Minnesota Wild General Discussion X

[Al Lagoon]

Don't look now, but Victor Rask leads the Wild in +/- at +7.

Perhaps no longer the worst trade in NHL history - he's been decent.

 

[Nsjohnson]

He's been better than expected and I was trying to figure out why.

His skating has not improved. He is averaging about 10 minutes a game or less, with a few games more.

I came to the conclusion that it must be the fact that he does have a good IQ for the game but his feet can't keep up so well. So, he generally uses that IQ to mitigate his lack of foot speed.

He's been average at best, but average is a long shot from terrible.

 

[Bazeek]

He's been better than expected and I was trying to figure out why.

His skating has not improved. He is averaging about 10 minutes a game or less, with a few games more.

I came to the conclusion that it must be the fact that he does have a good IQ for the game but his feet can't keep up so well. So, he generally uses that IQ to mitigate his lack of foot speed.

He's been average at best, but average is a long shot from terrible.

His hands look a lot better this year as well. Last year I noticed a lot of fumbling and this year I haven't really seen any of that. If anything I've noticed some surprisingly sneaky passes, especially from along the walls. Maybe it really was the hand injury exacerbating things last year.

He still skates like a goof and looks weirdly casual sometimes, but the results have been there this year. I'm sure playing relatively limited minutes with good defensive wingers helps a lot, but he's at least been useful.

 

[Nsjohnson]

His hands look a lot better this year as well. Last year I noticed a lot of fumbling and this year I haven't really seen any of that. If anything I've noticed some surprisingly sneaky passes, especially from along the walls. Maybe it really was the hand injury exacerbating things last year.

He still skates like a goof and looks weirdly casual sometimes, but the results have been there this year. I'm sure playing relatively limited minutes with good defensive wingers helps a lot, but he's at least been useful.

I remember Russo saying at least three times between last year and this year, yes it was a bad trade, yes Rask can't skate, yes Rask is a smart player by all accounts and has good hands, even a good accurate shot, ...and all Wild fans will be happy when an injury occurs and Rask has to step up and play center. They will be happy they had him in the barracks.

Frankly, I am. That doesn't make the trade any better. But he has done his job well.

 

[57special]

Goal aside, i thought he played a bad, thoughtless game last night. There were numerous times when he and his line we trapped in the D zone, and when he had a chance to clear the puck by chipping it he didn't and got it stolen from him, and other times when he had it in the neutral zone and got his pocket picked, preventing a badly needed line change. He was not the only offender in this regard, but was one of the worst. I still like him out there on the 4th line over Donato, as i think Hartman and Foligno can make up for his lack of speed and physicality. It's Rask and Donato on the same line who give me nightmares.

Brodin seems to be sympatico with Rask. I've noticed that he seems to find him with passes more often than not, and Rask seems to respond to, and understand his play.

With Rask, we're just trying to make the best of a bad situation. Yeah, he's an overpaid, mediocre 4th line C, but until something better comes along we can use one of those. Sturm might be just as good, because he's a big, reasonably fast, defensively skilled guy, but until he proves that he is better than Rask the ownership is going to play the guy that they have to pay.

Victor does have some stickhandling chops, though. Nothing crazy, but you can see snippets of the top 6 player he was once thought to be.

 

[TaLoN]

Not good.

 

[thestonedkoala]

Not good.

Leg? Is this the end of Koivu?

 

[16thOverallSaveUs]

Leg? Is this the end of Koivu?

Don’t say that. I wonder if 1000th game celebration is still a thing

 

[Bazeek]

Don’t say that. I wonder if 1000th game celebration is still a thing

If he practiced yesterday I doubt it's that serious.

 

[57special]

So bringing up Sturm allows us to keep the GEEK line intact, and one of Sturm or Rask plays in between Fiala and Parise? I would guess Rask, as he has been up here and practicing with them, and should be way ahead of Sturm when it comes to knowing their games.

 

[Webster]

This is probably the reason, the team almost killed him. They forgot he's an old man

 

[thestonedkoala]

This is probably the reason, the team almost killed him. They forgot he's an old man

Still laugh at what the Spurs did with Duncan when he DNP. They designated him out due to being old.

 

[TaLoN]

Leg? Is this the end of Koivu?

Doubt it.

