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2018-19 Wild Season Preview


CreaseAndAssist

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2018-19 Wild Season Preview

 

I know this has been done at other outlets, but going into our first pre-season game tonight against Winnipeg I figured the timing is apt to release this now.  I share my thoughts on the state of the club, players, coaches, special teams and predictions about what this season will hold for the Wild.  Enjoy!  

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Interesting take.  I share the concerns about Dubnyk.   He's fine, but fine in nets only gets you so far.    

I think Wild fans have been a little harsh on Nino and Coyle's last season.   Both gamely played through  nagging injuries.   If both stay healthy and get some PP time, I see no reason why Coyle can't get back to his 2016-17 56 point performance and Nino returning to his mid 20 goal production. 

 

IMO, since the Wild lack an elite top forward or two, it will require all hands on deck.   The Wild must have three consistent scoring lines (3rd line has to be about the best in the league to overcome match up challenges for the top two lines vs. elite players).   And equally important, Dubnyk has to be better than just pretty good.

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90 points on the year is likely a very safe prediction. While I think the Wild have a lot of scoring potential I'm concerned whether or not they know how to utilize their players to each of their potential (again.) Seems like they always come up short.

 

Defense though... While the Wild have struggled hard to find decent offensive defense-men, I think they have them but now they lack defensive defense-men. Put that in front of a shaky goaltender like Dubnyk and the Wild better have high hopes on netting 3-4 goals a game if they're willing to give up 2 easy ones each night by Dubnyk.

 

Yet the number one knuckle buster with this team is they need to play harder. By harder I mean with a chip on their shoulder. All - game - long!

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5 hours ago, 4Check said:

Interesting take.  I share the concerns about Dubnyk.   He's fine, but fine in nets only gets you so far.    

I think Wild fans have been a little harsh on Nino and Coyle's last season.   Both gamely played through  nagging injuries.   If both stay healthy and get some PP time, I see no reason why Coyle can't get back to his 2016-17 56 point performance and Nino returning to his mid 20 goal production. 

 

IMO, since the Wild lack an elite top forward or two, it will require all hands on deck.   The Wild must have three consistent scoring lines (3rd line has to be about the best in the league to overcome match up challenges for the top two lines vs. elite players).   And equally important, Dubnyk has to be better than just pretty good.

 

We've always been a score by committee team.  Even when we had Gaborik, he wasn't enough to do it all by himself most of the time.  It'd be nice to have a super star forward that was super dangerous almost everytime he touched the puck.  But those players are immensely rare.  And since we're apparently lacking the willingness to be bad to be in position to draft that kind of talent we'll likely continue to do the same and hope for a different result.  

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1 hour ago, rottenrefs said:

90 points on the year is likely a very safe prediction. While I think the Wild have a lot of scoring potential I'm concerned whether or not they know how to utilize their players to each of their potential (again.) Seems like they always come up short.

 

Defense though... While the Wild have struggled hard to find decent offensive defense-men, I think they have them but now they lack defensive defense-men. Put that in front of a shaky goaltender like Dubnyk and the Wild better have high hopes on netting 3-4 goals a game if they're willing to give up 2 easy ones each night by Dubnyk.

 

Yet the number one knuckle buster with this team is they need to play harder. By harder I mean with a chip on their shoulder. All - game - long!

 

I would agree in general that its a 3-goal to win league.  If your team doesn't score 3, its not easy to win most nights.  It is also super demoralizing to any team; let alone its defense if you know your goaltender is going to give up one yogurt soft goal (or more) each night.  I don't think Dubnyk is horrendous, but he's not elite.  

 

The Athletic article about his even strength save percentage being propped up by our team defense isn't new.  We heard the same things with Lemaire and Roloson as well as Backstrom.  The Wild has usually been just an 'ok' team offensively but good to great defensively...but its also why as Antti loved to say, Minnesota, the place where goal scorers go to die.  

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On 9/17/2018 at 11:45 AM, rottenrefs said:

90 points on the year is likely a very safe prediction. While I think the Wild have a lot of scoring potential I'm concerned whether or not they know how to utilize their players to each of their potential (again.) Seems like they always come up short.

 

Defense though... While the Wild have struggled hard to find decent offensive defense-men, I think they have them but now they lack defensive defense-men. Put that in front of a shaky goaltender like Dubnyk and the Wild better have high hopes on netting 3-4 goals a game if they're willing to give up 2 easy ones each night by Dubnyk.

 

Yet the number one knuckle buster with this team is they need to play harder. By harder I mean with a chip on their shoulder. All - game - long!

Yesterday he lost 5 goals against Dallas. Seven(8th goal was an empty netter) goals in 2 pre-season games it seems kind of a lot. Both games we lost. Overall in 5 pre-season games we lost 4. We will see if we able to win tomorrow game against Jets with a full team's roster. So far other teams from our Division doing a better job. It makes me worry.

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3 hours ago, Alexandron said:

Yesterday he lost 5 goals against Dallas. Seven(8th goal was an empty netter) goals in 2 pre-season games it seems kind of a lot. Both games we lost. Overall in 5 pre-season games we lost 4. We will see if we able to win tomorrow game against Jets with a full team's roster. So far other teams from our Division doing a better job. It makes me worry.

 

The team has shown its very sensitive to any slip in his performance.  If he declines, even slightly...we could struggle a lot.  

