2019 Traverse City Tournament, roster and tournament thoughts

[Alexandron]

After the second intermission score is still the same 0:3 (shots 14 vs 23). We killed nicely a major penalty of 5 min, when we played a good portion of the time 3 vs 5 players. We had also a few chances to score, but Chicago goalie was able to stop all the shots. So far noticeable in this game among our players - Sturm, Guskov, Beckman. IMO, the last duo players(Guskov and Beckman) I like more and more, because they are always tend to improve the game results. It seems Sokolov is off today, who played the previous 2 games in a face and mouth guards because of injury during the 1st game of the tournament.  

[Alexandron]

We lost with a final score of this game 1:6. Shots were 28 vs 30. I think Chicago goalie played superbly well, but our goalie was not as good to compare.And Chicago team as well was better too. At the last minute of the game we were able to avoid our embarrassing shutout by placing one goal(Connor Dewar did it).

Not much I could say through the entire tournament for our team - we are still missing enough production, production and again production as always our weakest spot. Instead of to see 4-6 goals per each game (in 4 games),which most teams did that, we had see for our team just 1 goal in 2 games, 2 goals in one game and 3 goals in the other one game (total 7 goals). Not enough to feel great as a NHL prospect team.Defense(based on invitees) was not an issue, but production(based on our prospects) was an issue for the team. Interesting why Firstov was not able to be involved into our team for his evaluation as a future highly scoring prospect for the Wild team? So far I do not see a really highly scoring players for our future Wild core. The tournament did not show that for me.  Who knows maybe they will be able to transform into them later during a developing process, but at this moment is a huge question, because some of our prospects are playing for 2-3 seasons in that tournament?

[4Check]

55 minutes ago, Alexandron said:

We lost with a final score of this game 1:6. Shots were 28 vs 30. I think Chicago goalie played superbly well, but our goalie was not as good to compare.And Chicago team as well was better too. At the last minute of the game we were able to avoid our embarrassing shutout by placing one goal(Connor Dewar did it).

Not much I could say through the entire tournament for our team - we are still missing enough production, production and again production as always our weakest spot. Instead of to see 4-6 goals per each game (in 4 games),which most teams did that, we had see for our team just 1 goal in 2 games, 2 goals in one game and 3 goals in the other one game (total 7 goals). Not enough to feel great as a NHL prospect team.Defense(based on invitees) was not an issue, but production(based on our prospects) was an issue for the team. Interesting why Firstov was not able to be involved into our team for his evaluation as a future highly scoring prospect for the Wild team? So far I do not see a really highly scoring players for our future Wild core. The tournament did not show that for me.  Who knows maybe they will be able to transform into them later during a developing process, but at this moment is a huge question, because some of our prospects are playing for 2-3 seasons in that tournament?

Yeah, the  cupboard is pretty bare, but hopefully Kaprizov, Boldy, Khovanov and maybe Firstov and McBain will someday be NHL caliber.

[CreaseAndAssist]

Connor Dewar had the lone goal against Chicago today.  8th place...Last.  About what I expected.  

[Alexandron]

5 hours ago, 4Check said:

Yeah, the  cupboard is pretty bare, but hopefully Kaprizov, Boldy, Khovanov and maybe Firstov and McBain will someday be NHL caliber.

I also would like to see those players in our team as soon as possible just for more closer evaluation as a valuable prospects for the big club. The Traverse City Tournament is a superb creation for that goal. So far , even with such poor results(4 losses in 4 games) at the Traverse City Tournament for our team this season(a 1st place from the bottom instead of a 1st place from the top)still I would like to mention some good efforts for those prospects - Sturm, Sokolov, Beckman, Guskov, Gordeev, Giroux, Dewar, Lodnia, Robson. We still need more solid leaders capable to lead the team into a winning mode.

