2018-19 Iowa Wild and other Wild Prospects Discussion

[4Check]

Thought Belpedio was solid in all zones.   Kahkonen was good, although credit the D collectively for keeping rebound opportunities to a minimum with good positional and stick play.    Greenway was real good at times.   The Detroit first line Zadina, Rasmussen and Veleno was dominant 5 X 5.   Hope the Wild don't regret passing on Veleno.   Excellent speed with decent vision.  Looked bigger than his listed  6'1 195.

[Alexandron]

Did anyone on our board watched today's game? So far was not too good after 2 periods against Rangers 1:3. First 30 minutes was a complete domination, a complete puck control for Rangers with a score of 3:0. We had lots of positional mistakes as well as not able to manage the puck well. Commentators said that our team looked tired, had lack of energy after the yesterday game. Finally in a last 10 minutes of the second period we were able to score from a power play. Sokolov put kind of nice tricky for the goaltender goal from the assist of Mason Shaw. Sokolov-Kovanov-Shaw line was noticeable as well as Greenway-Lodnia-Fitzgerald in a last 10 minutes of the second period and through the entire third period. Both lines had lots of playing time and built a solid chemistry, which I liked it. Greenway was able to put a nice goal too from the assist of Fitzgerald during the 3^rd period. We had few chances , especially when playing during PP  5 vs 3, but did not finished. Baribeau was today in the net and missed 3 goals. The 4^th goal against us was an empty netter. Final score for our team was 2:4 with same 26 shots for each team. Next game is on Monday at 2:30 p.m. vs Dallas.

[CreaseAndAssist]

23 hours ago, Alexandron said:

Did anyone on our board watched today's game? So far was not too good after 2 periods against Rangers 1:3. First 30 minutes was a complete domination, a complete puck control for Rangers with a score of 3:0. We had lots of positional mistakes as well as not able to manage the puck well. Commentators said that our team looked tired, had lack of energy after the yesterday game. Finally in a last 10 minutes of the second period we were able to score from a power play. Sokolov put kind of nice tricky for the goaltender goal from the assist of Mason Shaw. Sokolov-Kovanov-Shaw line was noticeable as well as Greenway-Lodnia-Fitzgerald in a last 10 minutes of the second period and through the entire third period. Both lines had lots of playing time and built a solid chemistry, which I liked it. Greenway was able to put a nice goal too from the assist of Fitzgerald during the 3^rd period. We had few chances , especially when playing during PP  5 vs 3, but did not finished. Baribeau was today in the net and missed 3 goals. The 4^th goal against us was an empty netter. Final score for our team was 2:4 with same 26 shots for each team. Next game is on Monday at 2:30 p.m. vs Dallas.

 

I watched Saturday's game.  The Wild prospects looked slow and disorganized for the first half of the game.  Lots of needless giveaways, which only made their struggles worse.  No one seemed to want to take a shot.  Then in the 2nd half of the 2nd the Greenway, Lodnia, Fitzgerald line started asserting itself.  Greenway got it started with a wrap around chance.  Then the Sokolov line got going, as he buried a goal on a power play.  The Wild really swarmed in the 3rd period with Sokolov's line leading the way.  Greenway would go top shelf late but they'd give up an empty netter to lose 4-2.  

 

Sokolov and Greenway stood out the most to me.  Baribeau looked kind of frantic in the crease.  The Wild kids passed up a lot of potential shots on the 5-on-3 in search of the perfect shot.  I was hoping Belpedio would assert himself offensively more than he did.  We play Dallas tomorrow.  

[Alexandron]

Good news!!! - Wild won an extremely tough today's game against Dallas in a shootout  with a score of 5:4, shots were 28:43 in regulation.  Menell, Khovanov, Fitzgerald and Haugen put 4 goals for our team in regulation. Haugen did it in a last minute  when we played 6 on 5 without our goaltender in the net. It was a very exciting overtime period but scoreless. Kahkonen despite of losing 4 goals in regulation did a tremendous job as in regulation(also was able to take nicely a penalty shot) , as well as had a solid play in overtime and in a shootout(he did not lose any goals in OT and SO). He was the best player of the team, according to the commentators opinion as well as mine. I liked him a lot. Both Russians Sokolov and Khovanov did a perfect job for us in a shootout after putting goals to the opposing net and gave us a valuable win. Greenway was a healthy scratch just to give to other players a chance to play, but had a pretty nice play in a previous 2 games. Shaw was playing in that line instead of Greenway together with Lodnia and Fitzgerald. Sokolov and Khovanov were playing with Knudsen. Defenseman Belpedio was noticeable too who played with Menell that game. Overall team showed a character, played all 60 minutes and personally for me, it was an almost like a playoffs style game. 

