Tony Dean: WildHBcommunity: When Minnesota Wild Miss the Playoffs Who Pays the Price? WildHBcommunity: When Minnesota Wild Miss the Playoffs Who Pays the Price?

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we will take Dumba off your hands for your choice of:

Gardiner
Lupul
Clarkson
Robidas

Tony Dean: WildHBcommunity: When Minnesota Wild Miss the Playoffs Who Pays the Price?
WildHBcommunity: When Minnesota Wild Miss the Playoffs Who Pays the Price?

Follow Me on Twitter @TonyDeanHB


Follow WildHBcommunity on Twitter @WildHBcommunity


Also Like the WildHBcommunity of FaceBook here: WildHBCommunity on FaceBook
- Tony Dean

Coach obviously but players have to be accountable as well............

Coach obviously but players have to be accountable as well............
- Ur Not Me

Not really on the players i feel in this case they just dont have enough talent to beat the big teams on D and in Net.

we will take Dumba off your hands for your choice of:

Gardiner
Lupul
Clarkson
Robidas
- mr.sir

If those are my choices then I will have nothing.

I still really don't understand the Wild fan's reaction to this season. What changed between last year and this season to make everyone think this team was destined for a top spot in the Central Division? Especially considering Chicago and St. Louis both got better?

The Wild didn't really make that many personnel changes from last year. The addition of Vanek should help but isn't something that is going to be a consistent addition no matter what team he is playing on. The goalie situation of last year is the same exact goalie situation this year. A player or two who had great seasons last year (Granlund) are having a bad year but are replaced with players who had average years last year (Nino, Zucker). It seems like pretty much the same team with one more year of experience.

Guys like Dumba are still way to young to be counted on. Even Granlund should be given some slack as he will round out to be a consistent player within a year or two. Haula was never any good except for during the playoffs (a total of 13 games and I don't think you could say he was great any all of them). It's no surprise that he is not living up to the expectation of being a consistent top level player.

Unfortunately for the Wild, a few things happened at the end of last season to get everyone way too excited. First, STL ended up in a tailspin that put the Avs in 1st place. If the Wild played STL during the first round, it would have been a first round exit for the Wild and expectations would be lower (of course I'm only hypothesizing here). Second, the Wild beat a fairly weak opponent in the first round. A playoff series win can give a team and their fanbase a huge confidence boost the following year. But it is much more realistic for Wild fans to look at what happened in the 2nd round of the playoffs - a fairly straight forward loss to the Hawks. That really should have been the Wild's first round outcome in my opinion if they were playing a team that deserved that top spot - of course I was thrilled that the Avs won the division, but they had no business as one of the top seeds.

To me, I think there are too high of expectations for this team. Obviously they should be competing for that last playoff spot or so, but challenging for home ice advantage in the playoffs is off base.

I still really don't understand the Wild fan's reaction to this season. What changed between last year and this season to make everyone think this team was destined for a top spot in the Central Division? Especially considering Chicago and St. Louis both got better?

The Wild didn't really make that many personnel changes from last year. The addition of Vanek should help but isn't something that is going to be a consistent addition no matter what team he is playing on. The goalie situation of last year is the same exact goalie situation this year. A player or two who had great seasons last year (Granlund) are having a bad year but are replaced with players who had average years last year (Nino, Zucker). It seems like pretty much the same team with one more year of experience.

Guys like Dumba are still way to young to be counted on. Even Granlund should be given some slack as he will round out to be a consistent player within a year or two. Haula was never any good except for during the playoffs (a total of 13 games and I don't think you could say he was great any all of them). It's no surprise that he is not living up to the expectation of being a consistent top level player.

Unfortunately for the Wild, a few things happened at the end of last season to get everyone way too excited. First, STL ended up in a tailspin that put the Avs in 1st place. If the Wild played STL during the first round, it would have been a first round exit for the Wild and expectations would be lower (of course I'm only hypothesizing here). Second, the Wild beat a fairly weak opponent in the first round. A playoff series win can give a team and their fanbase a huge confidence boost the following year. But it is much more realistic for Wild fans to look at what happened in the 2nd round of the playoffs - a fairly straight forward loss to the Hawks. That really should have been the Wild's first round outcome in my opinion if they were playing a team that deserved that top spot - of course I was thrilled that the Avs won the division, but they had no business as one of the top seeds.

To me, I think there are too high of expectations for this team. Obviously they should be competing for that last playoff spot or so, but challenging for home ice advantage in the playoffs is off base.
- manchester33

Not an unfair analysis. But I think what gave most of us hope was that this team did show another level in the playoffs where they could play a pretty even possession game with the likes of a team like Chicago.

With a full year under their belt it wasn't unreasonable to expect Granlund, Coyle, Niederreiter, and Brodin to be at least a little bit better. Zucker was a question mark to even make the team but Scandella had showed promise as well at the end of the year. With that many young guys on the team that had gained that experience I thought they would be better. Not top of the conference better, but much better than they have shown.

And I don't think a lot of put high expectations on the team. Many of us thought this should be a playoff team but could see how they could miss as well. I just don't think any of us expected to be out of it this early.