As well wish to see in our team more higher lever of the talent  like Kakko is for the New York Rangers team. Here is a classic goal of the art (I talked previously about it) which Kakko put in OT into a our net(Jones was then) during a 3rd game of the tournament. (amazing record - in 2 days 331K views already on the internet):

 

https://twitter.com/NYRangers/status/1171168470366662656

 

 

 

[lynxrattle]

We need to get back to the roots of the Wild. Jacques Lemaire II, where are you?

[IllaZilla]

8 hours ago, lynxrattle said:

We need to get back to the roots of the Wild. Jacques Lemaire II, where are you?

 

I don't think the poor result has anything to do with the coaching.

 

I think it is just the quality of the players put on the ice. The Wild's highest drafted defenseman was Fedor Gordeev, a 2017 fifth rounder. Five of the eight defensemen were invitees. Same with the forwards. The highest drafted forwards were in the third round. Six of the fifteen forwards were invitees.

 

To me, the important thing with this tournament is what did these guys do with the ice time they were given. Did they try to make things happen, or did they just stand around waiting for things to happen? Did they make smart plays, or did they get caught out of position? Were they hustling every shift, or were they kind of floating around looking to cherry-pick? Did players not known for defense play defense? Did some invitee make the coaching staff sit up and go "Whoa! Where did he come from?"  Stuff that doesn't necessarily show up on the score sheet...

 

 

Edited September 11, 2019 by IllaZilla

[lynxrattle]

I'm not so much looking for another coach, but thinking that we need to find that blue-collar underdog attitude again. The same things that you mentioned in the post. Is there grit, perseverance, pride, courage, even if these little things don't show on the score sheet. It seems like there won't be any Jack Hughes's or Kakko's in the Wild in the near future, so we need to find those players who are maybe not superbly skilled, yet still comfortable with what they are, and proud enough to keep throwing the logs in the wheels of the stars other teams have.

[Alexandron]

On 9/3/2019 at 7:03 PM, Alexandron said:

In general, all I want to see during the tournament(in 4 games for our team) - some decent production from our promising players - Sokolov, Dewar, Giroux, Lodnia (at least 2-3 goals from each player) and Sturm; Beckman; Guskov; Gordeev (at least 1 goal from each player). We will see who from our players will be the most lucky one in that prediction. 

Just found out that we did not have such a poor results in that tournament (zero wins) since 2013 despite we always had invitees in our team. 

 

Agree with both of you IllaZilla and Lynxrattle.  I watched everything what you said from the mentioned above players, except was not enough goals into the opposite net. Only 2 players, as I predicted to see one goal during the tournament out of them, performed that task (Sturm and Guskov), and 2 players (Dewar and Lodnia) performed that task on about 50% by putting 1 goal into the net. Actually Guskov as well as Will Bitten had the most points in our team (each had 1 goal and 1 assist) in 4 games. Sokolov and Beckman each only had one assist. Probably, Sokolov would play better in his played 3 games of the tournament if not got a face injury during the 1st game which needed to use a face and mouth guards after.   Gordeev was good in 2 games by shooting pretty solidly from the blue line towards the net. Unfortunately, opposite goalies were able to stop those shots. And also I have seen during the tournament that Gordeev and Guskov able to perform nicely toe-drags technique. Probably, if the Khovanov played in the team then our overall results would be better for the Traverse City Tournament of 2019 as well as if our goalie Robson would play in all 4 those games. But he played only in a 1st game(score was 1:2, when he stopped 35 out of 37 shots). 

[CreaseAndAssist]

What I got out of watching the prospects is the Wild's inability to players that have a lot of speed and or skill.  We have lots of guys who are average to below average skaters.  IMO, that is really detrimental in today's game which is more and more about speed.  

 

Beckman is a perfect example of this.  Yes, he has skill, decent offensive instincts...but he's an average skater at best.  And thus...his impact is limited by his mobility.  

 

The other obvious deficiency across the board are finishers.  They have drafted for playmaking.  But with few proven finishers goals are hard to comeby and the assists don't pile up either for the same reason.  This organization has consistently ignored those two elements to their peril as this team has become older and slower.