First ever - Iowa Wild Playoffs

[Alexandron]

1 hour ago, TonyOday said:

1. Iowa Playoff games should be televised in MN

 

2. see 1.

Agree. They should, because it is a very rare event for the Minnesota Wild organization. 

Interesting that Chicago Wolves is a farm club of the Vegas Golden Nights organization since 2017-2018 season. According to Wikipedia "The Wolves are the only AHL team with a full television package. All 76 regular-season games, plus playoffs, are broadcast on WPWR-TV (CW50), and WCIU-DT2 (26.2, U Too)". 

Hope, someday Minnesota will do same way too for attracting more interest and more fans to it.

[4Check]

19 hours ago, IllaZilla said:

 

Really doesn’t matter if the Wild have all these young wingers. Every center they have is older than Methuselah...Staal, Koivu, and Rask. Eriksson-Ek will probably be relegated to the fourth line. And Sturm  will be better served playing 1C or 2C minutes in Iowa next season than 4C minutes in St Paul. 

Not exactly.  Rask is 26, JEE 22,   Sturm 24 with other possible centers Kunin and Greenway (former BU coach insists it's his best position) 21 and 22 respectively.    That said, Fenton IMO, has to acquire a first line center under the age of 29.

[IllaZilla]

1 minute ago, 4Check said:

Not exactly.  Rask is 26, JEE 22,   Sturm 24 with other possible centers Kunin and Greenway (former BU coach insists it's his best position) 21 and 22 respectively.    That said, Fenton IMO, has to acquire a first line center under the age of 29.

 

My point was that Staal is entrenched as 1C for at least two more season, Koivu is cemented as 2C this season and Fenton is giving Rask a full season "to prove himself" at most likely one of the other center positions, whether it be 3C or 4C. That leaves Eriksson-Ek to get the leftovers. Kunin and Greenway aren't going to see any time as the 1C or 2C, and if these guys are going to develop, they need more than third and fourth line minutes.

 

Sturm's best bet is to play big minutes in Iowa next season and wait for the Wild to put Koivu out to pasture, providing Fenton doesn't extend him.

[4Check]

2 hours ago, IllaZilla said:

 

My point was that Staal is entrenched as 1C for at least two more season, Koivu is cemented as 2C this season and Fenton is giving Rask a full season "to prove himself" at most likely one of the other center positions, whether it be 3C or 4C. That leaves Eriksson-Ek to get the leftovers. Kunin and Greenway aren't going to see any time as the 1C or 2C, and if these guys are going to develop, they need more than third and fourth line minutes.

 

Sturm's best bet is to play big minutes in Iowa next season and wait for the Wild to put Koivu out to pasture, providing Fenton doesn't extend him.

Well, if you're right (and you most likely are), the Wild are in big trouble.  Love Staal, but he's a short term 2C, Koivu very short term 3C.    How in the world can these two match up skating wise against the West's speedy top centers (McDavid, McKinnon, Seguin, Petterson, Horvat, Hertl, Karlsson, Draisatl, Scheifele, Hintz, Schmaltz, Monahan, Nugent-Hopkins etc.  IMO, the Wild have two must haves this off season.  A #1 center and a RW sniper. (3rd is an upgrade in the goalie pipeline)   Not holding my breath.

Edited May 10, 2019 by 4Check
incorrect syntax

[Tomdog]

I'm afraid I'll a is right.

I was hoping Fenton would realize that the wild would be better off with Staal as the 3c, koivu as the 4c and Rask packaged with a draft pick to move up in the draft.

Oh to be a dreamer.

[IllaZilla]

43 minutes ago, 4Check said:

Well, if you're right (and you most likely are), the Wild are in big trouble.  Love Staal, but he's a short term 2C, Koivu very short term 3C.    How in the world can these two match up skating wise against the West's speedy top centers (McDavid, McKinnon, Seguin, Petterson, Horvat, Hertl, Karlsson, Draisatl, Scheifele, Hintz, Schmaltz, Monahan, Nugent-Hopkins etc.  IMO, the Wild have two must haves this off season.  A #1 center and a RW sniper. (3rd is an upgrade in the goalie pipeline)   Not holding my breath.

 

I don't know if you remember, but at the beginning of this season there was all this talk of moving Koivu to a new role (i.e. 3C) and giving Coyle and Eriksson-Ek more time. What happened? Nothing. Coyle and Eriksson-Ek got to play musical chairs with the 3C position until the Wild sent Eriksson-Ek to Iowa. And then there was the roster line-up thing where they penciled Koivu in as the 1C because they didn't want to offend him, even though everyone knew Staal was the 1C.

Not sure why they don't give Kunin more of a shot at the 1C or 2C. He seems to have a nose for the net. But I don't think Eriksson-Ek will be any more than a 3C. He can't score.