Not an unfair analysis. But I think what gave most of us hope was that this team did show another level in the playoffs where they could play a pretty even possession game with the likes of a team like Chicago.

With a full year under their belt it wasn't unreasonable to expect Granlund, Coyle, Niederreiter, and Brodin to be at least a little bit better. Zucker was a question mark to even make the team but Scandella had showed promise as well at the end of the year. With that many young guys on the team that had gained that experience I thought they would be better. Not top of the conference better, but much better than they have shown.

And I don't think a lot of put high expectations on the team. Many of us thought this should be a playoff team but could see how they could miss as well. I just don't think any of us expected to be out of it this early.
- Chinaski

Got it, that makes sense to me. Well if past seasons have proven anything, the Wild are set to win the vast majority of their remaining games to just make the playoffs and potentially cause some trouble.

Yea, you guys can send us coyle. Don't you guys want us to make it over winterpeg?

we will take Dumba off your hands for your choice of:

Gardiner
Lupul
Clarkson
Robidas
- mr.sir

No thanks. Willing to give him one more season in the AHL if he needs it after this season. Succeeding in the NHL as a 20yo defender is almost unheard of. Sure, he stunk at the beginning of the season but it was our FO's fault for starting him off here. After a couple of months in Iowa, he has looked considerably better. He's going to be a heckuva player...something you can't say about any of the players you mentioned, unless Lupul could stay healthy.

Yea, you guys can send us coyle. Don't you guys want us to make it over winterpeg?
- NoobasaurusRex

Not really

Yea, you guys can send us coyle. Don't you guys want us to make it over winterpeg?
- NoobasaurusRex

For Klingberg

For Klingberg
- Chinaski

Klingberg is god.

Not really
- SotaPopinski

Perds
Hawks
Wild
Avs
Jets
Blues

That's the order of my hate list for our division. Curious to see were we would rank to wild fans.

Yea, you guys can send us coyle. Don't you guys want us to make it over winterpeg?
- NoobasaurusRex

Never!

Perds
Hawks
Wild
Avs
Jets
Blues

That's the order of my hate list for our division. Curious to see were we would rank to wild fans.
- NoobasaurusRex

You should be kissing Minnys hairy bean bag. If not for us you wouldn't have a team.

Perds
Hawks
Wild
Avs
Jets
Blues

That's the order of my hate list for our division. Curious to see were we would rank to wild fans.
- NoobasaurusRex

I hate every team in our division with the fury of a thousand suns. Except for Chicago, they're alright

Got it, that makes sense to me. Well if past seasons have proven anything, the Wild are set to win the vast majority of their remaining games to just make the playoffs and potentially cause some trouble.
- manchester33

I am definitely echoing what Chinaski had said - we had a lot of young guys who played decently last year, and with another year of growing up it is not unfair to expect them to take a step forward. Not only that, but you mentioned how we are playing with the same goalie situation - but last year we ended up with what, 5 starters? 3 different ones in the playoffs? So we all assumed that the goalie position would be more stable and, as a result, consistent.

We all saw how dominant the Wild were in the first part of the season - the team can clearly play the system and play it well. A few unfortunate things happen (which happen to each team, sure) and suddenly the Wild are deviating from the system, the goalies literally cannot stop a puck (there was a stat a few weeks ago that if the Wild goalies were playing just the league average, we'd have the third lowest goals-against in the league), and some of our youth haven't taken that step forward (Granlund, Coyle).

I definitely think every Wild fan, and analyst expected better things for the Wild this year and with legitimate reasons to believe so. To be this far out of the race at this point in the season is absolutely a shock.

Fletcher IMO. Goaltending is a clear need. And Dubnyk is his response?

Fletcher IMO. Goaltending is a clear need. And Dubnyk is his response?
- Bieksa#3

You could argue that, or you could argue that he is being patient and waiting for a better deal or FA in the off season. This season just wasn't meant to be and Fletcher knows it. Trading for Dubnyk was a low risk Hail Mary. Now, if he goes into next season with Kemps & Dubs, then he is just an incompetent bafoon.

I hate every team in our division with the fury of a thousand suns. Except for Chicago, they're alright
- SotaPopinski

You could argue that, or you could argue that he is being patient and waiting for a better deal or FA in the off season. This season just wasn't meant to be and Fletcher knows it. Trading for Dubnyk was a low risk Hail Mary. Now, if he goes into next season with Kemps & Dubs, then he is just an incompetent bafoon.
- SotaPopinski

It looked bad at the beginning of the season. And I find it hard to believe a 2nd rounder in the summer couldn't fetch a decent goalie

- DDM-Coga

Are you here to accept my Tuch & Spurgeon for Duch proposal?

It looked bad at the beginning of the season. And I find it hard to believe a 2nd rounder in the summer couldn't fetch a decent goalie
- Bieksa#3

Looked better with a healthy Harding in the mix. Goalie and centers...gonna be a busy off season.

Are you here to accept my Tuch & Spurgeon for Duch proposal?
- SotaPopinski

Lack and Hansen/kassian for Granlund