 

[Bazeek]

I've gotten curious to see how the team's numbers look if you ignore the hideous start, so I came up with this:

Without the first 7 games

Player	GP	G	A	PTS	PPG	per82
Jason Zucker	22	9	10	19	0.864	70.82
Eric Staal	22	8	11	19	0.864	70.82
Mats Zuccarello	21	6	10	16	0.762	62.48
Zach Parise	22	10	5	15	0.682	55.91
Kevin Fiala	18	6	8	14	0.778	63.78
Ryan Suter	22	2	11	13	0.591	48.45
Jared Spurgeon	21	2	10	12	0.571	46.86
Mikko Koivu	21	2	8	10	0.476	39.05
Joel Eriksson Ek	19	2	8	10	0.526	43.16
Jonas Brodin	22	1	9	10	0.455	37.27
Luke Kunin	21	4	4	8	0.381	31.24
Brad Hunt	22	3	5	8	0.364	29.82
Jordan Greenway	20	3	5	8	0.4	32.8
Mathew Dumba	22	2	5	7	0.318	26.09
Ryan Hartman	22	2	4	6	0.273	22.36
Carson Soucy	21	3	2	5	0.238	19.52
Ryan Donato	20	3	2	5	0.25	20.5
Victor Rask	16	2	2	4	0.25	20.5
Marcus Foligno	12	2	1	3	0.25	20.5
Gerald Mayhew	4	1	0	1	0.25	20.5
Nick Seeler	3	0	0	0	0	0
Gabriel Dumont	3	0	0	0	0	0

[TBODY] [/TBODY]

Without October

Player	GP	G	A	PTS	PPG	per82
Zach Parise	16	9	5	14	0.875	71.75
Kevin Fiala	16	6	8	14	0.875	71.75
Jason Zucker	16	7	6	13	0.813	66.63
Mats Zuccarello	16	5	8	13	0.813	66.63
Eric Staal	16	4	7	11	0.688	56.38
Ryan Suter	16	1	10	11	0.688	56.38
Jared Spurgeon	15	1	9	10	0.667	54.67
Joel Eriksson Ek	16	1	8	9	0.563	46.13
Jonas Brodin	16	1	8	9	0.563	46.13
Luke Kunin	15	4	3	7	0.467	38.27
Mikko Koivu	15	1	6	7	0.467	38.27
Jordan Greenway	16	3	2	5	0.313	25.63
Ryan Hartman	16	2	3	5	0.313	25.63
Brad Hunt	16	1	4	5	0.313	25.63
Carson Soucy	15	3	1	4	0.267	21.87
Ryan Donato	15	3	1	4	0.267	21.87
Victor Rask	12	2	2	4	0.333	27.33
Mathew Dumba	16	2	1	3	0.188	15.38
Marcus Foligno	6	1	0	1	0.167	13.67
Nick Seeler	3	0	0	0	0	0

[TBODY] [/TBODY]

And then this is obviously a tiny sample, but just to get a sense of how they've been doing over this last stretch:

Last 11 games

Player	GP	G	A	PTS	PPG	per82
Zach Parise	11	8	3	11	1	82
Jason Zucker	11	6	4	10	0.909	74.55
Mats Zuccarello	11	3	6	9	0.818	67.09
Kevin Fiala	11	3	6	9	0.818	67.09
Ryan Suter	11	1	7	8	0.727	59.64
Jonas Brodin	11	1	7	8	0.727	59.64
Joel Eriksson Ek	11	1	5	6	0.545	44.73
Jared Spurgeon	10	1	5	6	0.6	49.2
Eric Staal	11	2	4	6	0.545	44.73
Mikko Koivu	10	0	5	5	0.5	41
Jordan Greenway	11	3	2	5	0.455	37.27
Victor Rask	10	2	2	4	0.4	32.8
Luke Kunin	11	3	1	4	0.364	29.82
Carson Soucy	11	3	1	4	0.364	29.82
Ryan Hartman	11	1	2	3	0.273	22.36
Ryan Donato	10	2	1	3	0.3	24.6
Brad Hunt	11	0	2	2	0.182	14.91
Mathew Dumba	11	0	1	1	0.091	7.455
Nick Seeler	1	0	0	0	0	0
Marcus Foligno	3	0	0	0	0	0

[TBODY] [/TBODY]

60 point Brodin is all you need to know about how much to read into that last one, but still. Not bad.

 

[Dr Jan Itor]

Hypothetical, unrealistic and insanely small sample size Brodin finally lives up to the Lidstrom comparisons.

 

[AKL]

Maybe Brodin is just a late bloomer?