At some point the Wild are going to have to say sayonara to all these old guys and let the young guys take over. It might be painful for a season or two, but they can't keep extending these old guys as the core and using the young guys as a supporting cast...

[Alexandron]

 

Crucial game 6 tonight against Wolves at Chicago arena. Our last game at home was not the best – because we lost it with a score 4:7. Donato had his first 2 goals during these playoffs rounds. Chicago coach said that he changed his lines and it did work towards more offensive style and a better production. Why Hammond was not replaced by Kaapo Kakhonen after the 3^rd goal is still a question for me? As well as why Sokolov was not inserted at least once in 10 playoff games is a second question for me too? Iowa Wild team definitely has a pretty nice Wild potential (especially I mean in Wild players - Greenway, Donato, Kunin) to be successful these playoffs , but not using it in full.

[IllaZilla]

3 hours ago, Alexandron said:

 

Crucial game 6 tonight against Wolves at Chicago arena. Our last game at home was not the best – because we lost it with a score 4:7. Donato had his first 2 goals during these playoffs rounds. Chicago coach said that he changed his lines and it did work towards more offensive style and a better production. Why Hammond was not replaced by Kaapo Kakhonen after the 3^rd goal is still a question for me? As well as why Sokolov was not inserted at least once in 10 playoff games is a second question for me too? Iowa Wild team definitely has a pretty nice Wild potential (especially I mean in Wild players - Greenway, Donato, Kunin) to be successful these playoffs , but not using it in full.

Out of the three Wild player (Donato, Kunin and Greenway) the only one that has really performed is Kunin: 10 games, six goals, 2 assists, +2. Donato's been disappointing: 10 games, 2 goals, four assists, -3. And those two goals came in last nights game. And Greenway? Total bum. For a supposed big body power forward he has zero goals and five assists in 10 games. Just about everyone is saying he's done nothing but coast around the rink.

 

Not sure why the Russian kid isn't playing. He might be hurt. Or one of the Black Aces is playing in his spot. Sure hope it isn't Greenway...

[4Check]

1 hour ago, IllaZilla said:

Out of the three Wild player (Donato, Kunin and Greenway) the only one that has really performed is Kunin: 10 games, six goals, 2 assists, +2. Donato's been disappointing: 10 games, 2 goals, four assists, -3. And those two goals came in last nights game. And Greenway? Total bum. For a supposed big body power forward he has zero goals and five assists in 10 games. Just about everyone is saying he's done nothing but coast around the rink.

 

Not sure why the Russian kid isn't playing. He might be hurt. Or one of the Black Aces is playing in his spot. Sure hope it isn't Greenway...

IMO, unless Greenway is dealing with an injury or personal issue, his character has become a question mark.

[IllaZilla]

Well, it was a good run.

 

Hopefully the Baby Wild can build on this for the future. Nice to see Kunin show some leadership, but disappointed in Donato's performance and really disappointed in Greenway's performance and attitude. Especially since those two took other players spots that helped get the team to the Playoffs.

[ClusterChuck]

On 5/10/2019 at 6:24 PM, IllaZilla said:

 

At some point the Wild are going to have to say sayonara to all these old guys and let the young guys take over. It might be painful for a season or two, but they can't keep extending these old guys as the core and using the young guys as a supporting cast...

Does anybody else hear "I got you Babe" playing on their clock radios?

Hopefully instead of a season or two later but we see some testing going on this season, But then that means more line switching which has never done much here.

So we wait 2 years and now the young guys are closer to resigning time and haven't been given a good look and they just become the Coyle and Nino's again.

Then watch Koivu's rehab goes well and he has a season like Staal did 2 years ago. Does he get a 1 year extention then?

[ClusterChuck]

11 hours ago, 4Check said:

IMO, unless Greenway is dealing with an injury or personal issue, his character has become a question mark.

If I was going to guess, I'd say Greenway thinks he's proven himself with the big club last season and is insulted he had to go back to Iowa and is pouting a bit. Doesn't understand a little playoff mode action wouldn't hurt his development.

 

[Tomdog]

13 minutes ago, ClusterChuck said:

If I was going to guess, I'd say Greenway thinks he's proven himself with the big club last season and is insulted he had to go back to Iowa and is pouting a bit. Doesn't understand a little playoff mode action wouldn't hurt his development.

 

Then yes that is a character issue. 

[Alexandron]

1 minute ago, IllaZilla said:

Well, it was a good run.

 

Hopefully the Baby Wild can build on this for the future. Nice to see Kunin show some leadership, but disappointed in Donato's performance and really disappointed in Greenway's performance and attitude. Especially since those two took other players spots that helped get the team to the Playoffs.