Edited September 10, 2018 by Alexandron

[Fargocase]

Thanks for the game reviews!

Edited September 10, 2018 by Fargocase

[CreaseAndAssist]

19 hours ago, Alexandron said:

Good news!!! - Wild won an extremely tough today's game against Dallas in a shootout  with a score of 5:4, shots were 28:43 in regulation.  Menell, Khovanov, Fitzgerald and Haugen put 4 goals for our team in regulation. Haugen did it in a last minute  when we played 6 on 5 without our goaltender in the net. It was a very exciting overtime period but scoreless. Kahkonen despite of losing 4 goals in regulation did a tremendous job as in regulation(also was able to take nicely a penalty shot) , as well as had a solid play in overtime and in a shootout(he did not lose any goals in OT and SO). He was the best player of the team, according to the commentators opinion as well as mine. I liked him a lot. Both Russians Sokolov and Khovanov did a perfect job for us in a shootout after putting goals to the opposing net and gave us a valuable win. Greenway was a healthy scratch just to give to other players a chance to play, but had a pretty nice play in a previous 2 games. Shaw was playing in that line instead of Greenway together with Lodnia and Fitzgerald. Sokolov and Khovanov were playing with Knudsen. Defenseman Belpedio was noticeable too who played with Menell that game. Overall team showed a character, played all 60 minutes and personally for me, it was an almost like a playoffs style game. 

 

Sounds like the Sokolov / Khovanov / Knutson line had a pretty good day.  Fitzgerald has probably won a spot in Iowa with how well he's played at Prospect Camp and the tournament thus far.  Menell and Belpedio should stand out given their age and experience; Menell especially and he gave them a big goal.  

 

Unfortunately for this group; they gave up the regulation lead which cost them a chance to play for the championship.  

 

Greenway is done for the tourney, team has said its seen enough and doesn't want to risk him getting hurt (ala Shaw from last season).  Sounds like Shaw's line wasn't too bad either.  

 

Good result against another decent team in Dallas IMO.    

[Alexandron]

22 hours ago, Fargocase said:

Thanks for the game reviews!

Thanks Fargo.

An interesting challenge will start in a few minutes– we are playing at 5:30 p.m. for the 3^rd place against of a solid Chicago team (a last year Traverse City Tournament winner). Last year we also played for the 3^rd place but against of a Carolina team( the previous 2016 year Traverse City Tournament winner) and we lost it with an embarrassing score 0:5. Our team did not show any character for that game then. We will see if the team will be able to fight for the still important 3^rd place today. Why is that important? Because we need to build a future team capable to have a strong winning mentality through the whole tournament as well as to build a toughness for our promising NHL prospects for the big club.

[Alexandron]

Last year my biggest pleasant surprise was Mason Shaw- good tough smart thinking player, who ,unfortunately, got an injury during the final game and who proved his character this year at the Traverse City Tournament too. For this year so far were as a pleasant surprises for me 3 players – Khovanov, Kahkonen and Fitzgerald. One timer of Khovanov from a superb assist of Knutson was just a beauty. In the NHL or AHL future I still would prefer to see Sokolov-Khovanov-Shaw together as well as Greenway-Lodnia-Fitzgerald, because of a better chemistry. So far our most promising sniper Sokolov had a goal in each game (2 on a power plays and one in a shootout). Fitzgerald  has 2 goals and 3 assists. Lodnia, Belpedio and Menell looked pretty solid too.

Sorry, I did a mistake in spelling of two good invitee players, because of my miss-understanding of commentators pronunciation. It should be Foget instead of Haugen and Knutson instead of Knudsen.

 

[Alexandron]

So far so good during the first period – score for us is 2:0; shots 12:5. We had one goal on a 2nd minute from our invitee Drake Pilon and one from Fitzgerald (his 3^rd at this tournament) 7 minutes later. Baribeau is in the net . Unfortunately, Lodnia is not playing today. Do not know why?

