can't wait to see what Kaprisov and the gang can deliver in a full season. GO WILD!!!

[Tomdog]

4 hours ago, Jimtown guy said:

Highly doubt that happens but it should 

Yes it should, along with an overhaul of the penalty issues the league has. 
2 minutes for delay of game?

2 minutes for boarding?

how does that equate?

and how about a penalty after the whistle blows. 
right now the only penalty after a whistle is fighting. 

[lynxrattle]

Those changes in the refereeing would make it a lot better. Alexandron was hoping for more aggression and size from our team. That would be necessary. The refs respect aggressive teams, because they have to. Their job is to let the guys play hard, but keep the game under management. They don't want to lose control of a game. If they do, they might be out of a job. So bigger and more aggressive is a must, even sometimes during the regular season, in order to see which of our players can deal with parking lot hockey. We need players like Alex Tuch. Speed, size, grit, not too expensive, some offense, and a bit better in defense than Tuch.

[Alexandron]

And we had Tuch as well as Falkovskyi, but they now are playing at different teams. Hope we will not lose Gordeev too. These type of players are not very common. So far we have in our team just 2 players Foligno and Greenway, which could bring an extra power for the team. Probably, we need few more to feel comfortable to play against powerful aggressive teams like VGK, Blues, Capitals, Bruins teams.

[Tomdog]

This team needs to realize that a healthy scratch isn’t always a bad thing. 
if the wild would play some of their prospects occasionally they might find out who should be kept and who should go. 
 

[Alexandron]

5 hours ago, Tomdog said:

This team needs to realize that a healthy scratch isn’t always a bad thing. 
if the wild would play some of their prospects occasionally they might find out who should be kept and who should go. 
 

Completely agree. Rotation of the prospects in the main club is minimal in comparison with other teams. It takes years to find out who should be kept. This season we had 6. Besides Addison and Mayhew the other 4 did not present much interest. The most difficult part also that tryouts in our club receiving first of all recently signed prospects during offseason. I still do not understand why the prospect like Menell was not signed and did not have a full tryout in the main club for 3 seasons in a row. He is offensively minded defenseman who was the best in AHL and KHL player. What else does he need to prove to receive a tryout here?

[ClusterChuck]

On 5/29/2021 at 10:05 PM, lynxrattle said:

Those changes in the refereeing would make it a lot better. Alexandron was hoping for more aggression and size from our team. That would be necessary. The refs respect aggressive teams, because they have to. Their job is to let the guys play hard, but keep the game under management. They don't want to lose control of a game. If they do, they might be out of a job. So bigger and more aggressive is a must, even sometimes during the regular season, in order to see which of our players can deal with parking lot hockey. We need players like Alex Tuch. Speed, size, grit, not too expensive, some offense, and a bit better in defense than Tuch.

Looking back at the series, This is a must. 
Sure we have Foligno who'll stand up for every teammate but I'd rather have his talents on the ice and not in the box.
Other than him...Greenway? Has size but something about him on ice doesn't show me as being a real threat to punish others. Great at after whistle scrums, But that doesn't protect or stars. Dumba? Can be an annoying pitbull at times with some hits but doesn't cause much concern for the other team.
The hit(s) on Brodin and not much retribution proves we need to toughen up and send some messages when things like that happen.
If we don't sing some quality strength, Then who do we get to see beaten on and possibly injured...Kaprizov? Fiala? 

[lynxrattle]

A couple of days ago they showed the Reaves on Suter hit on NBC, IIRC. That reminded me of the passivity of the Wild. I know it's Suter, and he's probably not the most likable guy in the room, but he's a team mate, and nobody showed up and reminded VGK that those kind of plays are not tolerated. Reaves was out of the game, but VGK was still there, and we weren't.

 

[Alexandron]

Yeah, we have just 2 bigger sized players - Foligno and Greenway. In my opinion, Foligno should give an intense reinforcing classes to Greenway during the offseason and maybe Greenway should take some professional boxing classes too. But also we need to look for other similar to Foligno players. Without them our playoffs performance will be not too long. We need physically strong warriors capable to play and to protect our stars for a long stretch maybe up to 20-24 playoffs games. I still remember our 1st playoffs game this season. We were able to perform 72 hits and we won that game in OT with a score 1:0. Probably, if we were strong enough to do that every game, then we would be in a 2nd round , but not the Vegas team.

