Hate to rant after a win but it must be done. Terrible start and overall 5 on 5 play generated nothing which is troubling. Luckily the Avs took a bunch of penalties. First powerplay unit was awesome. Horrible job by FSN north missing the Granny goal. I'm tired of watching this team flip the puck to center ice a million times a game just because one guy is hounding them. Those are turnovers! Its called puck possession puck possession puck possession for the love of god puck possession and its obviously something Yeo hasn't preached since he has been here because it happens every game. They need to learn to support the puck. It's called a D to D pass and breakout, figure it out. But my biggest concern is Spurgeon, who was awful tonight. I know people in here like him but deep down you know he is just some scrub we picked up because we had no better D prospects at the time. Now we do in Pizza and Brodin, so I expect to see him demoted to third pairing or gone once they return. He is completely overmatched on defense and its going to cost this team the game having him out there for substantial minutes in close games. You can say its the first game and I'm being too hard on the kid, but we saw him manhandled last year and he hasn't gotten any bigger. I mean he was absolutely dominated tonight, thrown around like a dog's chew toy.
http://twitter.com/ZenonKonopka/status/292872733556092928Hockey is back! Big win for us tonight, 30 stitches from a stick but will be ready to roll tomorrow #bringonthestars
I also noticed him getting pushed around again tonight. IMO he was the reason for one of the Avalanche goals. I was hoping he would start pyramid lifting and improve his upper body strength in the offseason, but It's hard to put much muscle on such a small frame. While I do agree that we need a bigger defensemen on the first pairing, I'll let it ride for now due to the injury of Brodin. I think that there will be changes made when more options become available.
Pfft, I'm not worried about some Russian scrub. It's simple. We play them in a week, and someone simply runs Tarasenko so hard into the boards the impact goes off the Richter scale. Same treatment for Yakupov, if we find him worrisome.
No excuses. No mercy. Calder for Granlund.
Terrible job by FSN on the Granlund goal. Absolutely terrible.
Odd coincidence that once they stopped dumping it in they started getting puck possession in the offensive zone more. Huh.
so jacked up after that game.
Parise is all motor...jesus that guy works his ass off.
Spurge got smushed more times than I'd like to see and i'm just hanging on for an "i told you so" moment. if he plays games like that night after night he's not going to last the season.
Speaking of not lasting the season: Stoner. Awful. Prosser looked better.
Suter and Gilbert were the only two D who looked like they were actually used to the NHL.
I know he didn't score but I loved Seto's game tonight...hitting, working, recovering from his own mistakes, aggressive...
I know people want to mix and match but as long as this is working stay the course. Bouchard makes that third line a scoring threat and adds possession, the first can get by on hard work and talent until everyone is in sync, and the second has the wheels to be opportunistic while they get a feel for their game. FBJ didn't look out of place at all.
I mean, the first period had me very worried, but from then on it was boom boom boom. Our D better get their **** together though.
I almost forgot to post another thing that was great about the game.
The Wild outshot an opponent.
They need Brodin.
Wild fans you rock what a night to welcome us back thanks!!! You guys are amazing! #wildhockey