GDT: GAME 11: Nashville Predators @ Minnesota Wild 7PM CST

[jedisports]

The Suter hatred is quite amusing considering their very own in Weber handcuffed them, had zero problem bolting for Philly. Instead he stole 14 million a year, and hasn't played like he deserves even half of that so far this season. What Weber did is far worse. It's not even close.

But #2 can't possibly be true. I mean, everybody knows he has no pride, no passion and we should all want to smoke him out of town.

 

[Jarick]

I paid real close attention to Clayton Stoner's "gap control", and there's just no reason he should be getting more than 10-12 minutes per game. Yes, he's big and strong. That's about it. He can't defend against the rush at all, giving up way too much space, then lunges toward the puck carrier. That doesn't work in the NHL. And he's constantly behind the play in his end, trying to catch up with the play along the boards instead of being right on the puck carrier.

Anyway.

Thought it was a good game overall. No real "down" moments. Good energy.

Top line was good, buzzing Parise got his shots, not quite as dynamic as I'd like, Coyle had a couple rookie moments, not bad. Second like generated some chances, Granlund was excellent, moving his feet a LOT more and laid some hits, made some plays, very good. Seto was better, still not living up to his potential. Heater meh. Third line meh. Fourth line not bad, I like Rupp's game, Butch played decent.

Brodin excellent as always, best game perhaps? Suter pretty good. Gilbert good with a couple stupid moments. Stoner I mentioned above. Prosser and Falk I pretty much never noticed them on the ice.

Backstrom excellent. Couple brilliant saves. Better rebound control. Better glove.

 

[Hall of Faber]

The Suter hatred is quite amusing considering their very own in Weber handcuffed them, had zero problem bolting for Philly. Instead he stole 14 million a year, and hasn't played like he deserves even half of that so far this season. What Weber did is far worse. It's not even close.

Nashville fans believe Weber did all of that to cash in before the old CBA expired.

 

[THEALLKNOWING*]

Observations from at the game:

Granlund - played a great game, active on both ends of the ice. TV may not have shown but had a nice check on Weber, kind of a David and Goliath type thing. Some sweet stick-handling as well

Backstrom - playing better lately. Still a concern? His Brent Burns play - out of position, scrambles back and makes the play, or gets bailed out by someone. Once he leaves his feet, all bets are off. All that I can think when that happens is Uh-oh, or phew (a sigh of relief)

Parise - I know he was wacking at the puck around the crease, but he has been a non-factor the past several games. Good energy that is not translating into anything. Everybody wants him to do well that is obvious including me.

Mikko - playing like a Captain, the master of the shoulder-check. Yes folks, I know he's not from Minnesota like Parise which has always been a strike against him, but no one wants to win more than Mikko. You have to realize, its not about him, but the team

Suter - really starting to control the game on the back-end, getting more comfortable. When you log the minutes he does, there are going to be bad moments. Think of it this way, there are less and less of them each game

Brodin - fantastic complement to Suter. He does so many little things well. On both ends of the ice. I find myself holding back, trying to make myself believe he is a top-4 defensemen, when in reality, if Suther is number 1, he is 1A he's that good

Rest of the "D" - I thought Gilbert had a tough game, not horrible, but not great. Same with Stoner. Falk and Prosser were fine, nothing dramatic on either end of the ice.

Rupp - not bad really, I was surprised considering his perceived slowness, that the opposing defensemen didn't close in on him much faster.

Butch - did nothing

Heatley - a bit better, but considering expectations, not saying much. Did seem to be more active the full 200 ft, rather than the last 30 ft in the offensive zone

Seto - nice to see him rewarded as he has been working hard. Perhaps too hard. When I see him play I think to myself he needs more controlled energy.

Brodziak - got glimpses of his play from last year, need it for 60 minutes

Clutter - kind of like Brodziak, glimpses. People should not mistake his goal for him being an offensive threat. Personally, I would like to seem him become the Wild's version of Tomas Holstrom. Someone to park in front of the net and create havoc, whether at even strength, or on the power play.

Coyle - not bad, can see his confidence growing game by game.

Konpoka - teammates love him, but he needs to pick his spots better to get aggressive.

