Icechipper Posted September 30, 2021 Share Posted September 30, 2021 I'm a Wild fan. A realistic one, I believe. Not good to be a rebuilding team in the Central, I'm afraid. You know who looks good? Dallas. And Suter figures to be a big part of our former team's blueline. My prediction for regular season: 1. Colorado 2. Dallas 3. Winnipeg 4. St. Louis 5. Minnesota 6. Chicago 7. Nashville 8. Phoenix Your prediction? There are no fabulous prizes! 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TropicalFruitGirl26 Posted September 30, 2021 Share Posted September 30, 2021 42 minutes ago, Icechipper said: I'm a Wild fan. A realistic one, I believe. Not good to be a rebuilding team in the Central, I'm afraid. You know who looks good? Dallas. And Suter figures to be a big part of our former team's blueline. My prediction for regular season: 1. Colorado 2. Dallas 3. Winnipeg 4. St. Louis 5. Minnesota 6. Chicago 7. Nashville 8. Phoenix Your prediction? There are no fabulous prizes! That's actually not a bad prediction. Right off, I would also have Colorado at the top and Arizona at the bottom.... face it, the Avs SHOULD win this division as I believe it is theirs to lose right from the gate. In between, I'd have the Blues or the Stars in 2nd and 3rd. Dallas has always had a decent compliment of players but I feel they've always been held back by their overly heavy handed defense first style the coach has them play. Loosen those boys a bit, let the goalies make stops, and they should be more dangerous. 4-7 is really a crap shoot depending on how the teams play and who develops into what. But, for the purpose of this exercise, I will list the teams in an order. 1-- Colorado (No Brainer) 2--St. Louis (Pick'em with the Stars. Some think the Blues are in decline, I am not so sure of that. They've got problems, but they also may have a healthy Tarasenko and Binnington may remember once again that he IS a SC winning goalie) 3--Dallas (Play a bit more offense, maintain their structure as needed, they should be good.) 4--Chicago (gonna put them here because I think too many people are underestimating what they can do...if their defense plays even average, I think they can possibly outscore their problems...and MAF in goal could back that up.) 5--Winnipeg (Putting them here ONLY if their defense plays better than it did last season....they also came off as somewhat "soft" in their series against the Habs in the post season last year) 6--Minnesota (Could be as high as 4 if they let their young guys play AND those young guys, Kirill included, play lights out) 7--Nashville (Really not sure what to expect from these guys, but goaltending will be the key for them...they get it, they can be around 4th...if not, they may have to stave off the Coyotes....) 8--Arizona (Sure they could surprise, but nothing they've done this off season tells me they are going to be much of anything this season. They may even trade off their few remaining vets to go full on Jr. squad) 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lynxrattle Posted September 30, 2021 Share Posted September 30, 2021 1. Colorado 2. St. Louis 3. Dallas 4. Minnesota 5. Winnipeg 6. Nashville 7. Chicago 8. Phoenix 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Math Posted September 30, 2021 Share Posted September 30, 2021 First: Colorado, Last: Arizona. After that, everything remain open. Winnipeg's defense is awful and they were so-so in the weakest division last year. Contention for a WC spot. Nashville is downtrending too, should be more in the bottom. Chicago might be the surprise with an overall improvement in goaltending and defense. Minny again to fight for a play-off spot, but it's still hard to tell exactly where they're at. St-Louis is staying St-Louis. And the Stars' home retirement facility didn't really improved their team. Benn is still capable of game-turning flashes but he has slowed down a lot and Seguin is past his prime years. Goaltending is also a significant question mark. The key will be to stay healthy and limit the number of OT losses below 35. As a summary: 1. Colorado 2. St-Louis 3. Dallas 4. Minnesota 5. Chicago 6. Nashville 7. Winnipeg 8. Arizona 4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bbgarnett Posted September 30, 2021 Share Posted September 30, 2021 1. Colorado No brainer and probably best in the west 2. St-Louis Dallas Minnesota 3. Dallas St Louis Minnesota 4. Minnesota Dallas St louis 5. Chicago 6. Nashville 7. Winnipeg 8. Arizona No Brainer I think 5-7 could also be any of CHI NSH WPG but I don't see any of them having a chance at the playoffs anyways. 