What Wild player do you find to be the most significant player on the team?

[EJ0226]

I hate to specify a player but more a group. The key on this team is defense. Gun to my head for a player than I would go Spurgeon. Without him Suter doesn't look the same. You start to see how much mistakes and slack Spurgeon picks up that Suter leaves. Spurgeon has no problem throwing his body in front of the puck well Suter will literally hold his arm and stick way out to the side well turning his head the opposite way in hopes the puck will hit his stick.

More and less the Wild depend on the defense to win the game. They are not build to be a high flying, scoring machine but a take the lead and batten down the hatches and pray. Dubnyk can steal a game for you but 3 out 4 games he is letting in horrible soft goals that no NHL goalie should ever let in. Hell look at the last playoff game. I mean that should be enough to send you to the AHL for a season. Embarrassing. And this is Dubnyks calling card. If the defense wasn't there to save him he would look so much worse than people would want to admit. The defense on this team can be pretty amazing considering how many times Dubnyk is badly out of position and the defense has had to play goalie and make saves or get a puck out of a wide open goal range.
I do believe in part that why the Wild don't move past the first round is that by the time we get to the playoffs the defense is exhausted from having to save Dubnyk so much during the season and than carrying the puck into the offensive zone when all the offensive players refuse to do it. And when they slip the ship is sinking. I get angry at Suter a lot but part of me does understand why he does coast a lot. Overworked and trying to save anything for the playoffs.

This team needs to get a few more solid defensive minded Defenseman and not a wild card like Dumba. They also need to get some more solid 20+ goal scorers. That would make a impact. They also need to start cutting the minutes and say of the vets. We are getting to old and have the old guys who are proving ineffective out during key moments which is costing us.

[EJ0226]

On ‎5‎/‎27‎/‎2018 at 11:09 AM, ruxpin said:

 

I think the first statement is largely true of any team's fans.  There's a significant group that undervalues (Parise, Staal, etc. suck --on the Flyers' board, Giroux is the worst and Voracek the dumbest player) and then there's a significant group that overvalues (every prospect is a future Mario Lemieux or Bobby Orr and every 3rd line player should net Connor McDavid in a trade).

 

The bolded part:  I think just "tweaks" possibly move them a bit closer, but they'd have to be targeted and significant tweaks mixed with a bit of luck.    Improving the second line significantly and adding another offensively skilled defenseman would go a long way (says EVERY NHL team!).  It would have the effect of moving some good players down to roles they would be more suited for and may actually be above average in.  

 

Lastly, one tweak, IMHO, has to be the coach.   I don't spend enough time on Wild boards to know if this opinion is prevalent among Wild fans, but I don't care for Boudreau and never have since he left Hershey.  If the plan is to do well in the playoffs, he'd be one of my very last picks for head coach.  He's been a failure there his entire career, and I don't think he's capable.  I've read all the excuses in Washington and Anaheim, and there's some merit to many of them.   Ultimately, though, the common thread in many years of failure in the playoffs is him.  If Minnesota were a market that needed regular season success to get people in the seats and to drive ticket and merchandise sales, then he's your guy.  I don't perceive Minnesota as that.   But if you're a franchise that has reached the stage where you're looking to win the Cup--or at least realistically compete for it--you need the head coach position to be one of the tweaks.

 

 

 

Honestly, Parise would be a great piece to help out a star. But by himself, especially at the cost the Wild paid, it's extremely fair to criticize him and the Wild for the contract and what he provides. His money says he should be a top 20 player each year. The guy has only been top 20 3 times in his career otherwise he struggles to even get to top 50. He can have bursts of awesome play than goes cold for a good 12+ games. Sometimes even 20 games. Plus his and Suters crap with Adam Oates says a lot about them. PP is suffering. Instead of working with the team since you know, the PP has more than 2 guys on the ice, they went off on their own to do their own thing. I wasn't a Yeo fan at all but this still said a lot about them personally and their attitudes. I think way to many people have the homer blinders on when looking at Parise.

 

As far as coach goes, honestly the difference of his attitude from when he first got here to now is night and day. Bruce had fire, energy and spunk that first season. He would say things like "we" as in the team. Be it something good or bad it was a team thing.
Now that fire is gone. He pretty much just looks like he is going through the emotions. Now it's no more a we thing. It's this player could do this or that. Internally there is something very wrong with this team. The Stewart ordeal says a lot. He stops scoring but still is trying to play a physical game and gets punished by being benched or sent down. Parise, Koivu, etc stop scoring and don't play any physical game and they get rewarded with top ice time so "they can try to get going again". That is trash. I think Bruce got suckered in by Fletcher and now is just going to finish his contract and retire. I 100% believe even the great and mighty Scotty Bowman couldn't coach this team out of the first round.

[Megawild]

7 hours ago, bbgarnett said:

Spurgeon and Zucker get my votes. They just play the game the way it's supposed to be played and don't conform to this style or the message that the veterans of this team seem to be wanting them to play/be like. 

 

I like how you think bb!