[Alexandron]

8 minutes ago, lynxrattle said:

A couple of days ago they showed the Reaves on Suter hit on NBC, IIRC. That reminded me of the passivity of the Wild. I know it's Suter, and he's probably not the most likable guy in the room, but he's a team mate, and nobody showed up and reminded VGK that those kind of plays are not tolerated. Reaves was out of the game, but VGK was still there, and we weren't.

 

We badly need more warriors in our team. This 7 games playoffs round against Vegas showed that it is a necessary mandatory task to withstand aggressive play. It seems they are doing that physical play now against Colorado and limited them only to 23 shots in regulation which is unusual to see for the Avs team. And their Fleury of course, is an outstanding goalie, which is a main tremendous part of this team. Game moved now to OT.

[Alexandron]

I just found the fact that for this year Fleury, Grubauer and Vasilevskiy named Vezina trophy finalists (best NHL goalies for 2020-2021 season).

Here is an article:

https://www.nhl.com/news/2020-2021-vezina-trophy-finalists-announced/c-325117172

 

That means we have 2 goalies from our Division. Interesting, who will be the winner at the end of the playoffs?

[lynxrattle]

5 hours ago, Alexandron said:

We badly need more warriors in our team. This 7 games playoffs round against Vegas showed that it is a necessary mandatory task to withstand aggressive play. It seems they are doing that physical play now against Colorado and limited them only to 23 shots in regulation which is unusual to see for the Avs team. And their Fleury of course, is an outstanding goalie, which is a main tremendous part of this team. Game moved now to OT.

I wait for the day when a Wild player says something like this:

 

Defenseman Joel Edmundson vowed revenge on Scheifele.

"It was a dirty hit. But the league's going to take care of it. If he gets back in the series, we're going to make his life miserable," Edmundson said.

[ClusterChuck]

Watching gm 2 of AV's-VGK was much closer to expected. So many chancess by both and all the pipes hit.
AV's PP was pretty impressive. Not much different in style than ours, Similar passing but way less along the boards.
Biggest difference is they're all moving and crisp passing and actual 1-timers, Not corraling the puck before shooting.
Also very little 'dump and chase' on the PP, They have skaters who bring it in to the zone to set up.

We have a lot to work on in that area still for sure.

[lynxrattle]

We don't have shooters capable to shoot one-timers like Rantanen and MacKinnon. I do wonder though, if Fiala and Kap could learn that skill.

[ClusterChuck]

On 6/3/2021 at 12:13 AM, Alexandron said:

I just found the fact that for this year Fleury, Grubauer and Vasilevskiy named Vezina trophy finalists (best NHL goalies for 2020-2021 season).

Here is an article:

https://www.nhl.com/news/2020-2021-vezina-trophy-finalists-announced/c-325117172

 

That means we have 2 goalies from our Division. Interesting, who will be the winner at the end of the playoffs?

I'd pick Grubauer over Flower in a heartbeat. He's had to withstand so much more than Fluery and no crazy rebounds.
He deserved to win gm 3 until that oops that let VGK tie the game. 1 oops (and a great bank shot) and the tide's turned on the Av's.

[Alexandron]

On 6/7/2021 at 8:48 PM, ClusterChuck said:

I'd pick Grubauer over Flower in a heartbeat. He's had to withstand so much more than Fluery and no crazy rebounds.
He deserved to win gm 3 until that oops that let VGK tie the game. 1 oops (and a great bank shot) and the tide's turned on the Av's.

Me too. He deserves it, but VGK lead the series so far over Avs 3-2. And probably they will play against Habs. 

[ClusterChuck]

On 6/9/2021 at 10:45 PM, Alexandron said:

Me too. He deserves it, but VGK lead the series so far over Avs 3-2. And probably they will play against Habs. 

And so it shall be.   I was really hoping for an Avs-Habs match up because I still think Colorado was the stronger team.
Another Oops by Grubauer on the early tying goal not seeing where the puck when again allowed VGK yet another momentum swing.
That game 6 could have been entirely different if it wasn't for that moment.
At this point I'll bet the award goes to whoever's team gets the furthest. The easy way for the deciders.