What are your expectations for this season......really?

[Jarick]

Make the playoffs, bare minimum.

They will challenge for the division.

In the playoffs I don't think they'll be an easy out at all. Might even win a series.

Seriously, if anyone can underrate the signings of Parise and Suter, it's most of the hockey world that sees the Wild as outside looking in.

At the start of April, it was looking pretty good. Then it went to crap. They were leading the division and even .500 hockey would have gotten them in the 5th/6th seed.

I'd have to think Wild will be top half, maybe top 10 in scoring. That will be huge. We'll see about the defense. But Wild were dead last in goals for, 13th in goals against. Now add in Parise, Suter, Granlund, hopefully a healthy Bouchard...and in case of injuries we have Coyle, Zucker, and Larsson who can step up instead of Nick Johnson, Warren Peters, and whoever else we called up last year.

Vancouver is missing Kesler and Booth for the first month or so. The Sedins may be better than anyone on the Wild roster, but the Wild have a lot more talented scoring depth. Their defense may have improved a bit with the addition of Garrison but not as much as the Wild's improved with the addition of Suter and eventually Brodin.

I think I could have seen a slight step back in goals against, and Wild ended up 16th. But goals for only got up to 22nd. Again, April killed us.

The callups did look a lot better this year as Brodin, Coyle, and Zucker stuck. Granlund hurt though.

I'd like to think I was right about the defense vs Vancouver though

Note he's the only one to mention the Wild's good start, the injuries, and the terrible AHL'ers they used to fill them.

I dunno if Granlund will get the Calder...Yakupov and Schultz might eat up a lot of votes out West.

But I do think Heatley will have a big year. I honestly see close to 25 goals out of him in 48 games.

Oh, Heatley. You looked so good for three games.

 

[Sioux4ever]

The Wild need someone that can shoot from the slot. They try to score all their goals in tight jamming at the net. Heatley a few years ago would be the right guy. Hopefully Zucker will step up to the next level that he's capable of.

With all that said, they still made the playoffs. They're a young team with a lot of potential. I think I'd feel more confident if Quenville or Hitchcock were the head coach, but I guess we have to give yeo-yeo some time

 

[Jarick]

The Wild need someone that can shoot from the slot. They try to score all their goals in tight jamming at the net. Heatley a few years ago would be the right guy. Hopefully Zucker will step up to the next level that he's capable of.

With all that said, they still made the playoffs. They're a young team with a lot of potential. I think I'd feel more confident if Quenville or Hitchcock were the head coach, but I guess we have to give yeo-yeo some time

They need someone to GET to the slot first! Although shooting from the slot would be a big upgrade from the side of the net.

 

[Avder]

"The Slot? What's that?"

-Mike Yeo Well not really but that's what he seems to imply with the way he runs his system.

Sigh.

 

[Jarick]

I think he confused "keep guys out of home plate" between the defensive and offensive zones.

 

[Minnesota]

I'm keeping my expectations low until I see some chemistry.

I don't want my heart broken again.

Mission accomplished.

 

[Sharppi]

Are we giving blind expectations to 13-14 season yet? I'll say playoffs appearance. Cant still expect anything more.

 

[rynryn]

first round, but better seed. hows that for babysteps into the future? usually keep a coach around for more than a couple years if you're a playoff team. they'll get impatient if we're washed out of the first round three years in a row.

 

[Avder]

Next season:

Terrible start. Yeo goes 5-10-3 and gets himself fired. Fletcher may or may not be canned at this point.

New coach comes in and goes .500 for a month before the team starts to really take off. The Wild finish good enough for 5th in the conference, win one playoff round in 6 games, and then are bounced in the 2nd round in 5 after they finally, and very suddenly, revert to early season failure-form.

 

[Jarick]

Need to see the personnel. With this coaching staff they are still a bubble team if healthy. Much tougher division.

 

[Billy Mays Here*]

How about we see what the roster looks like come next season before we start talking expectations for it?

 

[rynryn]

How about we see what the roster looks like come next season before we start talking expectations for it?

in a broad sense though people should expect progression from the team regardless of what the roster looks like.

 

[DeuceMN]

I expect progress from the team, as well as Yeo.

-More consistent play overall. At the very LEAST, less of these giant periods of bad play!!

I expect Yeo to get better at matchups. If he's paying attention and learning, like he says he is, then he better well figure this out some over the summer.

PP improvement. Enough said. Way too much talent but how ****** that is.

More consistent on the PK.

There's actually a lot more, but I'm really tired.

Basically, no more ****ing excuses next year.

 

[llamapalooza]

Need to see the personnel. With this coaching staff they are still a bubble team if healthy. Much tougher division.

Honestly, the new division isn't that tough. Chicago, of course, is a powerhouse, and St. Louis is a tough matchup too. But the Wild finished pretty decisively ahead of Dallas, Winnipeg, Nashville, and Colorado this year. Maybe one of those teams takes a big step forward (Colorado perhaps?), but I don't really see any of them jumping way up next year. I also like the odds that they finish ahead of 3 Pacific teams––Phoenix, Calgary, and Edmonton are all unlikely to make that leap, and I don't think Anaheim is completely safe, either.

 

[Casper]

Need to see the personnel. With this coaching staff they are still a bubble team if healthy. Much tougher division.

In the long run I think some better competition would be good for this team. We need to learn to play with and beat good teams if we want to get to the next level. After all, you don't face this years version of Edmonton and Colorado in the playoffs.

 

[mplspug]

I think the opposite of last year happens. 500 team until the second half when they turn it on after the pressure wears off for new players Granlund, Parise and Suter. Then a big run in the playoffs. I've always felt Backstrom could stand on his head in the post season.

Well this was an awful prediction.

 

[BigT2002]

After what I saw from the prospects/3/4 liners, I'm pretty much expecting 2nd round exit. Too much is going to be relied upon Poms-Koivu-Parise-Suter-Brodin it isn't even funny.

 

[DANOZ28]

Well this was an awful prediction.

dont be too hard on yourself, plenty of us thought they'do better. who knew brodz , clutterbuck would have off seasons, granlund was not the FBJ, even backstrom could have played much better and if we didnt go 5-10 our last 15 games we would probably have had a much more successful season.

 

[LemaireisGOD]

3rd or 4th in the division. It will come down to the wire.

 

[ewoksonhoth]

I'm hoping for playoffs and to win the first round. It's progress, and anything else would be icing on the cake. A little high expectations, but it's not like I'm saying the team is going to be cup contenders or anything right?

 

[DANOZ28]

3rd or 4th in the division. It will come down to the wire.

well prior to dumping seto & his 20G i was thinking 3rd div & 7th west. since i've not been happy with all CF's moves i think we'll be 4th div & 9th west. issues are secondary scoring, PP, and after #1 & 2 very average D. man i really hope im wrong!