[Alexandron]

3:0 Minnesota after 2 periods, shots 14:15. We had only 2 shots during a 2nd period but we did lots of PK. So far Baribeau stopped all shots, rarely had any rebounds which is good. Like his play tonight. The 4^th line(based on 2 twin brothers Drake Pilon – Darian Pilon- Mitch McLain) is very noticeable and was able to score again (Minnesota native Mitch McLain from the assist of Drake Pilon). Interesting that Drake Pilon is a right handed player and his brother Darian is a left handed.

Edited September 12, 2018 by Alexandron

[Alexandron]

Congrats to all our fans!!! We won a THIRD PLACE!!! An interesting fact said commentators during the game tonight that last time we won a Traverse City Tournament in 2010 when Marco Scandella and Jared Spurgeon were playing for our team. Since 2010 we never got above 4^th place. And now we were able to beat this year a defending last year champion Blackhawks for the 3^rd place with a score 3:2; shots were 21:25. That was a first Baribeau(our goaltender) victory at these tournaments. I think he played pretty solid game against Chicago. And Khovanov did a lot of hard work again tonight too. He reminding me a Parise’s play around the net, smart thinking, very tough guy, got pretty bad hits but able to withstand that and played after.

 

I would like to thank all our team’s players involved into that tournament and especially, Greenway, Sokolov, Kahkonen, Khovanov, Fitzgerald, Shaw, Belpedio, Menell, Lodnia, Baribeau, and a productive 4^th line(twin brothers Pilon-Pilon-McLain). Without the entire solid effort from all our players we were not able to win 3 games out of 4 at this difficult tournament and get a 3^rd place for the first time in 8 years. I am getting excited that we have a promising future for the team’s toughness. A special thank you to the team's coach - Tim Army.

[Alexandron]

The 2018 winner of the Traverse City Tournament is a Columbus Blue Jackets team who won all 4 games after beating a Detroit Red Wings in a final game with a score 7:3. Interesting that Columbus is the lone team who won that title 5 times: 2005;2006;2014;2015 and 2018. Last year they also clinched the final game but were not able to pass Chicago Blackhawks. Chicago was very upset on the loss this year for the 3^rd place against us. They had few articles regarding that disappointment. 

Edited September 12, 2018 by Alexandron

[4Check]

1 hour ago, Alexandron said:

The 2018 winner of the Traverse City Tournament is a Columbus Blue Jackets team who won all 4 games after beating a Detroit Red Wings in a final game with a score 7:3. Interesting that Columbus is the lone team who won that title 5 times: 2005;2006;2014;2015 and 2018. Last year they also clinched the final game but were not able to pass Chicago Blackhawks. Chicago was very upset on the loss this year for the 3^rd place against us. They had few articles regarding that disappointment. 

Source please on articles you referenced.

[Alexandron]

1 hour ago, 4Check said:

Source please on articles you referenced.

https://www.nhl.com/blackhawks/news/three-things-comeback-falls-short-3-2-to-wild/c-300062338

 

https://www.secondcityhockey.com/2018/9/11/17848256/blackhawks-prospects-wild-results-final-score-2018-traverse-city-tournament-third-place-game

 

 

[Alexandron]

4Check, Here is nice link regarding a multiple for years Columbus Blue Jacket's success at the Traverse City Tournament. Hope, some day we will repeat our 2010 year success there. I am still thinking that the Wild's 3rd place was valuable this year and may be that is just a beginning of our future success for the big Wild club:

 

https://www.nhl.com/bluejackets/news/traverse-city-championship/c-300062336

 

  

[CreaseAndAssist]

1 hour ago, Alexandron said:

4Check, Here is nice link regarding a multiple for years Columbus Blue Jacket's success at the Traverse City Tournament. Hope, some day we will repeat our 2010 year success there. I am still thinking that the Wild's 3rd place was valuable this year and may be that is just a beginning of our future success for the big Wild club:

 

https://www.nhl.com/bluejackets/news/traverse-city-championship/c-300062336

 

  

 

I heard on XM this morning on my way to work that the Columbus club that won the tournament was mostly free agents and invitees.  They didn't expect to do so well.  The Wild nearly threw away the game against Chicago in the 3rd period.  It reminded me a lot of the 2nd game where they were just holding on for dear life against the NY Rangers.  I was only able to see the 3rd period and then Mitch McLain's goal via a highlight someone posted on Twitter.  

 

The good...Lodnia, Sokolov, Khovanov, Kahkonen, Belpedio, Shaw, Menell all played pretty well.  And of course Greenway playing well enough they didn't even want him playing in this 3rd place game.  

 

A better showing than I expected.  