 

[rynryn]

Nashville fans believe Weber did all of that to cash in before the old CBA expired.

that isn't exactly painting him a favorable light either. contrast that with, say Malkin, who took less money because it would be better for the team instead of squeezing every last drop of cash out of Pitt. I mean, as ridiculously large as Parise's contract is, even he took less money than he could have.

 

[keppel146]

missed the game last night but the highlights made it look like the best game of the year as far as excitement goes. how did we look on our entry etc? is seto on any of our PP units? his right handed shot should be on the left side so he can do more one timers like last night

 

[rynryn]

Mikko - playing like a Captain, the master of the shoulder-check. Yes folks, I know he's not from Minnesota like Parise which has always been a strike against him, but no one wants to win more than Mikko. You have to realize, its not about him, but the team

not many people here who aren't recent arrivals and/or trolls from places like the Strib comment section and wild.com message boards are hung up on citizenship as a reason for hiring or promoting anyone.

 

[DANOZ28]

are any nsh fans saying the 4 min high stk on seto was a bad call? im glad the wild "showed up" too bad we didnt see that effort against the nucks or the ducks. cheers, i hope the poster is right about a 6 gm winning streak.

 

[INTOTHEVOID]

Gooch scores tonight.

99.9% sure of this.

Wow, just saying guys.

 

[DANOZ28]

congrats on the prediction! was it blind luck or do you know david copperfield? (j/k)

 

[DeuceMN]

lol Devils fans are still talking about Parise like crazy on their board. It's incredible. Apparently they would have preferred it if Parise had gone to Detroit and the only reason why he and Suter didn't go to Detroit was because they wouldn't gotten paid the same. Ok then. lol

I also have to say without sounding stupid, but LaPanta sounded pretty cool when Seto scored. He does have a way with igniting even more passion and excitement after something incredible happens for our team. I liked how he announced that last play. He has shocked me with his pretty decent play by play overall. I have heard A LOT worse.

I have to agree with this. It's almost weird, as I was not looking forward to him initially, but I actually think the guy is doing a respectable job.

Now, there is the matter of the other inane announcer... Even my fiance, who only knows a little about hockey, thinks he's a complete idiot... That's bad...

 

[MNWILDFAN001]

The penalty.

To me that looks intentional. If he had hit the puck with his hand on the follow-through, I would say accident. But the change of direction his hand takes, going almost straight up, and the fact it goes right to his teammate. I say intentional. A more natural movement would be bringing the stick back to take another swipe at the puck.

 

[Quicy]

I paid real close attention to Clayton Stoner's "gap control", and there's just no reason he should be getting more than 10-12 minutes per game. Yes, he's big and strong. That's about it. He can't defend against the rush at all, giving up way too much space, then lunges toward the puck carrier. That doesn't work in the NHL. And he's constantly behind the play in his end, trying to catch up with the play along the boards instead of being right on the puck carrier.

Just curious who you think should be getting his minutes then? Not defending Stoner, I just don't know who the Wild have that should get his ice time.

 

[jedisports]

I have to agree with this. It's almost weird, as I was not looking forward to him initially, but I actually think the guy is doing a respectable job.

Now, there is the matter of the other inane announcer... Even my fiance, who only knows a little about hockey, thinks he's a complete idiot... That's bad...

She is right on.

If you even listen to how he starts calling Seto's name, it's weird in that it almost seems like he realizes it's going to be a goal before it actually goes in:


It really is a good piece of play by play.

 

[DeuceMN]

Observations from at the game:

Granlund - played a great game, active on both ends of the ice. TV may not have shown but had a nice check on Weber, kind of a David and Goliath type thing. Some sweet stick-handling as well

Backstrom - playing better lately. Still a concern? His Brent Burns play - out of position, scrambles back and makes the play, or gets bailed out by someone. Once he leaves his feet, all bets are off. All that I can think when that happens is Uh-oh, or phew (a sigh of relief)

Parise - I know he was wacking at the puck around the crease, but he has been a non-factor the past several games. Good energy that is not translating into anything. Everybody wants him to do well that is obvious including me.