1 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TonyOday Posted October 1, 2021 Share Posted October 1, 2021 Wild win the division this year. Write that down. 1 1 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alexandron Posted October 1, 2021 Share Posted October 1, 2021 On 9/30/2021 at 7:04 AM, Math said: First: Colorado, Last: Arizona. After that, everything remain open. Winnipeg's defense is awful and they were so-so in the weakest division last year. Contention for a WC spot. Nashville is downtrending too, should be more in the bottom. Chicago might be the surprise with an overall improvement in goaltending and defense. Minny again to fight for a play-off spot, but it's still hard to tell exactly where they're at. St-Louis is staying St-Louis. And the Stars' home retirement facility didn't really improved their team. Benn is still capable of game-turning flashes but he has slowed down a lot and Seguin is past his prime years. Goaltending is also a significant question mark. The key will be to stay healthy and limit the number of OT losses below 35. As a summary: 1. Colorado 2. St-Louis 3. Dallas 4. Minnesota 5. Chicago 6. Nashville 7. Winnipeg 8. Arizona Agree. I even will switch Chicago and Dallas, because of Marc Andre Fleury goaltending in Chicago. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Math Posted October 1, 2021 Share Posted October 1, 2021 1 hour ago, Alexandron said: Agree. I even will switch Chicago and Dallas, because of Marc Andre Fleury goaltending in Chicago. And Seth Jones stabilizing the D and Toews back. The Hawks will be a pain in the ass to play against. 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TropicalFruitGirl26 Posted October 1, 2021 Share Posted October 1, 2021 54 minutes ago, Math said: And Seth Jones stabilizing the D and Toews back. The Hawks will be a pain in the ass to play against. This was my thought. Chicago still has offensive weapons, all they need is to tighten the defense a bit and Fleury has to be vintage Fleury, and yea, they will surprise a few people. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Confrontational Posted October 1, 2021 Share Posted October 1, 2021 Wonder what Guerin would think of him picking up a superstar and everyone putting the team in the middle of the pack still...? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CreaseAndAssist Posted October 2, 2021 Share Posted October 2, 2021 Shameless plug here, my panel makes their predictions in Part 3 of Wild Fans Speak so if you want to see what they had to say about it. Anyways... I think the Wild will fall somewhere either in 4th or 5th. Even though I still hate Suter, I think his and Soucy's departure will mean Talbot / Kahkonen will face more shots. That usually means we give up more goals. However, maybe it won't be so bad. Kulikov looked very promising in his pre-season game. But I hated Dallas before and with Suter there I hate them even more. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lonkkis Posted October 2, 2021 Share Posted October 2, 2021 On 10/1/2021 at 9:50 PM, Confrontational said: Wonder what Guerin would think of him picking up a superstar and everyone putting the team in the middle of the pack still...? One or two superstars won't cut it, just ask Edmonton. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Confrontational Posted October 4, 2021 Share Posted October 4, 2021 Zero fan of Dallas - but will be interesting to see how Suter fits in there and how he does... Suppose with the heat now turned up on Dumba for getting the A and plugging some holes on D - makes me wonder if his blunders will have more light on them and if he feels he needs to play more aggressive to stand out... I think Ekk will turn out to be a stud - and hopefully goaltending can be solid... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Confrontational Posted October 4, 2021 Share Posted October 4, 2021 On 10/2/2021 at 2:35 PM, Lonkkis said: One or two superstars won't cut it, just ask Edmonton. Would you have ranked them about the same without Kirill...? 