 

[2Pair]

Maybe Brodin is just a late bloomer?

Lidstrom was 30 before he won his 1st Norris

 

[16thOverallSaveUs]

Lidstrom did have a 60 point rookie season, but Brodin has the better flow so it probably evens out

 

[57special]

Get Brodin away from that Black Hole, Dumba, where offense goes to die!

 

[AKL]

Lidstrom did have a 60 point rookie season, but Brodin has the better flow so it probably evens out

Perhaps Brodin is so much more skilled than Lidstrom that the extra 35-40 points just don't show up on the stat sheet?

 

[Jesus comma Brodin]

Loving this.

 

[16thOverallSaveUs]

Perhaps Brodin is so much more skilled than Lidstrom that the extra 35-40 points just don't show up on the stat sheet?

Now you’re speaking my language

 

[JayBoats88]

Hello Everyone,

Hopefully I am posting in the right place in general discussion. I am posting today in hopes that some Minnesota Wild fans could guide me in the right direction.

I am posting from Quincy, Massachusetts and am a lifelong Bruins fan. However, we recently lost a very dear friend of ours unexpectedly this past October. Our friend Jonathan O'Driscoll was a Marine Corps Veteran and Firefighter here in Quincy, MA (right next to Boston) and last night we hosted a fundraiser to help his family alleviate any financial burden they have taken on with his unexpected passing. We had a very successful evening and raised a lot of money to help out his young family.

Here is where you guys come in. My childhood neighbor happens to be the strength & conditioning coach for the Wild and gathered a raffle prize for us consisting of Ryan Donato, Zach Parise and Ryan Suter autographed sticks. I won this prize last night and while I think it is a great prize to have, I would rather see it go to a deserving young fan of the Wild.

When my friend Jonathan was not at the firehouse or doing side work as a carpenter to support his family, he would often be volunteering his time at one of the many charitable endeavors the Quincy, MA fire Department was involved in. It was always important to Jonathan to give back to the community, so I would like to ship these signed sticks to a deserving young fan. So if anyone knows of any young Wild fan that may be having a tough time/could use a pick me up, please let me know. I would like to pay it forward and send these sticks along to someone that will appreciate them.

If anyone could steer me in the right direction that would be greatly appreciated.

Respectfully Submitted,

Jay G.

 

[SupremeNachos]

Hello Everyone,

Hopefully I am posting in the right place in general discussion. I am posting today in hopes that some Minnesota Wild fans could guide me in the right direction.

I am posting from Quincy, Massachusetts and am a lifelong Bruins fan. However, we recently lost a very dear friend of ours unexpectedly this past October. Our friend Jonathan O'Driscoll was a Marine Corps Veteran and Firefighter here in Quincy, MA (right next to Boston) and last night we hosted a fundraiser to help his family alleviate any financial burden they have taken on with his unexpected passing. We had a very successful evening and raised a lot of money to help out his young family.

Here is where you guys come in. My childhood neighbor happens to be the strength & conditioning coach for the Wild and gathered a raffle prize for us consisting of Ryan Donato, Zach Parise and Ryan Suter autographed sticks. I won this prize last night and while I think it is a great prize to have, I would rather see it go to a deserving young fan of the Wild.

When my friend Jonathan was not at the firehouse or doing side work as a carpenter to support his family, he would often be volunteering his time at one of the many charitable endeavors the Quincy, MA fire Department was involved in. It was always important to Jonathan to give back to the community, so I would like to ship these signed sticks to a deserving young fan. So if anyone knows of any young Wild fan that may be having a tough time/could use a pick me up, please let me know. I would like to pay it forward and send these sticks along to someone that will appreciate them.

If anyone could steer me in the right direction that would be greatly appreciated.

Respectfully Submitted,

Jay G.

Have you tried contacting the Wild PR people? I know guys like Dumba and Zucker are two of the most active in the community around here when it comes to younger people so it wouldn't hurt to try and DM them on their social media if you are able to. Regardless, reading this makes me happy to know how generous the hockey community is.

 

[Wild11MN]

Have you tried contacting the Wild PR people? I know guys like Dumba and Zucker are two of the most active in the community around here when it comes to younger people so it wouldn't hurt to try and DM them on their social media if you are able to. Regardless, reading this makes me happy to know how generous the hockey community is.

Yeah I was thinking to try the children's hospital. At least a few of the players are pretty active there.

Very classy move to donate!