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53 minutes ago, CreaseAndAssist said:

 

The team has shown its very sensitive to any slip in his performance.  If he declines, even slightly...we could struggle a lot.  

Agree. Interesting if Dubnyk is going to be in the net for tomorrow game against Jets. So far I like more performance of Hammond and Stalock for pre-season games and Kahkonen's performance at Traverse City Tournament. Strange, they did not involved Kahkonen as well as Khovanov for the pre-season games but, I think, they should just for their taste(initiation) of NHL experience. Out of 4 or 5 pre-season games for the line of Kloos- Rau- Anas (yes, it was good, but not enough for the  production and wins) they should try at least once to use a line of Sokolov-Shaw-Khovanov just to develop more interest for the fans. We did not see a Kunin's performance yet. Who is a Liambas? Is he present a value for the main team's roster? Still not sure. We have so many new names (free agent signings) this season which are giving lots of questions instead of building a solid future core  based on young promising prospects.

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7 hours ago, Alexandron said:

Yesterday he lost 5 goals against Dallas. Seven(8th goal was an empty netter) goals in 2 pre-season games it seems kind of a lot. Both games we lost. Overall in 5 pre-season games we lost 4. We will see if we able to win tomorrow game against Jets with a full team's roster. So far other teams from our Division doing a better job. It makes me worry.

Yet the team, before the game, said Dubnyk is looking good so far in the preseason.

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New athletic article about goalies. Here is the section on dubnyk. "Nobody seemed overly excited about Dubnyk but nearly every panelist acknowledged that he was above average, a credit to his maturity and also to the Minnesota Wild.

“It’s been such a good system for him to be in,” said a goalie coach. “He’s not top 10, but he’s in that 10, 11, 12 range.”

He’s been good since the moment he arrived in Minnesota, but one panelist predicted that we’d start to see his numbers slide.

“He made a splash in Minnesota (to start),” said the panelist. “Since then, it’s been slipping a little bit each month, each year.”"

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5 hours ago, Razblo said:

Dubnyk is not an elite goalie, but he also isn't compensated like an elite goalie.  He ranks as the 21st highest paid goalie (cap hit) so I don't think all of the pressure should be placed on him to make this team great.

I agree. The thing though is he an make back to back great saves only to let in a weak one on the next shot. Yes every goalie lets in a questionable goal here and there but it just seems Doobs has more than the average goalie. 

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On 9/26/2018 at 2:41 PM, Razblo said:

Dubnyk is not an elite goalie, but he also isn't compensated like an elite goalie.  He ranks as the 21st highest paid goalie (cap hit) so I don't think all of the pressure should be placed on him to make this team great.

 

He isn't elite, but he is expected to be at his best just about all of the time no matter how his compensation compares to the rest of the league's goalies.  He's the workhorse, and I think the team often let's him choose whether he starts or not.  

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On ‎9‎/‎17‎/‎2018 at 7:20 AM, CreaseAndAssist said:

2018-19 Wild Season Preview

 

I know this has been done at other outlets, but going into our first pre-season game tonight against Winnipeg I figured the timing is apt to release this now.  I share my thoughts on the state of the club, players, coaches, special teams and predictions about what this season will hold for the Wild.  Enjoy!  

 

Not much to comment on.  I think you presented a solid run down of the team.  As always, lots of questions: Doobie, Coyle/Nino stepping up or not, Staal, Zooker, MiG maintaining, Parise and Suter keeping it going, Greenway and EEk making strides, injuries (hopefully lack of!)...

 

Likely point range - IMO it's big, anywhere from 80 to 100 points.  Until injuries kill the team or Doobie does, I'm still optimistic.   IMO we still haven't seen career years from Coyle and Nino.  Parise can still be an impact player, Mikko and Staal are old but still effective.  And even though Wild fans love to hate him, Suter is still an elite Dman and it's a different team with him out there.  Everyone says, "Cut his minutes." but when the game is on the line he's the best choice out there.

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1 hour ago, Fargocase said:

 

Not much to comment on.  I think you presented a solid run down of the team.  As always, lots of questions: Doobie, Coyle/Nino stepping up or not, Staal, Zooker, MiG maintaining, Parise and Suter keeping it going, Greenway and EEk making strides, injuries (hopefully lack of!)...

 

Likely point range - IMO it's big, anywhere from 80 to 100 points.  Until injuries kill the team or Doobie does, I'm still optimistic.   IMO we still haven't seen career years from Coyle and Nino.  Parise can still be an impact player, Mikko and Staal are old but still effective.  And even though Wild fans love to hate him, Suter is still an elite Dman and it's a different team with him out there.  Everyone says, "Cut his minutes." but when the game is on the line he's the best choice out there.

 

Thanks for the assessment.  I appreciate it.  I still think it would be wise to cut Suter's minutes, especially with his ankle still healing.  

 

The Greenway, Eriksson Ek and Coyle like looked good in pre-season play.  We'll find out if it works as well in the regular season soon enough.  

 

I agree with Rotten, this team always needs 3-4 players to raise their level of play in order to make up for the fact its an organization that can't make a lot of roster moves in its top 9.  Yes, nothing is new with that.  However, some would say that means there is plenty of potential for internal improvement.  Do I think its likely?  I'm skeptical.  It might mean we make the playoffs again, but until we see any improvement carry over into the post-season I don't see a lot of reasons to get really excited about this direction of this club.  

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