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Icechipper Posted October 23, 2021 Author Share Posted October 23, 2021 Found out I get ESPN-Plus on Hulu. Fantastic coverage. Los Angeles at Dallas. Suter playing strong. L.A. 2 Dallas 2 with 9 min remaining Dallas goal Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Math Posted October 23, 2021 Share Posted October 23, 2021 10 hours ago, Icechipper said: Found out I get ESPN-Plus on Hulu. Fantastic coverage. Los Angeles at Dallas. Suter playing strong. L.A. 2 Dallas 2 with 9 min remaining Dallas goal I guess you were being sarcastic The broadcast was a real mess on my side, I thought I connected an old 366DX33 with a telephone 56k connection with very-low density picture at 2.3 pics/mn. And the ice was to white that I couldn't even notice Kings players. And Suter, geez... He's more than awful. He's not slow, he isn't even moving, losing all puck battles, constantly out of position and creating a festival of turnovers. And paired with Sekera, you have two monoliths for your second D pairing. Guerin made hell of good choice by cleaning the house. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Icechipper Posted October 23, 2021 Author Share Posted October 23, 2021 Will Wild be on Hulu today? Guess I'll tune in and find out! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Icechipper Posted October 26, 2021 Author Share Posted October 26, 2021 The vultures are circling Chicago while good old Phil Kessel wants out of the desert. Once they were Wild: #20 Ryan Suter, Dallas (36), 3 assists on season, 27 minutes Oct. 22 in win over Los Angeles. #64 Mikal Granlund, Nashville (29), 4 points. #11 Luke Kunin, Nashville (23), 1 assist. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lynxrattle Posted October 26, 2021 Share Posted October 26, 2021 Other former players from last year's roster: Belpedio, no NHL games yet Bonino, 5 games, no points Parise, 6 games, no points Soucy, 5 games, 1 goal Johansson, 1 game, 0 points Cole, 5 games, 0 points Pateryn, 2 games, 0 points Mayhew, no NHL games yet Hunt, 1 game, no points, plus/minus -3 Johnson, no NHL games yet Move along, there's nothing to see here. I'd say the organisation has succeeded there in determining who is worth keeping and who is not. It's more difficult to do that with prospects, but I'd say it's more than likely they have managed to assess the prospects reasonably well too. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Math Posted October 26, 2021 Share Posted October 26, 2021 Guerin did a tremendous job in cleaning the Wild's house of the dead weights' albatross contracts. Il will maybe cost quite a significant amount in the cap but the most important thing is the culture change. Now the Country Club is in Dallas and the Stars are ahead of several years of average sucking if the front office remains in charge. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Icechipper Posted October 26, 2021 Author Share Posted October 26, 2021 What would happen to Wild's Parise cap penalties in the event he took a medical retirement, or simply retired? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lynxrattle Posted October 27, 2021 Share Posted October 27, 2021 10 hours ago, Icechipper said: What would happen to Wild's Parise cap penalties in the event he took a medical retirement, or simply retired? LTIR is the only solution, AFAIK. https://www.hockeywilderness.com/2019/10/31/20937184/minnesota-wild-cap-recapture-penalty-zach-parise-ryan-suter-contracts-roberto-luongo-nhl Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alexandron Posted October 27, 2021 Share Posted October 27, 2021 So far I was wrong in my prediction regarding Chicago. Fleury is not shining any more. They lost 5 games in regulation, and no wins yet as well as for Arizona no wins. St. Louis is impressing me more than Colorado. And Jets doing not bad at all. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Math Posted October 28, 2021 Share Posted October 28, 2021 Fleury being barely average and Seth Jones sucking like hell (he's a league-worst -9 and no goal scored yet, Chicago will regret the mammoth contract they gave him. Well this and now the sexual assault scandal. Tough times ahead). Colorado is oof a slow start, but things should be back to normal I guess. The Jets seem to have finally a decent defense, the Wild are a good surprise, the Stars are quite terrible and should be 1-5-0 rather than playing for .500 (if Bowness is not fired and things stay as disappointing as right now, no playoffs). And as expected, Arizona are fighting to get the NHL worst record ever. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lynxrattle Posted October 28, 2021 Share Posted October 28, 2021 The Avs is a such big surprise, that I'm guessing it won't last. 10 games more and they'll look a lot better. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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