Minnesota Wild @ Nashville Predators, Tuesday 11-15-22, 7:00pm, Bridgestone Arena

[MNSOTA]

Minnesota Wild (7-6-2)  16pts  4th in the Central

 

2.79 Goals For Per Game (24th in the NHL)

3.00 Goals Against Per Game (13th in the NHL)

 

25.0% Power Play (9th in the NHL)

80.4% Penalty Kill (10th in the NHL)

 

Top 5 Scorers:

1. #97 Kirill Kaprizov ~ 10G 7A = 17pts

2. #36 Mats Zuccarello ~ 6G 9A = 15pts

3. #12 Matt Boldy ~ 6G 5A = 11pts

4. #14 Joel Eriksson Ek ~ 4G 6A = 10pts

5. #2 Calen Addison ~ 0G 8A = 8pts

 

Top 3 PIM's:

1. #26 Connor Dewar ~ 27 PIM's

2. #5 Jacob Middleton ~ 24 PIM's

3. #58 Mason Shaw ~ 19 PIM's

 

Top Goaltenders:

1. #29 Marc-Andre Fleury (6-3-1)  2.87GAA  .905%  1SO

2. #32 Filip Gustavsson (1-3-1)  2.81GAA  .914%

 

 

Vs.

 

 

Nashville Predators (6-8-1)  13pts  7th in the Central

 

2.60 Goals For Per Game (29th in the NHL)

3.33 Goals Against Per Game (20th in the NHL)

 

14.6% Power Play (30th in the NHL)

81.8% Penalty Kill (8th in the NHL)

 

Top 5 Scorers:

1. #9 Filip Forsberg ~ 5G 10A = 15pts

2. #64 Mikael Granlund ~ 1G 12A = 13pts

3. #95 Matt Duchene ~ 3G 8A = 11pts

4. #59 Roman Josi ~ 3G 6A = 9pts

5. #22 Nino Niederreiter ~ 6G 2A = 8pts

 

Top 3 PIM's:

1. #84 Tanner Jeannot ~ 28 PIM's

2. #95 Matt Duchene ~ 20 PIM's

3. #3 Jeremy Lauzon ~ 19 PIM's

 

Top Goaltenders:

1. #74 Juuse Saros (4-6-1)  3.22GAA  .901%

2. #32 Kevin Lankinen (2-2-0)  2.60GAA  .921%

 

Lines:

 

Nashville Predators

 

F. Forsberg~Parssinen~Granlund

Niderreiter~Johansen~Duchene

Co.Smith~Jankowski~Jeannot

Tolvanen~Sissons~McCarron

 

Josi~Fabbro

Ekholm~A. Carrier

McDonagh~Lauzon

 

Saros

Lankinen

 

Minnesota Wild

 

Kaprizov~F. Gaudreau~Zuccarello

M. Foligno~Eriksson Ek~Boldy

Dewar~Rossi~Shaw

Beckman~Steele~Cramarossa

 

Middleton~Spurgeon

Brodin~Dumba

Merrill~Addison

 

Fleury

Gustavsson 

[Alexandron]

Predicting our loss with a score 2:3 in OT, because we are always struggle against this Predators team. And Granlund and Nino will be playing against us tonight. Kind of intriguing game with dual sensitive feelings from this one, because I always wanted to keep the most these both very very smart players in our team.

[Alexandron]

It seems Duhaime is back and will be playing in the 4th line tonight with Steel and Beckman. Cramarossa was sent to Iowa on Monday. Fleury will be in the net this game. 

[wildstars95]

The last time we beat the pred's Jesus  and his crew were cleaning up after feeding 5000 people with one fish 

4-2 pred's

[ClusterChuck]

Still a winable game if the team shows up like the few games before the last period and a half.
Tough to predict anything more than 2+ goals these days but I'll go with a 3-2 Wild win.

[Alexandron]

9 minutes ago, ClusterChuck said:

Still a winable game if the team shows up like the few games before the last period and a half.
Tough to predict anything more than 2+ goals these days but I'll go with a 3-2 Wild win.

You predicted an opposite score as I did. Of course I wish our win too. 

[MNSOTA]

Internet giving us grief tonight. 

[ClusterChuck]

No Moose magic there.

[bbgarnett]

14 minutes ago, MNSOTA said:

Internet giving us grief tonight. 

[bbgarnett]

Fluery!!!!!!!!!!!

[MNSOTA]

Thank goodness for the personal hotspot on my phone. I’ll go check the modem during intermission. 

[MNSOTA]

Ugh. Who was supposedly covering Nino?

[bbgarnett]

Just now, MNSOTA said:

Ugh. Who was supposedly covering Nino?