[Alexandron]

9 hours ago, CreaseAndAssist said:

 

I heard on XM this morning on my way to work that the Columbus club that won the tournament was mostly free agents and invitees.  They didn't expect to do so well.  The Wild nearly threw away the game against Chicago in the 3rd period.  It reminded me a lot of the 2nd game where they were just holding on for dear life against the NY Rangers.  I was only able to see the 3rd period and then Mitch McLain's goal via a highlight someone posted on Twitter.  

 

The good...Lodnia, Sokolov, Khovanov, Kahkonen, Belpedio, Shaw, Menell all played pretty well.  And of course Greenway playing well enough they didn't even want him playing in this 3rd place game.  

 

A better showing than I expected.  

Still not sure if we had a chance to play and win in finals against Columbus. That team was superbly motivated for the win at this 2018 Tournament.

It was nice to read today - the Wild General Manager Paul Fenton announced that 19 players out of the Wild team which finished 3rd at the 2018 Traverse City Tournament were invited to the training camp this coming Friday. Those players really merit that invitation. No doubt our team this year was a lot better in comparison to the last year as well as years before, when they did not show much character then.

[Davey J]

Sokolov...

[CreaseAndAssist]

On 9/15/2018 at 8:34 AM, Davey J said:

Sokolov...

 

He has good offensive skills.  I'm excited to see how he performs in the pre-season.  

[Davey J]

3 hours ago, CreaseAndAssist said:

 

He has good offensive skills.  I'm excited to see how he performs in the pre-season.  

I am and I'm not...   Nothing irritates me more than wasted talent!  I hope he gets his sh!t together soon...

 

I'd be willing to bet though, that 85% of actual NHLers would love to trade hands with him.  

 

 

[Starofthenorth]

On 9/15/2018 at 9:34 AM, Davey J said:

Sokolov...

Interesting that sokolov is not included on the mn wild pre-season roster. 

 

https://mobile.twitter.com/RussoHockey/status/1041439803932401670

[Davey J]

17 hours ago, Starofthenorth said:

Interesting that sokolov is not included on the mn wild pre-season roster. 

 

https://mobile.twitter.com/RussoHockey/status/1041439803932401670

Maybe another message to the lazy kid...

[CreaseAndAssist]

19 hours ago, Starofthenorth said:

Interesting that sokolov is not included on the mn wild pre-season roster. 

 

https://mobile.twitter.com/RussoHockey/status/1041439803932401670

 

Meh, they have a ton of guys to play in pre-season.  I wouldn't read into it much.  If he's not there for two or three pre-season games then yea...it might be a message being sent.  Otherwise, I wouldn't make a big deal about it.  

[Alexandron]

Three players (Greenway,Dewar,Lodnia) out of the Wild prospect roster which participated at the Traverse City Tournament were included so far into the 1-st pre-season game against Winnipeg. Hope, the line Sokolov, Khovanov and Shaw will be included  into the 2-nd or 3-rd pre-season games. I do not think any messages being sent to Sokolov as well as to other promising players - Khovanov, Shaw, Fitzgerald. Just hope a coach strategy. LIG is right - too many players for the pre-season tryout are giving too many puzzles for the coach.

[Icechipper]

6 hours ago, Alexandron said:

Three players (Greenway,Dewar,Lodnia) out of the Wild prospect roster which participated at the Traverse City Tournament were included so far into the 1-st pre-season game against Winnipeg. Hope, the line Sokolov, Khovanov and Shaw will be included  into the 2-nd or 3-rd pre-season games. I do not think any messages being sent to Sokolov as well as to other promising players - Khovanov, Shaw, Fitzgerald. Just hope a coach strategy. LIG is right - too many players for the pre-season tryout are giving too many puzzles for the coach.

Caught third period at sports bar. Monday night football on most screens but one tuned to Jets broadcast. Lines were changed quite a bit but generally I saw:

 Ek-Greenway-Coyle

Kloos-Rau-Anas

Foligno-Hendricks-Brown

Lodnia-Fehr-Nino

Defense: Ole-Pateryn

Bartkowski-Delpedio

Seeler-Murphy

Greenway line was strong. Hendricks had lone goal. Kloos played well. Brown did nothing for me. Lodnia looked fast.

Ole Patyrn worked well together. Bartkowski had solid breakout passes. Seeler and Lemiuex fought to a draw. Murphy nice hands and escape moves. Ham solid in net.

 

 

Edited September 18, 2018 by Icechipper
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