This is more an opinion piece, so Russo's innate pessimism runs rampant, but this part here?
You are what your record says you are, and the Wild aren’t a good hockey team right now. They look lost. They’re lacking confidence. They’re “disconnected,” playing “mellow and vanilla,” according to alternate captain Marcus Foligno, one of the few leaders who felt up to speaking after Thursday’s loss.
Foligno is not playing well at all this season, but at least he’s accountable. Jonas Brodin didn’t feel the need to talk to reporters despite being requested after his failure to box out Bryan Rust six seconds after a careless Matt Boldy icing and Joel Eriksson Ek lost faceoff led to the winning goal. Kirill Kaprizov, who scored his seventh goal Thursday but continues to turn pucks over left and right, went as far as wiping his No. 97 off the interview request board after the game.
That is not good.
22 comments
Where is the Captain?
Russo with a bunch of “I told you so” pieces coming he’s probably had festering for years
The Wild are terrible, I’m just going to go check on how the Gophers are doing…
The nickname Minnesota Mild has never been more fitting.
Honestly, a small chunk of fans saw this coming years ago when there didn’t seem like a good plan in place during the buyout years.
Fans yelling they’d rather just make the playoffs than rebuild or retool or how rebuilding is hard ( I agree to some extent) and we should be grateful for Leipold and this team making the playoffs because anything can happen!
There was absolutely no sense on what the team was doing from the top down. The prospect group was and is a mirage. The trades have been more misses than hits. And the free agency has been lackluster.
For me the Khus trade wasn’t bad because we got Brazeau. It was because it seemed like a knee jerk reaction and that circling back around in the off-season to get a better evaluation of Khus and the market would have been better. Teams are desperate for a speedy center. Guerin seems to struggle with value. At this point I don’t know if he could sell water to a man in a desert without being taken.
Some of us are just tired of the same song and dance. An uneven year and then losing the first round of the playoffs. Mediocre, if not stagnant, development of the prospects.
Also there is a lot of nepotism in the front office.
Leipold brought in his buddy Mike Modano, who brought in his buddy Guerin. Guerin promoted Murray who did fuck all in Iowa because of…reasons?
They have kept Bombardir around and McLeod and they have done shit for development.
Coaching, front office, but more than anything, ownership. Leipold is such a fucking meddler of an owner and his whole “competitive rebuild” “plan” was a waste of an opportunity to accrue a lot of picks and build a new team. Or at least to defer to a qualified GM who could decide what was necessary during the buyouts.
I don’t think the season is doomed automatically but I’ve been frustrated with this guy’s inability to shut up and let people do their jobs for for-fucking-ever. Watching him drive up the price on Kaprizov was just so goddamn braindead. Shut up, Craig!!
Ownership’s job is to give resources to the right guys and step back. The Wolves’ new owners have done that with Connelly and the Wilfs have done it for years for the Vikings, and we’ve got back to back WCF and two 13+ win seasons in 3 years for the Vikes. Rough starts this year but there is a clear link between success and letting the people you hire do their jobs without asserting your will and fucking it up.
Anyone with a half measure of hockey IQ sees what’s going on and it’s brutal. These are basic things like stick positioning, easy outlets, short passes, quicker decisions, and basic puck shielding/protection that are not happening. I’m hard pressed to remember a wild team that was this inept at the basics. Getting out of this sort of fundamental failure generally takes a coaching change. The players have become too complicit with Hynes and he’s appeared to have lost the room already and clearly are not doing anything he’s likely coaching them to do. It’s not a silver bullet, but it generally shocks the team back into some measurable rhythm.
A lot of us saw this coming. Billy G and Hynes have utterly failed to adapt to the modern NHL style of hockey. A roster with 2 elite forwards, a bunch of washed up underperforming vets, a hodge podge d core that doesn’t make much sense, and a goalie who has been inconsistent. Dude your “grinder” style was so far from, let’s say the Blues were when they won a cup, it’s laughable.
And their hoe hum attitudes about it are not surprising. AT LEAST 17 had the balls to talk to the press. I can see Parise and Suters attitudes still remain here.
Maybe Leopold has something to do with it…..yes he does. At least owners like the Wilfs take chances.
Super depressing because what Dean and co had cooking in years one and 2 of KK looked promising. Doubling depressing since we all live and breath hockey around here and i think we deserve better than a cocky GM and coach and players who lack the ability to take accountability.
I’m sure the crow tastes great for those who endlessly told us how it was no big deal when Billy reinstated the country club by re-signing a bunch of aging sloths to multi-year, trade protected extensions. The protections are only partials. We can move them at the end of their deals. Now there’s no fantasy world where anyone gives up more than a bag of pucks for these dinosaurs. This team is too unskilled and slow to do anything more than what we are seeing.
As a semi recent fan, started watching 21-22. And with zero playing experience…do they not watch tape? Like, what are good teams doing that we’re not? It doesn’t seem to be a lack of skill, but a lack of grit, heart, determination idk tho.
Management must have seen the playoff team and thought they could squeeze a little more out of them this season and that’s a problem.
I think the most disappointing part of the article is #97 casually refusing to be the face of this franchise, showing any leadership or accountability. When you break the bank for a guy like that, how much can you really expect the rest of the team to do the same. This team is rudderless & lost.
They actually have a pretty balanced schedule but I guess when you’re one of the worst teams, every team you face is a challenge.
Funny thing about a PK is that you need to commit penalties to get more game time chances to improve it.
I.e. the Wild need to go on a vengeance pact run.
They don’t hate to lose enough. They are too comfortable showing up and then heading back home after the game.
Remind me why the F KK97 has an A on his chest when he is hiding from the media post game?
Feels like for years we’ve been that team that is always resilient and yet consistently fall short, how many times in the last 12 years have we had failed comebacks. For example it’s 4-2 going into the third, in that period we let in a dagger goal 5-2, then within the last 2-1 minutes left we get 2 goals and fail to comeback 5-4 loss. We just seem like that team that never gets over that hump and that is the reason we can’t win a series. We can’t even play a full 60 right now. Time for a new overseer, both Billy G and Hynes need to go.
The roster isn’t good, and has punched above their talent level a few seasons, but other than that what would anyone expect from this team?
Go Frost
They will never go far in the playoffs with their current d who get pushed around in front of their own net
I’m hopeful that Zuccy’s playmaking and Sturm’s faceoffs and speed are the shot in the arm this team needs. Maybe Wallstadt will play like his nickname