Mikko - playing like a Captain, the master of the shoulder-check. Yes folks, I know he's not from Minnesota like Parise which has always been a strike against him, but no one wants to win more than Mikko. You have to realize, its not about him, but the team

Suter - really starting to control the game on the back-end, getting more comfortable. When you log the minutes he does, there are going to be bad moments. Think of it this way, there are less and less of them each game

Brodin - fantastic complement to Suter. He does so many little things well. On both ends of the ice. I find myself holding back, trying to make myself believe he is a top-4 defensemen, when in reality, if Suther is number 1, he is 1A he's that good

Rest of the "D" - I thought Gilbert had a tough game, not horrible, but not great. Same with Stoner. Falk and Prosser were fine, nothing dramatic on either end of the ice.

Rupp - not bad really, I was surprised considering his perceived slowness, that the opposing defensemen didn't close in on him much faster.

Butch - did nothing

Heatley - a bit better, but considering expectations, not saying much. Did seem to be more active the full 200 ft, rather than the last 30 ft in the offensive zone

Seto - nice to see him rewarded as he has been working hard. Perhaps too hard. When I see him play I think to myself he needs more controlled energy.

Brodziak - got glimpses of his play from last year, need it for 60 minutes

Clutter - kind of like Brodziak, glimpses. People should not mistake his goal for him being an offensive threat. Personally, I would like to seem him become the Wild's version of Tomas Holstrom. Someone to park in front of the net and create havoc, whether at even strength, or on the power play.

Coyle - not bad, can see his confidence growing game by game.

Konpoka - teammates love him, but he needs to pick his spots better to get aggressive.

Overall, I really liked your summation of the individual players from last night's game.

The bolded observation was a nice insight. I only have the opportunity to watch the games on tv, and no they did not catch that. It's great to hear these kinds of things about the game! I like that Granlund would take on that moose

 

[Dee Oh Cee]

How in the hell was that a delay of game penalty on Backstrom when he covered the puck? I've seen both goalies in the Det LA game on right now do almost exactly the same thing outside of their crease without any penalty.

It's over and who cares but that really bothered me.

 

[Ceekayn]

How in the hell was that a delay of game penalty on Backstrom when he covered the puck? I've seen both goalies in the Det LA game on right now do almost exactly the same thing outside of their crease without any penalty.

It's over and who cares but that really bothered me.

Lots of questionable calls (and non-calls) in that game.

 

[jedisports]

Tons of questionable calls took place.

 

[Randy BoBandy]

Tons of questionable calls took place.

Is there an echo in here?

 

[Haite]

The bolded observation was a nice insight. I only have the opportunity to watch the games on tv, and no they did not catch that.

I saw it on an FSN stream. Not sure if they showed a replay of it, though.

 

[Puhis]

It was certainly a good and a much needed win after the slump. The OT hand-pass call was just fine, if it's in the rulebook, it's the referees job to enforce the said rule. Nothing wrong there.

My only complaint? Nobody creaming Erat into the boards after he blatantly ran over Bäcks on purpose. That should've been a major penalty. We still lack physicality. If the opposite team doesn't respect our goaltender and/or star players, then we have to get Rupp, Konopka, Clutterbuck or Stoner out there to teach them a lesson or two. I wouldn't mind if it's suspension worthy, as long as the other guy is out longer.

It benefits our team since they'll learn that we are willing to go to great lengths to win, and unless they can match that passion, they'll lose.

 

[Wildfan10*]

There were plenty of positives from last nights game. I think number one for me tho was suter plowing over I believe it was erat infront of backs. Finally a sign that he's taken the skirt off.

 

[Kari Takko]

There will be once Suter steps foot back on Nashville ice. That date has been circled on mine and many many others' calendars. I think he will be treated worse than any player ever so far. I can't wait.

Worse than Modano?

 

[Dampland]

There were plenty of positives from last nights game. I think number one for me tho was suter plowing over I believe it was erat infront of backs. Finally a sign that he's taken the skirt off.

That was my biggest take away as well. (However it is obvious that Brodin is the best D-man on this team already, and should replace Suter on the first PP. But management is probably afraid to do that to their brand new $100 MILLION boy)

Also, anyone notice it almost looked like Seto was going to breakdown for a second after scoring last night. I really home that gets the mental monkey of his back and he can start scoring once ever 4-5 games at least.

 

[BigT2002]

Worse than Modano?

or gabby