Wild 2014/2015 Regular Season

[OnAFly]

Read an article on HockeyWilderness about Vanek's play from a statistical point of view. To sum it up, he's on a cold streak, but doing all the things he's done in the past, good and bad. Eventually, the law of large numbers will catch up and he'll see an upswing in production.

[CaptainMusky]

Vaneks production will improve if he plays with the same folks for more than a game. Now that he is with pominville and granlund we should see some goals

[CaptainMusky]

Its too early for the panic button but I sure wish we would have more stability in the lines. These guys need chemistry with each other. Brodz up and Haula down to the 4th line? Hmm not sure about that move.

[PierBridge]

Well hes been total garbage all around. Lucky hes not in IOWA.

[fishing tech]

Don't take this the wrong way but the Wild have No physical presents anywhere on the ice. We are fast and talented but the other teams physical play slows that down. Even Coyle isn't driving the net anymore. Yoe seems to finally be showing some emotion on the bench with the thumping his guys are taking. I think they will be fine but they will need to toughen up and be healthy come playoff time.

[OnAFly]

Yeah, Coyle, Nino and Haula need to find that extra gear they had last April. Nino has shown flashes, but Coyle and Haula have been nowhere lately. Hopefully Haula wasn't just a flash in the pan. He was a fantastic 3rd line center last year.

[fishing tech]

I hate to say it, but Haula getting his bell rung may slow him down for a while. It seems that way with all players that have had concussions. It will take a month to get everything going for him again. Now Parise with the same thing. They can get the all clear to play but it takes a lot out of you.

[CaptainMusky]

Brodz just put in two gift wrapped goals in one game from vanek. Other than that he's done nothing. I'm surprised Haula didn't have a concussion from that hit and it certainly has to get in your head getting drilled like that.

[OnAFly]

Last year Zucker went from being a bust to trade bait to and complete unknown. This year, he started off on the 4th line grinding and was moved up to the second line after showing he can produce offense while not being a complete defensive liability. I know it's only 12 games in, but the guy is scoring 5-2-7 and is a +3.

At 22, he's on pace for ~35 goals, 47pts but with an unsustainably high shot percentage of ~25%. Is he the scoring forward this team has been trying to develop since Gaborik? OK, so that's a lofty comparison, but you get the point

For comparison, Parise and Pommer have career shot percentages around 11%.

[bobberineyes]

This might be a crazy question, If Guy Lapointe retired in 82 why Did they wait so long to raise his jersey to the rafters.

[RuKiddingMe]

First goal of the night is on you Kemper!!! [PoorWordUsage]

[OnAFly]

Might have been off of Scandella, but yeah, he was off his angle there. Can't give up the short side from there.

[OnAFly]

Another beautiful assist by Vanek. I've got no complaints if he keeps that up.

Dumba did a great job breaking up a near 2-1 too.

[OnAFly]

So somehow non-reviewable goalie interference is reviewable when we score, but not when our opponents score. This is getting frustrating.

Price has been better than Keumper tonight. Keumper has been beaten clean a couple of times with a couple pipes.

now 4-1, I'm done. Night.

[bobberineyes]

Kind of reminds one of last year. Keumper gets hot for several games then starts letting goals in bunches. Get Harding ready.

[fishing tech]

Looks like Keumper quit and a few others in the 3rd period. I know they miss Spergeon and Parise. I think Cooke is missed a lot in the locker room and the bench.

Dumba benched. He was physical and offensive in jrs. Not as physical now as I had hoped.

[OnAFly]

Kind of reminds one of last year.

Definitely. The team comes out plaging hot, looking nearly unbeatable. 10 games in they revert to dumping pucks randomly to the other team.

Dumba should be sent to Iowa for a while. He needs to learn some consistency with our style and not get totally burned every time he makes a mistake.

[CaptainMusky]

I agree on dumba the game is just a bit bug for him now. Zucker is surprising the heck out of me now with the two end play. Never in a million years saw that coming.

Spurge on and Cooke out hurt a lot. I'd kinda like to see Parise out for a but to see what can come together with vanek, pominville and granlund.

[10,000 Casts]

Harding was cleared to skate today. I wonder how long until he is game ready and if things continue they way they've been going then I hope he is ready soon. When he comes back, what do they do with Backstrom???

[fishing tech]

Parise with the team in NJ. probably will not play.

[CaptainMusky]

Harding practiced too. That's a good sign if nothing else but to wake up the other two.

[OnAFly]

Send Keumper to Iowa for a bit if harding comes back or make him the healthy scratch?

[fishing tech]

Spurgoen skated no contact.

[OnAFly]

I remember when we used to score goals.

[10,000 Casts]

I wonder what the trade market for Vanek looks like?

[OnAFly]

We have more short handed goals than PP goals.

Vanek did a few things good tonight. How can we continuously make tier 2 goalies look like absolute allstars. Seriously, Schneider has been pulled a couple times in the lat week.

[schmitty3]

Where is the energy with this team, even after Carter scored the huge short handed goal the bench looked lifeless. They've gotta start getting pumped up and play with more energy.

Also do our D Men ever hit the net on the pp. Every shot is either blocked or wide of the net leading to an easy clear.

[CaptainMusky]

This team is so streaky. Its either really good or really bad. They seriously need to look at what is causing the extended really bad.

They looked terrible last night. No effort.

[OnAFly]

Where is the energy with this team, even after Carter scored the huge short handed goal the bench looked lifeless. They've gotta start getting pumped up and play with more energy.

Also do our D Men ever hit the net on the pp. Every shot is either blocked or wide of the net leading to an easy clear.

I don't get it either. No one celebrated. They looked miserable.

As far as the PP goes, they don't have crisp passing and they pass the same pattern over and over again. It's predictable and the opposing players up top don't have to move much to be effective. The result is that we can't get shots through.

I'm no PP expert, but it's easy to see that the opposing guys defending the D move about 5 feet the whole PP once you start noticing it.

[CaptainMusky]

I know its off topic of the wild, but did you guys notice that Anaheim has two guys out with a "viral infection" now? Guess where they were just a few short days ago! Phoenix! Something up there...