Van-Minnesota preseason game II
 

Is everyone at the Excel? Its the first intermission and I havent seen anyone on this board for a few hours. (Except a Canuck fan):dunno:

I expect some reviews!

You'll get your freaking review in just a bit!

;)

Just real generally here, I thought the Wild kids looked fairly decent early on. Still, I'm not sure any of them really stood out. 'Course, I tend to get wrapped up in the game a bit and often forget to watch for specific guys. Cavanaugh I thought had some nice bits, Michalek (apart from the missed puck on the Cooke goal) looked pretty good, I thought. Bouchard looked pretty great next to most of the guys out there. As the game wore on, things came apart a little bit, but they hung in and put things back together near the end. Had some good pressure at the end. I'm eager to see what happens Sunday.

From listening to the game...

Cavanaugh was involved in the play alot, made a nice pass on the Dowd goal...
Bouchard sounded very good, and especially dangerous on the PP. Could be a real Ronning-like PP specialist.
Michalek sounded decent, got burned bad by Cooke though.

Don't know many Wild prospects really, and was disappointed when Burns was scratched.

I'm in a great mood, despite the loss, because hockey is finally back! :rolly: :yo: I'm sure most of you saw the recap, know the score, so I won't bother with that.

The Wild lines tonight (no slick little table, sorry :p )

Mika Hannula - Mark Cullen - Richard Park
Three Energizer Bunnies on one line. Not bad at all, their hustle often led to turnovers and scoring chances. I wouldn't mind to see them as the checking line this season.

Jeremy Stevenson - PM Bouchard - Matt Foy
Bouchard was our best player out there today. He was all over the ice, created a lot of chances for his linemates. I believe he did get an assist on the Mitchell goal. Foy and Stevenson couldn't really keep up with him, were both just a step behind.

Antti Laaksonen - Armands Berzins - Andrew Brunette
Well, this line was cycling the puck. A lot. What else would you expect from a line with Bruno and Antti? Would be a good line, if they had a finisher. Berzins is not ready, didn't see much from him.

Matt Johnson - Dan Cavanaugh - Jim Dowd
This line played pretty good, scored the first goal. Cavanaugh was alright. He came out flying, but wasn't as effective towards the end of the game. He also saw some PP and PK time, so I think the coaching staff is rewarding him for having a good camp and for playing with a lot of desire. Hard to say if he will stick, but he has a chance IMO.

Willie Mitchell - Zbynek Michalek
Michalek played a very solid game. He is very good at making the first pass out of the zone, very confident on the point on the PP. I think he is ready for the NHL, he didn't look out of place at all. The only negative thing I noticed about him- he doesn't look very interested in physical play. He would much rather have other players do the physical part, so that he can scoop up the loose puck and start the rush.

Filip Kuba - Travis Roche
I'm not sure on Roche. On one hand he has very good skills, but he hasn't done anything that would make me go: "Wow, good play". He was good playing the point, but that's about it. It seems that he can't always make a split-second decision, he often makes it a split-second too late. Defended a two-on-one in the 3rd period, and looked a little awkward doing it.

Brad Bombardir - Chris McAlpine
McAlpine doesn't know what to do with the puck, period. And even when he knows what to do, he doesn't have the skills to do it. I think Brown is better. This pairing made me nervous every time they were on the ice. And it wasn't all McAlpine's fault either.

Dwayne Roloson
I thought Rollie played good. He couldn't do much on all 4 goals- one was a breakaway (by Cooke :rant: ), another one was a rebound in the crease that should have been cleared, and two slam-dunks ten seconds apart where he had to move all the way across the crease.

People that impressed me: Mika Hannula, Mark Cullen, Zbynek Michalek.
Borderline: Matt Foy, Dan Cavanaugh, Travis Roche.
I was not impressed by: Armands Berzins, Chris McAlpine
(Of course, I am talking about newcomers only)

My first thought after the game was- we need a sniper REALLY BAD! Gaborik and Dupuis type player. It was very evident. A lot of energy guys, but no real finisher. A lot of good scoring chances, but no one who can put them away.

Bouchard, Brunette, and Foy looked really good on PP together, but again, there was nobody to finish.

I though I was seeing doubles when we were killing penalties, but no- it was actually Laaksonen and Hannula ;) It's amazing how much those two are alike- they skate alike, play alike, even look alike from the top of the 100 level. To me Hannula has a little more snarl to his game though, which I like.

Johnson fought Martin Grenier in the first. Nothing special *yawn*.

Brad Bombardir - Chris McAlpine
McAlpine doesn't know what to do with the puck, period. And even when he knows what to do, he doesn't have the skills to do it. I think Brown is better. This pairing made me nervous every time they were on the ice. And it wasn't all McAlpine's fault either.



:yo:

Need a sniper, huh? Well, Berezin is available.

:lol:

My impression was that Z and Willie just hopped onto the ice when Malik made a breakaway pass to Cooke. I think it was a bad change (second period, long way to the bench for D's), not much of Michalek's fault. On the replay there were 2 forwards chasing Cooke (Laaksonen and Berzins), there was not a D anywhere near the play because they didn't have time to get back to their zone. I think it was Bomber and McAlpine changing, so probably more their fault.