I agree too. Overall, it was a good (11 games in 2 rounds) team's effort for the first time in their Calder Cup playoffs participation history. Hope , next year they will have a better and deeper success. Specially would like to mention our forward Gerald Mayhew and our goaltender Andrew Hammond who kept us in most games(maybe except just one game out of 11). I like also that finally, Sokolov was involved into the last 11th game of these playoffs run. Thanks that at least he played one game just to feel a real atmosphere of such a difficult Calder Cup playoffs series.  I would like to present the last game summary against Chicago Wolves. Interesting, that the most efforts in that game came from Mayhew (5 shots) and our 3 defensemen (Soucy, Prosser, and Warner). Each had 3 shots into the opponent net. And yes, Chicago Wolves is extremely good team, but we were a pretty competitive to play against it.

https://theahl.com/stats/game-summary/1019595

 

 

 

 

[Alexandron]

31 minutes ago, ClusterChuck said:

Does anybody else hear "I got you Babe" playing on their clock radios?

Hopefully instead of a season or two later but we see some testing going on this season, But then that means more line switching which has never done much here.

So we wait 2 years and now the young guys are closer to resigning time and haven't been given a good look and they just become the Coyle and Nino's again.

Then watch Koivu's rehab goes well and he has a season like Staal did 2 years ago. Does he get a 1 year extention then?

I do not think so that he is capable for Staal's 2 years ago (42 goals) performance and very skeptical about his new extension then. It is a time for his nice retirement in one year. 

[IllaZilla]

On 5/14/2019 at 8:48 AM, ClusterChuck said:

If I was going to guess, I'd say Greenway thinks he's proven himself with the big club last season and is insulted he had to go back to Iowa and is pouting a bit. Doesn't understand a little playoff mode action wouldn't hurt his development.

 

Apparently Fenton was PEEOHH'ed with Greenway's Iowa performance...

[IllaZilla]

On 5/14/2019 at 8:45 AM, ClusterChuck said:

Does anybody else hear "I got you Babe" playing on their clock radios?

Hopefully instead of a season or two later but we see some testing going on this season, But then that means more line switching which has never done much here.

So we wait 2 years and now the young guys are closer to resigning time and haven't been given a good look and they just become the Coyle and Nino's again.

Then watch Koivu's rehab goes well and he has a season like Staal did 2 years ago. Does he get a 1 year extention then?

 

Knowing Fenton, yeah, he'll give him an extension. Plus a NTC.

 

I hate to say this, but I kind hope the Wild have another terrible season. That might force Koivu into retirement. He may just decide that being part of a rebuild at his age isn't going to be worth it and just hang up his skates at the end of the season. And apparently he isn't the greatest teacher for young players. If young players ask him things he'll talk to them, but he won't voluntarily go up to a young guy and give him instruction.

 

That was the thing with Cullen. He was great at going up to young players and telling them "Hey, when that happens, do this." or "If you see your guy doing this, do that."

 

But ultimately the Wild need to move on from the Staal's and the Koivus and give the Kunin's and Eriksson-Ek's bigger roles...

[Alexandron]

On 5/16/2019 at 6:08 AM, IllaZilla said:

 

That was the thing with Cullen. He was great at going up to young players and telling them "Hey, when that happens, do this." or "If you see your guy doing this, do that."

 

But ultimately the Wild need to move on from the Staal's and the Koivus and give the Kunin's and Eriksson-Ek's bigger roles...

 

      Kunin is impressing me more and more. I just read a nice recent  article about him at the main Wild weblink. Most  games last season he played for our big club, he also was  playing at AHL for our farm club as well as he successfully participated(6 goals)  at all 11 games of the Calder Cup playoffs Iowa Wild run. Now I was pleasantly surprised that he joined our USA team few days ago at the IIHF World Championship in Slovakia and played already a game against Germany team on  May,19. According to that article he had a hard time to reach Slovakia country because of his plane emergent landing, and he was using a car to drive in Europe(6 hours) just to get to that world tournament. It seems he made a solid/ serious efforts this season by playing in NHL,AHL,Calder Cup Playoffs and the World Championship. Sincerely, I am proud that we have him in our team. At the end of the article he was asked what type of transport he would like to use in Europe. He answered - cars. I still would prefer to use train - the most cheapest and safest way of transportation there.

 

     Regarding Ek, I am not sure of his bigger roles at this moment. Hope maybe some day. He is more type of Koivu style of game play. We need some more highly productive players. 

     Second recent article from same main Wild link is dedicating to Kaprizov. Nice interviews were taken during the World Championship in Slovakia from different Russian NHL players about a Kaprizov's readiness to NHL level. Hope we will see him next year.

 

Agree about Cullen - nice experience, a great teacher, as well as he was the most productive player for the 4th line in the Wild history.