Ducks were so much ahead in every aspect of the game for the two first periods. Cullen, Coyle, Brodziak.. all were pretty bad. Wish the attitude would be on the 3rd period level for every second of the game. And what's up with the forechecking, there barely was some? Ducks were doing it properly, Wild not. PP wasn't any better without Granlund in it. Maybe some cheeky passes would've broken the Ducks D.. or not. Anyway, Granlund should be in.
If anyone saw my tweets, I was not impressed by the Wild's "dominant" second period. Really don't think they showed up until the last 10 minutes or so. They might have gotten shots, but they weren't good shots, and typically gave up the puck going the other way for a good scoring chance.
Koivu seemed to wake up and play a little bit. He's been too invisible 5-on-5 for a guy with his skill and work ethic. Dunno if it's the speed or what. But nice to see him get involved.
Wild spent a lot of time moving the puck around the perimeter and then turning it over with stupid cross ice passes. I was hoping Coyle would be more physical in terms of getting defensemen off their game and drawing penalties around the net. I mean, Parise's the only one who wants to get dirty. And Spurgeon too these last couple games. Two of the smallest guys. I'm not saying they have to all crash the crease, just that you can't only play hot potato around the perimeter and try to set up a one-timer through three guys. You need to move your feet. That's not happening, just like it hasn't happened all year.
In their end, they're too deep and too casual with the puck. The speed of the breakouts is about the same as their intra-squad scrimmages. Awesome for Sunday morning pickup but not in the NHL. Combine that with the wingers being too slow to get to the puck and you're getting a lot of turnovers in our end.
The last 10 minutes, the Wild seemed to wake up and realize they were still somehow in the game, got physical, played with urgency. They still need to get better goal scorers on the team, natural goal scorers who want the puck and drive the net and shoot. Watch what guys like Getzlaf or Perry or Selanne did. They'd get the puck on their stick and take a good shot.
If anyone saw my tweets, I was not impressed by the Wild's "dominant" second period. Really don't think they showed up until the last 10 minutes or so. They might have gotten shots, but they weren't good shots, and typically gave up the puck going the other way for a good scoring chance.
Koivu seemed to wake up and play a little bit. He's been too invisible 5-on-5 for a guy with his skill and work ethic. Dunno if it's the speed or what. But nice to see him get involved.
Wild spent a lot of time moving the puck around the perimeter and then turning it over with stupid cross ice passes. I was hoping Coyle would be more physical in terms of getting defensemen off their game and drawing penalties around the net. I mean, Parise's the only one who wants to get dirty. And Spurgeon too these last couple games. Two of the smallest guys. I'm not saying they have to all crash the crease, just that you can't only play hot potato around the perimeter and try to set up a one-timer through three guys. You need to move your feet. That's not happening, just like it hasn't happened all year.
In their end, they're too deep and too casual with the puck. The speed of the breakouts is about the same as their intra-squad scrimmages. Awesome for Sunday morning pickup but not in the NHL. Combine that with the wingers being too slow to get to the puck and you're getting a lot of turnovers in our end.
The last 10 minutes, the Wild seemed to wake up and realize they were still somehow in the game, got physical, played with urgency. They still need to get better goal scorers on the team, natural goal scorers who want the puck and drive the net and shoot. Watch what guys like Getzlaf or Perry or Selanne did. They'd get the puck on their stick and take a good shot.
I stopped paying attention after the first until like the last 5 mins of the game, but this is what i saw in the first and stopped watching.
what's sad is you have basically described every game so far this season from what i've seen.
Finally this team is starting to play good. I can't complain about the loss, it was exciting for a back to back. Past couple games have actually been watchable
while i think the wild are playing better, the fugly ducklings proved we are not yet an elite western conf force. if mgmt has the op to trade a player or 2 by the deadline to improve the future i think they should go for it.
This was such a vast improvement over the Wilds last game against the Ducks and really that is all i personally want to see. This team is not in the eltite category and nothing they do this year is going to put them in the elite category for this year. They absolutely should be a playoff team though.
Elite is for the years ahead when the youngins have some seasoning and the right pieces are added through FA or trades.
I have beat up Yeo at times and that was mainly because this club had been taking zero steps forward in their play, they took some steps on this 2 game trip so good on him but for the love of god please figure out something to fix the damn PP, it is costing us games and cost us the game last night. The Wild are already offensively challenged to the point that they cannot afford to have a terrible PP unit.
Coyle is not a problem on the top line, he has done exactly what he was asked to do and that was be physical, leave it alone at least until Clutter gets back. Priority number right now has to be the PP.
Last edited by Blizzard6411: 03-02-2013 at 12:40 PM.
No excuse on the pp. it should be the easiest thing to teach too. Just watch video of a good team doing it, and try to copy. It's not super exhausting either so they should be able to work on it between games
