GDT: 1/8/15 | Minnesota vs Chicago | 7:00 PM CST, 2:00 AM Suomi | FSN, NHLN

[Jesus comma Brodin]

If you could somehow guarantee the kind of performance that we had in this game for the rest of the year (or the majority of it), I'd greenlight any deal for a goalie upgrade within reason. I mean, we legit dominated a fully healthy Hawks team without 3 very key pieces in our lineup.

Play like we did last night with the talent added back into the lineup and improved, reliable goaltending, and I have no doubt that we'd find our way back into the playoffs and be as dangerous as we were last year. But based on the season so far, I don't really have much confidence that this level of play would continue.

Good point (s). I think if we do play like we did last night we would find our way back but playing like that every time is hard to have confidence in. I think we can do it!

 

[Montana41]

Highlight of the night was seeing Zucker on the first PP unit camped out in front of Crawford. Hopefully this is a sign of things to come from Yeo. Rewarding hard work and the obvious hot hand. I'd love to see the 1st PP unit include a mixture of Zucker, Nino, Spurgeon, Scandella. All four are inclined to put the puck on net.

 

[bear1]

Highlight of the night was seeing Zucker on the first PP unit camped out in front of Crawford. Hopefully this is a sign of things to come from Yeo. Rewarding hard work and the obvious hot hand. I'd love to see the 1st PP unit include a mixture of Zucker, Nino, Spurgeon, Scandella. All four are inclined to put the puck on net.

Your forgetting the FBJ and Zack are not playing I think that's why Zucker was out there as much as I would like to see it happen I don't think it will

 

[Jarick]

Avs have a world class goaltender in Varlamov. We have two gym class goaltenders in Kuemperor & Baeaeaecks

Varlamov had a nice year last year, but he's an average starting goaltender.

Wild played well, Vanek passed up shots and took dumb penalties, Schroeder looked great, Backs was weak. Dunno what else to say. Wild find ways to lose each game.

 

[MN_Gopher]

Vanek and Schroeder have 12 shots combined, i hope they continue to be paired. Same page players. Add in Vaneks post and they played well.

I like Vaneks major. He clobbered the wrong guy but he threw a hit.

 

[57special]

Varlamov had a nice year last year, but he's an average starting goaltender.

Wild played well, Vanek passed up shots and took dumb penalties, Schroeder looked great, Backs was weak. Dunno what else to say. Wild find ways to lose each game.

What goal do you think Backs should have stopped?

- I thought the first, maybe. Sharp is a damn good player, and it's not like Folin/stanchion was helping out.

- second was near impossible, but he actually almost got his glove on it. Great fake by Richards, quick release by a top goal scorer.

- third one was an unimpeded bomb from the top of the circle from a guy putting all his weight into the shot, which just went in under the top corner.

Backs wasn't brilliant, but I didn't think he was bad. Average, which is better than we've been getting lately.

 

[Dr Jan Itor]

What goal do you think Backs should have stopped?

- I thought the first, maybe. Sharp is a damn good player, and it's not like Folin/stanchion was helping out.

- second was near impossible, but he actually almost got his glove on it. Great fake by Richards, quick release by a top goal scorer.

- third one was an unimpeded bomb from the top of the circle from a guy putting all his weight into the shot, which just went in under the top corner.

Backs wasn't brilliant, but I didn't think he was bad. Average, which is better than we've been getting lately.

Agree on goal #2, but Sharp wrapped it around his left leg pretty dang easy and he was way too deep in his net on Bickell's.

 

[Jesus comma Brodin]

Agree on goal #2, but Sharp wrapped it around his left leg pretty dang easy and he was way too deep in his net on Bickell's.

I agree on this, too. The first was too easy.

Has anyone noticed that our goalies rarely poke? Karlson's on Tuesday off the stanchion had no poke effort and now I think about it, I rarely see it.

 

[Jarick]

First goal, the defense let Sharp walk in, so I blame them. Second goal, Backs bit on the fake and dropped and was nowhere near position to make the save. Third goal especially he needs to make a save on an unscreened shot nearly from the point. Fourth goal he wasn't even close

 

[this providence]

Backs played Richards in the slot (which he should) and dropped into his butterfly. When the pass went over to Kane, he was impeded by Spurgeon clipping him and not allowing him to push off to get there. I don't really blame that goal on Backstrom. As for the other two, yes you'd like to see a goalie for this team bail the other guys out once in a while. But both were high percentage scoring chances in my view.