Rossi maybe? but he and Brodin both were on Johansson and Fudge.

[bbgarnett]

Fack

[MNSOTA]

I hate games in Nashville. 

[ClusterChuck]

No pressure on that PK...Especially Spurgeon hesitating.

[EmptyShelf]

I just HATE what Evason did with our first line.  FG just does NOT work with the skill of Kap and Zuc.  Try anyone else please.  Also, all the $ we spent in the back on D is not worth HALF of the spend.  Even Brodin has regressed, and I just don't see it with Spurgeon or Dumba (when he is playing).  I would have rather dumped 1-2 and kept Fiala.

[EmptyShelf]

3 minutes ago, ClusterChuck said:

No pressure on that PK...Especially Spurgeon hesitating.

Spurgeon is too damn small.  As he ages, it is becoming an even BIGGER problem.  It is like Dumba having to pull back from hitting and losing a bit on his slapshot - totally exposes this weakness, and at these salaries they become a LIABILITY to the team and salary structure.  They need new blood on D.  Keep Middleton and Brodin, and get the kids ready soon (bring up Faber as soon as Gophers are out).  We NEED a makeover on D in the worst way.

[ClusterChuck]

Could be a long night...Or short, Depending on how long you want to watch.

[TropicalFruitGirl26]

8 minutes ago, EmptyShelf said:

Spurgeon is too damn small.  As he ages, it is becoming an even BIGGER problem.  It is like Dumba having to pull back from hitting and losing a bit on his slapshot - totally exposes this weakness, and at these salaries they become a LIABILITY to the team and salary structure.  They need new blood on D.  Keep Middleton and Brodin, and get the kids ready soon (bring up Faber as soon as Gophers are out).  We NEED a makeover on D in the worst way.

 

I've always liked Spurge (still do!), but I knew at some point his size would become an issue.

Only thing I could see happening is, if he tweaks his game, becomes more offense oriented (that WOULD mean his defensive work goes down....but then, that is happening with his lack of size now as is, eh?), the Wild will have to live with him leaving some defensive holes, but, possibly benefit from him producing more from the blue line and relying more on stick checks and quick steals rather than full on body on body..... a battle he obviously is losing and getting worse, as you pointed out, as he ages.

Now...whether the Wild will want to have him play that way, whether Spurge CAN play that way, that's another story.
But one thing is for sure:
If he can't re-invent himself, he will continue to become an albatross on the blue line.

Lotta heart....just having less and less the body to do what the heart wants as time ticks on.

[ClusterChuck]

14 minutes ago, EmptyShelf said:

I just HATE what Evason did with our first line.  FG just does NOT work with the skill of Kap and Zuc.  Try anyone else please.  Also, all the $ we spent in the back on D is not worth HALF of the spend.  Even Brodin has regressed, and I just don't see it with Spurgeon or Dumba (when he is playing).  I would have rather dumped 1-2 and kept Fiala.

I said last game put FG with EK and Foligno. There's no 'Grief' line anymore, That was last season. 
Give Rossi a chance on L-1 to maybe spark something in him...Or anybody at this point. L-1 has been cold for a while.

[ClusterChuck]

Spurgeon and Dumba are the carryover members and new caretakers of the 'Country Club'.

[TropicalFruitGirl26]

1 minute ago, ClusterChuck said:

Spurgeon and Dumba are the carryover members and new caretakers of the 'Country Club'.

 

Meh....we don't need THAT tired old spiel and conspiracy theory any longer.

I wouldn't be surprised if Dumba is gone after this season, being a UFA at a 6M cap hit.
We are pretty much stuck with Spurgeon and the Wild made that decision when they gave him the contract they did.....only thing that can happen with him is, like I said earlier, he re-invents himself.
He wouldn't be the first aging player to have to do that.

Can he? I don't know. But it needs to happen.

I agree with Empty's assessment the entire defense needs a big makeover.

[MNSOTA]

But it wasn’t a conspiracy theory. 

[ClusterChuck]

4 minutes ago, TropicalFruitGirl26 said:

 

Meh....we don't need THAT tired old spiel and conspiracy theory any longer.

I wouldn't be surprised if Dumba is gone after this season, being a UFA at a 6M cap hit.
We are pretty much stuck with Spurgeon and the Wild made that decision when they gave him the contract they did.....only thing that can happen with him is, like I said earlier, he re-invents himself.
He wouldn't be the first aging player to have to do that.

Can he? I don't know. But it needs to happen.

I agree with Empty's assessment the entire defense needs a big makeover.

Surprised ?!?...That's a must if we want to pay our youth soon like Boldy and others. I want it done at trade deadline.
Since both Dumba and Spurge signed their big contracts, They've coasted. Hence the CC term.