Did Bomber trip at one time, leading up to a goal?

Since Stevenet's not here to say it...yet:

:bow: Z :bow:

Well, not to a goal, but to a very real scoring chance. They have a couple of pics on the Van board, I believe one of them shows that exact moment. They weren't tied up or anything like that, he just fell on his ass right between the faceoff circles, lost the puck and Ried almost scored. To Bomber's credit, he somehow got a peice of the shot with his stick, while crawling on his belly and tripping up McAlpine who was coming across to help. :joker:

Experience, what can I say.

:joker:

I love that, three energizer bunnies in Hannula, Park, and Cullen!

Thanks for the review...

What can you expect from the Bomber and the Mountain? They are old!

Michalek I like. He could be groomed into a PP QB but I heard he plays the body a bit too :D Just might be a little intimidated tonight, lots going on!

Cavanaugh stick? I never thought I would hear that. Not much buzz around him.

Wonder what's wrong with Berzins? Had a solid camp last year.

REUNITE DAIGLE-WALLIN-BURNS damn it!

And yeah Daigle could be the sniper they need :lol:

Why did they send O'Sullivan down? They need him!

I'm thinking that skill wise, O'Sullivan might be ready. However, I think the Wild are going to restrain themselves in this case. Hopefully he has a nice quiet season season. Then he can come guns-a-blazin next season or whenever the next season will be.

When I said we need a sniper, I didn't mean a puck-hugging-primadonna-wanna-be :D

I dunno, maybe I missed that part of his game, it was my first time seeing Michalek play. Besides, I only have two eyes, and lots of players to watch :D

I liked him. He had some jump, esspecially in the 1st. That jump didn't last all game though.

I was very excited to see Berzins. Maybe I expected too much out of him? :dunno:



No need to scream. ;) They were all scratched tonight, so I think it's a good bet that they'll be reunited as early as Sunday ;) I hope to make it to that game as well, and I REALLY look forward to seeing that line.

If you guys are looking for a sniper, why not give Brandner a shot at this role. I know that goalies and d-men are better in the NHL than they are in Germany, but Brandner knows how to score, he has proven it again and again.
It would be very interesting to see him play in this role!

Marc

I hope you are right! Brandner was scratched tonight, but I'm sure he'll play on Sunday. He is another player that I look forward to.

I think I'd agree on the Michalek (Cooke) goal. He seemed like he was the only guy on the ice for us right then. Even Lemaire commented in the post-game that he thought Michalek may have made the right play on that goal, he just didn't get the puck. I think a guy like Kuba would've stayed back instead of going for the puck and tried to either slow up Cooke long enough for someone to get back on D or poked the puck away, and he probably would've had a good chance of preventing the goal. Not a big deal for Michalek.. not the type of mistake to me that says he needs more seasoning. MIchalek did get a little fiesty in the 2nd, if I recall correctly.. got some shoves in.

On a couple of the PPs we had nearly complete control of the zone, but couldn't get a good shot (hence the 'nearly'). I'm not sure in those cases if I'd rather have a sniper or a guy like Burns is expected to become. Big, in front of the net, picking up sloppy goals. We needed a guy who could keep his stick on the ice, keep his skates under him, and just put the puck towards the net from in close. The Canucks D was doing a pretty good job of shutting down all the outside shots at times, which is when I thought it would be nice to have a big guy on the inside. I agree though, we do need a marksman. Brandner's supposed to have those kind of skills. Hopefully we'll get a look at them Sunday. I wonder if Burns will get a taste of preseason this year?

Not hockey related, but #16, what'd you think of the new post-goal music? My fiancee didn't like it, but I enjoyed the change. It might not have enough "pep" though... I think they need something with a hard-driving punkish-metal guitar/bass riff and bagpipes. :)

Man, how great was it to hear the horn again? :D

He most definitely will. I was just watching Lemaire pre-game interview on Wild.com, a good portion of it was about Burns. Jacques was asked if Burns still had something to learn in juniors, or if he already peaked out at that level. Lemaire paused and said: "I don't know. The only way to tell is to get him to play in some games". I think that's a pretty good indication that we'll see him pretty soon, probably Sunday.

I'm going to sound like a complete fool, but.... I have no idea what you are talking about. I wasn't paying attention, seriously. What kind of music were they playing?

And yes, the horn is the sweetest sound to a fan's ears after the long offseason! :D

Oh, I dunno exactly what the music was.. There was a bar from the State of Hockey song and then it turned into something else, not sure what it was. I just noticed that it wasn't the typical Gary Glitter. Personally, I'd be curious to see how the crowd would react to no music at all... just the horn and cheering. ;)

Yeah, I think I'd seen that interview, too. Then I saw this on the star-tribune website today (in the game recap):


First-round pick Brent Burns did not make his debut Friday.

"It's internal," Lemaire said. "I can't talk about it."

President and General Manager Doug Risebrough refused to elaborate. Assistant general manager Tom Lynn said, "There's no problem at all."


Well, I sure hope there's no problem. We really don't need any new ones! ;)