Minnesota Wild vs Colorado Avalanche, 1-30-21, 7:00pm, Xcel Energy Center

[EmptyShelf]

We are simply out-classed in talent.  This will not get better in the next few games.  Avs simply have too many top players for Wild.  Their starting 5 smokes the Wild's, and their next 5 does too.  That is a loaded team, that benefited from many top 5 draft choices.  This is the reason you don't just preach mediocrity YOY.  Watch Nathan MAC.  The speed and skill is just crazy when you get #1 overall picks in the right season (like Mac and McDavid).  To also have Rant, Landeskog, and Makar is kind of a joke.  They also have EJ, whom was a top draft pick (though not by Avs).  In short, we have a trade (Fiala), and a very fortunate draft pick (Kaprisov) that are clearly the only talents we have that might crack the Top 2 lines (perhaps Brodin).  They are not only better, but younger.  Bryam will be a player too.  Thank God our farm system is improving.....

[ClusterChuck]

The Av's came to our empty arena and walked all over the Wild.
Foligno showed up as always and even Hartman was mentioned often. 
The rest...

[Alexandron]

They should give more time to Cole next time.

[wildstars95]

the wild were taken behind the woodshed

[EmptyShelf]

1 minute ago, ClusterChuck said:

The Av's came to our empty arena and walked all over the Wild.
Foligno showed up as always and even Hartman was mentioned often. 
The rest...

That was a laugher.  Wonder if we will hear some platitudes from Suter and Parise?  How about we don't hear any.  We had our A$$ handed to us by a better team.  Too many penalties too.  When you are playing Hunt as a F and they have that level of talent - you know we are in in the $hit.  I think Dumba will be out for some time.  I would like to see some young guys get time up.  I have no interest in the re-treads.  Sorry, Hunt, Rask, MarkJoe.  Where the he77 is Rossi?  How about Beckman, Lodnia, Khovanov - anyone but a D playing F and any more players with little tread life left.  

[EmptyShelf]

3 minutes ago, Alexandron said:

They should give more time to Cole next time.

I think Cole will see his time increase.  I don't see Dumba back for awhile.  Soucy looks a bit sloppy this year.  And, Suter just cannot transition or skate.  He is truly a 'filler defenseman' at that is point.  KK looked a bit exasperated in net, with the Avs flying all over the place.  The next 3 probably don't look much different

[ClusterChuck]

20 minutes ago, MNSOTA said:

Again, we need to be able to decline power plays. I kid you not, but on the first power play, I counted TWELVE passes by the Wild without a shot on goal. 

Dusting off some oldies.  

[Alexandron]

2 minutes ago, EmptyShelf said:

That was a laugher.  Wonder if we will hear some platitudes from Suter and Parise?  How about we don't hear any.  We had our A$$ handed to us by a better team.  Too many penalties too.  When you are playing Hunt as a F and they have that level of talent - you know we are in in the $hit.  I think Dumba will be out for some time.  I would like to see some young guys get time up.  I have no interest in the re-treads.  Sorry, Hunt, Rask, MarkJoe.  Where the he77 is Rossi?  How about Beckman, Lodnia, Khovanov - anyone but a D playing F and any more players with little tread life left.  

I agree, we should give more time to youngsters from Iowa for their practicing against the top NHL team. Anyway we are going to lose to the Avalanche with that play. At least kids from Iowa will get some experience. Rossi is in Austria, Lodnia injured,Khovanov in KHL. I just want to see Mayhew and Sokolov here. Our loss tonight was expected. Our goalie was not able to help us too. Besides Foligno and Hartman I did not see much out of our team.

[EmptyShelf]

So, I looked at Avs roster again.  6 Top 10 picks at F in their draft year.  3 Top 5 picks on D.  We did not have 1 Top 10 F or Top 3 D on the ice tonight.  YIKES!  Are our first round playoff losses really worth this dearth of talent!?!?  We had 3 Top 10 picks on D tonight (you can see where we spent some of our draft capital), and ZERO Top 10 F picks on the ice.  Fiala would give us one F.  This is why there is such a difference in talent level (in my opinion).   Of course not all picks work out, but you have to give yourself a chance.  There is usually a big difference between players in Top 5 versus players in bottom 10 in Round 1, and we never have an opportunity to pick there.  All the best teams at least have 1-2 of these types of players (Crosby/Malkin, Kane/Toews, McKinnon/Draistl, Mathews/Tavares, Stamkos/Headman) - you get the idea.  These teams win (or won) in their prime...

[lynxrattle]

We really got bulldozed. Perhaps we can win 1 in 4, if they dress their backup goalie and we have a perfect day.

[Hockey-78]

14 hours ago, wildstars95 said:

the wild were taken behind the woodshed

Or rather taken behind IN the woodshed. Man, that was ugly but that's the reality of this team, too. Not enough talent. 100% rebuild if you ask me.