Fletcher's job is now safe for another season. Can't win with his two superstars injured. Right?
Have we ever played a game without both?
He is no Dustin Byfuglien, right?Play Dumba 45 minutes a game, alternating shifts between LW and RD.
Thank god for thatHe is no Dustin Byfuglien, right?
Jagged Ice outta nowhere! Been a minute since I’ve seen you around.Fletcher's job is now safe for another season. Can't win with his two superstars injured. Right?
Anyone else feel that this sandwich hit doesn't need to be made in a 6-2 game with 4 minutes left?
Jagged Ice outta nowhere! Been a minute since I’ve seen you around.
Something needs to be done this offseason.
Wild star Zach Parise was undoubtedly the team’s best player down the stretch last season. He closed the regular season with 12 goals over the final 18 games and continued that offensive prowess into the postseason, scoring a goal in each of the first three games of a first-round series against the Winnipeg Jets.
Unfortunately for Parise, he finished last season on the shelf, as a fractured sternum on a random play at center ice ended his postseason before it could really even get going.
While it was another frustrating injury for the 33-year-old Parise, he had no interest in talking about it on Saturday afternoon at the second annual Wild On The Water on Lake Mille Lacs.
“I don’t anticipate that being a problem,” Parise said, confirming that he feels 100 percent and shifting the focus ahead to next season. “It feels good.”
In fact, Parise is feeling so good on his road to recovery that he has decided to participate in Da Beauty League, a weekly 4-on-4 league that features dozens of NHL players. He played in his first game last week at Braemar Arena in Edina, and while there wasn’t much contact, it gave him a taste of an actual game.
“It was good,” Parise said, noting that he still hasn’t taken a hit. “I’ve been skating for awhile, so it wasn’t my first time or anything like that.”
Besides the fluky injury in the postseason, Parise also missed nearly half of last season after having back surgery in mid-October. He has no concerns about either of those injuries heading into next season, pointing to his play down the stretch as evidence that he was on his way to feeling back to normal.
“It was nice to feel normal again on the ice,” Parise said. “That was the biggest thing for me. It had been awhile. That was nice. That was relieving. I’m looking forward to doing that again next season.”
He showed in the 2nd half this past season, that if he's healthy, he can still play at a very high level. IMO the question is, can he do that for a full season again?Lets assume for a second Parise stays healthy. He has a good off-season to get in shape without any issues and stays relatively healthy throughout the season. What kind of Zach Parise can we expect? Does he still have 30+ goals in him? I've always loved Zach and would absolutely love to see him be successful yet again.
He showed in the 2nd half this past season, that if he's healthy, he can still play at a very high level. IMO the question is, can he do that for a full season again?
He definitely did that, once he got his legs under him and his head screwed in right. That's the Parise I'd love to see playing a full season.
Is it realistic to think he could still be a 30-goal scorer, if he can stay healthy?
He's scored at that rate so yes. But it's more likely that he will slip due to loss of ice time. Had a high shooting percentage last season too. His defensive game is starting to slip though and to save him, it's reasonable to think he'll play fewer minutes. Still pretty efficient for his age but time catches us all.
His shooting percentage was perfectly within his normal range, even if it was on the higher end of his normal range. He's shot between 12 and 13% 5 out of his 13 seasons.
"Perfectly" - ok - except also on the high end of his career range, which is what I said. His shooting percentage last season was a full percentage point higher than his career average. That's "high," not ridiculous but he's turning 34 in a couple of days - smart money isn't on an increase.
Dany Heatley was a career 14.5% shooter. His last three seasons saw a pretty significant drop (he was a 10% shooter with the Wild, ages 31-33). Diminished ability - it happens to everyone.
Personally, I think there is a a distinct difference between having a "High Shooting percentage" like Wild Bill shooting 24% and expecting significant regression(15 + goals regression). And shooting on the high side of your normal range like Parise. If Parise shot his career average, it was the difference of like 2 goals and a 27 goal 82 game pace instead of a 31 goal pace.
To me, that's a significant distinction that warrants pointing out.
As far as the Heatley comparison, diminished ability does happen, but you could expect Heatley's to be more pronounced because his scoring ability was predicated on his out of the world shot. Parise's scoring ability has never been about the shot itself, which is probably an average shot on it's best days, it's about positioning and out-working the other team. Out of his 139 goals in a Wild uniform, we could probably count on 2 hands the amount of goals that came further than 5 feet from the net(*hyperbole, but probably not too far from the truth). As long as he continues to work his ass off and his body allows him to, he'll probably be a decent scorer.