 

[Jarick]

That's the thing, so many of the goalies lately for both have been iffy. A little bit of defense fault, a little of the goalies, a little luck (stanchions), a little just great shot placement. I mean, going bar down from the top of the circles is a great shot. The OT winner vs SJS was a fantastic shot.

But yeah, Wild are doing the same thing. Seems like every one of Zucker's goals is a highlight real kiss the bar and in shot.

 

[Jesus comma Brodin]

The OT winner vs SJS was a fantastic shot.

B

A shot from 55 feet outside the circles should be stopped in the NHL EVERY SINGLE TIME

 

[Jarick]

A shot from 55 feet outside the circles should be stopped in the NHL EVERY SINGLE TIME

Goalies get beat clean sometimes. You want them to stop the shot realistically 99% of the time, yeah. That thing was 1/4" away from being a "missed shot" off the post. Perfect placement. Bad reaction but a great shot.

 

[Jesus comma Brodin]

Goalies get beat clean sometimes. You want them to stop the shot realistically 99% of the time, yeah. That thing was 1/4" away from being a "missed shot" off the post. Perfect placement. Bad reaction but a great shot.

Yes goalies get beat clean sometimes. I watched it again, maybe it wasn't 55' but it was 40 and even the commentator said it needed to be saved, so did Yeo, Russo and every single person watching the game. You should never and I mean NEVER get beat from outside the face off dots. Any goalie or goalie coach will tell you that. This was a bad goal that lost us a point.

 

[Sarge58]

Our goalies have been less then stellar, I can't remember the last time either one outright stole a game for us. I also have steadily lost confidence in their ability to make key saves at the end of periods, so many times it's caused us to lose momentum and not surprisingly the other team comes out looking like the Red Army team of old playing against the last place team in a beer league.

In the last couple of months our scorers (other then Zucker)have been just as bad as our Goalies,,, they never seem to bury that insurance goal, or demoralize a team by getting up early and keeping the pressure on. Their play has been horrible in OT or whenever it's a 4on4 and instead of playing aggressive and using their team speed they feel the better strategy would be to wear them down with the old rope a dope trick.

had to rant

 

[57special]

First goal, the defense let Sharp walk in, so I blame them. Second goal, Backs bit on the fake and dropped and was nowhere near position to make the save. Third goal especially he needs to make a save on an unscreened shot nearly from the point. Fourth goal he wasn't even close

Third goal was from the top of the circle.

 

[57special]

First goal, the defense let Sharp walk in, so I blame them. Second goal, Backs bit on the fake and dropped and was nowhere near position to make the save. Third goal especially he needs to make a save on an unscreened shot nearly from the point. Fourth goal he wasn't even close

Third goal was from the top of the circle.

It's not like Backstrom could ignore the puck carrier... Kane... and Bickell was able to take a totally unhindered shot with all his weight going forward. That kind of clean look is unusual. He absolutely hammered the shot in a perfect place.

 

[TaLoN]

First goal, the defense let Sharp walk in, so I blame them. Second goal, Backs bit on the fake and dropped and was nowhere near position to make the save. Third goal especially he needs to make a save on an unscreened shot nearly from the point. Fourth goal he wasn't even close

I disagree! The D had the slot blocked off. Backstrom only had the shooter to play and he knew it, all he had to do was challenge Sharp and Sharp has nowhere to go. Backs though is not at all confident in himself, so he backed off, which created the space Sharp needed to walk behind the D and around Backs.

The entire move was within a foot of Backstrom the entire time as that's all the room Sharp had. It was Backstrom's fault for not challenging the shooter as he should have in that instance.

 

[Billy Mays Here*]

I disagree! The D had the slot blocked off. Backstrom only had the shooter to play and he knew it, all he had to do was challenge Sharp and Sharp has nowhere to go. Backs though is not at all confident in himself, so he backed off, which created the space Sharp needed to walk behind the D and around Backs.

The entire move was within a foot of Backstrom the entire time as that's all the room Sharp had. It was Backstrom's fault for not challenging the shooter as he should have in that instance.

Agreed. Always been one of Backstrom's problems and certainly something Kuemper does do far better than Backs, and that's challenging the shooter.

 

[DeuceMN]

Backstrom was way too passive on that goal. He was so far in his net and not challenging the shooter at all, it was almost inevitable.

It's a microcosm of our entire team right now and how most of them appear to be playing with low/little confidence. The way Vanek was playing showed the same thing - you could tell he's just frustrated at this point.

I'm not keen on Vanek checking guys anyways, but that's a different conversation. I wonder what prompted him to try and play more physical...