Speculation: 2014-15 Central Division: how do Wild stack up?

[Master Radishes]

Canucks fan here who has always had a soft spot for the Wild...

The Wild are my darkhorse team for rising as a legit Cup contender. A difficult division just means it'll toughen your team up. I don't expect regular season dominance, but I could see a 2nd place finish in the division and a tough but doable slog through the playoffs.

I really like Dallas too and think they will improve, but they just don't have the same depth of talent that the Wild do.

Good luck to your team.

 

[Nharris31]

I sincerely hope Dallas chokes near the end of the season and misses the playoffs just to give all those writers who listed them above us the karmic finger.

. Colorado is the one that the media has to much faith in. Anyways the more people that doubt the wild the better they look when they do better than what people think.

Ej on nhl live has the wild as one of the top 5 teams in west which is surprising because I didn't think he likes the wild

 

[nickschultzfan]

Avs fan here :

Your team is pretty darn stacked ! What I really admire about your lineup is that it's very balanced in all areas and it's very deep (having Haula and Niederreiter on the 3rd line shows how deep your talent pool is). Your team doesn't really have a weak spot. If Kuemper has a great year, I can see you guys surprising the big teams in the west. I could see the Wild finishing ahead of either the Blues or Hawks.

I really can't wait for October 9th to come !! It's going to be great fun seeing you guys again.

Avs are going to be fun to watch. You guys remind me so much of the Pens before they won the Cup a few years ago. I know Roy likes to move MacKinnon/O'Reilly to wing to get a crowded top-6, but I think if Colorado ever goes MacKinnon-Duchene-O'Reilly down the middle, they could rip through the playoffs, where it is more important to have a gamebreaker on every line.

 

[El Nino22]

I'm really excited to see the Central Division battles this year. It's always fun to play Chicago and now with some playoff history that rivalry is gaining more traction. Colorado brings back the old Northwest Division rival and there is are some interesting story lines now with the Cooke/Barrie incident and the whole playoff series. Winnipeg is always great for the atmosphere alone. Blues nothing even needs to be said.

I think Dallas is going to give us and the rest of the central headaches. That top-6 is pretty deadly. Nashville could surprise people with a healthy Rinne, Neal playing with his head on straight, and some buy low veteran free agents.

This division is going to be really hard to predict and at least one very good team from this division won't make the playoffs.

My prediction
1. St. Louis
2. Minnesota
3. Chicago
4. Dallas
5. Colorado
6. Nashville
7. Winnipeg

 

[nickschultzfan]

It took a while, but I think the central division makes so much sense, especially from a Minnesota perspective. Bad blood with Blues and Avs. Hawks taking us down year after year. Natural rivalries with Winnipeg and Dallas. Nashville fans hating us for stealing Suter.

 

[Mubiki]

That is so bad. Especially the part where they say Minnesota progress is static. Yeah, the Wild having 8 young, talent players take their next step in development is static. But Dallas trading quality young guys for a declining Spezza and signing a declined Hemsky is an huge upgrade. Got it.

And OMG the Wild goalie meme is so trite. In the division only Nashville and Colorado are clearly better at that position.

Not to mention Anaheim probably has the most inexperienced goalie group in the league. They are both young, and don't even have a season's worth of starts between them. Nobody seems to care about that though, despite the fact that they play worse defense than we do.

 

[nickschultzfan]

Not to mention Anaheim probably has the most inexperienced goalie group in the league. They are both young, and don't even have a season's worth of starts between them. Nobody seems to care about that though, despite the fact that they play worse defense than we do.

A lot of the national media analysis is driven by star player hype. Yes, those players are important, but you need depth too.

Anaheim, Colorado, Dallas, and even San Jose get bumps because they have been names on their top lines.

Where, with Minnesota, Parise/Koivu/Vanek/Pominville are all great players, they aren't really considered elite stars anymore, if at all. If the national media is giving props to the Wild, it always involves a mention of Suter "anchoring the defense" because he is the biggest legit star at his position.

 

[MK9]

stealing Suter.

Coercion, perhaps. But no outright theft.

 

[Jarick]

National media loves young talent when they are hyped and play in the NHL fresh out of the draft, but forgets about young talent if they develop outside the NHL for a couple years.

 

[TheSauceBoss]

If all of our young guys, including Kuemps shine this year we will win the division. If not, I see us 3rd behind St. Louis and Chicago.

 

[Wild11MN]

It doesn't. The alternative was being in a division with several teams we could really care less about and watching those games at 9:30pm. No thanks. I'll take tougher competition over that any day.

I'll give you that. I hated the 9:30 start times, as everyone else did. I love the division we're in. Just hate that it's so good.

 

[Wild11MN]

Joshua cooper thinks because the wild are getting old and think Parise etc are slowing down. I was going to tweet him and tell that Parise had 29 goals last year and Pominville had 30. But I didn't want to be that person.I think that exaggerating saying that for this year. He said this on websportsmedia radio show.

Buccigross from ESPN picked Parise to win the Hart this year. Don't think that's gonna happen, but not everyone in the media agrees with him slowing down.

 

[DANOZ28]

These guys are clowns. I sick of hearing about our goaltending as well. We can plug Greenlay in there and still win games. We have NEVER had a problem with goaltending! Why do these bums think we will now!? /rant

to be honest our goalies havent proven anything yet. doesnt mean they cant. i understand why many are predicting the wild 5th in the west. lets show em how good we can be and take the nhl by storm!

 

[Slick Willy*]

Do the predictors want to revisit their predictions after yesterday's bloodbath?


Yes, it's one game, and our home opener, but 'twas a thing of beauty for sure.

 

[Mubiki]

to be honest our goalies havent proven anything yet. doesnt mean they cant. i understand why many are predicting the wild 5th in the west. lets show em how good we can be and take the nhl by storm!

It's just a fake criticism. Anaheim has the most unproven goalie group in the league, and it's rarely mentioned. Their defense is also worse than ours. But since they have Getzlaf and Perry, people pick them to win the cup.

Our goalie situation is better than Anaheim and St. Louis as far as I'm concerned. The lack of consistency from pundits renders most of their opinions invalid.

 

[TaLoN]

Do the predictors want to revisit their predictions after yesterday's bloodbath?


Yes, it's one game, and our home opener, but 'twas a thing of beauty for sure.

No predictions are made based on a single game. There's 81 more to go. The Wild were ready to go and caught the Avs flat-footed.